Public budgeting Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Public budgeting - Article Example The article starts by laying down the statistics from the Federal Reserve displaying the high number of Americans, and the all-time $975 billion dollars in the year 2008. The projections as of the time was that debt would keep on increasing since people kept reaching for the credit cards debts in order to make ends meet. According to the statistics from the Sachs & Williamson (2009), many consumers have more than five credit cards, with an average total of about five each per family. The psychological look at the consumers by the researchers termed the consumers as having a low debt recovery modality owing to the many debts they find themselves wading. As such, they stray from what they term as normative debt management principles (Amar, et al., 2011). Consumers go forward and start paying individual debts while not looking at the value of each and every debt and prioritizing them. The total redemption from indebtedness is difficult, something that sometimes prompt consumer’s adoption of sub-goals that are normally aimed at settling the individual debts. They sometimes settle the small debts and remain with the huger ones. The oblivion borne by the consumers to the larger debts and misplaced focus by them is what takes a huge toll in the paper as the author analyses the things to do when one is indebted (Heckler, 2013). To the authors, paying of the small debts and remaining with the bigger ones might help relieve the burden but the amount to pay keeps sk y-rocketing as one dilly-dallies. The article is well arranged as the authors move from the obvious to the completely hard stuff concerning debt management. The authors lay down the statistics, the trend in debt management, then finally give their opinion of what should really be happening in the real world concerning the issue of contention. Authors term paying off of debts with larger

Causes of the War with the United States Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Causes of the War with the United States - Essay Example While the Mexican fought for the independence of Texas, the US sent its army into Texas in order to gain hold over the state. However, the ambition did not end here and US made plans to extend its rule into California by buying over the state from Mexico. In order to ensure the cooperation of the Mexican government, Polk sent troops into Mexico to intimidate the Mexicans. The Mexicans, though initiated the fight with these troops, had no way of defending themselves since they were still recovering as a newly independent country. The US argued that they were helping Mexicans since Mexico was basically sick country and needed the US for support. While the US was strong and powerful, the Mexicans were economically and physically weak. However, the Mexicans were able to enjoy a bargaining chip for a small period of time as the British and the French were concerned of the resulting shift in balance of power as a result of the foreseeable expansion. While this deterred the war for a certai n period of time but the US was able to take over Texas and California after they neutralized the two countries through British-French consent (Vazques, 138). Author’s Perspective The author like most other historians believe that the US was responsible for the war and Polk provoked the war through his ambitious methods (Murrin, Johnson, McPherson, Fahs, Gerstle, Rosenburg and Rosenburg, 344). The author has laid the blame of the war entirely on the shoulders of the US. He blames US for taking advantage of its superior position and the annexation of Texas to start a war that the Mexicans were unprepared for and did not want at that specific point. Vazques continually refers to writing and thoughts of other historians either to support his own views or to point out the flaws in others’ perspective. By referring to specific passages, such as the comments of Nicholas Trist, Vazques establishes the fact that even US peace commissioner was against the war between Mexico and US. Trist in that specific passage blames the US for the war and feels remorse over the US approach towards the situation. This further convinces the reader of the unjustness of the situation and through such accounts one cannot help but feel sympathy of the Mexicans. Vazques is strictly pro-Mexican and this fact is not surprising given the Mexican origin and background of the author. Since almost every Mexican is bitter towards the US involvement in their personal affairs, this is to be expected. Vazques is influenced by her own people since she has been exposed to such ideas from birth and they are as much a part of her as her Mexican birth. Vazques ignores the political and economic condition of Mexico to a great extent and the Mexican involvement in the war. Discussion Josefina Vazques, through her article ‘Causes of the War with United States’, has explored the Mexican situation and the reasons for their bitterness against the US. While most historians have blamed the US for the situation, the Mexican side of the story had been undiscovered until Vazques chose to explore and write about it. Even though I believe that every story has different perceptiveness and these differ widely between the antagonist characters in the story, I still have sympathy towards the Mexicans. Certain historians believ