In chapter 16 Henry Petroski talks about the horrible present situation of today’s road building industry. Henry indicates, the essence of flocculants outside its defeat garrulous among them, that is the current situation of road building industry. First Henry gives us some typical examples of fraud and abuse within and outside government. Recently, in North Carolina, an executive road paving company guilty to charges of conspiracy to defraud the US Transportation department and also conspiracy to laundry money. This case involves thirty-seven federal construction contractors. Totally more than 87 million over decade. And according to Henry, this example is just one of about eight cases involving paving companies that resulted from a sweeping …show more content…
Because the waste and improper construction also require constant repair and unnecessary maintenance costs. The low quality road, which had been perfectly demonstrated by the experience of Thomas Harris MacDonald, as chief of the Bureau of public roads. When he visited construction site, he found that there were lots of wasteful works and the bridges were more than likely wooden and not well built at all. Sometimes, company just take the highway funding for other purposes, like Boss Tweed who misappropriated public funds for his own benefits. Other companies raise the price of materials those sold to government without permission for its own …show more content…
Recently, Henry visited one of his old friend who is an architect. And his old friend told him, there are no local building code for this area, this thing made Henry to remember an old story write by Samuel C. Forman. During the time that Samuel just step into the construction business, once he was asked to collect some signed paper, and pick up some documents. Before he leaving on his assignment, he was given some five dollar bills, one or two of which he was to drop into a desk drawer. When Samuel questioned his boss about bribing city employers, his boss said everyone did this in New York. The bribe already became a daily
Number Quotes Classification Notes 1. “For the first 15 years of our lives, Danny and I lived within five blocks of each other and neither of us knew of the other’s existence.” Chapter 1, page 3 TS This was the first quote in the book, where the narrator Reuven Malther talks about how he came to know this boy named Danny. Later in the book, these two boys have a hate for each other, but come to find out that they have a lot in common, and become friends.
In chapter 3 Credo, the reader finally establishes a much broader view of Richard Rodriguez and his family’s ties to the Catholic religion. Earlier in the book, Rodriguez would mention periods during his childhood where he came in contact with nuns and catholicism. In chapter 1 for instance, he reveals the first encounter the nuns in school had with his family at home about the lack of English. Rodriguez contends that his parents instantly agreed because “How could they have questioned the church’s authority which those women represented? (20).
Over the course of recent history, the United States Military has become more reliant upon private corporations rather than using military services. This privatization was began mostly for economic concerns, believing that it would be more cost-effective to pay for a private company than be responsible for benefits and family-services of soldiers. In the book, Drift, Rachel Maddow examines the effects of this privatization upon military costs and effectiveness. Despite being based on a desire to save money, the lack of oversight in the cases of private corporations has led to excessive spending and behavior which reflects badly upon America as a whole. First of all, private corporations do not have the same levels of oversight in regards
Serpico, the New York City cop who couldn’t be bought by nobody. Serpico is a book that tells a story about a cop that works in New York, that wouldn’t take any brides from anybody and who had to deal with a very corrupt police department. There was a big gambling problem going on in New York and there was nothing being done about it so Serpico being such an honest cop decided he would try to get rid of the problem. In the following book report over Serpico, by Peter Maas, I will summarize the book’s contents and give my thoughts over the book.
Summary: This article is about a man named Jaime Prater who was born and raised in Jesus People USA (JPUSA), a religious community where the leadership clothes you, feeds you, educates you, and basically raises you. JPUSA were started by hippies who used to travel through the USA, but soon settled down in Chicago, and is now run by an authoritarian leader and councilship members. Jaime Prater was born into this community and thought of it as his family, but when he was 8 years old he was molested. He took it to the council, but they shut it down to stop spreading rumors and isolated him. In isolation, he felt lonely and scared for three and a half years, and left the comminity in his early 20’s after he realized that he didn’t belong.
When talking about war, there are many books with few answers to what war truly is. Barbara Ehrenreich brings forth not only the possibilities towards understanding war but also the passion people from history have had towards it. One key issue she brings to light is humanities love for war, so much so that people would use excuses like holy wars to justify their need to fight in a war. She declares that war is as muddled as the issue of diseases and where diseases came from around 200 years ago. More so than that she even goes further on to state that these rituals that date back to prehistoric times are the cause of human nature during times of war rather than human instinct.
Treading Water In a democratic government, corrupt workers are constantly looking for ways to take advantage of the system. Even representatives that the people trust greatly trust sometimes uncovered as thieves and scandals. In Mississippi, corruption has made itself a very prevalent problem. Research shows that “corruption is costing Mississippi taxpayers an average $1,308 per person per year” (Mitchell).
Compare the perspectives of both Zinn and Pageant on the government 's attempt to curb big businesses’ corruption. In comparing, evaluate the commitment government had on curbing big businesses’ corruption. After the Civil War, the United State of America underwent an industrial revolution. More and more machines were used in factories; steel production rose significantly and helped build railroads and infrastructure; oil started to light streets and homes; and various other innovations increased efficiency and impacted everyone’s lives.
Many officeholders, legislators, and members of Academia argue that the supreme court decision Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission has single-handedly destroyed American democracy as we know it. This case is one of many that, in essence, allows legalized bribery to occur within the American political system, with most large money contributions to politicians coming from sizably influential corporations. Although many elected officials believe corporate money in politics strengthens democracy, it contrarily damages democracy and is the reason campaign finance reform is the greatest issue facing American politics. Since 1976, the US Supreme Court has ruled in favor of cases like Buckley v. Valeo and First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti, which claims corporations are considered people; and based on First Amendment rights, people are allowed to spend their money within the political arena. Citizens United v. FEC is the supreme court decision that has led to further corruption within the American campaign finance system, while halting efforts to minimize money in politics.
Boom or Bust Just a few years ago Williston, North Dakota, was a quiet small town, with a population of around 12,000. Due to the oil prices and drilling, Williston is America’s biggest oil boom and had over 40,000 residents. The oil boom has caused many problems in North Dakota such as increasing the crime and social problems, housing and roads. There is a lot of wear and tear on the roads, because of the thousands of trucks that are hauling oil, water and other fracking components. According to the Department of Transportation, the state has invested $1.16 billion into the roads.
Title The Great Gatsby is a book that contains an abundance of motifs. F Scott Fitzgerald uses these motifs very masterfully to enhance the novel The Great Gatsby. One of the motifs that he uses is that money corrupts. The corruption is shown in many different ways and through many different people.
In summary, the whole chapter was divided into parts, as follows: Verses 1 - 3 - manifest God’s greatness and it is good to ascribe God-self. Music and instruments are the best ways to give tribute to the Lord God. Verses 4 - 6 - describe God’s good work and loving thoughts. God’s good works bring joy and happiness. Only insane people could not be able to see the greatness of God.
In ‘An Inspector Calls’, written just after WW1, J.B. Priestley seems to be asking the question, “Just what kind of society are we fighting to save?” Priestley was set the play in 1912. This enabled him to comment on people’s attitudes and ideas before WW1. The social issues that were so prevalent in the labour strikes of 1912 were still important in 1946 because the very definition of society means that human beings don’t live alone and that each one is responsible for their actions towards the other, “We do not live alone. We are members of one body.”
The term urban decentralization usually refer to the decisions of people to move from the center district to suburban area. In united stated for example, and during the last century, people tend to move outward the metropolitan areas toward the suburban locales. The decentralization and regional administration system of the United States encourage people to locate in the suburban cities. The population in the central city decreased from 7517 residents per square mile to 2716 in other hand the suburban population increases from 175 residents per square mile to 208 between 1950 and 2000 . (Wheeler, 2006)
The case study presents many failures of public administration. Among these are bureaucracy, communication failures, recruitment of unskilled officials, overlap of power between agencies, negligence and corruption. The bureaucratization and hierarchization of the government agencies linked in the case slowed down the processes and compliance with the norm. The flow of letters and reports between agencies took a long time to scale the case to agencies with superior power. It is important to highlight that, thanks to the action of the inspector and the group of workers, the case reached high-ranking agencies, but middle-ranking officials.