The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Profits

Milton Friedman, â€Å"The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits† In the article, â€Å"The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Profits,† Friedman states that â€Å"businessmen believe that they are defending free enterprise when they proclaim that business is not concerned merely with profit but also with promoting desirable social ends. † This social responsibility is defined as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is the belief that â€Å"corporations owe a greater duty to their communities and stakeholders† by having a â€Å"social conscience. This, among other things, includes being environmentally responsible, contributing to non-profit organizations, and eliminating discrimination. Friedman argues that â€Å"only people can have responsibilities† but that â€Å"businesses as a whole† cannot, as they are not persons. Since the corporate executive is an employee of the shareholders, and therefore only â€Å"responsible to his employers. † The corporate executive has primary responsibility to his employers to conduct business as they see fit, and manage the business to create the most profit while following the â€Å"basic rules of the society†.It is then seen that the corporate executive is acting as a â€Å"public employee,† while serving shareholders and should be directed by those shareholders how to spend their money. However, Friedman acknowledges that managers of corporations, while serving shareholders, are also people in their own right and may have their own social responsibilities that do not always follow those of the owners of the corporation. In that case, if the manager chooses to act based on his own beliefs instead of the direction of the shareholders, he is not performing in the best interests of the shareholders and is â€Å"spending the customers' money. This has a direct financial impact to both customer and employees. This can lead to the managers’ termination as he has not performed as directed by the shareholders by not making as much money as possible. It is also discussed that because â€Å"society is a collection of individuals,† there are individuals that can coerce others to conform to certain social norms and while others may not agree, they can be overruled and then must conform. This then leads to a â€Å"political mechanism† which can regulate how corporations operate and dictate their â€Å"social responsibility,† which, in theory, would extend the cope of the political mechanism. Friedman believes that a political mechanism is not necessary to achieve social responsibility because in a free society, â€Å"there is one and only one social responsibility of business—to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engage in open and free competition without deception o r fraud. † One question that can be posed from Friedman’s article is whether shareholders should prioritize the responsibilities that managers have as their agents.While we can acknowledge that shareholders invest in a corporation to make a profit and that managers are hired to maximize those profits, it is the responsibility of the shareholders to provide guidelines to those managers and prioritize his/her responsibilities. While we can assume that the first priority of the shareholders would be to maximize profits for the corporation, subsequent priorities could fall within the guidelines of community outreach, exceeding legal obligations or being environmentally sensitive.If we presume that corporations elect to be â€Å"socially responsible,† we should expect shareholders to provide policies and procedures to their managers. Without these, what responsibility does the manager have outside of maximizing profits? As Friedman suggests, the manager could be compe lled to act on his own beliefs and moral obligations to his community, church or charitable organization. But, since these would be at his discretion, what check and balances would he have with the shareholders? Would he be using money otherwise returned back to the shareholders and supporting organizations that are opposed by the shareholders?Because corporations are established to profit and shareholders invest money with expectations of a greater return, managers cannot be given a directive to be â€Å"socially responsible† without providing specific criteria of checks and balances to which needs to adhere. Therefore, it is imperative to the success of a corporation for managers to not act solely but rather to act within the policies of the shareholders. What Friedman implies is that shareholders should only be concerned with maximizing profits and not be obligated to be â€Å"socially responsible. In that case, the manager would only have one priority, to maximize profit s. However, what if that manager determined that social endeavors is the best option to maximize profits? This would make the corporation socially responsible while still maintaining maximum profits. The argument presented by Friedman in this case is that while the manager is performing as expected by maximizing profits, this type of â€Å"social responsibility is frequently a cloak for actions that are justified on other grounds rather than a reason for those actions. This â€Å"cloak† refers to corporations acting socially responsible but for the sole purpose of making profits rather than performing such endeavors for the sole purpose of benefiting society. An example would be a solar company providing â€Å"free† electricity to a campus in exchange for use land to promote their environmentally aware product. However, what they don’t tell you is that the electricity is being sold back to the power company for a profit. The perception is that the company has a social conscience when in reality it is being done for profits.While I agree with Friedman’s assessment that managers, as employees of shareholders, are responsible for maximizing profits, I disagree that corporations should only comply with governmental policies and should not adopt policies to be socially responsible. At the time Friedman wrote this article, western democracies and communist countries of Europe were in the middle of the Cold War and the idea of a global economy was not as prevalent in society as it is today.Consumers in those countries leaned towards buying locally over buying foreign products. Since the end of the Cold War, consumers have changed purchased habits to buy products from companies, regardless of their country of origin if it were the best product. However, this led to the matter of public opinion towards corporations playing a larger role in how well they integrate themselves into a community or help preserve the environment is a factor in ho w consumers choose to purchase products.For instance, if a company is considered â€Å"green,† it is determined to the environmentally friendly. This would lead consumers who support environmental protection to lead towards purchasing products from that company. Therefore, I believe that corporations take into account public opinion when deciding on whether to enact â€Å"social responsible† measures and that these measures are above and beyond the minimum requirements established by governing agencies.I am also convinced that shareholders, more today than ever, budget funds to contribute to socially acceptable contributions and directing managers how to spend these. It is my opinion that due to public opinion and a global influence on corporations, that a successful free market cannot be judged solely by the financial gain of a corporation, but in conjunction with how these corporations influence positive changes in society.

Prepare to report your recommendations Essay

Rosabeth Kanter (1979) argues that much of what is labeled â€Å"poor management† in organizations is simply individuals protecting their diminished power bases. Instead of criticizing these managers as incompetent, she proposes we bolster their feelings of personal power. If we solve the real problem of perceived lack of power, the undesirable symptoms of poor leadership often evaporate. This point of view is consistent with the principles discussed in this chapter. Assignment In this exercise, you are asked to give advice to individuals who feel powerless. For each of the situations below, form groups to explore opportunities for enhancing the power base of these three individuals. Prepare to report your recommendations. Situation 1: First-Line Supervisor Kate Shalene has been a first-line supervisor for six months. She was proud of her new promotion, but surprised to discover she felt increasingly powerless. Instead of being a stepping stone, this position was feeling more and more like a dead end. Managers above her were about her age and the hoped-for company expansion never materialized. She was not a central part of the organization, and she felt no one ever noticed her unless she messed up. She was expected to be supportive of her subordinates, but they never returned the favor. She was expected to absorb their flack without support from above. In general, she felt as though she was constantly â€Å"getting it from both ends. † Her job was extremely rule-bound, so she had little discretion in what she did or how she did it. She had only modest control over the pay or benefits of her subordinates, because their union agreement left very little flexibility. So she felt powerless to reward them or punish them in ways that really mattered. As a result, she found she was more and more apt to impose rules to get subordinates to do what she wanted. She became increasingly jealous of any successes and recognition achieved by her subordinates, so she tended to isolate them from people higher up in the organization and from complete information. She lost her penchant for informality and became increasingly rigid in following standard operating procedures. Predictably, her subordinates were becoming more resentful and less productive. Situation 2: Staff Professional Shawn Quinn came to the organization a year ago as a staff professional. He believed it might be a way for him to achieve considerable visibility with the top brass, but instead he felt isolated and forgotten. As a staff officer, he had almost no decision-making authority except in his narrow area of expertise. Most of what went on in the organization occurred without his involvement. Innovation and entrepreneurial activity were completely out of his realm. While some of the line officers were given opportunities for professional development, no one seemed to care about his becoming more experienced and capable. They saw him only as a specialist. Because his job didn’t require that he work with others, he had little opportunity to cultivate relationships that might lead to contacts with someone near the top. What hurt was that a consultant had been hired a few times to work on projects that were part of his area. If consultants could be brought in to do his work, he thought, he must not be very important to the organization. Shawn found himself being more and more turf conscious. He didn’t want others encroaching on his area of expertise. He tried to demonstrate his competence to others, but the more he did so, the more he became defined as a specialist, outside the mainstream of the organization. Overall, he felt he was losing ground in his career. Situation 3: Top Executive May Phelps has been a top executive for three years now. When she obtained the position, she felt that her ultimate career goal had been achieved. Now she was not so sure. Surprisingly, she discovered myriad constraints limiting her discretion and initiative. For example, the job had so many demands and details associated with it that she never had time to engage in any long-term planning. There always seemed to be one more crisis that demanded her attention. Unfortunately, most of the constraints were from sources she couldn’t control, such as government regulations, demands for greater accountability made by the board of directors and by stockholders, union relationships, equal opportunity statutes, and so on. She had built her reputation as a successful manager by being entrepreneurial, creative, and innovative, but none of those qualities seemed appropriate for the demands of her current work. Furthermore, because she was so mired in operations, she had become more and more out of touch with the information flow in the organization. Some things had to remain confidential with her, but her secrecy made others unwilling to share information with her. She had assistants who were supposed to be monitoring the organization and providing her with information, but she often felt they only told her what she wanted to hear. May had begun to hear rumors that certain special-interest groups were demanding her removal from the top job. She responded by becoming more dictatorial and defensive, with the result that the organization was becoming more control-oriented and conservative. She felt that she was on a downward spiral, but she couldn’t find a way to reverse the trend. â€Å"I always thought the saying ‘It’s lonely at the top’ was just a metaphor,† she mused.

Child adolence and development Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Child adolence and development - Research Paper Example In my days as a child, I was carefree with no worries at all. I would wander like a deer upon the open fields. I enjoyed various natural beauties in the gardens together with my other friends. The days gone are gone forever. What I have are only memories that remain in my mind. The memories make me cry and laugh at times. Nevertheless, it is impossible to cut out them from life. For such reasons, childhood memories are said to be the sweetest in man’s life. I also got several memories of my childhood life. The memories present the sweetest time of my mind. My childhood memories are indeed sweet. No one can forget his/her childhood experiences whether painful or pleasant. I still remember my childhood life very well. I was born in the suburbs of Illinois where I spent my childhood. My father was employed by the government. Home was a simple house where we lived happily together with my parents, sisters and brothers. That is not all; there was another family member. That is my grandmother. She was humble and affectionate. I remember her trying to teach me recite some sayings and quotes. That was at an early age and my mind weak to capture them, speaking was still difficult task. She showed love to me most than other family members. The memories are bitter for I lost her a few years ago. Am lucky for my parents are still alive up to today. Both mum and dad have been by best teachers in language. They taught me how to pronounce simple words like â€Å"no†, â€Å"yes†, â€Å"come†, and â€Å"go†. There was a ground in front of our house. Paddy and other crops had grown in the ground. The beautiful golden color of the paddy field attracted me a lot. Every afternoon, I walked to the playground through the paddy field. The paddy plants always touched me. I got mixed up in the midst of the beauty of nature. I loudly named each flower as I went by playing. Though the names hardly meant anything, but at least I was better than

Innovating assesment Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Innovating assesment - Assignment Example Innovation is the use of new knowledge to offer new products and services that are required by the customer in the market. To say that innovation has a complex nature is to refer to the process of innovation not only as a creation or invention of a novel idea, but to refer to innovation as to comprise of the activities involved in its implementation and development. According to Van de Ven, (1986, p. 591), innovation has been defined as the ‘’development and implementation of new ideas by people who over time engage in transactions with others within changing institutional and organizational context.’’ This thus makes it accentuate its context dependency and also its social, political, collective and temporal nature. It has been observed therefore that, scholars who aspire to understand the emergence and development of innovation have always recognized that innovation is a complex, iterative and a dynamic process which cannot be separated from its broader c oncept, (Barrett & Walsham, 1999). Over the years, researchers have observed innovation to move from less complex models which do not capture its complexity to more complex and in-depth inductive studies that show the development of innovation over time, (Edwards, 2000). ... fluid models which portray the innovative process is distinguished by Wolfe (1994) in a review of the organization innovation literature, and importantly noting that linear models of innovations were not followed by the innovations which develop within the organizations, but instead, the innovations originated through an ‘’iterative process with many feedback together with feed forward cycles (p. 411). Following the results of a very recent research that was published between 1997 and 2002, it was confirmed unequivocally that non-linearity of innovation in an organization is likened to a form of social structuring having attendant intricate and interactive effects, (Anderson, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2004). Within the social system, theories of innovation are fundamentally considered as theories of change. Innovation can take two models; the linear and the non-linear models of innovation. The linear model is always considered to be a simpler model of innovation. This model ha s received recognition since the 1940s and claims that, ‘’innovation originates from the nursery of basic research.’’ It tries to compare innovation with a growing child, who goes through school and to the university to full time employment (Chia, 1996). Innovation on the other hand begins from the basic research to development, and finally to the marketplace. This linear model of innovation contains some elements of truth, but misses the fact that innovation may come from the other way round. This is to say, the linear model takes it that innovation may only come from researchers and neglects the fact that it might also result from consumers, users and efforts to solve certain practical problems (Czarniawska, 2005). The model also overstates the contribution the basic research makes to the

Answer questions'' a doctors visit'' Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Answer questions'' a doctors visit'' - Essay Example The assistant is hot-tempered: He gets upset when the governess said that the doctor of the factory had given Liz calibrate, but it’s high time to change. Korolyov said the factory doctor to continue attending the girl not to change. The family is as being desperate; this is shown when they say that they have gone to many doctors to seek treatment, but they have not succeeded. The family is seen to be loving and cooperative as shown by the strong concern for their daughter. The setting of the story reflects a desperate family that is very wealthy, but the inheritor of the wealth the only daughter is ailing. The family is striving to do anything for her recovery with the doctors coming at home. The initial diagnosis of the doctor he thought to be nerves problem that is common as the heart was normal. The doctors see the girl and by observation she is at the right age for marriage. This is a concern to him as the disease may be due to stress not merely heart disease. The doctors had not relieved Lizanka’s concern since after saying it could be related to nerves problem, not the heart she sobbed into tears. The doctor was upset when he heard that Liz was being cared by another doctor since the governess said she needed change of treatment he thought it better to be treated by one doctor. Madame Lyalikov pleads for him to sleep since she feared for the death of her only child. The doctors felt uneasy since his family was expecting him at Moscow, and that was a strange place but eventually accepted for sympathy of the girl. The doctor unable to sleep, walk outside and view the factories ad barracks. He thought of the family as having workers who are working under horrible circumstances being fine and undergoing starvation. The family is wealthy their cry is the cause of the Lizankas sickness. The doctor’s prejudices are being challenged when he sees the governess as the only happy person and is a figurehead, but the person whom

Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Reflection - Essay Example A conclusion to the essay will then be given which will discuss my reflection skills, acknowledge my teaching skills and show my personal and professional development. The first stage of Gibbs (1988) model of reflection requires description of events. I was placed into a group with four members. I will refer to my group members as A, B and C due to confidentiality (NMC 2004). As a group, we discussed the topics that we had chosen to teach our fellow colleagues. After discussing our options, we finally agreed as a group to teach Anorexia Nervosa. We chose this disorder as we found the subject to be challenging and we wanted to become more knowledgeable about it. At this time, it was necessary to research the topic that was selected and then section the topic into parts. Member C chose to be responsible for the ethical portion of the project. Member B wanted to work on the legal aspect of the project. Member A and I therefore investigated care management followed by a discussion concerning our group meetings. The group meetings consisted of the group discussing its plans for the teaching session, sharing ideas as well as sharing research. The group had several meetings. On many occasions, there was no progress on our group work. The teaching plans were conducted on an individual basis. After discussing teaching plans in our group meetings, we agreed to combine the teaching plans in order to create one comprehensive teaching plan. The teaching plan that we developed as a group involved member A putting the plan together. It is noteworthy to mention that Member C spent a good bit of time discussing another topic which was unrelated to the plan. It was not unusual for member C to interrupt member A. Member C would then begin work on an entirely different and unrelated project. This consistently disrupted the group and caused unnecessary hardship to the group. As a group, we had only one

The Signature Murders Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Signature Murders - Coursework Example At the moment Garcia’s sister-in-law visited the apartment with her son, found what had happened and called the police. In the second murder case, 65 years old, Willie Nichols was found dead in his apartment following the insistence of his friend Deborah, who pleaded with the apartment manager to open Nichols apartment after he had failed to pick her calls a number of times. Based on the evidence collected in two crime scene, there was a possible connection that they had been committed by the same individual, who was later identified as Robert Rose (Ramsland, 2012). The investigators applied professional techniques in the case; firstly they were divided based on the divisions to ensure that the evidence collected on the scene was handled appropriately. Detective Thacker and Small from the Hollywood Homicide Detective evaluated the scene and determined that it was a burglary. The Scientific Investigative Division (SID) collected the evidence, which was given to the criminalistic team for analysis (Ramsland, 2012). To secondary scenes existed and the handling of the crime scene was relevant to the closing of the case. Forensic technologies were utilized at a wide array of the signature murders. The collected fingerprints were examined using the fingerprint classification (FPC) and the information was transmitted to the AFIS computer for evaluation and comparisons. Electrostatic detection apparatus was used to dust the particles from the offender’s footprints (Ramsland, 2012). The blood collected as evidence, which belonged to both the victim and the offender was also tested. The DNA test was done through Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and it distinguished the victims’ blood sample from that of the offender (Krimsky & Simoncelli, 2013). The rich evidence that was in the two murder cases enabled the investigators and the forensics to be conducted easily and it was admissible to the court.

Value that Merck Places on Employee and Diversity Essay

Value that Merck Places on Employee and Diversity - Essay Example Besides, Merck & Co. has created a culture that appreciates collective power and differences that come from having a diverse workforce. It offers more opportunities for employees to grow both personally and professionally at the workplace and in the community at large. Finally, it has taken a global approach to diversify the company by creating three major resources: Global Diversity and Inclusion Centre, Employee Business Resource Groups and Employee Resource Groups. In 2003, the workforce demographics were low as compared to the current situation. The various areas of profession included officials, sales marketers, technicians, clerical, craft workers, operators, laborers, service workers among others. The minorities relatively occupy a significant percentage in the managerial positions compared to other groups. For instance, their demographic composition in the administrative post was 18 percent compared to 36.5 percent of the women. Men had the higher workforce. The total workforce percentage among minority groups was 21.2 percent, and the females were 50.3 percent. However, there was diversity in the workforce (Merck & Co., 2014). Considering the U.S demographics, America is less diverse. There is the high level of discrimination in the workforce and the minority groups are often harassed. The number of aged employees is high due to the low birth rate. Craft workers are mainly minority groups compared to the whites who occupy the managerial positions.  Ã‚  

Original Component Essay Example for Free

Original Component Essay The goal was to determine a credible and accurate method for measuring human capital. Knowledge capital is a concept that has not received much attention in terms of research. One of the unique aspects of this study was the fact that the data collected were from the information technology field, particularly from those who deal with knowledge management. This was in contrast to previous studies where finance, accounting, and/or human resources professionals were the respondents. The findings indicated that the methods currently used to value human knowledge were borrowed from either human resources or from finance. This also indicated that knowledge management was not embraced as a part of its strategy. Since the responses were received from knowledgeable experts, the results represented a true picture of the problem. Another reason for its uniqueness was due to the fact that the study was conducted in two separate phases with their corresponding findings compared. It was also important to note that the companies selected represented all of the industries. The combination of all these attributes thus, made the method unique. According to previous studies, much research has been devoted to knowledge management. In addition, books, journals, and articles have all been written about the said topic. However, none has focused on knowledge capital valuation and its related impacts. Individuals and organizations became reluctant to pursue this type of valuation. This was due to the fact that many felt that it was impossible to accurately measure knowledge capital. For this research, all of the respondents agreed that the methods to measure knowledge capital do not fully represent its true value because they were only based on assumptions. On the other hand, companies, researchers, and scholars struggled with the question of how to value knowledge capital because it increasingly gained importance. In this case, the study has formed a base for other researchers to build on. This study has also provided a way of perceiving knowledge capital and proposed an easier way of calculating its value. The study clarified the possibility of measuring knowledge capital. However, organizations can only measure the value of knowledge by identifying the knowledge gaps within its current employees. In this context, knowledge management must be incorporated at the highest levels of the organization. 6. 4 Contributions Knowledge capital has become one of the most important assets in any organization, including corporations, government agencies, and non-profit organizations. However, without knowing its value, organizations cannot determine whether they are fully utilizing it or not. Most Internet businesses have no physical assets, while some rely solely on outsourcing. Therefore, there is a need to determine the value of human capital to ascertain the value of an organization. Moreover, many Internet businesses were publicly traded, and were obliged to represent the true and accurate value of their company to investors . During mergers and acquisition transactions, companies experience the problem of determining the value of knowledge or human capital. In turn, they use the term â€Å"goodwill. † However, goodwill is actually an invented concept. If companies can determine the value of their knowledge capital, there is no need to use the vague concept of goodwill. Knowing the value of knowledge capital helps a company hire the right people, assign the proper people to particular jobs, and provide employees with the appropriate tools and environment. Without knowing the value of what is needed, how can they measure knowledge capital or increase its value? This research aimed to contribute information to both the knowledge field and to profit-making organizations. The purpose of this research was to examine how organizations determine the value of their human capital, while gaining a sustainable competitive advantage. The research effort will be applied by and for profit organizations to determine their true value, maximizing the value of human capital to increase the shareholders’ wealth. Individuals will understand the value of their human capital and be able to start managing it for maximum return to themselves, as well as their organizations. In addition, E-businesses will find the results useful because the value of their organizations depends primarily on the value of their intellectual capital. The study also focused on the determination methods used by profit-making organizations in the evaluation of human capital. Therefore, other researchers may find the results of this study relevant, while conducting other studies in the future. 6. 5 Limitations Several difficulties or challenges were encountered while conducting this study that may have influenced results, either positively or negatively: Limitations faced by the researcher during the process of this study included the persuasion of organizations to adopt the new or standard metric of measuring Knowledge Capital, communication for benefits to be derived from findings, the lack of industrial experience and practical knowledge, and the deficiency of funds for quality productions. 6. 6 Scope for Future Research The purpose of this study was to determine how organizations value knowledge capital and how they make it grow. The study examined data collected across industries and the responses were nearly uniform. They all agreed that there is no standard method of measuring human capital. In addition, all agreed that the methods currently used to measure knowledge capital are inadequate for representing its true value. Hence, the value of knowledge capital is not calculated. Based on this study, the author recommends that further research be conducted to develop a model or standard method for measuring knowledge capital across all industries. The model must be easy, accurate, and practical. Moreover, while conducting future research, future researchers should bear in mind the following recommendations: It is important to be in partnership with someone who has industrial experience, or better yet, seek support or sponsorship from companies. This would also solve the problem of funding. Second, use a combination of data collection instruments, such as face-to-face interviews and questionnaires. Collect both quantitative and qualitative data to validate the results. Lastly, a year or two would be the best preference in conducting this research, especially it it is on a global scale.

Gatsby Automobile Essay Essay Example for Free

Gatsby Automobile Essay Essay There are many different themes, images, and symbols in Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby that render great importance to the development of the story. One particular image and symbol seen throughout Fitzgerald’s novel that acts as a major contributor to the plot is the automobile. The image of the automobile can be seen in relation with any of the characters in the novel who involve themselves in with driving an automobile or even simply talking about an automobile. Two characters in the novel that Fitzgerald uses to portray the images and symbols of the automobile are Tom Buchannan and Jay Gatsby. These two automobile owners are created into the strongest conductors of Fitzgerald’s imagery and symbolism throughout the novel. The automobile can be seen as representing a few different types of images and symbols. A possible symbol of the automobile may stand for the respective automobile owner’s status in society. Almost all automobiles in the nineteen-twenties were black and just about as plain as could be. These black automobiles were owned by all those who could just barely afford an automobile, to those who were average, middle class people, to the extremely wealthy who could easily afford three or four automobiles. What makes this piece of history so important is the fact that Fitzgerald gives both Tom and Gatsby brightly colored automobiles. The personalities of these two characters effortlessly magnifies the showiness and in Gatsby’s case, gaudiness. Gatsby’s absolutely obnoxious Rolls Royce is â€Å"a rich cream color, bright with nickel, swollen here and there in its monstrous length with triumphant hat-boxes and supper-boxes and tool-boxes, and terraced with a labyrinth of windshields that mirrored a dozen suns. † No one in the nineteen-twenties had such an untasteful looking automobile that Gatsby. One obvious and straightforward possible explanation for Gatsby’s hideous automobile is that he wants to show off his wealth, status, and â€Å"success† in his many trades. Another not so obvious reason for this hideous yellow automobile could be an image produced by Fitzgerald to try to illustrate Gatsby’s need to reach out and grasp Daisy’s attention. Unfortunately, because Gatsby was formerly a much lower class man, living on a farm out west with his family, his wealth and riches cannot buy him any class or style. A very similar situation can be seen with Tom Buchannan and his automobiles. He too, is very showy and flashy in his actions to show the world his possessions. Tom, like Gatsby, has an unusual colored car. This blue automobile is a symbol of wealth, status, and riches, just like Gatsby, but it can represent another image. Every single time Tom heads over to Wilson’s Garage for some gas or to see Myrtle, Wilson asks Tom about purchasing his old automobile. Tom plainly and seemingly without thinking puts the topic off to the side as if it wasn’t important and he didn’t want to talk about it. Sadly for Wilson, the automobile in a sense symbolizes Myrtle. Tom pushes the car aside as if it didn’t matter much at all to him, just like he uses Myrtle and makes all those empty promises to her about trying to divorce Daisy and being together forever. The images and symbols throughout The Great Gatsby create many dimensions to such a superb plot and character development. These amazing images set up by Fitzgerald give the novel a complete feel of full development. Fitzgerald ties in all the different elements of the story by using the one simple entity of the automobile.