Maximizing the Unearned Dollar

Workin 9 to 5, what a way to involve a living barely gettin by, its all talkin and no givin (Parton, p.1) bird Parton had the right idea when she wrote this song. We retain to work to be able to pay for necessities such as housing, clothing, and food. In addition to necessity, having enough money left over at the end of the month to go watch a show or eat at a nice restaurant is an added bonus. Most of us put our nose to the hollow stone only to live by the old pay check to pay check creed. Payday arrives and its smiles all around. Money makes us happy, but more money makes us ecstatic.There are the lucky few who win the Publishers Clearinghouse sweepstakes or the lottery, but the rest of us have to stretch our dollars as far as they will go. If you arent rich, stretching the dollar is a way of life. However, not everyone wants to live that way. For them, there are several alternatives. They can chalk up up their wealthy relatives, further their education, chose to work a not- so-glamorous job, or they can turn to abomination.Unfortunately, not everyone has wealthy relatives, not everyone has their mind set to get their master degree, and not everyone has the body to swing on a pole for hundreds of dollars a night. Whats left? Thats rightcrime. Somewhere out there bulk have figured out that you striket have to work that hard to maximise your bucks. True-be-it that not all of us will turn to crime to make more money, from big corporations to mom and pop shops, maximizing utility is what its all about.In the movie Friday, the character Big wriggle sells the drugs he produces to make money (Gray, 1995). His operation is based on delegating sales to others, such as Smokey, adrug addict himself. In addition to owning a unmixed vehicle, which is decked out in carriage, Big Worm also owns a snack vending truck, which he uses to check out the progress of his sales heapincognito.Big Worms character is dressed in name brand clothing, wears gold necklaces, r ings and diamond earrings, and appears to have his hair professionally styled. His character seems to be so powerful that when Smokey fails to give him his due profits from sales, Big Worm has access to guys that are willing to put a scare in Smokey by capricious through the neighborhood shooting guns. Surethis is just a movie, but what Big Worms character does is no different than what big corporations dohe is utilizing his resources to maximize his utility. The only difference is that Big Worm is an undiscovered criminal, and big corporations are operating legally.Without the assistance of a writing staff, some real-life criminals dont have the same results with their efforts. Hollywood gave Big Worm nice clothes, a nice car and nice hair, so it appeared that as a criminal, he had his business in a position good enough to create a profit. Unfortunately for real-life criminals, however, the way they handle their profit-maximizing decisions can prove that not all criminals are util ity maximizers.Striving to achieve happiness can lead to extreme measures. Being financially set, though sometimes an unattainable objective, can lenify numerous stresses in ones life, which can lead to happiness. For some, this goal is so important that they are willing to do not-so-legal things to get there. Occupational crimes, or crimes attached by altering records, overcharging customers or cheating a client (Wikipedia, p.1) is an example of an move to maximize utility. But the key word here is blast. An attempt can be unsuccessful, which translates to the aforementioned criminal type not being a utility maximizer after all.Take a brink teller, for example. While the money people deposit daily into their bank accounts in no way belongs to the bank teller, the teller has access to an available source. Over time, the teller discovers that by accompanying his or her deposit slip with the daily customer deposits, they are able to obtain hundreds, or maybe thousands of extra dol lars in their own bank account.After much research, the bank discovers that the teller is responsible for the discrepancies in so many peoples bank accounts. Upon the tellers arrest, it is demanded that all monies embezzled be returned. To the banks horror, the teller is unable to make restitution because the money was poorly spent on material items such as clothing and electronics. In this instance, the crime was committed without the intention of creating financial security. This particular criminal was not interested in being a utility maximizer.Back to the flip side of criminal utility maximization, indemnification fraud is a good example to work with. In July of 2004, the owner of a grocery store in Everett, Washington lost everything to a approach that was being investigated as a case of arson, more specifically, a hate crime (SPI Staff Writer, p.1). It was later discovered that the owner of the store was the culprit, spray picture hate messages throughout the buildings ext erior, then dousing it with gasoline before setting it on fire. This was far from a hate crime, the investigative team determined. The reason for setting his store ablaze was to obtain the insurance he had on the store in order to alleviate some financial stresses he was experiencing. The investigation team determined that this was a case of arson for profit.On the legal side of multiplying your dollars, businesses, such as Enterprise Rent-A-Car, operate quite similarly to the style of our undiscovered criminal mentioned earlier within the text. Dubbed by Business Week Magazine as one of the best places to work (ERAC, p.1),Enterprise Rent-A-Car is a prize example of how utilizing your resources will maximize your profits. The structure consists of the sales team, the managers, the regional managers and the executives. In combination with pushing upgrades with their rentals, the sales team also pushes damage waiver insurance. in effect(p) performance will earn bonus checks.The mana gers then direct the sales team in order to receive higher commissions. The regional managers push the managers for increase pay scales, and the chain continues. The key to this process is using what you have to make more of what you want. Incentives help this system. As noted, the ERAC team is compensated for increasing the companys profits. When you compare both criminal and legal operations side by side, the basics are the same.Though we have only compared corporations and criminals, we are all utility maximizers in one way or another. We have gambling, which comes in forms of scratch-offs, lotteries, bingo games, bets and casinos. Seeking to multiply their wealth, one might use their entire pay check to maximize his dollar. On the safer side of multiplying what youve got, we have people who invest.Conservative maximizers will place their money in low-interest savings accounts, while the more daring types will play the blood line market. Making the most of what you have is, for most of us, human nature. On our own accord, we may choose to leave things as they are, or we may chose to make an attempt at becoming self-made millionaires. Maximizing legally or illegally, how we get there matters. After all, you cant enjoy your maximized utilities from a jail cell.Works Cited1. Dolly Parton. 9 to 5. Greatest Hits. RCA Country, 1980. www.dollyon-line.com/archives/lyrics/9to5.shtml.2. Friday. Dir. F. Gary Gray. Ice Cube, Chris Tucker. 1995. DVD. New Line Cinema. 1997.3. Enterprise Rent-A-Car. 2000/Rev. 2006. ERAC.com. January 2007. www.erac.com.4. Wikipedia. 2001/Rev. 2004. Wikipedia.org. January 2007. www.wikipedia.org.