Watching a Loved One Slip Away from Alzheimers Disease

When I was a child I watched as my grandfather passed away after battling with Alzheimers disease for more than fifteen years. During the time he was alive and I would visit him, I never understood why he was always in bed, and whenever I went to go see him he never remembered who I was. But after he died my mother attempted to explain to me that he was suffering from Alzheimers. The purpose of my paper is to gain a clearer comprehension of this horrible, debilitating disease that took my grandfather and countless other Americans away from their families. Alzheimers, the word strikes fear in some and an off-handed glance in others. The fact still remains that Alzheimer’s is an extremely shattering disease that removes the mind fraction by fraction over a period of time, this could even take decades. It begins as small memory lapses, slowly progressing to memory breaches but then progressively eroding your life to the point where around-the-clock care is the only option. With severe Alzheimers, as we almost hear daily that patients have wandered off and gotten lost. In my own life, my grandfather was not even able to recognize his family members. Alzheimers was a little known disease before 1960, but today it threatens to completely derail the health system in the United States. What is Alzheimer’s? Alzheimers disease is considered one of the many forms of age-related dementia. Previously the neurological community frequently referred toShow MoreRelatedSummary Of The Rememberer By Aimie Bender758 Words   |  4 Pagesand care for Alzheimer’s disease patients. It exposes the overwhelming feelings of a woman, Annie, who witnesses her lover to get lost to the disease. What makes this story so timeless are the current statistics: according to the Alzheimer’s Association (https://www.alz.org/facts/), currently an estimated 5 million Americans have Alzheimer’s and 15 million Americans provide unpaid care for those people. Aimee Bender dramatically reveals the damaging effects of the Alzheimer’s disease on patients andRead MoreSymptoms Of Alzheimer s Disease2043 Words   |  9 Pagesthink one of the saddest day in my life was when I found out my father had Alzheimer’s disease. It took an emotional toll on me and my fami ly members. I believe Alzheimer is much harder on me and my loved ones than on my grandfather; because he was unaware of what was going on. It’s painful watching my grandfather degrade and get worse each and every day. The worst thing is that he doesn’t even know who I am anymore. In this paper I will discuss certain risk factors, background of Alzheimer’s, BackgroundRead MoreDementia Research Paper5756 Words   |  24 PagesUnderstanding Dementia and Alzheimers Disease Dealing with Dementia and the progression of Alzheimers disease through its three stages is often a daunting and distressing task. Most often relatives feel isolated and without help as if they were to be left alone, having no help to deal with the unknown. They are also afraid of having to watch their loved ones become more and more distant, potentially losing a horrible battle with this disease. In order to help with this fear of the unknownRead MoreThe Morality of Euthanasia Essay1414 Words   |  6 PagesThe Morality of Euthanasia Technology has brought about drastic changes in the morality of today’s society. One organization it has greatly effected is the medical field. Few would argue with the fact that medical technology has greatly improved the quality of life. However, with doctors and other health care workers having the authority to contribute to both the patients’ well-being and inevitable death, society believes there should be limits to best serve the patient’s wishes. TheRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pages10.5/12 ITC New Baskerville Std Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on the appropriate page within text. Copyright  © 2013, 2011, 2009, 2007, 2005 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval

Concept of Price Elasticity of Demand

Question: Discuss about the Concept of Price Elasticity of Demand. Answer: The objective of this interview is to introduce and apply the concept of price elasticity of demand to analyse the differences in prices and quantity consumed of selected goods in India and Canada. The interview primarily focused on bringing out differences in transportation and consumption of rice and hence understanding the relation between price and quantity in the two geographies based on the respective responses. The information collected during the interview coupled with some external research has enabled to opine on the relative differences in the elasticity. The various questions asked in the interview are as follows. What was the transportation option that was most frequently used in your native country (India) as compared to the current scenario? One of the food items that were consumed in abundance by my partner was rice. How does the current situation differ in terms of consumption of rice and whether now you consume more and less? Also comment on the price difference of rice taking India and Canada. What differences in behaviour have you brought about due to the above? Based on the responses, it was apparent that while in India, the most often used transportation option in the city which my partner resided happened to be Metro rail. The reason of frequent use was on account of it being the cheapest mode of communication and also saving on the precious time wasted due to congestions. This was contradictory to private cars being the frequently used means as public transport tends to be inconvenient and time consuming. With regards to rice, the consumption of rice is lower in the current situation as compared to back home. This is primarily on account of higher price in Canada as compared to India. As a result, there is a search for substitutes particularly in the form of wheat flour coupled with higher intake of chicken. Besides, in the long term, my partner aims to have a personal car so as to avoid usage of public transport which is inefficient. Computation of Elasticity Mode of Communication The preferred communication medium used by my partner is Delhi metro. The last price hike was in 2012. Price per trip paid by my partner before increase = INR 20 Price per trip paid by my partner after increase = INR 28 Monthly trips at price per trip of 20 = 25 Monthly trips at price per trip of 28 = 23 % change in price = [(28-20)/20]*100 = 40% % change in demand = [(23-25)/25]*100 = -8% Hence, price elasticity of demand (PED) of metro service = -8/40 = -0.2 As the PED is significantly smaller than 1, it is apparent that the demand for metro services for my partner was highly inelastic (Nicholson and Snyder, 2011). Some of the potential explanations for the same are offered below (Mankiw, 2014). There are almost no cheaper alternatives available as the other means of transport are more expensive and comparatively are not as convenient as the metro journey. Besides, there is the problem of congestion on roads which makes the other modes less preferable and more harrowing. Additionally, the amount spent on metro services by my partner in a month is not very significant which further adds to a low elasticity as due to the price increase, he ends up paying about INR 400 more or less then $ 10. The above analysis would be in sharp contrast to public transport here as it is expected to be comparatively more elastic as people have low preference for the same and hence price increase would further dampen the demand (Campbell, 2011). Based on the inputs from my partner, the objective is to compute the PED of rice. Price of basmati rice in India = INR 60 per kg Price of basmati rice in Canada (Walmart) = $ 3 per kg = INR 150 per kg (Assuming a conversion rate of $ 1 = INR 50) Monthly consumption of rice in India = 12 kg Monthly consumption of rice in Canada = 5 kg Percentage change in price of rice = [(150-60)/60]*100 = 150% Percentage change in quantity demanded of rice = [(5-12)/12}*100 = - 58.3% Hence, PED of rice = -58.3/150 = 0.39 From the above, it is apparent that demand of rice for my partner is inelastic since PED is lower than 1 (Krugman and Wells, 2013). Some of the reasons attributed to inelasticity of rice are as follows (Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 2011). Food preferences are typically developed over a long period of time and hence changing them over the short period of time may be difficult. Additionally, rice is considered to be a staple food and hence adds to the inelasticity. However, availability of other food items particularly wheat at a lower price helps in increasing the PED. The fact that the total monthly spending on rice is only a small fraction of the budget also leads to the lower value of the PED. The long term implications of the above two are as follows. Considering that the public transport system in Canada is inefficient, hence it is convenient and recommended for saving time that personal car be brought especially when working. Further, the cheap prices of cars, fuel and flexible financing option also make cars a lucrative option. In terms of food preferences, over the long run, it is expected that food habits would show some inclination towards the articles which are cheaper and gradually their consumption would increase. Conclusion From the above analysis, it is fair to conclude that price elasticity of demand is a very useful concept with regards to developing an understanding of consumption choices. Besides, the price elasticity of demand tends to highly variable for products and essentially is driven by the nature of product (basic or luxury) and the availability of cheaper substitutes coupled with contribution to the overall budget. For both the products analysed above, considering that these are basic goods with limited availability of cheaper alternatives and low contribution to the budget, the PED essentially remains low on expected lines. References Campbell, W. (2011), Public Transit Viewed As 'Inconvenient', 12% Of Canadians Use It: StatsCan, Retrieved on December 6, 2016 from https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2011/08/24/public-transit-viewed-as-_n_934998.html Krugman, P. and Wells, R. (2013), Microeconomics, London: Worth Publishers Mankiw, G. (2014), Microeconomics, London: Worth Publishers Nicholson, W. and Snyder, C. (2011), Fundamentals of Microeconomics, New York: Cengage Learning Pindyck, R. and Rubinfeld, D. 2011, Microeconomics, London: Prentice-Hall Publications