Robinson-Patman Act Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Robinson-Patman Act - Assignment Example It required that the seller offer the same price terms to customers at a certain given level of trade. It is meant to cub discrimination on the sale of goods to equally-situated distributors when the effects of such sale are aimed at reducing competition (American Bar Association, 2002, p. 463). Large stores and wholesalers can undercut small stalls selling similar products and services in such a way that can attract customers to buy from them. This can force such small retailers to go out of business; hence the Act can stem the vice of undercutting other small general business. Wholesalers and chain stores have to operate under the same business environment with the small retailers so as to offer the same prices to the end users of the products. Without the law, competition will be lessened and monopolies created in the line of commerce hence injuring small retailers and granting huge benefits to the large stores. This law applies to goods and services of the same grade, calibration, and quality (American Bar Association, 2002, p. 495). Such big multinationals like Pepsi and its competitor Coca Cola are the two major soft drink manufacturers in the world. They enjoy wider market coverage around the world which can be considered to be monopolies in some cases, especially if one of them operates, and the other is not in that market. Their market positions have been considered harmful as they enjoy huge capital outlay and wider market coverage. These enable them to cause undesirable competition to small manufacturers. They yield harmful price controls which they can manipulate markets in their favor to reduce competition by reducing prices at will across their products; soft drinks, juices, bottled water, sports drinks, and snacks. Such antitrust law as Robinson-Patman Act is meant to prevent such multinational from creating restraints on trade and commerce and

Discuss the evolution and problems of post colonial african Essay

Discuss the evolution and problems of post colonial african governments. What trends can we dicern What theories have been offered to explain these development - Essay Example Encouraged by the findings of European explorers Livingstone, Pinto, Burton, and Grant in the early 19th century, hordes of Europeans backed by their armies sailed south of Europe and began the work of colonization. It was to avoid the infighting and conflict that the Berlin Conference was organized. The colonization efforts were ruthless and resulted in the near-total destruction of African culture. Africa at the time was a land of more than a thousand tribal kingdoms, each with its specific culture and forms of government, and as is common with peoples the world over, likewise engaged in their own intergenerational and inter-tribal wars involving territory and natural resources. Ravaged by diseases and harsh living conditions, the populations of these African kingdoms were expanding slowly, limited only by their ability to tame nature. This was the continent which the Europeans invaded with "guns, germs, and steel" (Diamond 4) and set quickly to work in ravishing. Another strong influence of the colonists was their belief that Afric... Thus, aside from ambitious explorers, businessmen, and soldiers, the European nations sent Christian missionaries to teach Africans the European ways that the latter deemed more superior. How the combined efforts of material and spiritual colonization affected African culture explains much of what happened after their colonial masters left by the end of the 20th century. The decision that probably caused the most damage was the territorial boundaries established by the European powers in complete disregard for natural boundaries formed by the language, religion, or ethnicity of the Africans. Almost overnight, tribes were split, dividing families and societies. Until 1914, the Europeans divided Africa into fifty states, putting together warring tribes and dividing friendly tribes. This explains the incidents of ethnic violence that continue to explode in recent times in countries like Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, and Somalia. In each of these countries, different warring tribes were forcibly put together, continuing the tribal conflicts whenever people from each tribe assumed political power (Shillington 115; Pakenham 174). It is this tribal conflict that is also a prime cause of so much government corruption, because the tribal links are stronger than the artificial sense of nation that decades of colonization failed to achieve. Aside from the forced union of tribes, colonization had as a major objective that of spreading cultural influence through the language, religion, and customs. This is what the French did, and explains why former French colonies like Algeria have better infrastructure such as a functioning education system, government bureaucracy, and are better assimilated with European culture. It also had better telecommunications and transport