Full Costing and Variable Costing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Full Costing and Variable Costing - Essay Example Cost Accounting: A 12 Managerial Emphasis. 12th ed. Prentice Hall. 12 Elliott Taylor, 2011. Full-Costing Income Statement vs. Variable-Costing Income Statement. [online] Available at [Accessed 25 December 2011] 13 Jae Shim, Joe Seigel, 2011. Schaum's Outline of Managerial Accounting. 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill. 13 John Simms, 2008. The Variable Costing Income Statement for External Reporting. VDM Verlag. 13 Noah P. Barsky, Anthony H. Catanach, 2004. Management Accounting: A Business Planning Approach. South-Western College Pub. 14 Steven M. Bragg, 2011. Cost Accounting Fundamentals: Essential Concepts and Examples. 2nd ed. Accounting Tools. 14 Executive Summary Full Costing and Variable Costing are two common approaches to cost keeping employed at the management accounting level in various firms across the globe. Both approaches have their pros and cons and making a choice between the two is solely dependent upon the practices of the firm, its approach to create shareholder value and the m indset of its employees. In terms of the treatment of different types of cost, there is only one difference between the two approaches under consideration. The Manufacturing Overhead component of cost is treated in a different manner under both the approaches. The fixed component of the Manufacturing Overhead is absorbed by the product as it is treated as a product cost in Full Costing approach while the same component is treated as a period cost under the Variable Costing approach. This different treatment of the Fixed Manufacturing Cost, poses a positive effect on the bottom line of the company in the Full Costing Approach, as the cost incurred on the goods not sold is not deducted from the revenues generated during the relevant period. When it comes to Variable Costing, the costs incurred over the manufacturing of all the produced items are deducted from the revenues of the relevant period. This tends to shrink the company bottom-line for the immediate period. These two approache s thus influence the mindset of the shareholders and stakeholders of the company. The type of approach to costing adopted by the company shall also depend on the industry that it operates in and the shareholder anticipations as well. Introduction The ultimate objective of the commencement of any business is to generate profits. A simple equation that generates the bottom line of any business entails the deduction of costs from revenues of the company. Revenue calculation is not a Herculean task, and thus there are not a lot of distinguished approaches that can be used to calculate the revenue of the company. However costing is a much more complex and complicated component of the formerly mentioned equation. There are various approaches utilized by management accountants and financial analysts across the globe for the computation of the cost components. Each component has its own justification and rationale and this paper will be specifically aimed at discussing two of the most utili zed approaches to costing namely Full Costing and Variable Costing (Garrison, Noreen, Brewer, 2009). Main Findings In general, no matter whichever approach to accounting is used by the accountants for the treatment of the cost factors in the financial

SOCRATES AND THE MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

SOCRATES AND THE MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY - Essay Example Socrates is the kind of man who will die for what he thinks is right. Plato’s Apology describes Socrates’ identity and philosophy through narrating his trial. Socrates dies for his philosophy because he knows that he is doing the right thing for society, not just for himself, where his interest is simply helping others to know the truth. He does the right thing for a society that needs a â€Å"gadfly† which will stir it to constant self-assessment (Plato, n.d., p.16). In the first section of the paper, I explain Socrates’ philosophy, specifically irony, method, and ethos, and how Socrates’ statement, â€Å"The unexamined life is not worth living,† is related to these three components. In the second section, I reflect on what I think philosophy is and why it is important. Socrates’ philosophy uses irony and logical methods to promote ethos, or the character of a good man with a good life, and his philosophy helps me define philosophy as the study of general and specific problems that can help people live a good life. Socrates’ philosophy is sometimes called Socratic irony, where the irony is that when a philosopher starts with the admission of his own ignorance, he actually exposes the ignorance of others. In Apology, Socrates criticizes the Sophists for using logos without examining the ethical value and consequences of their arguments. He says: â€Å"†¦but I know that their persuasive words almost made me forget who I was – such was the effect of them; and yet they have hardly spoken a word of truth† (Plato, n.d., p.3). He alludes to Sophists because they can be tremendously persuasive enough that some people overlook the weaknesses of their arguments. Forgetting oneself refers to forgetting one’s ability to think critically in response to the persuasive tactics of the Sophists. The verbal irony is that Socrates is not affected at all by the Sophists. Instead, the more that he ta lks to them, the more he exposes their ignorance through exposing the fallacies of their arguments. Socrates uses verbal irony to highlight that Sophists are not after the truth, and yet they ironically sound truthful to others who do not examine their lives anymore. Moreover, one of the greatest ironies in his philosophy is his argument on wisdom. Socrates does not claim to know everything, and yet by saying he does not know anything, he is wiser than the rest because it opens him to knowing more. He is right to compare himself to a â€Å"gadfly† because he exists for the main purpose of stirring the Greek society. He is like a gadfly that aims to stir the society which is â€Å"like a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life† (Plato, n.d., p.16). When the prophecy says that Socrates is the wisest of all, it does not mean that Socrates holds the most knowledge of all fields, but that he is open to l earning more through his critical and inquisitive approach to learning. As a gadfly, he is ironically a small being in society in terms of wealth and social connections, and yet, he has the ability to stimulate deep philosophical questions amongst his people. Another example of irony comes from Socrates’ accusers. They accuse someone of something that they know little of. Socrates provides the example of Meletus. He says that Meletus is the â€Å"doer of evil,† wherein â€Å"the evil is that he makes a joke of a serious matter, and is too ready at bringing other men to trial from a pretended zeal and interest about matters in which he really never had the smallest interest†