Questões de Vestibular: ABEPRO

Opportunity Cost

This phenomenon goes by the name of ‘opportunity cost,’ since by not investing in more equipment and a more rigid production flow, the company is forgoing the opportunity to earn increased profits. These costs are every bite as real as the payment of dollars out-of-pocket.

This notion _______ opportunity cost can be reinforced _________a famous saying ______ Benjamin Franklin, no slouch himself _________ operations management. To make the point, however, we must make a brief excursion into logic. One truth of logic is the validity of the so-called contrapositive, which says simply that if the statement “If A, then B” is true, then it is also true that “If not B, then not A.” That is, of every time A occurs B follows, then we can be sure that if B does not occur, then A did not occur as well. Enough logic then, and back to Ben Franklin.

One of his Poor Richard sayings is that “A penny saved is a penny earned.” We have all recognized the truth of that since childhood, but I assert that by this saying Ben showed us he knows everything about opportunity cost. After all, what is the contrapositive of “A penny not earned is a penny not saved (i.e., a penny sent). All we are saying by this notion of opportunity cost is that “a penny not earned (an opportunity forgone) is a penny spent.” We shall often have occasion to consider opportunity costs, in analyzing and deciding various operations issues.

SCHMENNER, Roger W. Production/Operations Management. 5th Edition. Prentice-Hall, 1993.

Opportunity Cost

This phenomenon goes by the name of ‘opportunity cost,’ since by not investing in more equipment and a more rigid production flow, the company is forgoing the opportunity to earn increased profits. These costs are every bite as real as the payment of dollars out-of-pocket.

This notion _______ opportunity cost can be reinforced _________a famous saying ______ Benjamin Franklin, no slouch himself _________ operations management. To make the point, however, we must make a brief excursion into logic. One truth of logic is the validity of the so-called contrapositive, which says simply that if the statement “If A, then B” is true, then it is also true that “If not B, then not A.” That is, of every time A occurs B follows, then we can be sure that if B does not occur, then A did not occur as well. Enough logic then, and back to Ben Franklin.

One of his Poor Richard sayings is that “A penny saved is a penny earned.” We have all recognized the truth of that since childhood, but I assert that by this saying Ben showed us he knows everything about opportunity cost. After all, what is the contrapositive of “A penny not earned is a penny not saved (i.e., a penny sent). All we are saying by this notion of opportunity cost is that “a penny not earned (an opportunity forgone) is a penny spent.” We shall often have occasion to consider opportunity costs, in analyzing and deciding various operations issues.

SCHMENNER, Roger W. Production/Operations Management. 5th Edition. Prentice-Hall, 1993.

Opportunity Cost

This phenomenon goes by the name of ‘opportunity cost,’ since by not investing in more equipment and a more rigid production flow, the company is forgoing the opportunity to earn increased profits. These costs are every bite as real as the payment of dollars out-of-pocket.

This notion _______ opportunity cost can be reinforced _________a famous saying ______ Benjamin Franklin, no slouch himself _________ operations management. To make the point, however, we must make a brief excursion into logic. One truth of logic is the validity of the so-called contrapositive, which says simply that if the statement “If A, then B” is true, then it is also true that “If not B, then not A.” That is, of every time A occurs B follows, then we can be sure that if B does not occur, then A did not occur as well. Enough logic then, and back to Ben Franklin.

One of his Poor Richard sayings is that “A penny saved is a penny earned.” We have all recognized the truth of that since childhood, but I assert that by this saying Ben showed us he knows everything about opportunity cost. After all, what is the contrapositive of “A penny not earned is a penny not saved (i.e., a penny sent). All we are saying by this notion of opportunity cost is that “a penny not earned (an opportunity forgone) is a penny spent.” We shall often have occasion to consider opportunity costs, in analyzing and deciding various operations issues.

SCHMENNER, Roger W. Production/Operations Management. 5th Edition. Prentice-Hall, 1993.

Sociologia Ambiental

O interesse da academia no desenvolvimento de estudos voltados para as questões ambientais é relativamente novo. Só começou a aparecer em meados de 1970, quando o mundo, fortemente influenciado por movimentos ecologistas e ambientalistas nascidos nos EUA, finalmente voltava seus olhos aos desastres ambientais causados pelos homens. Até então acreditava-se que os recursos naturais eram infinitos e que os impactos causados pelo homem eram facilmente revertidos pela natureza. Assim, discutir o futuro do planeta não parecia ser relevante.

Na década de 1990, os estudos voltados para a relação sociedade-natureza deram um grande salto com as contribuições de um dos mais respeitados e conhecidos sociólogos ambientais do mundo: Frederick Howard Buttel. Nascido nos Estados Unidos, Buttel dedicou sua vida acadêmica a compreender as complexas relações entre a sociedade e o ambiente natural. Apontava o caráter ambivalente do homem, que seria parte integrante da paisagem natural, submetido às dinâmicas próprias da natureza e, ao mesmo tempo, agente modificador e criador de novos ambientes. Sobre essa dualidade humana escreveu:

O ser humano, especialidade zoológica da Sociologia, é singular em todo o mundo animal, tanto quanto o é sua capacidade de criar uma cultura e comunicação simbólica. A Sociologia não pode nem deve se tornar um ramo da ecologia comportamental. Mas o ser humano também é uma espécie entre muitas, e é uma parte integral da biosfera. Assim, um entendimento perfeito do desenvolvimento histórico e do futuro das sociedades humanas se torna problemático quando se deixa de considerar o substrato ecológico e material da existência humana. Esse entendimento é limitado pelo antropocentrismo sociológico. Parece certo que, no futuro, haverá prolongados debates sobre articulação ou isolamento “adequados” entre a Sociologia e a Biologia.

Também na década de 1990, a Sociologia Ambiental ganhou mais contribuições com os estudos do sociólogo, antropólogo e filósofo da ciência, o francês Bruno Latour. Em seu ensaio monográfico Jamais fomos modernos, ele afirma que essa divisão sociedade-natureza seria, na verdade, uma invenção ocidental. Seria um traço característico da modernidade a criação de Constituições que definem e separam o que é humano do não humano, “legalizando” assim essa separação. No entanto, defende ele que na realidade essa separação não existe, porque o homem está em constante mudança em função do meio em que vive, assim como a natureza está em constante mudança em função das vontades humanas. Em outras palavras, o social está submetido ao natural e vice-versa.

RAMOS, V. R. Os caminhos da Sociologia Ambiental.Sociologia.ed.

72. 2017. p. 45-46.[Adaptado]