Using Small Business Terms, Statutes, and Laws to the Fictitious Story of the Lorax - Term Paper Example

USING APPLICABLE SMALL BUSINESS TERMS, STATUTES, AND LAWS TO THE FICTITIOUS STORY OF THE LORAX Using Applicable Small Business Terms, Statutes, and Laws to the Fictitious Story of the Lorax The story of the Lorax is a famous children’s literature written by Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel), who argued that his inspiration to write the book was as a result of the fret he had as a result of having read a lot of dull things on conversations that had a lot of preaching and statistics. The Lorax became a standard text read especially on Earth Day Ceremonies. It was published in 1971, and was immediately met with a lot of attention. The Lorax raises a lot of important questions, however, it also offers a lot of answers that, despite having good intentions, critics have asserted that they may be misleading, and at times, dangerously so. However, the main truth presented in this story is that no society can witness prosperity by depleting its renewable resources. The story has difficulties, which apparently are two fold; the story contains internal contradictions; its recommendations seem to direct readers attention away from valid alternatives that actually be taken to achieve set goals. The internal contradictions that somewhat drive readers attention away from other valuable alternatives is a s a result of people’s common view, not any form of intensive; a view that need to be changed if there is any hope of avoiding the stories depicted tale. Summary of the Lorax The story begins with a young boy going to the town’s far end to hear the story of the Lorax, at which point he meets an old grumpy man, the Once-ler, who lived in a run-down store, agreed to, if he is paid fifteen cents, relate the story. According to the Once-ler, it all started when the land was clean and wild; when Bears, birds, and fish paled freely. When beautiful trees, the Truffula gracefully grew and bore colorful tufts. The Once-ler drove into this land, once considered as paradise in an horse –drawn carriage and immediately went to cut down a Truffula Tree, which its tufts he carefully knit into a thneed. The Lorax accosted the Once-ler after he had completed the knitting of the first thneed; the Lorax was an old, short, man-thing mossy. The Lorax claimed that it spoke for the environment, the trees; it demanded to know what the Once-ler ha careful knit out of tufts. The thneed sold very well, something that was unfortunate in the perspective of the Lorax. The Once-ler was thus in a sole proprietorship business; a business that quickly grew; soon, his family joined to help with the business-it became a family business. The business quickly became a partnership; however, no formal partnership agreement was signed between the other family members and Once-ler. Despite this though, the United Partnership Act would consider this a legitimate partnership given that there are certain essential elements that imply the partnership business exist. These include the fact that the family members share in losses as well as in profits; they also had an equal right of involvement in the day-to-day management of the business (Miller & Cross, 2013). It was not long before the Once-ler family began building tuft knitting factories, they were cutting down trees at an alarming rate. It developed complicated technical machinery for assembling, cutting, as well as shipping, the thneed that had become very popular. Throughout this success and prosperity, the Lorax brought, time and again, bad news. The Bar-ba-loots (bears) had insufficient Truffula fruits to eat, since there were very few trees left. As such, they were forced to leave. The Once-ler in response, briefly sympathized with the Lorax’s concerns, however, he dismissed those concerns all together, although with some sort of refrain. He asserted that “…business is business and must grow at all costs”. It must be noted that, the business actually did grow. The Once-ler worked to comply with the statues of the state in order to ensure that the business was well defined and had adequate structure; thus, he engineered the establishment of the Once-ler’s Thneeds, Inc. this was to ensure that the liability of each of the partners is limited to the company. The denunciations of the Once-ler by the Lorax were once again pronounced; the Once-ler was not penitent but argued that he knew and had his rights and that he was going to continue cutting down the Truffula Trees and knitting the tufts for sale (Anderson & McChesney, 2013). The Once-ler’s however, were somewhat greedy in their handling of the renewable natural resource that was under their control, something that eventually caught up with them. At last, the last Truffula Tree fell; this meant that the Once-ler could not knit tufts into thneeds for sale; therefore, they were out of business. The Lorax walked away in repugnance to get representation from a lawyer to file a suit against the Once-ler. The suit determined that the Once-ler was in violation of various environmental statutes, and was thus ordered by the court to initiate, from his own profits, a program to replant fresh Truffula trees and take care of them. The Lorax Story ends with the young boy paying attention to the Once-ler’s story. According to the Once-ler, only changed hearts could save and preserve the Truffula trees; unless people cared awfully lot, nothing would get better. The Once-ler give the young boy the last of the Truffula Seed, which if he takes very good care of, then, there is a chance that the Lorax and all other such as the bears, birds, and fish, may all come back. It is worth noting that, the Once-ler was almost giving in to the Lorax’s concerns, but after being notified by his secretary of the doubling of the Thneeds Incorporated stocks, he is embodied by this speech and instead opts to remain defiant. It is clear that the Lorax story does not use or mention the term market anywhere, but it’s certain that it is situated with a supposed private ownership of resources. It seems that the Once-ler has the prerogatives associated with a property rights system(Anderson & McChesney, 2013). He has complete control over the resources so much that he even invites his family to join him in the business, cutting and processing the trees. No attempts to take away the valuable Truffula Trees from the Once-ler, apart from the concerns raised by the Lorax. However, the Lorax does not threaten the Once-ler with a law suit; in fact, the Lorax apparently lacks both the ability and the will to physically resist the Once-ler. Regardless of what the nature of Once-ler’s claims of ownership, there are all the elements of a private property such as exclusive sues, secure ownership, as well as the ability to transfer ownership (Nelson, 2006)-something the Once-ler does by selling the Thneeds. Intentionally or not, Geisel (2012) manages to present The Lorax story as an appraisal of how individuals act when they are guided by just by the market forces and are left to their own devices. It is true that in the story, there is no mention of the market forces. It can be argues that Geisel (2012), also known as Dr. Seuss could not envision the invisible hand, thus, he narrates the story as if it did not occur. This fable, inclusive of this important detail offers useful insights of how markets operate. Important details in the Lorax story include: The Once-ler comes to the land where Truffula Trees, which are the raw materials for the Thneeds, grow and flourish The once-ler begins to build factories, as well as an extensive network that enables the distribution of the Thneeds to the market The Once-ler does not make efforts to replant the trees, leave alone, to keep records of inventory of the remaining Truffula Trees. The Lorax story is interpreted as offering more essential criticism, that greed that is not constrained often results in extensive exhaustion of treasured natural resources. This statement is indeed true, however, the Lorax story fails to recognize that the market forces often constraints greedy, as well as self-interested, behavior. The Lorax story, as narrated by the author, Geisel (2012), is quite implausible. It requires, at a minimum, that the Once-ler is either somewhat insane or very stupid. In fact, the Once-ler must not be concerned with his own financial status-security, if at all; he is in his property as secure as he seems to be. It is common standard for a person to acquire wealth by effectively managing a renewable resource and not by depleting it. For instance, ranchers acquire health by generating their herds; farmers too, acquire wealth by maintaining theirs lands’ fertility. In this regard, the Once-ler must have either been stupid or maniacal. The quest for return, for profits, definitely would lead replenishing and certainly not dissipation (Nasaw & Dailey, 2012). Stupidity alone, however, is not enough to generate the kind of dissipation that the story reports. Even if the Once-ler was too stupid to realize that failing to replenish the Truffula trees stock would result in an imminent end to his enterprise, someone else from the society, at least two groups, would have had incentives or the motivation to respond to this stupidity. There are some who must have realized that their security was threatened by the wanton destruction of the Truffula trees; it would be important for them to persuade the Once-ler hand over the business reins. In normal business situations, if persuasions fails, then a less dramatic or cabal buyout would ensure that control is transferred to someone with the interest of increasing the stock and value of Truffula trees. In fact, for this tale to have dire implications as asserted, the Once-ler must have a monopoly over the Truffula trees (Nelson, 2006). He must be the single owner of the Truffula forest, which must make it impossible for any other person or party to acquire seeds and plant alternative such forests. Thus even if the Once-ler is simply dumb and greedy, the market forces should be able to rescue the Truffula trees from his designs, decisions, and actions. Researches are increasingly aware of the importance of incentives. According to Richard Stroup, a free-market advocate, there is need to reform the Endangered Species Act to ensure that endangered species are our friends and not foes. Private ownership is the number one problem for the Endangered Species Act (Nelson, 2006). Of all the endangered species, especially in the US, are dependent on habitats that are privately owned. In order to avert the problem of loss of diversity, then, the focus should be on developing strategies that effectively work on privately owned land. Both the mainstream environmentalists and free-market advocates argue that the current status results in persistent incentives that produce objectionable results In summary, the Lorax story is a precautionary story that attempts to raise and inform readers of certain important issues. However, it does not successfully characterize and effectively criticize how renewable resources are treated by a free market. Its main theme that as humans we must not act as the Once-ler, is correct. The conclusion of this story is somewhat weak; resource depletion is consistent with the implicit premise of free markets. This is contrary to the principles of free market whose virtues of the free market are focusing on the future (Miller & Cross, 2013). References Anderson, T. L., & McChesney, F. S. (2013). Property Rights: Cooperation, Conflict, and Law. (Terry L. Anderson & F. S. McChesney, Eds.). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Geisel, T. (2012). The Lorax. New Haven, CT: HarperCollins Publishers Limited. Miller, R. L., & Cross, F. B. (2013). The Legal Environment Today Business in Its Ethical, Regulatory, E-Commerce, and Global Setting (7th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Nasaw, D., & Dailey, K. (2012, March). Five interpretations of The Lorax. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17224775 Nelson, B. L. (2006). Law and Ethics in Global Business: How to Integrate Law and Ethics Into Corporate Governance Around the World. New York: Routledge. Read More