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Political Corruption in the United States essay
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Greed is one of the main factors in today's society regarding everyday life choices and how we have treated others in the past. There are many possible causes pertaining to why Americans are so greedy and why we have chosen to make the decision we have as Americans in the past. Greed leads to crooked politicians and crooked cops that cover the front page of the newspaper most days of the week. Analyzing the decisions of those people who have made what we call bad decisions in a powerful position can allow us to better understand others greed. The possible reasons for greed that will be discussed in this paper are Americans desire to be successful in personal aspect, corporate and in the past. Success is one of the most sought after life goals …show more content…
This combined with other factors to continually keep the middle class where it is and the rich keep getting richer because they know what power and money taste like and they have no desire to give that up or stop earning as much. In 1492 Christopher Columbus claimed to have found the Americas and showed greed long before the technology or material objects that we currently own were even thought of. Columbus intention on this voyage was to find gold and other precious goods to take back for a profit. Once the land was seen to be better than they thought it could be he was going to take it no matter the costs. Indians were run out of the area they inhabited as well as taken captive and carried back with Columbus where most died to due inhumane treatment. Lastly, African Americans were taken into slavery and I can only explain the reasoning as greediness by Americans. Slave owners were driven by the free labor they were able to have to earn a profit more easily in their farming. Greed combined with racism led to deadly and torturous treatment of African Americans. Money was not only made on the labor provided by African Americans but also by the selling and trading of slaves across the United
Winthrop D. Jordan author of White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro 1550-1812, expresses two main arguments in explaining why Slavery became an institution. He also focuses attention on the initial discovery of Africans by English. How theories on why Africans had darker complexions and on the peculiarly savage behavior they exhibited. Through out the first two chapters Jordan supports his opinions, with both facts and assumptions. Jordan goes to great length in explaining how the English and early colonialist over centuries stripped the humanity from a people in order to enslave them and justify their actions in doing so. His focus is heavily on attitudes and how those positions worked to create the slave society established in this country.
Slavery was an issue in early America that plagued the African Americans who were forced into the position. It was believed, in the beginning, that the African Americans were happy to be enslaved, that it was their natural place. Many of the slaves that were taken from Africa couldn’t be more distraught with being sold into slavery but overtime as the older generation that had memories of freedom were replaced by the generation that only knew servitude. This generation was socialized into their position of enslavement, a lack of self-worth, and no access to education gave the illusion of happiness. Luckily around this time white Americans, mostly Northern, saw how wrong these inequalities were and began demanding the abolition of slavery. This
The entire concept of Manifest Destiny was created by the New York journalist John. L. O’ Sullivan. It meant that America’s fate was to possess or expand across the entire North America; it was undeniable and just waiting to happen. This is the point where many people started traveling west. It is true that America did acquire much land from expanding, but at what cost did we obtain it? I believe that America did not have the proper incentives while fulfilling its “destiny” and its voracious citizens and leaders took advantage of Native Americans.
The slaves and slave owners in the Americas resulted in the concept of white supremacy, consequently causing vast social divisions among the wealthy Caucasians and poor Africans. These seemingly trivial actions to obtain affluence led America into the national issues that still patronize the United States to this day. Furthermore, “The plight and problems of workers today , black and white, may be directly traceable to African slavery in the United States” (Diggs 157). Even though, slavery was legalized during the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, they were eventually slavery becomes a major rationale of the Civil War. Although, through this conflict and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, blacks in the United States allowed us to free the slaves they did not gain human rights until after the Civil Rights Act, thirteenth amendment, and the Voting Rights Act in the 1960s were established. The social repercussions of bringing slavery in the United States via Triangular Trade needs to remain heavily embedded in our history courses in order to prevent recurrences of social oppression for future
Some explorers were not looking for land to claim, but faster routes. Columbus went exploring trying to find a faster way to Asia/India for spice trading. The reason for this was because his country was receiving Asian Spices from Muslims(Document 3). In order to get the spices from the Muslims, high prices had to be paid since it was exchanged from person to person. Columbus went sailing and found an area that had inhabitants who looked like people he has never seen before which he assumed were Indians. Columbus saw they had foods he never had before and he started trading with them. He brought over foods such as the Irish Potato, Florida Oranges, Colombian Coffee, and French Vanilla Ice cream, for trading purposes(Document 6). All of those
Slavery is the idea and practice that one person is inferior to another. What made the institution of slavery in America significantly different from previous institutions was that “slavery developed as an institution based upon race.” Slavery based upon race is what made slavery an issue within the United States, in fact, it was a race issue. In addition, “to know whether certain men possessed natural rights one had only to inquire whether they were human beings.” Slaves were not even viewed as human beings; instead, they were dehumanized and were viewed as property or animals. During this era of slavery in the New World, many African slaves would prefer to die than live a life of forced servitude to the white man. Moreover, the problem of slavery was that an African born in the United States never knew what freedom was. According to Winthrop D. Jordan, “the concept of Negro slavery there was neither borrowed from foreigners, nor extracted from books, nor invented out of whole cloth, nor extrapolated from servitude, nor generated by English reaction to Negroes as such, nor necessitated by the exigencies of the New World. Not any one of these made the Negro a slave, but all.” American colonists fought a long and bloody war for independence that both white men and black men fought together, but it only seemed to serve the white man’s independence to continue their complete dominance over the African slave. The white man must carry a heavy
I want to start with the history of slavery in America. For most African Americans, the journey America began with African ancestors that were kidnapped and forced into slavery. In America, this event was first recorded in 1619. The first documented African slaves that were brought to America were through Jamestown, Virginia. This is historically considered as the Colonial America. In Colonial America, African slaves were held as indentured servants. At this time, the African slaves were released from slavery after a certain number of years of being held in captivity. This period lasted until 1776, when history records the beginning of the Middle Passage. The Middle Passage showed the increased of African slaves were bought into America. The increase demand for slaves was because of the increased production of cotton in the south. So, plantation owners demanded more African slaves for purchas...
America’s upper class has been getting richer since the past three decades, and we have still not found a way to stop this. We have been unable to find a way to distribute America’s wealth equally, so we can have a decent lower class and a good middle class. Inequality has caused many people to struggle in various ways, but their is alway another side to the story.
African Americans were the ideal slave. Europe used Native Americans for slaves at first. They were heathens, uncivilized, and not christian. Europeans saw them as threats and a good source for cheap labor, so they made them their slave. They were not well fit for slaves though. Natives had many problems and hardly any benefits. First Natives were not immune to many of the diseases down south and many of them died because of this. Native men also didn’t know how to farm because all of it was done by the females. Lastly they know the land so if they were to escape they could find their way and survive. The only plus was they were already in America and they didn’t need to be shipped overseas. Indentures were the next to do all the labor in America. Indentures are poor Europeans that wanted to become wealthy in America. But again they were not suited for the work. They had way more negatives to them then they did positives. Americans then tried African Americans and they were perfect for the labor. The only negative to them was the cost, but still the cost was very low. Other than that, Africans were resistant to tropical diseases, they had the knowledge to farm, and their
First, after emancipation, federal laws revived slavery into new form. After slaves were freed during post- civil war, the whites especially those in the south faced problems in running their plantations; since there was no free labor force from slaves, and also some whites who had never owned slaves saw the African Americans as undesirable competition. I think the laws enforcements eventually became the method through which slavery of blacks take its new form. Under these new laws, a lot of African Americans were arrested with no reason and were given harsh fines and later they were charged with the costs of own arrests. This is because majority of the Africans were poor and good number of them who were arrested could not afford to pay fines. With no means to pay fines most of the prisoners accumulated debts as a result they were sold a forced labor to industries and farm
The African Americans were tired of being slaves, and they wanted their rights back. They won the Civil War and earned their rights, but they were still discriminated against. For example, due to Jim Crow laws, they did not get the same quality transportation that the white people did. Even today, African Americans are being discriminated against by law enforcement and other people who believe that they are plebeians.
Greed is the selfish desire to have more of something and taking any possible measures to obtain it. To this day, greed still exist in ourselves as citizens of the United States and therefore, in our government as well. It’s undeniable that we all contain at least a bit of greed within us; after all, greed is what keeps us motivated to work harder and help the world progress. But there are also some downsides to letting greed take control. Like the huge inequality gap America has between the rich and the poor. Not saying we should completely vanish greed from the United States(because it’s essential to progress in the country), but we should learn how to keep greed from taking over American society, because that will essentially break society
“He who wants everything every time will lose everything at any time” (Vikrant Parsai). Think about that person who always goes out and buys those expensive shoes. They get everything that they want until it comes time to pay the bills. They don’t have the money because they spent all of it on their shoes. They end up losing everything that they had to pay the bills all because they wanted the most expensive pair of shoes or they just needed that extra pair. One of the definitions of greed is someone who is never content with what they have. They always need more or the newer version. Being content doesn’t apply to that person. Greed can get to the best of people. Most of the time it is indeed for the worst, but there are a few cases where
Greed is so powerful in a person that it has the ability to destroy them, their friends, and family relationships. I have lived in the poorest country my first nine years, so when I was adopted, my mom gave me everything I ever wanted, everything I ever needed. However, using myself as an example, I was so mesmerized of the materialistic things that were available, that I stole. I took something that was not mine because I felt greedy. I felt like I needed that object for whatever reason. My mom tore my butt when I got home and I never thought of steeling because of my own selfish need of wanting. Not to mention how greed made me afraid. It made me afraid because I knew what I did was wrong. People are constantly being bombarded with images of things that we believe will make us happy and the selfish thoughts of greed makes us wanting more. For example, the iPhone 6 Plus came out September of 2015, now there is iPhone 7 which has new camera zoom, ear pods, and better quality. However, the week before it was released, everyone talked about wanting it because it’s the new “cool” thing. However, what people fail to understand is that the reason they want
Greed Greed is a selfish desire for more than one needs or deserves. Greed can make honest men murderers. It has made countries with rich valuable resources into the poorest countries in the world. We are taught it is bad and not to practice it. But consider a world without greed, where everyone is as sharing as Mother Theresa was. The progress of humankind would be at a standstill. Greed has given our society faster travel, better service, more convenience, and most importantly, progress. Greed has created thousands of billionaires and millions of millionaires. But why is greed associated with evil? In their day, most capitalists like Cornelius Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller were depicted as pure evil. Vanderbilt stole from the poor. Rockefeller was a snake. But the name-calling did not come from the consumers; it was the competing businesses that complained. The newspapers expanded on these comments, calling them "robber barons." These are inaccurate terms for these businessmen. They were not barons because they all started penniless and they were not robbers because they did not take it from anyone else. Vanderbilt got rich by making travel and shipping faster, cheaper, and more luxurious. He built bigger, faster, and more efficient ships. He served food on his ships, which the customers liked and he lowered his costs. He lowered the New York to Hartford fare from $8 to $1. Rockefeller made his fortunes selling oil. He also lowered his costs, making fuel affordable for the working-class people. The working-class people, who use to go to bed after sunset, could now afford fuel for their lanterns. The people, who worked an average 10-12 hours a day, could now have a private and social life. The consumers were happy, the workers were happy, and they were happy. Bill Gates, CEO of Microsoft Corporation is another example of a greedy person. He is the richest man in the world with about $40 billion and he continues to pursue more wealth. Just because he has $40 billion does not mean the rest of the world lost $40 billion, he created more wealth for the rest of the world. His software created new ways of saving time and money and created thousands of new jobs. Bill Gates got rich by persuading people to buy his product. His motive may have been greed, but to achieve that, he had to give us what we wanted.