Laurence Shames The More Factor Summary

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In “The More Factor,” Laurence Shames describes Texan ghost towns as he relates them to the American dream. They are built as an illusion and out of greed, in order to establish something and then abandoned, so temporary. People only cared about making the money, and as optimists, were always looking for new opportunities to cash in. In my opinion, this has always been what America has been about. The freedom we are given prompts unparalleled greed that steadily increases with each coming year. The freedom, though, comes with the opportunity to rise from financial shambles. Even though money was easily blown on desolate land, it could easily be remade when precious metals were found on the land. There was always a new gold rush or oil rush. There still is today, just in more modern forms. For example, all these principles reinvent themselves today in growing industries like marijuana or technology. These are also examples of the “reckless liberty” that Frederick Jackson Turner spoke of. Americans seem to abandon morality in the name of greed, doing whatever is necessary to make a quick buck. Americans also have no limit to what they think they can achieve. Some expectations can be quite unrealistic, but in a land that allows …show more content…

With no limits, people always want more. Quality begins to take the backseat to quantity, and that is why today we are bombarded with fast food and fast fashion. It bred materialism into society and now people care too much about things rather than people. In this article, I noticed nothing about the brotherhood that comes with freedom, only the material goods and the greed. When the glories of the frontier age were starting to be forgotten, Americans started to worry if their country was still truly the best. There were so many new things to worry about, and the economy was one of them. It no longer was a friend but a foe as people began to earn less compared to inflation and the cost of

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