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American culture is highly influential in the globalized modern world, but it is also influenced by ideas and cultural traditions from other parts of ...
Why is American culture important
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What’s Right About America Sydni Schneberger How do you view America? Do you believe we’re the greatest country in the world? Do you believe we’re even in the top ten? Many people in present day America think there are too many “poor people” in the country, or argue that we don’t have as long of a life expectancy as other countries. Do you agree with those statements? Do you believe you’re really free? What many people in this country don’t realize is that America provides an exceptional life for the “common man.” If you are rich, you can live well everywhere. In other countries, the poor are very poor. They are skinny and sometimes don’t survive. But, in America, the “poor” have many amenities. The common “poor” household in America has …show more content…
Have you ever given thought to all the many freedoms you have compared to other countries? In many other countries, marriages are arranged. You would be married to whoever your father chose for you, and that person would be of the same ethnic background that you are. But, here in America, we are free to marry basically whomever we choose. Your wife or husband could be of a totally different race than you and view things very differently than you, and having the ability to learn about their background and them learn about yours is one of the many great things about the freedom of love in this country. Also, in many other countries, you are bound to have the same beliefs as your father. They raise you to believe as they do, and if you do not, they will shun you. Here in America, though, you have the opportunity to develop your own beliefs and your own system of learning and living. You are free to decide what you want to do with your education. If you want to go to college, then most likely you will be able to go to college. In other countries they may even pick your career, but not here. You totally have the opportunity to make your own decision about what you want to do with your life and your career, which is just another great thing about America. In conclusion, America provides a better life for the poor, allows you to live a longer, fuller life, and lets you create your own destiny. If you will believe in yourself, and believe in America, we will always be the greatest country in the
Inter-reliant poverty comes with its own stresses- and certainly isn’t the American ideal- but it’s much closer to our evolutionary heritage than affluence.” (Junger 21)
The article “As American As Apple Pie” is about, poverty and welfare and how they are looked down upon and treated with suspicion or outright antagonism, and how many associate those in poverty with negative stereotypes often seen as deviant such as homeless, lazy, and criminals. Mark R. Rank points out how poverty across the world is a lot more normal than we think it might be. Some people are at greater risk than others, depending on age, race, gender, family structure, community of residence, education, work skills, and physical disabilities. This article provides the readers with data and analysis of American poverty and welfare over the course of the past 25 years. Rank also talks about how we have framed the poverty issue, and how we should frame it.
In The Working Poor: Invisible in America, David K. Shipler describes the lives of United States citizens who live within poverty. He highlights the U.S.’s disregard for its working poor, the nature of poverty, and the causes of poverty faced by low-wage earners. Shipler performs an amazing job of describing the factors that play their parts into the lives of U.S. citizens who live in poverty and are in poverty. Shipler explains the effects of tax payments and refunds, the abuse of the poor by private and public institutions, the spending habits of the working poor, the culture of the U.S., and the presence of money as a factor in the lives of the working poor. In dealing with government bureaucracy or private business, the working poor are vulnerable to the abuse of con-artists, employers, financial service providers, and public service providers.
My topic is God Bless America of Faith Ringgold. She is an African-American artist. She is not only a painter but also a writer, speaker and mixed media sculptor. Faith Ringgold was born on October 8th 1930 in Harlem, New York City and she is still alive. God Bless America is one of the most famous arts of Faith Ringgold that was produce in 1964. In that art, she used the oil on canvas and the dimension is 31x19 in. The subject of Faith Ringgold’s God Bless America is the woman on the background of American flag. There is another reason that make God Bless America became popular at that time. At that time, there was a Civil Right movement because the white prejudice against African American was enforced by the legal system. Therefore the theme
After substantial decreases in the 1990s, poverty rates stopped their decline in 2000 and have actually started to again creep upward. The great conundrum of how one simultaneously alleviates the multiple causes of poverty has become a central obstacle to poverty reduction. Into this debate comes author David Shipler, a former New York Times Pulitzer Prize winner, with an aptly titled look at the state of poverty in America today, The Working Poor. Shipler's book is more anecdotal and descriptive than analytical and prescriptive. Yet it is a valuable portrait of poverty in America, just as Michael Harrington's landmark book, The Other America, was in 1962. While he does not offer many concrete solutions, Shipler provides readers with an intimate glimpse of the plight of the working poor, whose lives are in sharp contrast to the images of excess w...
As stated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, “the test of our progression is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” Many people may agree with this statement considering that the United States is such a wealthy country and in 2012, 46.5 million people were living in poverty in the United States and 15% of all Americans and 21.8% of children under age eighteen were in poverty.The honest truth is that many people do not know the conditions this group of people must live in on a daily basis because of the small number of people who realize the struggle there is not a great amount of service. In the article Too stressed for Success, the author Kevin Clarke asks the question “What is the cost of being poor in America?” and follows the question by explaining the great deals of problems the community of poverty goes through daily by saying, “Researchers have long known that because of a broad reduction in retail and other consumer choices experienced by America's poor, it is often simply more expensive to be poor in the United States.
...e work all year at full time jobs and do not make enough to lift their families out of poverty." (270) America has the resources to change the system to a more equitable one. Karla points out that the United States ."..is the richest economy in the world with the resources to obtain an income distribution of its own choosing." (94) We chose to maintain and perpetuate the system of distribution that we now have.
The American government, who believes in capitalism, is a strong opponent of Communism. Their perception of Communism is negative; and this is often shown through different medias, such as television shows, movies, and literatures. One example is The Ugly American by William J. Lederer and Eugene Burdick. In The Ugly American, Lederer and Burdick portray Communism as a force of evil that is slowly spreading in undeveloped Asian countries like a virus, with many of the citizens of these Asian countries becoming Communists. As well, the authors depict many of their American characters as anti-communists who try different approaches to prevent the spread of it. Though the authors' views on Communism is a reflection of the American government, the question that emerges is whether this portrayal is accurate.
The United States, a place where anyone can “pick themselves up by the bootstraps” and realize the American dream of a comfortable lifestyle. Well, for over 30 million Americans this is no longer possible. Though we live in the richest and most powerful country in the world there are many who are living under or at the precipice of the poverty level, “While the United States has enjoyed unprecedented affluence, low-wage employees have been testing the American doctrine that hard work cures poverty” (The Working Poor, 4). This translates to families of four making around 18,850$ a year. And as soon as they find work or move just slightly above that 18,850$ a year (which is still a meager and deprived way to live) they are cut off from welfare checks and other “benefits”, “they [working poor] lose other supports designed to help them such as food stamps and health insurance, leaving them no better off-and sometimes worse off-than when they were not working” (The Working Poor, 40). The working poor find themselves in a trap of dead-end, minimum wage jobs, and complicated, under funded government programs.
America, often called land of the free, opportunity, but what truly is America has someone actually contemplated it? Well there are certain things that might define America, for example America for some people could be the land of opportunity, There are many reasons why different types of people all across the world might pursue the land of opportunity, America. That one person leaving their home land might be a parent, a parent looking to pursue a better life for their children. A better life than the one they lived. To allow their children to actually follow their dreams and hopes, to be someone in life. Where in America there is truly no limits to what one might become in life, or what one will do with the limitless opportunities.
According to Schwartz-Nobel, America will lose as much as 130 billion in future productive capacity for every year that 14.5 American children continue to live in poverty (Koppelman and Goodhart, 2007). Sadly the seriousness of poverty is still often clouded by myths and misunderstandings by society at large. This essay studies the issue of poverty and classism in today's society.
Throughout Society, many families have seen struggle and lived through poverty. The economy is not always thriving which takes a toll on people who suffer through unemployment or low wage jobs. The Frontline documentary, “Two American Families”, is the perfect example of struggle in the United States. It shows the lives of two struggling families and their efforts to survive. Two essays, “The Sociological Imagination” by C. Wright Mills, and “The Uses of Poverty: The Poor Pay All” by Herbert J. Hans, support the analysis of the video strongly. They express many ideas that relate to the world and struggle throughout society. Also, there are many sociological terms that depict the events that occurred in the documentary.
America has given us all and opportunity to flourish and find our own destiny. We never think about it that way our brains tend to think that we made our future happen by our selves. Although we did play a role in this process we couldn't have done it without a place to reach out, America was our connection to the world. America has provided a place for us to move on and grow. There are so many discoveries and theories each leading us to the future. Without America we would never come to learn about these discoveries when it's your turn to step up you know what your talking
Most everyone in the world knows about America; "Land of the Free and Home of the Brave," a nation of free men and women doing whatever they wish, pretty much a place to make life as you desire it to be. But there is actually much debate on if this nation of liberty & freedom is truly the pinacle of the global nations. Nations are overall rated by four main areas; military strength to both attack threats and defend the nation, healthcare to ensure the wellbeing of the nation 's people, unemployment rate monitoring the ability to make a financial living, and education to see how the nation is in intelligence and technology. More so, America has a concept known as the "American Dream", an idea of what one can do by becoming a citizen of the first
Do the poor in this country have a choice not to be poor? Do the less fortunate have the same access to opportunities as the middle and upper classes? Do government programs designed to help the impoverished actually keep them in the lower ranks? These are all difficult and controversial questions. Conservatives and Liberals constantly battle over these issues in our state and federal governments. Local and national news media provide limited insight to the root causes and effects of the nation’s poor. There is obviously no simple solution to resolve the plight of these often forgotten citizens. Most of us associate poor as being in a class below the poverty line. In fact there are many levels of poverty ranging from those with nothing, to those with enough to survive but too little to move up. I believe many of our nation’s poor are so by their own doing. I will share observations and personal experiences to support the argument that being poor often is a result of individual choice. One needs merely inspiration and perspiration to move up the socio-economic ladder in the United States. We live in the land of opportunity where anyone with the drive and determination to succeed often can.