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Mohamed Awale
Economics of Social Change
Final Paper
The United States is in a state crisis, we live in a nation with harsh economic inequalities. These inequalities are not natural, but rather a structural system to keep those who are wealthy, richer and those who are doing well enough, poorer. The ones causing this, quoting Hedrick Smith writer of “Who Stole the American Dream?”, he states “In Arnold Toynbee’s analysis of the rise and fall of human civilizations, we Americans fall among those, like ancient Greece and Rome, whose most dangerous challenge comes from within-from the rifts and schisms that we have allowed to develop within our economy and our body politic in the decades since the peak of our power and prosperity from the
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However, now Smith argues we have gone a major change, where corporations are now greedier. He argues that our government has all, but abandoned the average American, in order to aid the corporations. The cause of this dis-connect came from an uprising in the business sector. This uprising called for more representation of private interest, in government decision making. Now, Smith argues that our nation’s crisis is caused by over reaching power of private interest. Roberts, a conservative, places his blame fundamentally on our nation’s “new economy”. Which he accuses as being empty world economics. On this he states “In an empty world, man-made capital is scarce and nature’s capital is plentiful. In an empty world, the fish catch is limited by the number of fishing boats, not by the remaining fish population, and petroleum energy is limited by drilling capability, not by geological deposits. Empty-world economics focuses on the sustainability of man-made capital, not on natural capital. Natural capital is treated as a free good. Using it up is not treated as a cost but as an increase in output.” (Roberts 46). On this principle, he talks about globalization and how U.S corporations are moving form nation to nation using up resources and cheap labour. By seeking manufacturing jobs over seas, corporations …show more content…
Our political system doesn’t represent the average American anymore and must be changed. Smith writes“Average Americans have become disenchanted and politically disengaged and, as a consequence, disenfranchised.” (Smith 411) And why shouldn’t they, the middle class is being ignored. As Smith notes here “When Larry Bartels of Princeton University analyzed a host of congressional votes in the 1980s and 1990s, he found that senators were “Vastly more responsive to affluent constituents” than to middle class and poorer voters.” (Smith 412) The rich get their voice heard while the poorer folks are ignored. To fix this injustice, Smith as two major points. First, he suggest we try as hard as we can to reduce the influence of money in politics. Second, he suggests that the primary system must be open to third parties. The two party system, held by the primary system, doesn’t represent the people. Its a congress of stalling and waiting. Smith notes the ugly use of filibusters by congress to stale bills that would help our economy. The most common offender is the Republican party, Smith writes “They put ideological purity ahead of winning short-run victories. Their technique has been to sharpen partisan divisions by exploiting wedge issues that play upon white middle-class religious voters, such as abortion,school prayer, and ERA (women’s rights), and by taking extreme positions and then wagon uncompromising battles on “anti”issues - anti-tax, anti-union, anti-gay anti-Washington
America was once known as the land of opportunity. However, that is no longer the case. Americans are still suffering from a depression that began three years ago in 2008. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2007, the United States unemployment rates were 4.6 percent. In 2009, one year after the depression began, the unemployment rate rose to 7.6 percent. Millions of Americans are living in poverty, unable to afford the basic necessities. On the other hand, there is a minuscule percent of the population that are billionaires. Written in 2005, Holly Sklar’s essay “The Growing Gulf Between the Rich and the Rest of Us” argues that if something isn’t done about the growing inequality between the rich and the poor, the American economy as a whole will weaken. A year later, the Economist published the article, “Inequality and the American Dream” implies that the American dream is broken. Sklar’s argument sheds light on the Economist’s argument. In particular, Sklar’s use of facts regarding the wealthiest Americans, the poorest Americans, and the discussion of the impact of inequality on society provide insight into the Economist’s article.
Lofgren, Mike. The Party Is Over: How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted. New York: Viking, 2012. Print
“In a meaningful democracy, the people’s voice must be clear and loud – clear so that policy makers understand citizen concerns and loud so that they have an incentive to pay attention. (Verba)” There is no doubt there exists a severe inequality in the participation of the American political process. Kay Lehman Schlozman, Sidney Verba and Henry Brady, a trio of university professors, set out to explain that it is not about how many people participate in our democratic process, it is about who is taking part. In the article: “The Big Tilt: Participatory Inequality in America,” published in the liberal non-profit magazine The American Prospect, the authors conclude that political participation is not equal amongst the social and economical classes in America. Verba, Schlozman and Brady begin building credibility by referencing their own book while also citing
In the book “They Say I Say”, Brandon King writes an essay bringing multiple perspectives on what Americans golden way of living is. The “American dream” is what most American citizens all strive for. Early settlers came in to try to achieve “the dream”. Those who already lived in America choose to stay because of its grand possibilities. The United States of America is the only place in the world where you have the rights to freedom of speech. What is the American dream? It used to be said that you could come to America and go from rags to riches; you could come with nothing and achieve everything you ever wanted. Take a second and think. We all ponder upon, is the so called “American dream” dead or alive? This has been a steamy topic
A platform of “A Vote For Every American” should pass the lips of every elected official until this problem is rectified. Americans must work together to solve this problem, allowing a new and better system to give way to a fair and just system of electing the next United States’ President. Bibliography Beck, Paul Allen, and Hershey, Marjorie Randon. Party Politics in America? 9th Ed. -.
The core of this problem is the low standard for minimum wage. Due to resistance put forth by businesses, the government has only enforced wages that produce lifestyles well below the line of poverty. This standard is leaving 9 million Americans living far under 18,850 a year! “Currently, full-time, full-year work at the federal minimum wage of 5.15$ and hour yields an annual income of 10,300$. If the minimum wage had kept pace with inflation since the late 1960s, as it had done in the previous two decades, its current level would be more than 7.50$ and hour, or 15,000$ a year” (The American Pros...
What seems to go unnoticed by many Americans is the evident and growing wealth gap. According to Pew Research Center, the current U.S. income is at its highest since 1928. This large dispersion of wealth can be attributed by the “fall [of the] routine producers” (Reich). Where jobs that were once attainable during the 70s are declining due to advancing technology and corporations finding workers in poor countries who are willing to work at half the cost of the routine producers. What also drives this wealth gap is the power of corporations in an age of extravagant consumerism. Through media, the demand to buy what we want is unavoidable. Corporations are able to gain revenue while people go unemployed because of America’s vast opportunities to buy what we want when we want it.
I am responding to Micheal Schudson’s essay titled “America’s Ignorant Voter”. He makes several arguments against whether America having relatively ignorant voters poses a problem to our society, and whether it’s becoming worse over the years. One of the arguments he poses as to why Americans seem so clueless about political matters is due to the complexities of our nation’s political institutions.
Americans have become so engrossed with the rhetoric of political parties that many are unable have real discussions about “freedom, fairness, equality, opportunity, security, accountability.” (Lakoff p.177) The election of 1828 gave birth to the “professional politician” it demonstrated how “ambivalence” on issues, how image and the right language or narrative can influence voters. Partisanship did increase competition and empower voters to a greater degree, but it has also divided Americans and obstructed communication. As one historian declared the “old hickory” killed the ideal of nonpartisan leadership. (Parsons p.184) For better or for worse American politics were forever be changed in 1828.
The American dream is an ideal that most people are often left wanting. To be able to essentially rise from nothing and grow to be financially stable and live life in excess after a great deal of hard work. In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the American dream is represented in different ways by the characters, though most of the plot centers around Willy’s failed aspirations for the American dream. Miller shows that the American Dream may not actually be reachable by everybody or that it may not even be a relevant dream for everybody in America.
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.
People will journey far and wide, traverse the entire continent, suffer all manner of pain and suffering, if they believe that, in the end, they will be rewarded. That is why it comes as no surprise when people from other countries struggle to get to America, believing the ancient tale of "the American Dream", convinced that they will finally make it big in this land of riches. But they find out it is not like that.
The American Dream is referred to by many people as the reason to come to America. It is, or so they say, the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness. Unfortunately they are incorrect, there truly is no American Dream, it is all an illusion given to us by our founding fathers as a reason for the inequality in which people are treated. I have lived in this country for 16 years now and have all the patriotic bullshit about how we give everyone equal opportunity and how everyone is equal in the eyes of the law. I just laugh when I read this. Throughout our country’s 300-year history, it is all about raising one person over the other. It started with the movement of the Native Americans. They were here before anyone else, and they were moved because they did not live with all the violence our ancestors did. The founding fathers continued to push them further and further away because it was beneficial to them at the time. They said if you stay here we will not bother you anymore, then when they decided that area was nice and they needed it for the white man. Then we began to take the black man out of Africa and use them on our plantations so the white man could get more money. The President ended slavery, but there were ways around it and everyone knew it. No one ever said any persecution of the black man is wrong for years and why not, because it was more convenient for us to ignore it. Now the people from Latin American countries have come in homes of freedom, and better lives. We tell them they have to speak English, since they are in America, but I do not recall being taught the language of the Native Americans. Since they were here first should you not have to learn that language?
A problem America is experiencing is the economic growth, it is a problem because the wealth growth is only affecting the rich. It is as simple as this, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Robert Reich points this out in his text, Why the Rich Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer. This has been a problem recurring since the industrial revolution, because of the labor groups being stuck in that position. Also, the mergers, and lawyers cycle around their money through lawsuits, and takeovers.
America is at an important time in its history where its economic future is looking catastrophic and the worst of any time in its history, excluding the great depression. The wealth gap in America is one of the worst in the world, our middle class is shrinking, and over 70% of corporations that make billions pay zero federal income taxes. While the leaders at Capitol Hill are trying to come up with ideas to prevent this from continuing; the answer is right in front of them, reorganize and fix the free trade agreements in place. Free Trade is wrong for America and is the reason for outsourcing and the decline of our once great manufacturing sector