Monday, February 23, 2015
Fixing the American Dream
The first of the two articles, written by Bob Herbert, consists of him complaining about America's politicians wasting money on a war, while we have continuous budget cuts for our public school systems. The second of the two articles, written by Cal Thomas, disagrees with Mr. Herbert, his articles tells us the war that America is in is inevitable and must be fought. Then he goes on to tell us the problem with Americans trying to reach the American Dream is that we rely on a dysfunctional government way too much. The third article would not pull up for me when I clicked on it so I can't summarize that one. However, between the two other articles the best ideas mentioned were, first being from Cal Thomas's article, people rely on the government way too much to try and reach the American Dream. The next best idea was in Cal Thomas's article as well and that was that people need to save, and invest their money while they're working so that they don't have to tax others as much; Social Security. The third best idea between these two articles was also in Cals article when he says that parents need to work hard on their marriage as a good example for their children to not give up on their future marriages.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I would first like to summarize your argument: Firstly, you begin by attacking Herbert’s argument. After the first sentence, you back up and reiterate Thomas’ article. You then proceed to create a list of great ideas from Thomas’ article. I disagree with your proposed solution to the American Dream. I disagree with your position because just from a purely writing standpoint, you seem biased in your position. The only sentence that discusses Herbert’s just says that all he does is ‘complain.’ I may have been more inclined to agree with you had you have adequately compared and contrasted the arguments from both sides. However, you only agreed with what Thomas said. From a contextual standpoint, I disagree with your assertion that the American Dream is still attainable through saving money and having good marriages. The problem with the poor not being able to rise out of their slump and reach prosperity is not that they have the inability to save money, but rather that the job market is so scarce and competitive that they can’t even accumulate enough money to survive, let alone save their income. As Herbert points out, what we need is a stable job economy so that those who do want to work have the means and resources needed to live out the American Dream. I agree with Thomas’ position that individualism and self-reliance is a good thing (I think that is what the American Dream is all about). But those who do have these values and wish to implement them do not the means to reach their personal end. The problem is not individualism: it’s bad politics.
ReplyDelete