Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Reestablishing the American Dream


In Bob Herbert’s “Hiding From Reality”, he argues that our lack of motivation to fix what we are becoming is hurting some of our most vulnerable people. Herbert claims that we are fighting wars that we cannot afford, and in turn cutting spending on many of the things that our society actually needs to grow and thrive, such as public schooling (education). In Cal Thomas’ “Is the American Dream Over?” he takes a different view point arguing that we as a society cannot rely on our government, but instead should rely on ourselves. Thomas urges Americans to focus on the backbone of the American Dream, such as educating ourselves, having good-hearted characteristics, believing in the idea of family, and more. He claims that self-reliance will help us each achieve the American Dream. While I mostly would agree with Thomas, considering we each do have to put our best foot forward to achieve what we want in life for ourselves, I still believe that we must rely on our government to a certain extent and fight to get what we want, and deserve from those that are supposed to be protecting our rights. While Thomas argues that we have to become educated and receive at least an undergraduate degree, that is not always possible due to our government’s budget cuts for good teachers, and proper education. I believe a combination of these two ideas would ultimately work best for us to wake up and see what we are becoming, and help us work together to get what we want, so that we can each achieve our own version of the American Dream.

4 comments:

  1. After reading the two ideas readings, Ashley argues that neither just one of the ideas readings have the right solution for solving America's poverty problems. She debates the aspects of both readings that would help fight poverty. She stands with Thomas that Americans must strive to better educate and create more opportunity for ourselves, but also agrees with Herbert's argument of changing the government policy to reduce the effects on the weak and vulnerable and changing where the government focuses the budget on. I agree with Ashley. It is not just one bad choice that is ruining the "American Dream". It is an accumulation of bad choices made by the government and Americans. By either changing policies that do away with health benefits, pulling out of a war that is costing too much to fund, raising taxes, or sparking the ambition of Americans to achieve greater things, we can bring back the well-known "American Dream" . By taking ideas from both readings we can come up with a way to change many aspects that are negatively affecting the life of Americans.

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  2. There are numerous blogs, articles, reports, and conversations that all have a common goal in mind: bringing the United States back to its description of the "land of opportunity." What most of these individuals who give commentary and offer their own ideas on how to revive the "American Dream," don't include is all of the aspects of society that must be fixed in order to get back to this. Ashley states that she believes neither or the two authors are completely correct in their ideas to fix America. I agree due to the fact that neither looks deeply into the whole problem. Herbert fixates largely on education, and Thomas includes a greater value aspect, of morals and character. These two individually have good points, yet to begin a renewal of the American people to get back to the American Dream, it is imperative that we take both of these aspects along with others to create a true solution. Other things which must be taken into consideration which are lightly touched on are taxes, job employment, family rearing, but there are others such as environmental protection, capitalism problems, the issues with the welfare system, and government subsidies. Though I find the greatest problem with the lack of motivation to begin a march back toward the American Dream is the lack of desire in the American populous to change America. There is a lot of talk and discussion which appeases people, because they think they did their part in choosing a politician that will do the work for them, but in reality they themselves haven't made any steps in the right direction. What it would take would be individuals putting morality and character first, budgeting spending, getting jobs and maintaining them, education, government reform, and actively pursuing decline in excessive materialism/consumerism, and general care about the direction our country is headed.

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  3. After evaluating the two passages, Ashley concluded that a combination of both authors’ ideas would be most effective to achieve the American Dream. Although she strongly agrees with Thomas's stance on self-reliance and ambition, she notes the Herbert's argument on how the government is negatively impacting individuals ability to attain the American Dream. I also agree with Ashley. I see validity in both author's arguments but if implemented alone, their solutions would be ineffective and the American Dream would remain unfeasible. Because the government is actively involved in all parts of life, hard work, ambition, and perseverance can only achieve so much without the support of the government. Overall there needs to be improvement in morale and support of the government on domestic issues. In many cases, the two are directly affected by the other, such as education. Although one may work hard and do well in school, and aspire to achieve higher education they still not be able to reach their American Dream due to lack of district funding and federal aid. Although America is a world power involved in many foreign issues, more tax payer dollars should be invested in improving American citizens. Citizens who are able to become educated and possess ideal qualities such as strong work ethic and resilience will then eventually be able to help the world even more.

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  4. Reading the two ideas readings was interesting because both people brought up really interesting points. But I do agree with Ashley, it is not just one bad decision that is running the "American Dream" it's a series of things and events that lead up to why people think it's being lost in the first place. The government does need to make better decisions regarding the domestic issues and deal with funding so individuals can attain "The American Dream". But both articles have a lot to say about what needs to be improved and done about the economy and government. It's definitely something that needs to be re-evaluated. People also have a lot to do with it, hard work and the effort put into careers also can make a huge difference. All these parts need to come together and I think the articles articulate that very well.

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