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I have no higher education, so feel free to discredit me or educate me, but from my perspective our poor economy are the direct result of socio-economics inequality, and societal attitudes.
When I think of our current economical problems I begin to think of supply and demand. We demand quite a bit from foreign labor, but what are we supplying? From third world countries comes cheap labor, from Japan comes advanced technology, but what do we have that no other country has? It seems to me, we have become too prideful to bend our back and do the actually work. Sure we do paper work, have wonderful entertainment industries, but that money goes to the rich. What about us?
Those who don't have the skills, education, or capabilities of the rich? We lack education, we weren't born with the same talents and in this selective community of pedigree breeding, few can fight their way into the haute monde (high society). We are born into a class in society and most either maintain this class or drop it. Few succeed at the United State dream - isn't it the the whole USA ideal to strive to be better, richer or more powerful? Our Society is entirely too focuses on our own self-interests than the betterment of our country and because of this our country and relationships are suffering.
I have heard that a lot has changed in our society in recent years from my mother, who was forn in 1946. She told me back then men and women worked to put food on the table and give a better education for their children, so they could better their own lives. She was one of those children. I am proud to say my Mom wasn't born with a golden spoon in her mouth. She worked, sweated and fought for everything she has. I have a unique perspective for someone from my generation - I was born in the 1980s. I was shocked to hear my friends refer to their bosses by their names, I always called them Mam or Sir. I have a dorm mate who gets upset when she gets a present she didn't want. I was enraged when I bought a gift for her that I thought she would like, but she said "I wanted you to get it off my list." I didn't even get her list!
Our recent materialistic and self-focused societal attitude is disturbing. I've seen mothers more interested in getting a flat screened television than spending time with their children of furthering their child's interests and education. When we compare ourselves to the haute monde (high society) and forget the things we have and things we can share.
I am not above this, I too suffer from our materialistic generation. I have a thing about collecting television series, but I have come to admire various Asian cultures which put honor and family first. I like to think of our attitude as a disease that we are slowly spreading around the world by example. Why are we called the "Land of Milk and Honey"? We are more like the "Land of bloated egotistical individuals". I can try to understand why we are hated by other cultures - we are authoritative, opinionated, under educated and do not have much tolerance for other cultures. I am not say I agree with many injustices done to others in various culture, but I don't believe I have the right intervene physically. We have freedom of speech and words are very powerful.
I remember this movie I saw called "Beat the Drum", which is focused on poverty and HIV in South Africa, but there was this one part that really struck me. The man offers his friend, a little boy, who is from a small African village, two halves of an apple, one larger than the other. The child takes the smaller piece, "Why didn't you take the bigger piece?" The man asks. "Why would I do that? You're the bigger person, you need the bigger piece." (Don't quote me - Great Movie).
I think this really shows the difference in our societies.
To end my little rant, If you want our economics to improve, we need to look outside our very limited cultural perspective and start working together to provide education...etc. to our entire country. To find what we can supply and what we can do to give light to our future - our children.
