Shrinking Middle class Essay -- essays papers

Shrinking Middle class The Incredibly Shrinking Middle Class I never thought I would find so much information on the incredibly shrinking middle class until I searched around for it on the Internet. In the United States, the middle class is put into a strange socioeconomic category. Although it is not easily defined everyone believes they belong in that class. I guess what you can do is look at it in two different ways. First ask the question â€Å"What percent of all income is distributed to the middle class at any time,† then think about â€Å"How many families obtain enough income to achieve a middle class standard of living at any point of time.† Basically these are two ways of approaching the middle class called either the percentile approach or the class share approach. What comes into my mind when thinking on how to categorize those people that belong in the middle class, I look at such things as education, race, family, income, gender and how many people are in your household. I look at it as those people who are making between $40,000 and about $85,000 to be in the middle class while the next step would be the upper middle class and then to the upper class. Maybe I am wrong here, but like I said before, everyone wants to have that â€Å"I am middle class† attitude. The most recent Census Bureau survey data shows that the share of households with incomes of $75,000 or more has doubled in the past 24 years. Other studies, however, discover that more people who depart the middle class move down than up, at least temporarily. The most often cited cause of the decline of the middle class in the United States is stagnant wages. Between 1955 and 1970, real wages adjusted and inflation rose by an average of 2.5 percent per year. Between 1971 and 1994, the average growth of real wages was 0.3 percent a year. The stagnation of wages has been especially noticeable to middle-class people, who rely very much on the money they make at their jobs. Recessions seem to hit higher income households much harder, which sends them down to the middle class. Middle-income households may or may not be more likely than higher-income households to qualify for unemployment compensation when jobs are scarce. But those who do are more likely than high-income households to receive benefits that replace a greater share of their regular wages, which helps them maintai... ...ocess. Data generated by the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Federal Reserve and other nonpartisan sources oppose claims commonly made. For example, data from such agencies show that differences in family income largely reflect differences in how many members of a family actually work and how hard they work. Americans in all income groups have prospered, or have failed to prosper, together. Gains by upper-income Americans have not come at the expense of middle or lower-income Americans. Nor has anyone else gained in those periods when higher-income families have lost ground. The best era in recent history for middle-income and lower-income American families was the Reagan era, which lasted from 1982 to 1989. During that period, middle-class families saw their real incomes grow by an average of 12.6 percent, while lower income families saw an average increase in real earnings of 12.9 percent. The wealth inequality debate should focus on what public policies will aid the accumulation of wealth by more, not fewer, American families. The first step American’s need to make toward transforming our consumer culture is to understand it better.

Capital Punishment Is Murder :: essays research papers fc

All throughout the media, one hears of murders and homicides. It is a crime to kill someone, but the government "murders" people all the time without thinking twice. There is a risk when pulling the trigger that this horrible fate will happen. If it is not right to kill someone, why does the government kill people all the time? In The Bible, there is a statement that says "Thou shalt not kill," and yet the government believes it can punish for what it already does. It is a crime within a crime and the government should "Practice what they preach." This has been going on for so long that most nations have created a numbness to death. One may believe he is a law abiding citizen and follows the law to every word. This same innocent idividual could very well be put to death by the gas chamber. People are framed for crimes every day and noone notices. Naturally, people in court or in prison will go on and on about their innocence when they know well that they did it. This causes the innocent people's claims of innocence to be discarded. One may then spend half of his life in prison or be put to death. No normal people ever take the time to think that they may be next. If the death sentence was discarded, a few lives could be saved. Technology is advancing everyday and with DNA samples and other high-tech equipment, people could be proven innocent. Most people believe that the "bad guy" kills illegally and the "good guy", or the gas chamber, kills legally. Children in some neighborhoods are exposed to death and murder everyday. They think nothing of it after a while. The children grow up into gun-bearing citizens with the idea that killing the "bad guy" makes him the "good guy". This is often known as "taking the law into his own hands." So, if the government can kill legally, why can't a teenager take revenge for the death of his father?

How the Food We Eat Reflects our Culture and Identity Essay

Ntozake Shange in her essay, What Is It We Really Harvestin’ Here? had taught her readers a very important lesson that is very vital in understanding one’s culture and one’s family. It is the simple truth that food is more than food. It was clearly communicated in Ntozake Shange’s essay that food is not just an arbitrary or random thing that arises from one’s culture or family. Rather, the local food of one’s culture and family is a reflection of his or her environment and his way of living. The food that we eat is a mirror to what the nature provided to us outside of our houses. At the same time, food is also the mirror of our own creativity and taste. Whether we prefer sweetness over spiciness, such preferences appear and manifest on how we prepare and how we cook our foods. Summing it up, food is a very important element that we must take a look (and taste) to have a good grasp or understanding of one’s culture or one’s family. The essay What Is It We Really Harvestin’ Here? can be regarded as a very important and significant piece of literature in proving the significance of food in understanding ones’ culture. In the essay of Shange, she told the story of numerous local delicacies that will convince us to the point that we are establishing. Take for example the Shange’s example of sweet potatoes. In the essay, she made a very good way of instructing his readers on how to grow quality sweet potatoes. Growing sweet potatoes require much dedication, patience and knowledge. As seen in Shange’s instruction on how to grow a sweet potato, it was seen clearly how one must work hard to be able to produce a good quality potato. In fact, as stated in the essay, â€Å"[one must ]Get your soil ready at least two weeks before planting. . . (Shange 111)† The entire procedure is difficult. As stated again, â€Å"The easiest thing to do with a sweet potato is to bake it† (112). These lines clearly showed that growing sweet potatoes is a tough job. This difficult method of growing such crops mirrors the characters of the people or group of people who happened to eat those crops. As growing a potato requires dedication and patience, we can also argue that the people that grow this crops are dedicated and patient. This is our first way of proving the point that we established above – that food is viable factor to see in understanding one’s culture or one’s family. Another notable proof of the relationship of food and culture is the case of the Carolina Rice. As discussed in Shange’s essay, rice, more particularly the Carolina rice reached a great demand in the 1700s. Because of this, the slaves who came from West Africa are priced better than their other counter parts. This is because of a more complex knowledge and skill that is required in growing rice. The slaves who grew from rice countries are priced better. As stated in the essay, â€Å"Plantation owners were perfectly aware of the superiority of African slaves from rice country† (114). Despite the complexity of growing rice, its cooking is much simpler than its cultivation. Again, this can be related to the simplicity of the lives of the people who adapt this kind of food. Rather than undergoing some complex process of cooking, rice are just simply boiled in water (116). Once again, this showed how rice that is very complicated to grow yet very simple to cook mirror its African cultivators who have a rich culture and tradition, yet living a simple life. The way we cook our own food tells a lot on our preferences and fondness. In the essay, it was written in the later part of it that North Americans does not prefer burnt rice at the bottom of the casserole. In fact, they find it scary. However for the people other people, rice, at least the bottom of it are preferred to be burnt. This burning made possible the cooking of very dry rice (116). In my opinion, these burnt rice preferences of the colored people remind them the colored of their skins. Sidestepping a bit from the literature to my own experience, being Hispanic also mirrored on my food tastes. My taste for a good food is determined by my background as someone who has a Hispanic descent. Coming from this particular background, I prefer foods that possess a great deal of flavor and variety. As common to all Hispanics, we prefer rice meals, chilies, spices and tomatoes. This in respect to our cultivation of these crops and fruits in the earlier times and of course to our rich cultural and historical past. Shange had successfully proved to us the important relationship of food and our cultural and familial identity. As we said in the beginning of this essay, food is not a random and arbitrary thing that just popped in our households. Rather, food is product of our experiences, our appeals, our desires that were smoothened by time. What we grow is who we are. What we buy is who we are. What we eat is who we are. Food is truly a mirror to our cultures and most importantly, a reflection of our humanity. Works Cited Shange, Ntozake. What Is It We Really Harvestin’ Here. p. 109-117

The 2050 Year

Heading for 2050 We've all had at least once in life thought that we wonder how the future will look like? How will we be over 40 years? How will our planet look like? Or just how it will be tomorrow? These are questions which, in my opinion, we grind every day. Futurologists prepare us for what seems to be 2050, saying it would be totally different in all fields, from entertainment to technology, what we find at the moment on our planet. First, classic TV channels through completely disappear, their place being taken by Internet, which we will have access all around the house (mirrors, tables, pictures, all with touch screen). The future seems a little too SF for the prezent that we live, but if we think about where they got all the science right now and where it is going, we can use in the future, things which are not imaginable today. The future of humanity will be a very human liking, because in future we will not have to do all the hard work, for which today we work more than 40 hours per week, but this will be done by robots. We will have robots that will clean, make food, will plant flowers, but also those intelligent robots will take over the role of great engineers, so that construction can be achieved more easily, accurately and much smaller errors and less. They will take a large part of our daily tasks, and we will have much more free time for fun, relaxation, travel and many other interesting things. Of course all this will be different from what exists today. We can travel in space, to go on a vacation on a exotic planet , or simply a cruise we will go into space to see the beauty of the galaxies, as we go by boat in the Caribbean today. Perhaps in those days we can even travel in time to go see a play that it is authored by Shakespeare himself when his own songs debut on a theater in the UK, or maybe we want to take part in the most important events in human history. Future technology will give us the chance to reduce the number of accidents and congestion on major arteries that form in the city. We will travel with vehicles powered using renewable energy that will help us to rise from the ground and use highways and roads on different levels (in height), to leave the ground as a destination for edestrians only, without having to ruin the beauty of nature, and many ecosystems with the construction of highways that connect major cities . Also classic trains that we know will be replaced with other transportation vehicles, which can reach a speed huge for our days, reaching their destination faster and traveling long distances. Spacecraft will serve today's aircraft, and connects the major cities what are located on d ifferent planets. Teleportation will certainly play a role as important in travel to various destinations as other means of transport, teleport different objects, or even people, of course, being the fastest means of transport, will be the most expensive. Pollution problem will be a thing of the past, or at least of atmospheric air pollution because radiation from radioactive waste will only disappear in a few thousand years, as is the case of Chernobyl. Greenland ice caps will melt not at a fast pace, maybe even boots from the pole mass will return to normal and we will not worry about increasing sea levels. The problem of global warming was solved, hurricane risk decreases, the climate will return to normal, and fear of other natural disasters will be the past. Contact with extraterrestrial civilizations will bring a touch of humanity, because we realize that we are not alone in the universe and that will need to take into account the opinions of others. But the biggest advantage is that we can assimilate the technology they have available and we learn things we could not discover themselves, can even combine our technologies with the hope that we will discover the answers to questions we grind for centuries. Medicine, one of the most important science that directly concerns each of us, will be among the most advanced of the existing fields. We will get the best equipment in a view to improving our recovery, medical technology will be very advanced , as organ transplants between people will not gonna happen, so will be replaced diseased organs with mechanical organs which take the place of human. All these things will lead to a decrease of mortality. Due to the increasing number of people on Earth we will have some of us to leave this planet and begin to colonize different planets similar to Earth. The discovery of planets like our Earth will open the horizons to worlds unknown to us, will help us spread the race and to make ourselves known in the universe. We prepare for the future seems to be exactly what we need, but until we get there we still have 40 years of hard work, during which time we hope that all things work perfectly. Our evolution is to develop technologies that we present can zoom in or out of answers that we do not have but one living and dreams of 2050.

Consensus Decision Making Essay Essay

A decision is a determination of a question or doubt by making a judgment. Decisions are a part of everyday life for normal human beings and can be as insignificant as to where to eat lunch, or as important as whether to pop the marriage question to a longtime girlfriend. Decisions can be made in a variety of ways, but most of the time they are either made individually or in a group setting. Both individual decision making and group decision making have their pros and cons, and can even determine the type of individual a person is. Decision making is not always an easy process, but is a part of life. There are major differences between group decision making and individual decision making. When individuals are in a group, decision making could not only involve one person’s opinion, but everyone’s opinion which could become vital to the final outcome. This could sometimes make it easier for a final decision to be reached, or maybe make it even harder to reach a final decision. Arguments and disagreements can occur in group decision making based on other people’s opinions. Sometimes people try to persuade other individuals to change their decision to the one they want, by giving them their own opinions and making them seem like facts. Group decision making can also be positive because there is more brain power involved which can ultimately lead to a quick and more efficient type of decision making. The other type of decision making is individual decision making. This type of decision is basically based solely on one opinion and one opinion only, which ultimately gets the individual what they want. The individual decision making also comes from one point of view and only from the knowledge from the individual. This could lead to a misunderstanding on how to decide because the individual was presented the information to process and had a hard time understanding on which way to decide. The individual’s knowledge on the topic they are deciding on may be little to none, and could lead to a poor decision. Either way, individual decision making and group decision making both have their major differences, positives, and negatives. All of the activities in class and the film â€Å"12 Angry Men,† give us individuals some perspective into decision making and also show us the explicit pros and cons. One very interesting and fun assignment we had to  do was the NASA assignment were as individuals we were given 15 choices of important items and had to rank them based on what we thought was important. Then we were put into groups and had to decide which ones were most important barring our opinions. Many people had conflicting views on what was important and what was not, and some had not realized how important an item was until they were in a group. It was extremely interesting to see how all of the group members came to decisions on this although conflict had occurred. Another group activity that we did in class was the time capsule activity. This was another strongly opinion based activity but because there were other people in the group there were many items being tossed around. There wasn’t a set list of items to choose from like the NASA activity, so there were unlimited amount of choices and some choices were surprising. Some important items were many of the times overlooked by the people in the group because their opinion came into play, which was just like the NASA activity. There were many disagreements while working in a group setting because some people may have different priorities. The movie â€Å"12 Angry Men† showed us more positives and negatives of individual and group decision making. In the beginning of the movie all but one juror votes individually decide that the man was guilty without any deliberation of the evidence. After discussing each piece of evidence the jury slows takes a turn towards not guilty. Although some were stubborn, the fact that all of the jurors talked out their opinions and had a reasonable doubt had some of the change their decision to not guilty. After much deliberation and conflict, the jury was unanimously deciding that the accused was not guilty after all. This was after almost all of the jurors had decided guilty, which meant that the group decision making was much more successful than the individual decision making. The right decision was made in the end because of the talking and opinions that were thrown around which ultimately had the jurors changing their initial decisions. This movie again showed us the positives and negatives when it comes to decision making. Many believe that group decision making is a much more efficient way of deciding outcomes which is why it is so often used in the United States Government. Examples like the House of Representatives and Congress show how many people deliberate about new decisions. Many new laws are discussed  by these groups of people and then eventually passed to the president. This just exemplifies how people opinions and votes do matter to the government. Of course the judicial branch is the branch the uses group decision making a lot. Jury’s make decisions on crimes by deliberating and talking about evidence and whether there is a reasonable doubt. They reach a verdict together and all have to agree on the same thing. The executive branch also uses group decision making. The president just doesn’t make decisions based on his opinions, he usually consults many people about new changes that he wants to make. The president is only one brain, and if he gets more opinions from other brains he can ultimately decide on whether or not this is going to benefit society as a whole. Individual decision making and group decision making have major differences. Both of them have their positives and negatives which are a part of everyday life, and are prevalent in the government.

How Age,Gender and Self-Perception Affect Self-Handicapping Essay

How Age,Gender and Self-Perception Affect Self-Handicapping - Essay Example The matter has caused so much attention from psychologists because of its perceived importance in helping create better responses from students and employees alike. Therefore, there have been much studies conducted to further understand the implications of self-handicapping in schools. In addition, more studies are being employed to consider more variables such as culture, setting and other factors. As more researches have been conducted, proven and accepted regarding the matter on the factors such as age, gender and self-perception, this paper will deal particularly on the aforementioned three components affecting self-handicaps in addition to the definition of the term. This paper will show how age affects self-handicapping. In addition, it will also show that women have been found to be more resilient and therefore able to escape self-handicapping more than men. Lastly, the paper will also look deeper into how self-perception affects the tendency of self-handicapping. First and fo remost, it is the aim of this paper to expound on what self-handicap is all about. According to McCrea and Flamm (2011), self-handicapping is â€Å"an anticipatory self-protective strategy in which individuals create or claim obstacles to success prior to an important performance to excuse potential failure†. ... Understandably, individuals tend to take pride in themselves regardless of their abilities and capabilities so that they would want to be appreciated most of the time especially when they perform well. Nevertheless, failure is inevitable even to the best of the best. However, there is such a circumstance that most people resort to in order to escape the embarrassment of failure and it is called self-handicapping. Leondari and Gonida (2007) summarize the definition of term saying, â€Å"it involves creating obstacles to successful performance on tasks that the individual considers important†. Such obstacles are influenced by factors such as age, gender and self-perception. Just like in many circumstances, age makes a difference in how people react. In the case of self-handicapping, it has been found out that younger children are less inclined to self-handicap compared to older children. According to a study performed on a population of 702 students in Greece, there is no signif icant difference in self-handicapping among the elementary and high school students involved in the experiment. Initially, the researchers assumed that high school students will use self-handicapping strategies more than elementary students because the â€Å"high school environment is more competitive and places more emphasis on performance demands† (Leondari & Gonida, 2007). Nevertheless, their study proved the supposition wrong. What the researchers have found though was that, task goals significantly affected the result of self-handicapping strategies. This means that task goals are more of a motivation to one’s accomplishment in relation to age rather than age alone as a factor influencing self-handicapping. From the

The Impact of Neocolonialism on the Social, Economic and Political Essay

The Impact of Neocolonialism on the Social, Economic and Political Life of Nigeria - Essay Example It can be derived from the report and the previous research conducted on the topic that British colonial rule in Nigeria from the second half of the nineteenth century to the early 1950s is associated with intense violence by the colonisers, with â€Å"the use of force to damage people and objects; the use of force to maintain control; and the use of humiliating words to generate violence reactions†. â€Å"Nigeria was a creation of British colonialism† states Wright, to fulfill British self-interest and political calculations. The country came into being only at the end of the nineteenth century, with British imperial policy drawing together different groups of people and ecological zones over the duration of several decades to form the country. In the first half of the twentieth century, imperial arrogance formulated and implemented policies promoting British rather than African advantage. These policies developed the social and political identities of the colony, and produced long-term problems which Nigeria struggled with after 1960 when the country gained independence from colonialism. Neocolonialism, the last stage of imperialism is defined as â€Å"control of the economic and development destiny by a former colonial area such as Africa by outside powers after independence†. Neocolonialism is illustrated by the British giving independence to Nigeria with one hand, while taking it away with the other. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to distinguish between Colonialism and Neocolonialism in Nigeria, and to assess the impact of neocolonialism on the social, economic and political life of the country. The Difference Between Colonialism and Neocolonialism in Nigeria Colonialism formed the root cause for political crisis by replacing pre-colonial political systems that worked for Africans with alien models. Ethnic conflicts that now destablise the continent were created by changing the geographical outlines in the map of Africa , bringing diverse people together without taking into consideration established borders. â€Å"The new nation states were artificial and many were too small to be viable† (Obadina 2000, p.1). Not even one-thirds of the countries in Africa have populations larger than 10 million, with Nigeria being a significant exception. African societies were divided into separate groups on the basis of western multi-party democracy imposed by colonial powers. The introduction of party politics by colonial administration fuelled the blaze of ethnic conflicts in Nigeria. The imposition of alien rule makes colonialism a dictatorial regime that did not allow people their right of self determination. Colonialism â€Å"brought death, pain and humiliation to millions of its victims† (Obadina 2000, p.2). Colonialism as a civilizing mission is only a myth, because Europe’s economic and political selfinterest drove the system. However, some useful acts carried out by colonial powers f or fulfilling their economic and administrative needs were the buidling of infrastructure such as railway for carrying export commodities, and undertaking the education of a few Africans to assist them in running the colonies. At the same time, beneficial contributions were not made by colonialism to any part of Africa. Significantly, economically stronger countries like Nigeria and Ghana were depleted of their infrastructure, leaving only a few railway lines, rudimentary communication and commuting systems and limited numbers of graduates. Although colonialism did not help Africa’s poor, the elites flourished as a result of the creation of opportunities by the linking of the continent to the western world. The emergence of neocolonialism with the end of British colonialism