Sunday, October 19, 2014
Inequality Extra Credit Assignment
After reading to THIS Washington Post article, please write a 10 sentence response linking the article to the writings of at least one Founding Father (who we've read). There is no specific question that you have to answer for this post, I just want you to respond in some way (for at least 10 sentences). Please use at least one direct quotation in your response and comment on at least one other comment in the comments stream (if you are first in the comments stream, you can skip this step).
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A quote from Thomas Jefferson, "For I agree with you that there is a natural aristocracy among men. The grounds of this are virtue and talents." Jefferson believed that that there is natural aristocracy, or meritocracy, in society. Upon reading the Washington Post Article, his belief appears to be false. There is the same percentage of rich kid dropouts and poor kid achievers who receive the lowest income. This is because rich parents are able to spend more time with their children than poor parents can. The poor families need to work hard to get their children good educations but the rich families will always know that they will be able to. If a child from a poor family is able to get graduate from college, only if they are able to get an amazing job will they succeed. The children from rich families will always have nothing to worry about because they have a backup plan. As the Washington Post article states, "America is a land of opportunity, just for some more than others."
ReplyDeleteI would not say that upon reading this, Jefferson's arguments are false, rather I believe that his quote could not be considered a theory because if has been disproven. I also don't really see the rest of what Jefferson has to do with this article, however I liked the content that you've provided.
DeleteComing from a wealthy family I am bias about this and some of the thoughts against wealth some people have. "If you are born poor its not your mistake, But if you die poor its your mistake” (Bill Gates). This means that even though you are born with less you still can shape you life positively. Because you start with less money there are going to be harder steps you have to take and you will have to work harder than most. In the end it comes down to mind set and passion. If you don’t want it as bad as others you will not succeed and if you do not believe in yourself and work as hard for it you will not succeed. In a speech about success online he says “you can’t kinda want it, you must want it more than you want more than you want to sleep, and more than you want to breath”. It must be your main goal, and you must find what your passion is and pursue it and do not give up no matter what. There are many stereotypes about people with wealth that they are all dumb and that they didn’t work for it. I believe this isn’t true and that people who have created their own wealth have put their children in a good position and are passionate about what they do. Steve Jobs the founder of Apple worked his butt off to make his company work and when people didn’t give him a chance he did not give up. Also, my Aunt being born into wealth decided to start a school even though she did no need to. She and her husband spent years making the school better and more eco friendly and it is now, 12 years later and it is the second greenest school in the nation.
ReplyDeleteGreat Quote from Bill Gates! I had know idea he said that!
DeleteWhat's the name of the school that you mention??
It was the first sentence in the article that caught my eye the most. "America is a land of opportunity, just for some more than others." After reading the book Animal Farm by George Orwell in the 9th grade, there was always one sentence that I remembered quite clearly. "All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others." Although Orwell is not one of our founding fathers, he shows us what unfair and bias advantages can lead to; to a country that does not allow opportunity to those not born into a wealthy family. In the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson states quite clearly in the first sentence in the second paragraph of the infamous The Declaration of Independence, "...all men are created equal, and that they are endowed with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." When we think about the situation between poor and rich kids, we have to wonder if this advantage some kids are getting is respecting the poor kids right to happiness and liberty. Yes, we are all free within our society, but the unfortunate kids in some respect are not free within a community because they are forced to do more work in order to support themselves and their families. No matter how hard they work, they may always be one step behind because of the disadvantages they were born into. We are not all created equal. Some of us are created with smaller amounts of wealth than others. This makes some of us fall behind in our education because "affluent parents talk to their kids three more hours a week more on average than poor parents." This means children born into a rich family hear more words a day than poor kids, meaning eventually, some kids will know more words than others before schooling has even begun. Wealthy parents are also able to afford ways to get their child ahed in their education, and will be able to give their child the family business without having to work for it. This comes into the idea Kenzie first brought up about natural and artificial aristocracy. Thomas Jefferson believed in the idea of a natural aristocracy, where leadership, power, wealth and prestige was all earned, not given to by who your family is and how much power you have inherited. This is also why a monarchy was disliked by the founding fathers. A respectful society should be one where its leaders have earned their position is what Thomas Jefferson is trying to convey.
ReplyDeleteGreat! Really well written. Orwell is a favorite of mine.
DeleteThis article gives me a different perspective on the modern American Dream. It seems as though much has changed from the 1700s when America was a land of opportunity for everybody, mattering not what social class you were in but how hard one worked. Here I quote Ben Franklin saying "Fools make feasts, and wise men eat them" this quote has shaped America for the past 200 years, in retrospect, what it is saying is that these rich men let many things past them as though they don't care, and what these poor men who have worked hard all their life do is seize the opportunity. They create something out of what these rich men just let float by. However I've changed my perspective on that after reading this article. It is sad to see the American dream alter in such a way and I believe what the problem is is that so many people have worked hard for this country in the past that people today believed that they can just relax. Today is the day of Artificial Aristocracy. Yesterday was the day of Natural Aristocracy.
ReplyDeleteNice ending
DeleteFor some part, I agree with you, such as the point of the poor worked hard just to grab a chance while the rich could just have it by up spending some money. However, if the rich who seized the chance but didn't work hard or try to use the chance, the chances could still be floating away to those who had been prepared, such as the poor. It is like people have to be prepared for a chance, not just trying to grab it and after that they will be doing nothing. It is about how to use a chance, not only just trying to get that chance. However, if the poor only had time to gather the money for a chance, things still wouldn't work.
DeleteReading this article really reminded me of the speech Atticus Finch gives in the book, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Harper Lee. "Thomas Jefferson once said that all men are created equal, a phrase that the government is fond of hurling at us. There is a tendency in this year of grace, 1935, for certain people to use that phrase out of context, to satisfy all conditions. We know that all men are not created equal in the sense that some people would have us believe. Some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they are born with it, some men have more money than others, and some people are more gifted than others." It is true that the phrase, "All men are created equal" is overused and out of context many times. As humans, we should get equal natural rights, but part of the definition of equality is that you have equal opportunities and status as well, not just natural rights. We are not given equal opportunity. We are not seen equally in the eyes of others. Inequality starts from the day you are born although it is so much closer to equality than it used to be. The people in the article are complaining that we do not have a meritocracy, but this was never a meritocracy. We have never judged the top class solely on merit and hierarchies will form. They always do, this isnt new information. The best we can do is work hard and try to keep the chasm that separates the rich from the poor from becoming too deep.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, I believe that Thomas Jefferson's beliefs highlighted in the Washington Post article are very true. I agree that happiness is based upon your beliefs and what will make you happy, not just money which seems to based upon success. In the case of if you are born poor and end up poor and money was what you defined your happiness as then it is your fault which I agree with Rowen on that point.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article, I feel like that the article isn't totally true. "America is the land of opportunity, just for some more than others." It is the truth that some people get more chance than others. But that is because they seize they chances and opportunities. Like my dad always says that chances are only for those prepared people. Hence, it doesn't mean that opportunities are for rich people! This is actually a topic that I would always discuss with my dad when I was little. My dad and I used to read a book called "Poor Dad, Rich Dad" together. This book brought a huge influence in China about ten years ago. It talked about that whether kids from rich family could have a better life when they grew up or the poor could. What me and my dad both agreed was that even though money was really important, it couldn't bring you everything. Maybe you could go to a better school and receive better education, but that doesn't mean that you were going to find a better job, receive a bigger salary, or have a better life than those kids who didn't have the opportunities to go to school were. It wouldn't make any difference if you yourself don't learn anything. Some rich people go to really good top schools in the world, and yet they still don't have a good life, or be rich as their parents because they don't learn. They are like wasting time everyday. Like Thomas Jefferson said about aristocracy and meritocracy, I think the society that we are living in today is based on meritocracy. In the world, if someone wants to be the president or rule the country, he has to go through election first. And the election will "kick out" those who cannot survive at the top of a government or the country. This is the society that only the smart people can rule. Thus, I don't think money does anything in this process.
ReplyDelete