Wealth Matters: Loss of Black Land Ownership "Finders Keepers, Loser 's Weepers." --Unknown Introduction Finders keepers, losers weepers is a childhood adage that means whatever a person finds can be kept and whatever a person loses cannot be reclaimed. There is no principle of law that supports an individual is entitled to keep whatever is found while the original owner bears the loss.…
The phrase they were born with a golden or silver spoon has become the statement of rationalization when it comes to the rich. Haven’t you ever wished that you were born into a different family? Maybe a richer one? Well in the movie Park Avenue: Money, Power and the American Dream the people living in the South Bronx know exactly what I’m referring to, especially since some of them live 10 minutes away from Park Avenue Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The South Bronx is known to be one of the poorest congressional districts in the United States and is notorious for the high poverty and unemployment rate in the city, contrary to Park Avenue which is known as the richest city (Gibney, 2012).…
Luxuries are defined as an inessential, desirable item that is expensive or difficult to obtain. However, different authors may use the term to have another meaning to correlate with their own stories. Barbara Ehrenreich, a journalist and activist for improving public access to health care, wrote a story describing how she gave up her luxuries and lived as someone only making minimum wages. Her story, “Serving in Florida,” is a narrative of her experiences as a waitress living off of tips. Ehrenreich is lucky in that she is able to give up her luxuries and have then returned when she finishes her experiment, unlike those less fortunate.…
. From the “Lifestyles in the Golden Land” section the essay I enjoyed and found quite interesting was Where the Kissing Never Stops. This essay involves the life story of Joan Baez and her development of the Institute for the Study of Nonviolence. Describing her life experiences, it showcases many situations in which is she is not entirely sure what exactly to do. Being a folk musician, Baez traveled all around the country and got to perform to thousands of people in which it was “The easiest kind of relationship” but the hardest being “with one.”…
Andrew Carnegie was a Scottish-born American industrialist who gained great wealth in the steel industry before turning into a major philanthropist. His family moved to America to seek better economic opportunities. He started out working in a cotton factory as a boy and then rose up the latter of command through time. By his early thirties he was already well off and realized he wanted change. In 1901 he sold his company to J.P. Morgan for $480 million dollars and devoted himself to philanthropy.…
Wealth has been perceived as the ultimate goal of the American dream. Americans have let the standard of wealth get in the way of more important things in life. Wealth can consume your thoughts of the definition of true love and life itself. The focus of wealth can cloud your mind to block the reality that is right in front of you. The focus of wealth can also keep you living in a façade that only ends in confusion.…
Competition is a driving force of nature, promoting growth and forcing us to be more creative. The concept of competition is a powerful idea that is crucial to everyday life. The economy and businesses are shaped by competitive and uncompetitive practices, driven by educational hierarchies, competition for Wall Street careers, and businesses for market shares and profits. In “Project Classroom Makeover,” “Biographies of Hegemony,” and “Rent Seeking and the Making of an Unequal Society,” written by Cathy Davidson, Karen Ho, and Joseph Stiglitz, respectively, all authors discuss the ideology that both competitive and uncompetitive behaviors shape the individuals of modern America. In America today, individuals seek to develop their skills to…
Media has taken a tremendous toll on the American class system and continues to influence the means of consumerism and status association. Diana Kendall’s essay, “Framing Class, Vicarious Living, and Conspicuous Consumption” explores the topic of class status and the effect culture and media have had. The issue pertaining to media’s influence on socioeconomic status lies beneath the negativity that is correlated with classes—particularly, lower class—and the rise of over-consumption that has resulted from an envy of those higher. Kendall thoroughly explains the situation of consumerism and celebrity influence by referring to television shows and materialistic items, in addition to the reality of false projection on those who live in low-income…
Candide: Class and Wealth In his novel Candide, Voltaire uses satire to show the folly of wealth and class status. One of the major themes of the novel is how those with wealth and higher social class corrupt and gain power over others. The classes, the poor and the wealthy, are often in conflict with each other, and wealth is often fleeting—gone as fast as it was obtained. Candide, the naïve protagonist of the story, encounters many examples of injustice throughout his journey of love and enlightenment.…
In the roaring twenties, materialism and wealth were the keys to happiness. F. Scott Fitzgerald depicts this in his novel The Great Gatsby. The characters used their materialism and wealth to build their perfect utopia, for dominance, comfort, and love. With the help of geography, Fitzgerald analyzes and explores the horrid truth of American wealth and materialism through Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchanan, Daisy Buchanan, and Jay Gatsby. Myrtle Wilson lives in the Valley of Ashes “where ashes grow like wheat into ridges and hills and grotesque gardens […] with a transcendent effort, of men who move dimly and already crumbling through the powdery air” (23).…
The movie In Sickness and in Wealth, gives an eye opening realization to the effect of our health based on our socioeconomic status. It appears to create a domino effect, the lower income you have the greater risk you have for health problems and a shortened life span. The health care system in the United States has many flaws. The United States spends two trillion a year on health care, almost half in the world, yet has one of the lowest life expectancy rates. Today, the top one percent of Americans owns more wealth than the bottom 90% combined (Staff, 2008).…
Life, liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness were once considered the core values of the American Dream. These values upheld the idea that anyone from any background could become someone; that they would be able to live freely and leave behind a legacy that would be carried on from generations to come. In the 50’s, the American Dream prospered with the goal that every family would be able to own a home, be debt free, and be able to raise a family. However, with the rise of consumerism in the past six decades, this American Dream has been harder for middle America to reach. The American Dream has slowly become just that; a dream only the few and affluent can achieve.…
Many people say jealousy is the big green monster, but when it comes to green, the monster of greed is the biggest of them all. Wealth is universal; everyone has some kind of wealth, whether it be of the soul or of power and money, but how people handle it is what determines how other people view them. In Charles Dickens’s novel, Great Expectations, he deals with many social issues, some of which include wealth, money, and greed. Some people may say that because Pip’s expectations are to procure money and wealth, Dickens puts a premium on how wealth and money affect people’s life positively, but in Great Expectations, it is quite the contrary. Dickens argues that wealth and money corrupt people, but bestowing it upon others is a sign of integrity,…
Contentment is great gain, for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. Those who pursue wealth fall into temptation, harmful desires, ruin and destruction; for the love of money is the root of all evil (The New American Bible). This excerpt from the bible still holds true today. Some people in their effort to become wealthy will do anything to achieve wealth. The society today still equals wealth with power.…
Kolcaba’s Theory of Comfort Katy Hess Lewis-Clark State College Kolcaba’s Theory of Comfort Nursing theories have been an integral part of developing the standards and principles that are used in today’s nursing. Nursing theories are a foundation where policies and protocols are taken and applied in hospitals. Standards of care are made from various nursing theories.…