Argument Analysis: The American Standard

The American Standard “The word 'equality ' shows up too much in our founding documents for anyone to pretend it 's not the American way.” – Martha Plimpton. Americans may live in poverty as a child but the American way gives us hope that those who work hard can achieve whatever they want out of life. If you can believe it, you can achieve it. It is important to note in the capitalist system of America you can be as poor or as rich as you want because the countries industry and trade opportunities are privately owned and not controlled by the government. So if you want to become rich you can’t just sit around and wait you have to go out and get it. Americans should be overjoyed because they are living in the country of opportunity. …show more content…
One argument made against America being the country of opportunity is that many feel stuck in the same situation as they were raised in. That growing up in a poor family makes it much harder to get out and become a business owner and succeed at a higher level. When you are born into a poor family you realize from an early age that going to a highly ranked university to study seems unlikely due to the astronomical price of tuition nowadays. So instead you don’t feel the need to work hard in school because there is no chance you are going to be able to afford college. You end up working in the same field as your parents, typically an hourly job that will get you by, but sure doesn’t meet the “American Dream” standards. It is even harder to start a business from the get go because businesses need a little bit of a push to begin with. As the old saying goes you got to spend money to make money. But if your family doesn’t have money, and you can’t qualify for a loan what must you do to reach the level of success you …show more content…
Once you get in to college, work even harder so you can learn as much as possible about business or whatever industry you are interested in, so one day you can be atop that industry. It takes a lot of hard work, but it also builds character to know you worked hard to get to where you are at and it makes everything worth while. Thanks to government action there are grants and scholarships for people who are coming out of high school without the ability to afford highly touted institutions; as long as it is evident they worked hard in school, got good grades, etc. Also they will give out more money knowing that your parents didn’t go to college and don’t have a lot of money. There are many paths you can take to get to where you want in life but I think America truly does give us opportunities we could not find in any other place around the world. There is almost this spirit of hard work that continues in this country. It seems like it is fading today because of policies being put in place to almost offset the need to work hard. The expansion of welfare and Medicare does not promote people to go out and work hard, it promotes laziness as people feel why push myself to be better when the government will just provide for me. We don’t want to rely on handouts, that gets this country nowhere, we need to keep a tradition