Thomas Paine states that America is where, “the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged”, which means he believes that the poor are not too poor and the rich are not too rich. However, America has drastically changed when it comes to the rich and poor. According to the Foundation of Economic Education, cities all over America are oppressing the poor and homeless. Some examples include cities actually making homelessness illegal causing people to be thrown into jail just because they cannot afford housing. The lack of funding for shelters causes overcrowdings and potentially dangerous altercations. While people might say the poor are not oppressed, for homeless and poor people it is extremely hard to get a job, pay the bills, feed the family, and get an education (Johnson). America is clearly oppressing the poor and homeless by not addressing the situation or doing anything to solve it. The more laws states and cities input, more strain is placed upon the poor. This causes them to be trapped and ultimately oppressed. To say that the rich are not privileged is not quite true today. While the poor live in overcrowded shelters, the rich live in huge houses and drive luxury cars. They can make decisions about their communities even though they are not remotely affected by those …show more content…
Thomas Paine writes that American, “government is just; and as there is nothing to render them wretched,” meaning he believes that the government is fair and nothing can cause the government, or America as a whole, to become debilitated and confined. Two major things though cause America to be unjust and wretched: racism and greed. Racism has been evident throughout history from slavery to segregation; even right now it is evident by the riots and killings of innocent people of color. The implanted notion that all African Americans or Latinos or Muslims are harmful is very sickly and this is one of the reasons why America is unjustly. Especially since America has so many different races mixed together, by categorizing a race of people shows how unjustly America is. The government is also very greed driven too. Before, people, “‘will be worthy of a free, enlightened . . . great nation, to give to mankind the magnanimous and too novel example of a people always guided by an exalted justice and benevolence.’ —George Washington” (Kozy), this means that everyone should be just and accepting, but now, “America’s power brokers seem to believe that governments determine the goals of their peoples. Only such a belief can explain this nation’s maniacal attempts at regime change… [to] change the desires and attitudes of its