Media #10

http://www.brookings.edu/articles/1999/spring_useconomics_sawhill.aspx
This article discusses whether or not America is still the land of opportunity. It talks about how income is less evenly distributed than it was 20-30 years ago. The author states “So the perceived fairness of the process is critical, and the rules governing who wins and who loses matter as much as the outcomes they produce”. This is a very good point. It is necessary that the rules are equal for everyone or we wouldn’t be the land of opportunity. If we made the rules different for each group then not everyone would have the same chance. Say that one group is only allowed to get the highest status of manager of a store, but another could be the president. It wouldn’t be equal or fair to have different expectations of one group over another. The land of opportunity needs to have equal opportunities for everyone who wants to come here.
An article that relates to the above article is by Loewen. The author states “stressing how middle-class we all are is particularly problematic today, because the proportion of households earning between 75 percent and 125 percent of the median income has fallen steadily since 1967” (203). Both authors agree that the income is falling. It may not be a good thing that the income distribution is dropping because that means more people are getting more money while other people are losing money. If we are the land of opportunity we should be a place where people can come to do what they want and make money. It may not be exactly what people want to do when they first come here, but there is work involved when someone wants to do something they want. The land of opportunity does not mean that people can sit around and do nothing. People have to work for what they want and it may not always be easy work. As a country, we have tried to provide jobs to many, many people, but may not have always succeeded because things do come up that create a problem, such as September 11th.
I think that we as a country have tried to allow jobs to many people. As much as I wish it could happen that we wouldn’t have to work for our money and could lie around, it most likely never will happen like that. It is hard work, usually, to get where you want to go and it’s important to keep trying and to never give up.