When the topic of the American Way of Life is brought up into conversations many debate as to what the American Way of Life is. While interviewing some of my family members on the topic my dad’s response was “freedom to be and do what you want, nothing against the law”. This meaning that there are boundaries as to what freedom really is. Going against the law can cost you your freedom.
To get more ideas as to what the American Way of Life is outside of my life I interviewed people who lived or worked around School of the Future. I interviewed a middle class man of a Hispanic background and asked him the same question, what is the American way of life? He began to say freedom as many others but changed his answer to “taking care of my son and paying the bills, being the rock of the family”. He worries and does what is needed for the family to get them the necessities they need in life.
I also interviewed a man who works at the deli near school and is an immigrant. He said "I love this country, i came here have a better life." Many immigrants come to America because there are many opportunities here. A lot of immigrants come to live what they call "the dream" but to people who were born here don't see America as that. I spoke with an American who was born and raised here and he said the America way of life was to get an education, make money, and be successful. Different people have different views of what the typical American way of life is and that what makes each and everyone of us unique.
The American Way of Life doesn't just end there. Things such as capitalism and what this country is founded on also play a part. There are many aspects in which capitalism can be defined. One definition that capitalism can be is the economic system in which goods and services are produced, distributed, and consumed, through the mechanism of free market based on private property and profit motive. The three major components of capitalism are land, labor and capital. Land is the natural world in which the product is made. Labor is the work that was put into making and selling that product and lastly capital is the resources that are used to re-shape or enhance the product so that it can be at its final form. Furthermore into capitalism supply, demand and profit play a role in having a business. Supply is the total amount of resources and or products for sale at all prices. Sometimes their can be scarcity which is the limit of resources.
There are many labels in which capitalism is made up of but one of the most is the profit motive. Many businesses will try and get the best price from you for the product. Many will team up and join forces which is called "price fixings". This is when business join together to try and better their profits instead of competing. For example, as a class some pretended to sell lemonade and some people were the customers and the object was to find the best price you can get the lemonade for. Eventually at the end two merchants joined together and fixed the price. In conclusion, capitalism is an economic system in which products are produced, distributed and consumed through profit motive and a free market. Land, labor and capital are one of the many elements that help make up capitalism.
One of the many things that still holds true is the constitution. The constitution is basically a guidelines for the country. It starts with the preamble and goes into the legislative branch,executive branch and the judicial branch. Legislative Branch consist of the congress and the senate and house of representatives. There is a certain criteria such as having the ability to change election every two years, senate proposes all the bills and has control of taxes. The executive branch qualifications are to make sure all the laws are being inforced, president has say in which laws can be created and the president has to be American born. Lastly as for the Judaical branch it consists of the supreme court, deals with problems involving different states and over looks the laws. Part of the American way of life is that everything have some kind of order so everything is not chaotic and the Constitution does just that.
There are many things Americans take part in such as preparing for Thanksgiving dinner and shopping for black Friday. Despite the position this country is in and everything you hear about saving money people still went shopping for holiday sales. During class, we started talking what thanksgiving means to us, how the tradition is to say what your "grateful" for and some responses family members say when asked that question. It was hard to hear some of the things that were said in class because the way everything was put was like if it was all crap. Some people take life for granted but not everyone. What was said during class sounded as if everyone does because we started talking about the Pilgrims and the Indians. When the topic was brought up i have to be honest and say i didn't remember all the key factors on what happened. Talking about it refreshed my mind and kind of gave me a whole new idea of thanksgiving. I thought about the whole concept of celebrating thanksgiving when many people died. Now in my family we celebrate it and say what we are thankful for but never has the conversation about what happened in the past has been brought up. I can say that I didn't have the guts to bring it up because I thought that it would create a big ruckus and I didn't want to play a part in it. So you can say I chickened out. But as the family gathered all I could think about was what if it happened to us? I left it alone and enjoyed the meal that had been prepared for the family. Looking back on my thanksgiving this year i wish i would have brought up the topic about the Pilgrims and the Indians. Since i didn't bring it up this time i wont know until next thanksgiving and who knows if i will bring it up then. The discussion about the meaning of thanksgiving and the history behind it has changed the way i see somethings in my everyday life. I feel like now i want to know more about different holidays and the history behind it to make it more meaningful.
But not only did i not bring up the Indians and the pilgrims but I didn't want to bring up the concept of black Friday. My family is known to buy as much as they can in so little time on that day. But this year was different. In past years my parents would wait in line for hours just to get deals that are supposed to be "unbelievable" and slowly year after year they began to say it got out of hand. But that didn't stop them. This year they didn't go to the stores but rather shopped online as if they were in the store. Still playing a role in black Friday chaos, even though they didn't go out. Honestly my family and I are victim's of black Friday and what society calls it to be the biggest "money maker" of the season. But this year because of all the economic issues everyone thought that sales would decrease on that day. But in Wal-mart many customers who waited online for hours rushed in the store "knocking the door of the hinges" stomped all over a temporary worker and killed him. But still that didn't stop shoppers. People were upset that Wal-mart was going to close for a few hours because of that incident. It is amazing how people have no sense to even think about what happen but rather moved on to what was "more important" such as getting the deals. Reading this article was very surprising to read what these people were saying when the incident happened. I feel as if Americans in this situation didn't have any common sense at all because it seemed as if everyone was for themselves and didn't even give thought to a man that just died because people trampled over him.
Lastly, the American way of life can be defined in many ways. Some people think different things of the typical American way of life as well. This is a new year and a fresh start. This year in 2009 Barack Obama became the 44th president and made history being the first black president in the United States. This year I had the honor to be able to watch and understand both the election and the inauguration.
Since this was my first time witnessing a president being swore in, everything was new to me. To many people this was a historical day because people never thought that we would live to see a black president. I connected this back to an old song I knew called "Changes" by Tupac and one of the verses says is " but are we ready to see a black president". This shows that even years back people never believed that this would come true. To everyone it was amazing to know and be apart of history by voting for Barack Obama. Even though there were many people who could not vote many played apart in the voting process by registering people to vote. For my first time ever seeing this I was really interested in what Obama had to say and what we can expect in the years to come. Being in Andy's class has taught me a lot because there is material I have learned, that opened my eyes to be able to see it in the real world. There were many things that were mentioned in the speech that we spoke about in class such as what will happen to education and health care. Personally, I care about what will happen to education and what is going to be done with health care because everyone needs health care. I feel as if even though we are in a recession there are many things that Obama is trying to fix such as wages. Since Obama has been sworn in as the new 44th president, he has put a freeze on salaries for making more than $100,000. I feel like this is just the beginning of what is going to happen. I would like to see a change in America because as the years go by everything has been going downhill. Unemployment has sky rocketed, health care has become so expensive that many people can not afford to get the care they need. I am excited that I was able to experience and understand everything that was going on from the election to the inauguration. I am excited as well as fearful of what is to come because I feel as if we as Americans have set our expectations really high for Obama. What will happen if everything we thought would change didn't? But for right now all we need to do is wait because everything is not going to happen in the blink of an eye. Change takes time.
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