American Economy
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America is faced with the very real tension seen in the analysis by Blumberg of the struggle between the disintegrative forces of stagnation and the integrative forces of expansion in the economy, with the question being, which way will we move in the future? Americans generally agree that their past was one of growth and expansion, and indeed there is also general agreement that the people expected this to continue as their birthright. As the Japanese made inroads beginning in the 1960s and continuing to this day, to a time when they seem to be expanding much more rapidly than do we, the people have had to face a new era of uncertainty, one marked by declining incomes, a reduction in jobs as businesses downsize, and an economic climate that seems to favor foreign labor and foreign capital. What is the American response to this likely to be?Blumberg discusses the views of the convergence theorists, views which seem to have infected the American spirit with an optimism which has not proven to be as accurate as was thought. Convergence theorists had a number of reasons for believing that the class structure in America was converging toward a level, that education was raising the lower classes to a position on a par with the upper classes, and generally to believe that the system was producing the level playing field on which everyone would be able to enjoy prosperity just as the American Dream had always predicted. However, this was not the case at all, and indeed the
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t does no more to alleviate the situation than does carping about the success of Japan. However, it may become an answer for too many people.
Slater (1990) sees cultures as having certain myths and ideas that they hang onto long after those ideas have any value. He says that every culture has "some method of keeping alive ideas that don't jibe with the dominant emphasis of the status quo. Its a kind of hedge against future changes" (104). Such ideas are being held by both sides in the current argument over the economy. One side holds onto the American Dream as something real and now lost, while the other side holds the same dream as something to be revived and kept alive always. The American Dream itself embodies the tension noted by both Salter and Blumberg concerning the struggle between the self interest of greed and the public interest of the common good. The American Dream is a dream of wish fulfillment, personal success, and consumerism, but inherent in what might seem a greedy picture is the idea that this is all good for the public interest and so is altruistic as well. Americans have always been able to reconcile these opposites within their value system. Buying is a public good as well as a matter of self-intere
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Approximate Word count = 1442
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)
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