The Dominant Framworks of American Way of Life Pt1

The Dominant Frameworks of the American Way of Life is a mix of capitalism and the government working together which networks how people live and decisions. One of the frameworks that I will be talking about is capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system that consists of private ownership of wealth, profit motive (making money), and producing products/goods and sell those goods in the free market. The "invisible hand" (the way in which how market competitions and self-interests would create situation that organizes and benefit society) sort of helps controls the market so that everything would somehow work and everything would flow. Free market is where people go get profit and putting investments and having their own companies with selling, buying, and trading (Globalization). Three aspects that we use to show how capitalism works are Land (is the raw materials that we use to make the products), Labor (is all the work necessarily to sell, distribute and produce) and Capital (is the factory, machinery, companies who get the profit) we can see how capitalism work in a way that makes everything united in a way.
We are all in the same boat, but working in different levels but in the end everybody's knowledge of "things" (also combing with their own interests or "greed" to make money) would benefit everybody to make the whole boat working. The people also get a chance or chances to go from "rags to riches" or upward mobility, making them able to become monopolies, natural monopolies, monopsonies or getting a company of their own and getting profit for themselves. In capitalism, there is also economics involve in the free markets = lots of commodities (something that can be bought and sold in the market place or perfectly substituable) and competition. The good thing about the competition is that if a lot of people are competing in one thing then prices would go down which means people can afford the price better than before. "The virtue of free enterprise capitalism is that it sets one businessman against another and it’s a most effective device for control." (Brian Doherty, "Quotations From Chairman Milton" http://www.reason.com/news/show/118175.html). Having the market to be control is a good thing using capitalism because it will keep the capitalists away from having too much power or else the smaller businesses would go down or bankrupt. This quote is agreeing how if businesses if fighting/competing agains other businesses than in the end there won't be just one business that have a lot of powers.
There is not much government interferences in capitalism which makes it a good thing since people don't like the government interfering the market or surpluses and low shortages can happened. One of the important things about the economics in capitalism is the Supply (the availability for sale of a commodity of all prices) and Demand (the amount purchase of a commodity at all price) which helps the sellers or the market to know the right prices to sell at and get good profit.
History is involved with capitalism too because around 1700, capitalism was introduce to Netherlands, Great Britain, the United States and then the rest of the world making a huge "wealth explosion" said by historian Steven Davies. It helped "secure[s] private property, the rule of law, open markets, and economic freedom generally — or what Adam Smith called “peace, easy taxes, and a tolerable administration of justice.' Capitalism has made the West rich and thus healthier and longer-lived. It could do the same for Africa, Asia, and the Arab world" (David Boaz, "Capitalism Saves", http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/2006/07/29/capitalism-saves/). The whole essay gives a positive tone about how capitalism is a good thing and even the title "Capitalism Saves" says what the whole essay is going to be about that Capitalism does save people. After capitalism was introduced, the countries who used capitalism had made themselves more richer and in a case, able to let people become more "healthier" and live longer. I agree with what David Boaz said because if we are able to do what we want in the market/capitalism way with some kind of limit because there is limit to what one can do then it makes our lives better. Well...if the person/people actually made themselves richer. I also agree that capitalism should be introduce to other parts of the world like "Africa, Asia, and the Arab world" because I think they might need more money, more capitalism to make their countries more control and stable. Since capitalism makes us live healthier and live longer, I think it is a good thing that America does uses capitalism and how the markets are going freely with the "invisible hand" makes the whole thing (I guess the country, benefits people, more profit) better.
Everybody work hard to get to where they want and capitalism is one of those ways they can do that because they are free if they are in capitalism to decide what to do. They get their own wealth and there are no limited.

how capitalism work and the good of capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that consists of private ownership of wealth, profit motive (making money), and producing products/goods and sell those goods in the free market. The "invisible hand" (the way in which how market competitions and self-interests would create situation that organizes and benefit society) sort of helps controls the market so that it somehow works in a way that everything would flow. Free market is where people go get profit and putting investments and having their own companies with selling, buying, and trading (Globalization). Using Land (raw materials we use to make the products), Labor (all the work necessarily to sell, distribute and produce) and Capital (the factory, machinery, companies who get the profit) we can see how capitalism work in a way that makes everything united in a way. We are all in the same boat, but working in different levels but in the end everybody's knowledge of "things" (even though it is their own interests) would benefit everybody to make the whole boat working. The people also get a chance or chances to go from "rags to riches" or upward mobility, making them able to become monopolies, natural monopolies, monopsonies or getting a company of their own and getting profit for themselves.
In capitalism, there is also economics involve in the free markets = lots of commodities (something that can be bought and sold in the market place or perfectly substituable) and competition. The good thing about the competition is that if a lot of people are competing in one thing then prices would go down which means people can afford it better than before. There is not much government interferences in capitalism which makes it a good thing since people don't like the government interfering the market or surpluses and low shortages can happened. One of the important things about the economics in capitalism is the Supply (the availability for sale of a commodity of all prices) and Demand (the amount purchase of a commodity at all price) because its good for the sellers or just the market to know the right prices to sell at and get profit from it.
Everybody work hard to get to where they want and capitalism is one of those ways they can do that because they are free if they are in capitalism to decide what to do. They get their own wealth and there are no limited.

Response to I, Pencil - By Leonard E. Read

In "I, Pencil", it is about the author narrating as a pencil and explains the process of the makings of the pencils. Then he goes and talks about how there is an invisible hand at work that helps the people flow through. I think the main idea is we do not notice the hard work that the workers who make the things, for example, like the pencil and take it for granted. When the author/the pencil said, "Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me". We all hold a pencil before (maybe 98% of the population) but we never really thought about things that made the pencil a pencil because in our eyes, we see it as a simple writing tool. However, the truth is that it takes a long time and instructions/steps to make that one pencil. The pencil says, "But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background." This bought my attention that we take things for granted and is not really grateful for what happens behind the makings of those things. We just think that the pencil looks so simple that it can be easily made when it is not. Finally, he says that "Each of these millions sees that he can thus exchange his tiny know-how for the goods and services he needs or wants. I may or may not be among these items." Everybody have goals and meets that they want and need that is highly important which makes everybody misses out the smaller things that we need that is equal important. Like the pencil, we need the pencil to write but some people does not think that. I think our minds think that pencil is not of great importance when it is because we use it often like everyday and we do not notice that. "No individual possesses enough know-how to perform a nation's mail delivery any more than any individual possesses enough know-how to make a pencil." It seems like we know the basics of what happen with many things but we actually dont know the depth of everything that is made or created. We are all kind of "blind" on how we see everything because we mostly see the stuff that is simple-looking, simple, and not care much about it and use it.
I think that the story tells how some people or everbody have the knowledge or some knowledge for specific things, like the workers who know how to make the pencil and some people just not notice anything. In a way, we use each other to gain the knowledge to make stuff and those knowledge came from the resouces that we have. Like the workers have to use the tree, coals, rubber, and etc to make the pencils and the workers are being used by the people who paid them. Then we buy the products/goods or the pencils from the company and they make the money. (It is like the Circular Flow Model) Also I feel that behind the scene, when the pencil was talking about the "master mind" that it is the "invisible hand" that it is talking about. We are following that invisible hand that creates the market and capitalism (maybe) because we all have the desires to get "rich", profit motive, and that we use others as a "stepping stone" to do that. What I am trying to say is that we are all in the same circle but we worked in different levels and since some people know how to do something, other people would use them for their advantageous/to make money or they make it with other people to get the profit they want. It is like there is something that is making everything "flow" in a way to make "society to act in harmony" (sometimes if there is a huge uproar).

Other people's views on the American Way of Life Part 2

A lot of people have different aspects of what the American Way of Life is. Many people that I have interviewed think that the American Way of Life is about freedom and success. A middle class white female teacher said that the American Way of Life is “freedom of speech” and the freedom of being “able to live how we wanted”. A middle class Asian male said that we come here to become “independent, get our own job, own things and to be able to live by ourselves”. This connects to what the teacher said about how the freedom works in the American Way of Life. The pattern that I see is that the people think of freedom as being able to work and living the way they wanted. In general the people are not being told of how to live but they find their own way to live how they want. They also have their own choice and rights to choose from to become independent and work hard. By saying that the American Way of Life has a lot of “freedom” (said by others) shows how we have more opportunities than other countries (in a way).
However another middle class white male said that we have “false” freedom and we do not come to America to “work, to get rich”. Sometimes when people want to get rich, or become successful, they would use “varies means” to get the success they want and become rich. Another pattern in the American way of Life is it seems that the more work they do, the richer they can get and achieving more success to get the freedom they want. Many of the people I had interviewed are mostly middle class people; this made me think that they are working hard to get money and success. Also I observed that the people who are in the middle or low class does not have as much freedom as the rich people so they have to do much more work to get what they want. So their perspectives on the American Way of Life are different than the other classes in the society.
With the aspect of being successful, age difference matters as well. Since some adults can find work, they can have money to live by themselves and support themselves. However, children and teenagers (ones that seem to have a hard time finding jobs) are the ones who need support from the adults (parents, relatives, foster parents or responsible adults). The children and the non working teenagers would have a lot of time on their hands so they would do much more activities or maybe none. One of my classmates named Maggie said in terms of her soul connecting to the American Way of Life, she does “not live in a meaningful life” because she has no job and is unproductive. However she compared how when people get a job, they would feel tired and desperately wants a break. This shows how when people have a job, they have a lot of free time but when people do have a job, they would get busy and would not get a lot of freedom so are unable to do what they want to do in their personal lives. So noticing about the age difference, the “success” of the American Way of Life for the children and non working teens are different than the “success” of the American Way of Life for the adults.
One general observation that I noticed after interviewing a number of people is that they do not really define what is the American Way of Life but rather describing what America is but not the Way of Life. Also not every body lives in an American Way of Life because like one of them says, we "live how we want".

Other people's views on the American Way of Life

Assignment #3:

A lot of people have different aspects of what the American Way of Life is. Many people that I have interviewed think that the American Way of Life is about freedom and success. A middle class white female teacher said that the American Way of Life is “freedom of speech” and the freedom of being “able to live how we wanted”. A middle class Asian male said that we come here to become “independent, get our own job, own things and to be able to live by ourselves”. This connects to what the teacher said about how the freedom works in the American Way of Life. The pattern that I see is that the people think of freedom as being able to work and living the way they wanted. In general the people are not being told of how to live but they find their own way to live how they want. They also have their own choice and rights to choose from to become independent and work hard. By saying that the American Way of Life has a lot of “freedom” (said by others) shows how we have more opportunities than other countries.
However another middle class white male said that we have “false” freedom and we do not come to America to “work, to get rich”. Sometimes when people want to get rich, or become successful, they would use “varies means” to get the success they want and become rich. Another pattern in the American way of Life is it seems that the more work they do, the richer they can get and achieving more success to get the freedom they want. Many of the people I had interviewed are mostly middle class people; this made me think that they are working hard to get money and success. Also I observed that the people who are in the middle or low class does not have as much freedom as the rich people so they have to do much more work to get what they want. So their perspectives on the American Way of Life are different than the other classes in the society.
With the aspect of being successful, age difference matters as well. Since some adults can find work, they can have money to live by themselves and support themselves. However, children and teenagers (ones that seem to have a hard time finding jobs) are the ones who need support from the adults (parents, relatives, foster parents or responsible adults). The children and the non working teenagers would have a lot of time on their hands so they would do much more activities or maybe none. One of my classmates named Maggie said in terms of her soul connecting to the American Way of Life, she does “not live in a meaningful life” because she has no job and is unproductive. However she compared how when people get a job, they would feel tired and desperately wants a break. This shows how when people have a job, they have a lot of free time but when people do have a job, they would get busy and would not get a lot of freedom so are unable to do what they want to do in their personal lives. So noticing about the age difference, the “success” of the American Way of Life for the children and non working teens are different than the “success” of the American Way of Life for the adults.