All-Pro Wisdom The 7 Choices That Lead To Greatness By Matt Birk

Experts argue about whether or not we have control over our lives. They question if destiny is determined by fate or by choices we make in our life. Two authors both take their sides on this topic producing evidence to support their claim. David Epstein author of The Sports Gene and Malcolm Gladwell author of Outliers: Story of Success both make an argument on how much we control in our lives in which they take different sides. David Epstein wrote about a track and field athlete who had incredible jumping ability despite never practicing high jumping. Malcolm Gladwell talks about how violinists were never able to float through musical school without putting in the practice hours. They each support their side with

Writer Gregory Mantsios in his article “Class in America”, talks about these things, and how wide the gap is between the rich and the poor and also discusses how the rich continue to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. Mantsios gives his readers the profiles and backgrounds of three hard-working Americans, two of them are white males, whose family background as well as education played a role in their success, while the other person is a black woman who is just above the poverty line despite her work as a nurse’s aide. Through these profiles, Mantsios article shows exactly how sex, race and shows how your parental and educational background of a person can play a role in the things that you achieve. Mantsios also talks about one’s performance in school and the level of school completed can suggest whether or not class that person may belong in.

First, the country as a whole must enlarge the amount of opportunity for its “most valuable assets – [the] people”, which would include redistributing incentives that would aid in interesting the youth in careers that would “lead to a more productive and healthy economy” (Stiglitz, “Of the 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%”). Next, the efficiency of the economy must be addressed because monopolies and special tax dealings continue to negatively affect the entire system. Finally, a modern economy that benefits society demands a government that invests in education, technology, infrastructure, and research rather than continuing to decrease the funding in these areas. These changes require the top 1% and the government to consider the negative effects of their decisions on the rest of the country instead of merely the positive outcomes for themselves. Once the drastic difference in the stratification between the top 1% and the 99% lessens, then the social inequality will also decline because the amount of prestige will no longer be as

To achieve the American Dream, one must work hard and have the dedication to be successful. There are myths relating to this dream leaving lower class members to wonder if the dream exists for them. People in lower class are told if they want to be successful they must put in hard work and true effort. Once they do, they see that they are remaining in the same position they started in. In “Class of America-2012,” Gregory Mantsios states the ideas of class in the US and explains them. One myth addressed in this selection is, “Everyone has an equal chance to succeed. Success in the United States requires no more than hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance: ‘In America, anyone can become a billionaire; it’s just a matter of being in the right

African American’s have been on the bottom end of inequalities since their arrival United States, although advances have been made African American men still fare badly. For Hispanics high immigration numbers accounts for the inequality gap among them. The presence of women in the work place has add little to the issue and the decline of trade unions has negative implications for all workers. Advances in technology is part of the natural cycle of industry and while some jobs will initially fall victim to it new skills and training will provide for new careers. Thomas Piketty and Joseph Stiglitz shows that the overwhelming causes of the current cycle of economic inequalities to be income and capital inequality that exist because of politics and government policies that benefit the rich at a cost to the poor and

Thesis Statement: The achievement of the American Dream, represented by social classes and opportunities available for social advancement, is unrealistic. The American Dream is propaganda for capitalism, rooted into the minds of believers that are used for labor. Capitalism’s fixed social classes leave no room for immigrants or for the hopeful to move up towards material success and wealth.

King goes on, stating that achieving the American Dream is the key to conquering inequality between the different social classes in the world. He believes that the differences in social class is they key to bringing our country together. In the essay, it pointed out economists and politicians point of view. They believe that the American Dream is dead because of the difference in social classes and because of that the economy cannot flourish and thus will remain fragile. They state that the economy focuses more on the small wealthy minority than the middle and lower classes. The huge income gap between the social classes is one of the reasons the economists and politicians believe that the American Dream is dead because they think the middle and lower classes can’t possibly move up in the economy and thus can't complete their American Dream. King arguments oppose this. He states that “[t]he American Dream,

The readings examined how classism has negatively affected economics in the United States, how oppression manifests in taking financial advantage of groups of people who cannot advance financially, and systemic issues contributing to low wage and inability to move out of one’s social class. I was struck by the idea that most people in the United States are disadvantaged financially based on the way the country has set up its economic policies. From the beginning, black people have been oppressed by the inability to attain wealth, which continued through the end of WWII. I unnecessarily read a chapter speaking about financial companies targeting poor people, particularly people of color, with money schemes so they are losing their hard-earned money to fees and interest rates. This scheme continues to keep people in debt and living paycheck to paycheck. I related to the reading about college loans creating a paradox that students with degrees enter the workforce unable to find a job in their their field of study. Then the added paradox of not being able to find work making

In Thomas Shapiro’s “The Hidden Cost of Being African American”, Shapiro goes in depth on how wealth in America is disproportionately dispersed between different nationalities. Mainly between Caucasians and African Americans. Shapiro has helped paint the image of wealth inequality and has shown how this is even more staggering than the wage gap between African Americans and Caucasians. Some of the theories he indirectly uses in his book and that I will be exemplifying are generational wealth and support systems, education, and the idea of how poverty only begets more poverty.

As I read The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace by Jeff Hobbs it shows the most enduring conflicts in America: race, class, drugs, community, imprisonment, education, family, friendship, and love. Robs’ story is about the collision of two fiercely insular worlds; the campus of Yale University and Newark, New Jersey and the difficulty of going from one to another and then back again. This book reflects a lot about the Book “Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis” written by Robert D. Putnam. Putnam mainly talks about the state of upward mobility, the changes to family life, neighborhoods and schools in ways that give big advantages to children at the top and make it even harder for those below to work their way up. Putnam challenges the promise of the American Dream “that anyone, regardless of his or her origins, can have a fair start in life”. Personally as I was growing up that’s all I was taught about, this so called “American Dream” that everyone works so hard for and how hard it is to live this dream. The fear of not being able to live this dream made Rob want to do everything in his power to be able to make as much money as he can and to live this “American Dream” with his mother.

The gap between the upper class and the lower class is growing; the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Instead of helping the lower class, the upper class is spending their money on fancy houses and material objects. For example, in the outskirts of cities, the rich business owners are building large mansions to live in. On the other hand, the lower class live in tiny tenements in the heart of the city. Many are unemployed and starving. In addition, between 1865 and 1900 only a small percent of Americans grew wealthy showing that wealth is only being passed through families not gained. However this growing gap between rich and poor has allowed the growth of the middle class. This middle class made up of doctors, lawyers and other will help the will hopefully help lessen the gap between

Throughout the years knowledge and culture has been passed down within generations. Elders within the community often teach life lessons to the young adults growing up in the neighborhood. This idea still holds true today, especially in low-income communities. People from different socioeconomic backgrounds live different lifestyles they also have different opportunities made available to them. Because of this idea, people with a higher social standing have an advantage over those in lower class standings. Social classes divide the people of our nation and have existed for as long as we can remember. The American Dream created the American nation that we know today. The dream itself is different for each individual. Money plays a major part in the American Dream because to be successful in America means to bear great wealth. We live in a nation, in which money controls our very existence. “The Lesson” by Toni Cade Bambara creates an argument about society’s unfairness that involves financial opportunities by revealing the differences in living environments between upper class and lower class.

Here, in the United States, the “American Dream,” is a popular belief. There is a strong relationship between hard work and success. In this perfect scenario, those who put in multiple hours are on the road to success and can move up the social ladder. Thus stating, one could be thrust into the lowest of the social status, and with some hard work, one can elevate into the world of the social elite. As a demonstration to this global view of the United States, immigrants from all over the globe have made the excursion to the “land of opportunity” in beliefs of better education, employment, government, communities, religious freedom, and lives for not only themselves but the generations that come pursuing behind them. All of this survives based on a game of social stratification – a diagram on how to successfully obtain the American dream. This observation of social class is based on many mechanisms, some of which is bestowed to people at birth, and not rewarded for hard work and dedication. The class system at play in the United States has become incredibly complex – it no longer has the fundamental class values of our forefathers. Those trying to move up in the social ladder of America are often caught replication the actions of the rich and famous, but this alone cannot make them part of the higher social class. Some think that there are simple rules to follow to climb higher into another social class ladder, but there is more to being upper class than just talking the talk or having the right identity.One way to look at class is the model developed by Janny Scott and David Leonhardt's article, “Shadowy Lines That Still Divide,” in The New York Times. They assert that “one way to think of a person’s position in society is to imagine a hand of cards. Everyone is dealt four cards, one from each suit: education, income, occupation and wealth, the four commonly used criteria for gauging class” (Scott and Leonhardt 27). While being sure on these four criteria, a basic understanding of a person’s predicted class can be made. While this model works fine for providing an elementary level of perception, it must be recognized that a person could rate well on this scale and still be in a different class than those

Spanning from the 1940s to present-day the American dream, and American system, have been shaped by factors such as communism, immigration, poverty, racial tensions, and also war. America’s dream of, if one is to work hard enough that they shall be able to achieve great things, took yet another turn to exclude certain races, women, and the lower classes. In Walter LaFeber’s Michael Jordan and the New Global Capitalism, capitalism is seen through the eyes of basketball, and LaFeber argues that capitalism will always dominate culture. From the Cold War to present-day the United States has become a capitalist society, but in its wake left many Americans struggling for the American dream and even brought war to parts of the world.

One of the social issues concerning power, status, and class in American society today is income inequality. The income gap between the social classes has increased drastically throughout the last few decades, creating a significant gap between the wealthy and the poor. This gap has become so large that the middle class has nearly diminished, creating a social class comprised of the rich and the poor. The significant gap between the two social classes is unhealthy for the economy because it provides too much power in the hands of those with high social status.