Inequalities In America

Thomas Paine’s characterization of America in his book Rights of Man describes American society which is different from today. While he effectively captured the diversity of America, he failed to describe how diversity separates citizens rather than bringing unity between them all.

Thomas Paine’s characterization of America from his book, Rights of Man, does not completely hold true in today’s American society. His description of social class relationships as well as just government is currently not a reality for Americans. However, his description of diversity is something that we do have in America today.

In America, the land of the free, people believe that it’s the greatest place to be. And America would probably be what everyone believes, but it has a very serious problem that could eventually destroy the country as whole. America is built upon Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, but it has a strong equality issue that has to be taken care of. Equality is a social contract in America and unfortunately it is a broken one. A social contract is an agreement amongst the members of a society, but equality is a serious issue. Equality poses the biggest problem to America simply because in any country the people make the country, and if the people can’t get along either internal conflicts occur, or people eventually leave. Throughout America everyone regardless of race, color, or sexual orientation has experienced inequality in some part of America. Words are exchanged, fists are thrown, and in serious cases lives are lost because people are racists to one another. Equality is a broken social contract in America that will eventually be its demise if not attended to.

America today is not a happy utopia of agreement and friendship. Thomas Paine's 1791 description of America no longer proves to be true, if it ever even was true. In 2016, America has large political tensions, unfair distribution of wealth, and unjust laws can cause violent riots.

In the 1780’s when America was approaching on a new era, Hector St. John de Crevecoeur and Benjamin Franklin believed that America had become the freest and most prosperous nation in the world. They went so far as to say that America had become a country unlike any other. A country that was free from things such as poverty, inequality, and all other forms of oppression, things that European nations lacked. Over the next century (1800-1900) what we saw in America was not symbols of freedom and equality for all, but instead for a select few. Instead we saw great inequality and a lack of freedom in many groups such as African Americans or slaves, women, as well as Mexicans and Native Americans. The members of these groups were met with

Paine imagined a country where the rich weren’t privileged and the government just. It seems that in the last few years alone Thomas Paine’s vision has been deteriorating faster than ever. There has been a growing distain and polarization between the rich and working class. Many people believe the ubiquitous “one percent” reign supreme. I digress: There is a large gap between the rich and majority in this country where the top one percent of the population now hold approximately fifty percent of the wealth. This has led to numerous protests among the now fractured populous including the Occupy Wall Street movement. This is greatly contrary to Thomas Paine’s vision of a country where: “there is nothing to engender riots and

Equality served as a cornerstone of America's foundation, but its people have not fulfilled its potential.

Thomas Paine saw the government as a well unified Union. No problems truly to arise or inequality. The government and people in America though do not remain true to the words of Thomas Paine. As the poor and rich are not the same anymore. Times change; how life is, and making a shift of how America is. Government may seem fair, though there are the times of unjust and favoritism for the rich and opposition against the poor. With that, making America not holding true to the characterization. The poor are oppressed while the rich are privileged.

In his own time, Thomas Paine was correct in his assertion of America being a country of concord- we are a nation founded by individuals who had different ideas than what was taught in their homelands. They moved here to be free from judgment and preached equality for all men. America has its own unique culture, we are a “melting pot” of faith and ideas, along with a government designed to give equal opportunity. Now in the 21st century, a look at American life today shows that much of what Paine states is true; as new cultures make their mark on our country- they continue to add to the pot. However, despite the vast cultural diversity this country claims today, Paine’s views of the government working together with its people no longer holds

Thomas Paine, a revolutionary, intellectual, and supporter of American independence from England published a book titled, “Rights of Man” which deals with the government shielding the natural rights of its people. Initially, the book captures the diverse aspect of this nation, but it fails to reveal the struggles that arise to preserve and adapt to such a society. Paine expresses his optimism towards the supposed perfection of American society, as one “made up...of people from different nations,” with certain expectations. Additionally, the time gap between “Rights of Man” and modern America cannot be neglected. Paine wrote during an era in which “constructing a government on the principles of society and the rights of man” was the essential objective of the country. However, modern-day America experiences opposite ideals and Paine’s theory no longer remains true because of the educational gap between the rich and poor, terrorism, and racial profiling.

Thomas Paine was a revolutionary, intelligent, and a supporter of America gaining their freedom from England. Paine has written many books on his beliefs and thoughts on many different topics concerning America. The passage we read in class highlights how America is one unified and diverse nation. We have little taxes, because of how our government is just and we are all equal. I disagree with what Thomas Paine says, but on the other hand I agree too. We are a diverse nation, and for the most part our government is just, and in hard times we do come together. Then on the other side of things the rich are privileged, we have tons of taxes, and riots break out all the time.

In spite of the fact that all Americans aspire for what Paine calls “the principles of society and the rights of man”, there is still the debate on how to achieve that goal. Political parties conflict Paine’s belief that America is a country in concord, as all that occurs between the two political parties are disputes, rarely agreements. That said, just because American citizens aren’t in agreement on everything, doesn’t make the country inferior to the society Paine envisioned. What Paine failed to mention is that differing opinions can benefit a society, it can bring change and improve a

Living in a peaceful world would mean that no one (and I mean NO ONE) would go hungry or be without basic medical care; denying individuals access to food, clean water and basic medical care is both in-humane as well as ignorant. The inhumanity of denying food to individuals who cannot by no fault of their own feed themselves when we have supermarkets, refrigerators, and pantries over flowing a bounty of food. Turning away from a person who is hungry, while the US as a nations spends more on its household pets than it does in donations to local food bangs demonstrates ignorance of our understanding that perhaps the stem of violence both here and overseas could be stymied if we’d only offered not only bags of rice but a safe place to grow

Inequality is a problem that has had an effect on the United States for many years. Although throughout the years the severity of inequality has fluctuated, it has increased greatly within the past two decades. There are many factors that could have influenced this increase. Some of the factors include technology and deindustrialization.

As an American, we revel in our freedoms. Not everything is free, however, we have laws that were created for safety. They help keep everyone happy, alive and well. The foundation for these laws came from the founding fathers; they wished for Americans alive then, alive now, and alive years from now feeling safe and free. However, there are fatal flaws in the documents created by the founding fathers. These documents are not effective in establishing and preserving freedoms of Americans because they confined the definition of a valued American to white males as well as allowed the means of corruption to enter our laws through lack of rigidity.