Metaphorical Power of the Article 'Predatory Lending Devouring American Dream'

The world is full of financial hardship, and American society possesses a great deal of controversy concerning lending. Unfortunately, short term lending, such as payday loans or title loans, creates a structural void within American society. According to Wikipedia, “Structural inequality is defined as a condition where one category of people are attributed an unequal status in relation to other categories of people” (wilipedia.com). When working class Americans apply for a payday, the unequal status between upper and middle class possess a bigger separation financially. The never-ending process of a short term financial fix becomes lifelong debt. Thus, middle class society becomes lower class society. Eventually, working class society will struggle to say above the poverty line. In addition to an imbalance in society classes, short term lending targets consumers who life paycheck to paycheck. In Rigging the Game by Michael Schwalbe, the author explains the reproduction of inequalities. Schwalbe discusses the different kinds of capitals human, social, and cultural (10). The three capitals unknowingly shape Americans social system. Many businesses capitalize on these capitals knowing no laws or regulation exists to stop them from capitalizing on individuals who no faults of their own were born into these unfair capitals. As a result, short term lenders possess the ability to have extremely high interest rates and outrageous fine print penalties because there is little

Predatory lending has caused many conflicts in the American society. Victims who fall for predatory lending are

Even though Haas and Flower do not mention George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, or even metaphors, in their article, I will be using metaphors to get a better understanding of what these reading strategies are like. Lakoff and Johnson’s analytical tools and ideas about metaphors (, seen in Metaphors We Live By, help me, and others,

What is American Dream? What does it mean to you? What does it mean to me? Although we all have the same ideology of what the definition of what the American Dream is, we can all come up with a different meaning, each one more personal to ourselves than to others. As we will see with the help of three different authors, regardless of age, race, sexuality, religion, or social status, we could possibly agree on the idea of the American Dream falling short and being a false sense of reality for many Americans to this day.

However the American Dream is perceived there is no question that the dream is on the verge of becoming extinct. Bob Herbert addresses this in his article "Hiding from Reality". He argues that the American Dream is dead. Similarly, Cal Thomas also argues that the American Dream is dead in his article "Is the American Dream Over?.” Although both authors agree that the American Dream is extinct, they have differing opinions as to why. While they both believe that the government plays a large part in the death of the American Dream, Herbert believes the government is not doing enough and Thomas argues the government is out of control. Herbert and Thomas both agree that America has become a hapless society that relies on others to make decisions, making personal responsibility elusive. Both men believe that until America recognizes the problem, finding a solution will be nearly impossible.

“The American dream, to me, means having the opportunity to achieve, because I don 't think you should be guaranteed anything other than opportunity” (Leny Wilkens). The Article “Whats up with the American Dream” is all about how the American Dream is changing. It 's transitioning from going to school, working hard, and advancing in your career to being handed a job through the connections you have. The thesis in this article is “We go to school, study, get jobs, and work hard, all with the assumption that doing so will allow us to achieve financial security, rise up the economic ladder, and perhaps even achieve financial great wealth.”(pg. 539) The argument in this article is describing how everyone used to have an idea of how their life was going to be, go to school and get a well paying job. Today the worlds way of thinking has changed. Not everyone goes to college, and not all the ones who go to college get a well paying job.

Leo W. Gerard develops an argument to persuade his audience that American colleges and universities should to be affordable for all students in order for them to experience the American Dream. To successfully create this argument, the author uses stylistic elements and evidence to develop his writing.

Do you know what the American dream really means? Dr.Martin Luther King Jr understood what that dream meant. King was a man who was all about equality, he believed that all men and woman no matter what race, religion or beliefs they had should all be equal. The American dream reminds us that every man is heir to the legacy of worthiness, that the dream had challenges as they faced it. Dr.King had a dream that one day America would become a better place he believed that America is essentially a dream, it was a dream that was yet unfulfilled. Yet it took us so long to discover the substance of this American dream though it was shown in the Declaration of Independence. This document had specific words that showed people what the American dream really meant, these words were “We holds these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by God, Creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” Dr.Martin Luther King Jr used Aristotle’s rhetorical devices ethos, logos and pathos to explain the American dream.

In an average day, an American is exposed to over 3000 advertisements, (Kilbourne). Whether they want to admit it or not, they are drawn toward them. A common scheme of the advertisers is to allow the consumer to “picture the new them.” Whether this be a wealthier them, a skinner them, or a prettier them, they gear there product towards every person and want everyone be able to connect with the advertisement and picture the “new them.” American Idol, Nutrisystem, and The Biggest Loser, the lottery, and many other “products” promote that anyone has the chance to be famous, fit, or fortunate. The successes from these “products” present themselves as they were before, with the sob story that hopefully touches a nerve with

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman tells the story of the failure of a salesman, Willy Loman. Although not all Americans are salesmen, most of us share Willy’s dream of success. We are all partners in the American Dream and parties to the conspiracy of silence surrounding the fact that failures must outnumber successes.(Samantaray, 2014)

Every country’s economy is greatly impacted by the beliefs and the attitudes of its citizens; conversely, the action of the people is affected by the country’s economy. In other words, economy of a nation and character of the citizens are correlated. For instance, in the United States, the “American Dream” to own a home had a huge influence on the mortgage crisis in 2008. However, the economy at that time period had been inducing people to buy new home. Likewise, in Greece, the growing trend of corruption and bribery among the people played a major role in shattering its economy. As a consequence of the dreadful economy, Greek people are revolting against their government. While Greece is trying to recover from its devastated state, the overrated American Dream is still a cause of multiple problems in the US. The tendency to use fulfillment of the dream as the measure of success among American people is the one of many reason behind the overall health of people and community and one of the main reason for crisis in 2008. The American Dream of owning a home killed the mediocre reality of middle class people and led to a nightmare of foreclosure and its deadly consequence instead.

As a topic for this research paper, I decided to analyze the ethics behind the recent mortgage crisis in the United States. Banks were approving people for loans very easily, to people they knew would not be able to pay them back. Thus, many people were buying homes, missing payments, getting foreclosed on, and ruining what credit they had. Throughout this paper I intend to show how the practices that the banks were using were unethical. I will show who stakeholders were, and analyze them through Utilitarian and Kantian standpoints.

or phrases. They can trick the mind’s interpretation of one thing into something more than what

Metaphoric criticism is a comparison of two items that suggest a resemblance. Through this use of language it can help to enliven ordinary language. Through this is can also help an audience visualize certain ideas. (Blair, 2014). Yet, through a rhetorical perspective, metaphors are now seen as a large means for the creation of reality. “Metaphor is a basic way by which the process of using symbols to construct reality occurs” (Foss, 2009, p. 268). There are two major parts of a metaphor, the tenor and the vehicle. The tenor is known as the topic or the subject, and the vehicle is the mechanism or rather the lens viewing for the target.

A startling example given by Charles Ferguson is that of the derivatives market. The high risks that began with subprime lending were transferred from investors to other investors who, due to questionable rating practices, falsely believed that the investments were safe. And these rating were done by Academicians-Consultants who were given millions of dollars for these false ratings. On being questioned by the law about the validity and basis for those ratings, the only answer which was given was that at that time they believed (or were made to believe) that those investments were good. Due to these false ratings the lenders were pushed to sign up mortgages without regard to risk, or even favoring higher interest rate loans, since, once these mortgages were packaged together, the risk was disguised. According to the film, the resulting products would often have AAA ratings, equal to U.S. government bonds. The products could then be used even by investors such as retirement funds which