The Death of American Values

Even if the 1920’s seem affluent and prosperous on the surface, the realities of time contradicted such notions; in fact, it can be clearly stated that this decade should not be judged as an era of wealth. Inequality was rampant in society at this time, especially when it comes to stark income differences between the upper, middle and lower classes. While it can be said that the upper classes, who make up a mere 1% of the population enjoyed most of these materialistic luxuries, the vast majority of the American population was barely getting by.

In other words, America has a widening gap between its wealthy and poor. As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, there is a problem emerging: the disappearance of the middle class. Low-wage workers continue to fall behind those who make higher wages, and this only widens the gap between the two. There has been an economic boom in the United States, which has made the country more prosperous than it has ever been. That prosperity does not reach all people; it seems to only favor the rich. Rising economic segregation has taken away many opportunities for the poor to rise in America today. The poor may find that the economic boom has increased their income; however, as their income increase so does the prices they must for their living expenses (Dreier, Mollenkopf, & Swanstrom 19).

As the phenomenal politician Bernie Sanders once said, “For many, the American dream has become a nightmare.” In the novel The Great Gatsby, written by Scott Fitzgerald, the “American Dream” plays a crucial role in the plot. Gatsby devotes his life to accomplish his American Dream which consists of wealth and Daisy’s love. But is the American Dream actually what it seems to be? Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald utilizes the symbolic value of the Valley of Ashes, East Egg, and the significance of the color yellow to constantly establish that opulence and the American Dream is deceiving as it leads to moral and societal corruption.

After the Hoover years, however, a man portrayed as a father figure became some of the nation’s citizens’ only hope, Franklin D. Roosevelt. The middle-class, sometimes seen as hit the hardest by the Depression, pleaded with the Roosevelt administration for any help, but remained very proud in doing so. Many begged to remain anonymous. Also, like many other classes, the members of the middle-class didn’t want charity or handouts; they just wanted employment, or possibly a loan (pp. 53-4). No one took pride in having to write these letters. Many had to swallow their pride just to get pen to paper. “It is very humiliating for me to have to write to you” one Depression victim wrote (pp. 62). Middle-class citizens, like the rural citizens, wanted nothing less than the blacks to take their employment (pp. 94). The rural citizens also turned to the Roosevelt administration as a beacon of hope. The cherished the values of independence and hard work, so they asked only for employment or a loan (pp. 69). Their ideal solution to this economic terror was employment, as a result. They weren’t satisfied with the outcome of the relief though. They believed the relief was just creating ‘loafers’ out of the unemployed who choose not to work (pp. 125). They felt that Roosevelt should “give work to the needy ones, and not to the ones that have everything” (pp. 138). The rural citizens felt slightly forgotten, but not as forgotten as some

After the collapse of American society, a survivalist group in Idaho takes it upon itself to maintain civility and morality despite the chaotic new world order.

There is no doubt that wealth inequality in America has been escalating quickly; the portion of total income earned by the top one percent has doubled since the beginning of the 1970’s. The wealthy are the main beneficiaries

Wealth in the 1920’s was a topic when it came to societal beliefs. A lot of people started becoming rich and famous, and the economy had a 42% increase (Amadeo). In the novel, The Great Gatsby, they show what wealth was like during this time. When Nick says, “I lived at West Egg, the-well, the less fashionable of the two, though this is a most superficial tag to express the bizarre and not a little sinister contrast between them” (Fitzgerald 5). This is a small example of how the United States is a wealthy place where people worked hard to earn their money, or, they were born into their family already rich.

Andrew Carnegie’s rhetoric in the “Gospel of Wealth,” challenged the economic disparities in the United States during the late 1800s by proposing a radical shift in the distribution of wealth as a solution to social improvement without understanding that poverty was not a personality deficit rather the result of oppression. Carnegie exemplified his philosophy and achieved the American Dream, yet he neglected that he was the exception to the rule, not the rule in itself. The “Gospel of Wealth” had too many assumptions, both with merit and not, when proposing how the distribution of wealth could alleviate economic hardships to the impoverished population without understanding the complexities of the working class.

Furthermore, the equality of opportunities as one of the foundations of the American dream turned into evident inequality. “The lion’s share of economic growth in American over the past thirty years has gone to a small, wealthy minority, to such an extent that it’s unclear whether the typical family has benefited at all from technological progress and the rising productivity it brings” (Krugman 586). Income inequality has been steadily growing since 2008 when the global financial crisis erupted. Moreover, the gap in prosperity between the group of Americans with high income and all the others had never been such extreme as it is now. Thus, not everyone has the opportunity to become wealthy through hard work. The increase in socioeconomic inequalities,

America is recognized as a place where if you work hard enough you can become wealthy. In fact, the U.S. has more millionaires than any other country in the world. However, for all that prosperity, the gap between rich and poor has always been large. People have been attempting to fix this inequality for over a century now. Andrew Carnegie, a Scottish immigrant who became the second richest man in America by dominating the steel industry, and Terence V. Powderly, an American attorney, labor union leader, politician, and best known as head of the Knights of Labor, were among the first to propose solutions. Carnegie’s idea, called “The Gospel of Wealth,”

Many people try to argue that there is not a moral decline going on. I have heard things such as, “the ratio of moral people and unmoral people is the same as fifty years ago; as the population grows the amount of moral and unmoral people grow too.” And what about “life around us is changing, we just have different priorties and values which determine our morals.” Everyone has their own idea of morality, what’s right and wrong and what is causing this moral decline, if there even is one.

This “middle-class nation” is struggling to support all those who live in its borders and the misconceptions about wealth are vastly overrated. Furthermore, the idea of wealth and stability is incorrect, and there is a very sharp contrast between the rich and poor in the country. As the richest twenty percent of American hold ninety percent of the total household of the total household wealth in the country, those at the bottom have managed very poorly and suffer to get through the days.

The United States of America has seen great change throughout its history. While a considerable amount of time has matured the nation, the core spirit of the American people remains unaffected. In spite of all the wars fought and problems that arose, the

If every person in the United States would do their part, just as William Golding did, to assist in the correction process of the central government, the U.S.A., as it is now, would flourish. There would be innovative ideas and inspirational inhabitants. Think of the prospects! “The circle of boys broke into applause.” (page 23) The boys in the society finally chose a leader and they were proud of their choice, but was that the best choice? Are the leaders that Americans choose to be president always the best choice? No, but that can change; individuals can change the government considerably. The chance to get rid of, “the defects” griming up the history, and the present, of the U.S.; who

    The founders of America believed that a popular government and its laws necessarily rested upon an underlying moral order that preceded both the state and man-made law. They referred to this transcendent moral order in the Declaration of Independence as "self evident truths" and "the laws of nature and of nature's god" (Barr pg. 211). For a republic to work, the founders thought, the people had to internally guided by commonly shared moral values. The founders viewed themselves as launching a great experiment: Could a free people retain a moral culture that would promote the self-discipline and virtues needed to restrain corruption? "We are still, in many ways, 'the shining city on the