The President wants to make America great again even though many argue that the country has never lost its ranking. However, it never ranked that high, to begin with, and too much focus has been placed on GDP over the years that Social Progress in the United States continues to slide down the scale of the quality of life. The United States ranks 16 with Sweden on top as the most livable country all due to the social policy of taking care of all the citizens of their country and not just the wealthy. Other nations feed, shelter and offer health care for all and not just a few.

Social Policy in the U.S. will take care of their poor to a small extent. Many go without any help.
Did you know that early childhood deaths rank higher in the U.S. than most countries?
We can blame substance abuse, poverty, or negligence of the social structure in the American society on the high childhood deaths. Our nation is technologically advanced; there is no excuse why children should face such odds of survival in America. Dr. McCoy on Star Trek would be appalled by today’s society and poor survival rate of the lowest class.

Gross Domestic Product also known as GDP tracks the income of a nation. However, this is based on the averages of the society. There are those whose wealth is recorded in the billions; this will offset those whose wealth is null. There is a better way to measure the quality of life in a country, and that is by using the Social Progress Index. How is it that the United States is considered to be the wealthiest of nations and rank at 16 on the quality of life index? Canada, Sweden, France, and many other Western Nations when it comes to the quality of life out rank the United States. They do this by funding welfare policies with tax or VAT revenues. Everyone in these countries has healthcare and can afford to put food on the table and sometimes with the monthly rent monies. (Reid, 2004)

The United States has the highest rank among its peers when it comes to social problems. Those issues are of murder, rapes, robbery, incarceration, drunk driving, fatalities, cocaine use, and greenhouse gas emissions. The social problem list for the U.S. continues with acid rain, forest depletion, hazardous waste per capita, garbage per capita, and cars per capita ( other than public transportation). Moreover, continues with even more problems such as elderly and children living in poverty, homelessness, bank failures, divorce, single parents, infant mortality, the death of children under age five, and teenage pregnancy. One would not be able to tell any of this by using the GDP index. (Eitzen, 2010)

Fact: The United States is the only industrialized nation that has no form of universal health care. (Eitzen, 2010)

Some may not think it is fair to compare the United States with smaller countries such as New Zealand and Switzerland, but why not? They are taking care of their population and with much lower crime rates. Our nation may have a higher population but we are spread out more, and this is supposed to be the land of opportunity. I don’t think crime was to be one of those opportunities. Why else do the people immigrate to America?
To find work, to own a home, to have a family and receive good medical care and education.

Perhaps it’s the beer and pizza, or maybe the cheese and wine.

The United States boasts of having the best academic schools in the world such as Harvard, Perdue, and Princeton which is mostly open to those who can afford such schools. Many American students can’t afford a higher education regardless of the college they choose. Other nations compared to the U.S. provide higher education regardless of the student’s income level. If the student can maintain the grades, then the education is provided at a much lower cost or free. With higher education comes lesser crime, a much better solution than incarceration for the many. (Reid, 2004)

America even has the best hospitals, but not everyone can afford the medical care. Prescriptions are outrageously priced, and many of the elderly can’t afford to pay those prices. They are forced to choose between taking their medication or food.

If that is the case, then I’m not looking forward to retirement anytime soon.

References

Eitzen, D. S. (2010). U.S. Social Problems in Comparative Perspective. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Reid, T. R. (2004). The European Social Model. New York: Penguin Press.

Chapter 2

Ethnocentrism – judgment of others ways against our own.

Cultural relativism – trying to understand a culture on its terms.

Everyone has the tendency to judge other cultures against what he or she considers to be the norm. The way life engraves into our being from early childhood and when those things begin to change we naturally try to resist them, not many people like change. However, the change should be embraced. It is how we evolve not only as human beings but also as individuals. I once heard that there is no such thing as perfection. Perfection means to be at the end with no change in sight, but life continues to evolve in infinite ways.

“I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.”

However, always evolving.

Heaven is perfection or is it?

There are so many different cultures in our world it would be a shame not to experience at least just one. I would love to experience them all. Each one would provide a learning experience that could change me as a person and evolve me as an individual.

Imagine what it would be like to merge all the cultures of the world into one.

Would that be confusion, conflict, or absolution?

Language Barriers

The United States is behind those cultures of other nations when it comes to language barriers. Did you know that most countries teach English as a second language when a child enters early grade school? Many cultures not only teach English but also the languages of the border countries. It is not uncommon for those cultures to speak up to four different languages. Why doesn’t the United States follow suit?

Public education only teaches English during grade school. Our country can teach multiple languages to children at an early age because of the diversity of the social background that makes up our nation. We have African, Middle-Eastern, Japanese, European, Chinese, and Spanish speaking individuals are constantly immigrating to our country. There is no reason our nation should be a one language nation.

It is a “Known fact” that most children will learn anything from a peer faster than from an adult. Our school system could take advantage of this fact and promote acceptance of the new student immigrant by teaching our English to them while they teach their language to our students, which in turn would lower the language barrier that creates misgivings and isolation from a community.

I tried tirelessly to teach my children how to swim. However, when their friends came along and took over the swimming lessons they were swimming like pros in no time.

Belonging to Subcultures

I am a member of the romance writing subculture. We express our selves a bit more than most people in the form of writing while thinking about happy endings of love and romance. Some may consider romance writers to be a counterculture because they believe we write nothing but smut. No, we write stories that are about individuals that develop their characters into something other than what they were at the beginning of the story. Romance or love is an added element that requires the ending to be happy at the conclusion.

Many people, especially Americans, love to read Romances. They want to experience the success of the individual and the happiness associated with finding that one true love.

Chapter 3

The two agents of socialization that have influenced me most over the years were my high school years and the environment of my first employer – New England Business Service. The attitudes of North Middlesex taught me that education does matter. My education instilled strong beliefs and values that have remained with me to this day. The years of working for my first employer created the work ethics that I still follow which is that of respect, consciences attitude, and dependability.

“Proper” Relationships

My view of “proper” relationships of men and women are to each their own. Love knows no barriers and should not be discouraged. The original decree between men and women of the Bible was to populate the earth but, hello, we have enough people on our planet. We can stop populating anytime and still have enough people for the next 50 years. If our population grows too much, we might be reduced to eating each other to be able to provide food to sustain our species. Hmm – maybe that is how the zombie apocalypse starts.

Changing Life Course

My life course has changed multiple times over the years. I’ve been a student and a child; then I became an adult. When I became someone’s mom, my responsibility changed. I became responsible for someone other than me while earning a living. It appears that I have changed life course every ten or twenty years. Now that I am in my middle years I have once again changed my course toward bigger and better things that are looming on the horizon. Even the way I viewed my gender has changed multiple times. First just a girl and then a woman to a female and again a woman only this time a much stronger individual that is seeing equality for the first time in their life.