The obsession with social hierarchy drives people to be selfish and greedy- never happy with what they have. At the same time, there are many people like Gatsby today who feel they have to cheat their way to the top to be happy, like so many corporate giants who have schemed for years and stole billions of dollars from innocent, but maybe slightly naïve taxpayers. Both kinds of people have lost the sense of the American dream. Originally people just wanted a perfect but humble life: a loving, close-knit family, a steady paying job, and ultimately pure happiness. But once people see that it is possible to have much more than that, they begin to get covetous and only want more.
However, George finds their collective identity a problem when he believes Cheryl will like his friends more than she likes him because they are funnier. Consequently, George tells Elaine and Jerry to be less humorous so that George can appear to be the funniest person in their group and impress Cheryl. Due to their sense of unity and loyalty, George’s request was fulfilled. The quality of group decisions is substantially affected by group norms, as each individual relies on in-group contribution rather than evidence obtained from outside sources. This is shown in Seinfeld when Kramer and George purchased a secondhand wheelchair for Kramer's girlfriend, as it was significantly cheaper than a brand new one.
Whereas grand fathers are far less likely to invest because not only might they not be the father of their son but their son might not be the father of the new offspring. Child rearing for women comes at a high expense. They have to care for the child for a minimum of nine months and then they are relied up on by the child after the birth for demands such as breast feeding. Therefore females not only make the greater parental contribution but also the largest postnatal contribution. Random mating is therefore so much more costly for women compared to men.
On the other hand, less talented individuals have to labor themselves through college, work for their tuition, and have a career as a doctor, engineer, or a banker if they want to earn a fraction of what these overpaid professional athletes get. “Americans do not value education” (Anderson). When you look at the value of entertainment, it is obvious that we as a society value entertainment highly. But there is no reason that these athletes, who are here to just entertain us, get paid higher wages than those that save our lives and teach us such as medical doctors and teachers do. It is ridiculous that athletes make millions of dollars a year, and yet demand more.
Now, we think that Olivia would be overwhelmed with joy because it was the socially acceptable thing to do, for two people such as Orsino and Olivia to marry because of their social status, but this is where the social order of Illyria was disrupted. Olivia refused Orsino's proposal. To the people of Illyria, this was major because Orsino was left without a women to marry. Back then, a man of high social status was to marry a female who was of lower social status than him, yet still significant. Duke Orsino was very wealthy and, most times, royalty did not marry out of love, just for status and money but Olivia refused.
For example – as marriages were a crucial part of family honour, prestige and not to mention political alliances and economical partnership it was essential that a father find a suitable groom and the only way that was access to vast finance for a dowry as it was seen the larger the dowry, the better status of marriage. The more female offspring the father of family had, the more likely the money would run out and no more dowries could be afforded and therefore the daughters had two options – to become nuns or prostitutes but in most cases this was both. From thereon they were just dumped in convents and most of those nuns didn’t care for
The Union is supposed to help the economy, not take away businesses that will help it. Efforts made by the Union to keep Hostess and get a better pay and benefits for the workers were too expensive and not very reasonable. I think they should have tried to work out a better plan instead of making it practically impossible for Hostess to agree. Because Hostess went out of business, it will affect not only the lives of more than 18,500 workers, but it will also hurt the economy of the United
Myrtle started acting like a rich person just because of a material object. This is materialistic because Myrtle acts rich just because of a dress. Myrtle shows her materialistic qualities when she says “It’s just a crazy old thing; I just slip it on sometimes when I don’t care what I look like.”(pg31) This leads to Myrtle thinking of George in a materialistic manner in the next example. Because George didn’t have enough money to buy a fancy new suit for his wedding day he borrowed one from someone. When Myrtle finds out about this she gets mad at George.
Therefore, like an ignorant individual, I assumed that my living was the standard of living of everyone else’s. I had many richer friends, which also made me think that my standard of living was average. However, thinking critically, there are tons of people who do not have the means or the grades to go to an educational level beyond high school and therefore receive minimum wage jobs without a good opportunity for promotion because those will be handed to people with the higher educational people. Also, that leaves very little room to improve the condition of living that you find yourself in. Therefore most of the times you will find yourself marrying an individual of the same economic class due the nature that nobody wants to date someone of lower class as you.
Being knocked down a peg in society brings us back to wishing we could just accept or afford the little house with the picket fence. As soon as we are able to fulfill that dream again, if ever, we become greedy again. People crave for more and I believe it is only human to feel this way; this helps us to fit into society and feel as though we are living the American dream. For some people they struggle to live the American dream and tend look to the government for help. Feeling helpless due to the economy they become addicted to claiming help from other sources other than themselves because it just seems easier.