By only donating money that we spend on things not necessary to survive we are still able to live a life that is comfortable and the idea of rich and poor people can be thrown away. Though this could probably only be achieved with government intervention, the possibilities are endless. Of course a big downside to this idea is the fact that we work hard for our money. It can seem like a waste to give it away after we work long and hard to obtain it. Another con is that after living with an excess of everything for so long, the people who are most prosperous might not be as willing to give it up.
In terms of consumerism, the good life is damaging to the environment, places too much emphasis on money, and it dwindles the importance of non-market values. According to Annie Leonard’s “The Story of Stuff”, our current materials economy is a commodity chain in which goods go from extraction, to production, to distribution, to consumption, and finally to disposal. The system sounds stable but it is actually in crisis. Anyone with a simple understanding of mathematics can tell you that you cannot run a linear system on a finite planet in the real world. In order for us, the consumers, to get all of our fancy products and up-to-date technologies, a process that we turn a blind eye to takes place.
A utilitarian’s goal is to determine how to obtain “the greatest possible balance of good over bad for everyone effected by our actions” (Shaw & Barry, 2013). American production is a shell of what it once was, and with next to nothing to export, and potential production being lost to overseas cheap labor we will never be able to obtain the level of production that we once had. In addition more times than not the individuals working at the production plants making US products will not make enough money to be able to afford the goods they are helping to produce and because they are paid based on their counties cheap labor rate, although they will have a job they will probably not be paid enough to improve their financial status much if at all. 2.) Export commodities which have been banned from sale in the United States No, a business shouldn’t be able to export commodities that have been banned from the United States.
They don’t live lavish lifestyles. They are willingly to pay for quality items but certainly not as an image booster. Most people that live next door to these types of millionaires are oblivious to that fact. These types of millionaires may very well be perceived as boring and as not having a very happy life or lifestyle. Usually this is not the case though and these millionaires are indeed very happy.
In the 1920’s the American Dream was something that everyone struggled to have. A spouse, children, money, a big house and a car meant that someone had succeeded in life. A very important aspect was money, and that’s what greatly determined success. This was not true in all cases however. Jay Gatsby was a poor boy that turned into a very wealthy man, but did he live the American Dream?
Myrtle is poor she does not have any extra money and hates her life with Wilson. Nick Harroway was middle class and had a little extra money but was not rich. Tom and Daisy were wealthy. They both came from rich families and had a lot of extra money. Gatsby was extremely rich.
The things in life that cannot be purchased are family, love, and your religious beliefs. Knowing this, I wonder if the richest people in the world hold religion at the center of their life in the same way someone less fortunate would. In all honesty, I crave to be financially confident and to be able to have money for my cravings of nice material things, (isn’t this why we work in the first place?) though I am aware those things that I crave hold no spiritual value. Just as an animal performs his tricks with a treat as his motivation, we humans seem to be disciplined to “work hard, play later”; to go to school and get good grades to have to have the reward of a good paying job and so on and so forth.
The minimum wage was far lower than the livable wage, however, welfare reform was expecting people to become independent through these unlivable minimum wages. True independence with minimum wage was never a possibility and the lives of the impoverished only became more dire. Due to the low minimum wage, Ehrenreich was forced to find a second job, even with the advantage of starting with an ample sum of money. Also, like others she met that lacked welfare support, these jobs were in terrible settings. Descriptions of these settings, including no breaks, slippery floors, abundant second-hand smoke, and more, reminds one that the factories of the Industrial Revolution have returned.
They believed that your life should not be driven by materialistic goals or other external forces. Walden, another transcendentalist said to “not seek so anxiously to be developed, to subject yourself to many influences to be played is dissipation”. Walden stressed the idea that if you cannot afford things in the first place you are forced to experience the basic vivacity of life. It’s easy to see that today people are fighting to keep up with the Jones’s. Jobs are something given to make money, money to buy things, the job is not usually chosen to “front the essential facts of life”.
Money. But because not everyone is that lucky and can not all be born into riches. With the little they have they want more. They hold grudges for the rich because there not like them, and want to become like them and will stop at no means possible to get what they want. The wealthy tend to use money as power.