Social Problems in America

Social Problems In America

How are we doing? Is the G.D.P rising? Is the stock market strong? Are businesses prospering? Is inflation low? Is the deficit shrinking? Are exports increasing? These questions are all important economically and socially in the world today. If I knew the answers to all these things right now I would be a millionaire. Corporate businesses and wealthy people are taking over the world as we know it, and these things are constantly changing. The stock market goes up and down. Imports and exports are increasing along with the price as we can see in the petroleum ordeal that is going on today. In chapter one I learned that not only are there business economic indicators which forecast the upcoming business cycle, but that the United States is actually one of the better countries in the world at monitoring our economy surprisingly.

All of these things are important issues but in chapter one I learned that there many more issues that are not spoken about on a daily basis. All of the data about economic issues are all printed daily, but the social issues are only printed yearly at best, and by the time they come out they are more than two years old. Most of those out of date reports aren’t even mean for the general public. They’re published in such a way that only experts can understand them. Newspapers such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The L.A. Times have sections concerning business, science, art, and things like that printed on a daily basis, but very few newspapers have any social problems printed on a weekly basis. One good way to change the way people can see the “social slide of American life” (The Social Health of the Nation) is to use indicators. “An Indicator is a metaphor, a sounding, a hint of something greater. A good indicator is not “a thing in itself,” to be examined and understood in isolation, but a glimpse of a broader context.”(The Social Health of the Nation) When there is a specific weakness in economics they are immediately identified and portrayed to the public by a respected spokesperson via radio, television, and internet. Social problems also can be identified but there is no real public interest therefore anyone to report it.

There have been people who are looking to get the public involved in our social problem. Some men have succeeded more than others. Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, it is all about the terrible and dangerous conditions in the meat-packing industry. John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath, it is about the desperation and problem of the migrant laborers in the 1930’s. The thing is these are just two many problems in the world and not everyone in the world knows how to read.