The perfect storm is here!

I did not have any idea what a “perfect storm” was (actually I thought it was just a movie). Thanks to today class, I learnt something about it.

To understand what America’s perfect storm is about, we watched an interesting video. As the information was presented, I tried to create an image on my mind to get the main idea. What I imagined is an entire country being absorbed by a black hole… What a terrible situation!

Nowadays, American companies not only face new challenges to satisfy people’s needs but also have to compete with companies from all over the World; and this is very difficult for them because the workforce is cheaper in those other countries. The situation gets worse if we consider the fact that there are less and less highly qualified professionals in the US. The reason of this seems to be that many people do not finish high schools nor do not do a degree course because they think they do not need it, they could be content with a badly-paid job. Finally, but not less important, it is the fact that American population will continue to grow and became older and diverse. In this context, the immigration would have an effect not only in the population’s growth but also in the workforce (according to a report of ETS, between 2000 and 2005, two-thirds of the nation’s civilian labor-force growth and 86 percent of its employment growth was generated by new immigrant arrivals.)

Based on all this information, I would say that the US future may be a real nightmare. Americans should take measures before it is too late.

Big corporation, big power

Big corporations are really important in the US Economy. They provide work to thousands of people, they satisfy people’s needs, and they are admired and envied by small companies. 

Nevertheless, some of them do not want to have any competition, so they create monopolies (unfair competition); as a result they can fix the prices they want. In addition some of these companies have influence upon political and/or economic issues of the country; and that is unacceptable. Let’s imagine that a huge laboratory develops a pill which cures a specific disease. Everything is ok. However, the pharmacists know this pill has terrible side effects so it is impossible to sell it. But it does not matter. They have “friends” in the highest levels of the State and they can persuade them (with money, of course) to admit their product. Finally, the magic pill is welcome to the market where thousands of people will buy it without knowing its bad consequences… This is just an example about how some big corporations take unfair advantage of their power. 

I would not say all big corporations are bad or good, but I am totally sure that they must be controlled for the good of all.

American crisis

Fourth class was about the Great Depression and the Subprime mortgage crisis. 

These crises seem to have similarities. For example, in the Great Depression there was an “Economic bubble” while in Subprime mortgage crisis there was a “Real estate bubble”. 

Another similarity is that Wall Street was involved in both crises. In the Great Depression, companies and people bought and sold shares. In the Subprime mortgage crisis, investors and banks bought and sold ‘toxic bonds’. 

The consequences are also similar: lots of companies and/or banks went bankrupt, thousands of people lost their jobs, unemployment rate increased, middle class people were affected, crises spread all over the World, etc. 

 

 At the Great Depression time, the President of the US was Hebert Hoover. He did not take the necessary measures to face the crisis so people got angry. When the Subprime mortgage crisis started, the President of the US was George W. Bush. He did take measures but these measures consisted of save banks and companies which were responsible for the crisis. Once again, people got angry. Both Presidents were from the Republican Party. Both Presidents were succeeded by Democratic Party’s candidates. 

Finally, despite the facts, I think the main reason of both crises was greed. People were not happy with what they had, they wanted more and more.

American Government

US independence was a huge event! This definitely laid the foundations of this great nation. 

I find particularly interesting the fact that the thirteen former colonies kept their autonomy. In my opinion, Americans wanted to be the master of their own destiny: nobody rules them but themselves. 

It is also amazing to know how Americans created and organized their form of government. As in many countries, there are three branches in the US: legislative branch (Congress), executive branch (The President), and the judicial branch (Supreme Court). Perhaps what differs from those other countries is that each branch has powers over the other; this is known as “checks and balance”, and prevents any one branch from gaining undue power. This is the reason why The President is not as powerful as people use to think. 

Regarding the elections, I would say that the system of national Presidential elections is a little bit difficult to understand. Citizens who want to vote must register as voter (it is not obligatory to vote in US). In addition, the “Electoral College” reports the “electoral votes” which are equal to the number of Senator and Representatives each state has in Congress. Despite its complexity, it seems to be the best system for Americans. 

Finally, while in many countries there are plenty of political parties, in America there are just two (in fact, there are more, but they do not influence too much): the Republicans and the Democrats. The traditional European terms of “right” and “left” may fit these two parties, but it actually does not. For example, a Democrat could be “liberal” as well as “conservative”. It is necessary to study these political parties without any “denomination”.

Natives in America?

Although second class’ subject was the immigration in America, I’d like to write about the first immigrant of this nation: Native Americans.

Due to my lack of knowledge, I used to think that there were not inhabitants in America before Europeans arrived. How wrong I was! I have just learnt that first Americans came from Eurasia via Beringia, a former land bridge which connected America to present-day Europe across what is now Bering Strait. Several ethnic groups and tribes settled in the vast central lands of present-day United States and occupied them for many centuries.

However, European arrival resulted in a huge change in Native tribes: the population decreased dramatically since natives did not have immunity to new diseases brought from the Old World. Besides, many tribes had to cede a great quantity of their territories after bloody, long-term wars; they were forced to settle in specific areas.

Nowadays, most of the Native Americans live in Indian Reservations and possess sovereignty, even though it is limited. On the other hand, there is an important number of native which do not live in reservations but in big western cities such as Phoenix and Los Angeles.

I wonder why these people do not have much presence in American culture, I mean, why they do not appear much in American films or series. Of course I believe there are plenty of studies about Native Americans, but it seems that they are not part of US’ history. Perhaps I am exaggerating…

American culture

I can't deny it: USA is a great nation! 

In this first class I have learnt some interesting facts about the US. For example, I believed that Puerto Rico, one of the US’s territories, had its own President, but I was wrong. I also used to think that in the US there were more Black people than Latinos, but it is quite the opposite!

However, the main topic of the class was to decide whether American culture is a melting pot or a salad bowl. For doing this, we read an interesting article which stated the difference between these two approaches. Eventually, and after discussing points of view, we agreed that the US is a mixture of both melting pot and salad bowl. Why? Because we can see different ethnic groups living and working together, but they keep their own customs and traditions. On the other hand, we can also see people from all over the world not only live and work together, but also start new families. As a result, there are more and more people adopting a mix of customs and traditions. And this is the reason of diversity within America.

Unfortunately, diversity brings problems. American society still has to deal with racism and inequality due to discrepancies between ethnic groups.