Revised Big Paper

Essential Question-What is the American Way of Life?

Thesis
AWOL is an abbreviation for the American Way of Life. Now, one might say that they know what that is, but how can one person's definition be the true meaning to all of America. In order to better understand what the American Way of Life is my class had discussions, asked random people on the street as well as family members, and did multiple stimulations to see if we could get down to the bottom of the traditions and customs that form our lives. My results led me to believe this: The American Way of Life is based on principles that are laid out for us by the Constitution and such documents but not reachable in most circumstances because of the social classes in which we are born into.

Other Perspectives
To better understand certain things, you must of course gather sources and information on the matter. That is exactly what we did. We set out to the streets of New York (well more like 22nd-23rd, 1st ave to Park ave) and asked pedestrians what they thought the American Way of Life was. Now, I wanted to keep variety in people I asked so that I could get a variety of answers but I just couldn't bring myself to stop a girl so these are all men responses. I did however vary in men. I asked capitalist, rich, worker, poor, black, Hispanic, and white (Asians are hard to stop). There responses to me were broad and not well thought out except for this one guy who kept taking forever to answer but, came up with the same answers as the others. From the capitalist, I got the most outrageous response which is how I knew he was a capitalist. First off, I had asked the gentlemen he was with to answer my questions but, he told me he didn't have time and his friend responded "You just go, I'll do it." with a sigh. I brushed it off and immediately wrote down rich. I asked him what he thought the American Way of Life was. He responded it was health, happiness, and freedom. Straight from the Declaration itself. I then asked what he thought were the good and bad aspects of AWOL. He said a good aspect was that we had "the best criminal justice system in all the world". At this point, I was erasing rich and writing capitalist. When he answered to the bad aspects was that I was really appalled. He told me that the bad aspect of the American Way of Life was the TRAFFIC. What?! We are in a recession and this guy thinks traffic's bad? That has capitalism written all over it because evidently he is financially secure enough to talk about traffic when thousands of families are losing their homes everyday because they cannot pay their mortgages. I was in such shock that I just said thank you and walked away.

From the working class, I received more sane answers. they told me that money was the main aspect of the American Way of Life and that corporations are always trying to take it all from the small guys. Some other responses were of course opportunity and freedom. One even said that smoking, drinking, and working were the American Way of Life. Who can deny that this is what a majority of Americans do? So is that what the American Way of Life is? I think not but if this is what people have in their heads then it must play a small part. They didn't really vary in what they said were the bad aspects of AWOL as most said war and related things. This just goes to show that AWOL is based on money, how we can get it, and what we can do with it.

My family has migrated from different parts of the country. I asked my father what it was like when he first came here from Mexico. He replied that it was extremely different. In Mexico it is based more on family values rather than money unlike here in the U.S. He told me his family moved here to live the American dream. Get a good job, make money, and live in happiness. What they found what they got here however was hardship and people that looked down upon them because of their ethnicity. They looked at them as immigrants that only deserved jobs that the regular Americans would not take. Because of their social class being the lowest of all (immigrants from Mexico) they did not get to live the American Dream that many immigrants want to live. Over the years, my family has struggled to work for what they have and although they tried not to Americanize themselves, the changing of generations has forced them too. Today we are seen as Mexican-Americans celebrating both Christmas and Three Kings.

Capitalism
One major aspect that are class studied was capitalism. Capitalism is an economic system in which the goods and services are produced, distributed, and consumed through the mechanism of a free market fixed deeply on the right to private property and the profit motive (says the dictionary). Andy's definition is that capitalism is an economic system in which the overwhelming majority toil for the profit of the tiny minority. In simpler words, "We work, they profit." In AWOL, we went over capitalism and tried to see if this was really the basis of the country we live in. If you think about it, it makes sense. For example, if you work in a clothing store. You work and put in the hours that can get you the type of money you need to survive, while the old, white man who owns the clothing store you work for, is sitting in his Malibu home sipping cocktails. I went into American Apparel (of course Americans must shop there as it is American). There was a very frustrated, opinionated saleswoman who started telling us what working in American Apparel was like. She said that in order to get a job there you must send in a picture of yourself with the application and was telling us how degrading and horrible the job was. My question was if the job was so horrible, why is she still working here? Simple question. She answered me simply with the answer "I do need to live." I was in shock that she would respond this way but in a way a totally understood. What else could she do but stick to the job that degraded her if she wanted to survive?! So here are thousands of Americans represented in this woman. We are not working hard and long for these corporations because we like our jobs, but are doing it so that when we go home we have enough money for the basic utilities. We work until we can no longer stand so that these rich families can go on vacation in Tahiti. However, we cannot do anything about it because that was how the American Way of Life was long ago created.

Critique of Capitalism
Karl Marx was a critic of capitalism. He came up with the ideas of alienation, labor theory of value, crashing capitalism and primitive accumulation of capitalism. The way that people started capitalism is the primitive accumulation of capitalism. Capitalist did this by enslaving, stealing, and genocide. The collecting of more and more capitalism leads to the capitalist of today. Alienation is something that was you but becomes not you. For example, doing something that you had once liked for a capitalism. The labor theory of value means that the source of all wealth comes from labor. Workers make less than the products they are making are worth. The surplus goes to the capitalists who build more capitalism from this money. Crashing capitalism is when the rate of return drops so low that people start to drop out. As people drop out, more people are left without jobs. The unemployement rate grows and in turn leads to a recession. This is the kind of United States we live in now. With so many people losing their jobs it is impossible to live a fulfilling American Way of Life that is promised to us in the Constitution. The Constitution gives us this fake sense of hope that we are able to accomplish many things because we have all these rights. In reality however, if you are not at the top of the economic ladder you do not get the same privileges as those on top.

Constitution
We also took time to go over the government. Stuff like the Constitution and how the powers are divided. This contributes to the American Way of Life because it divides us into our social classes. It is a base line for what is acceptable and what isn't. The government tells us the things we can do and what we can't but they trick us into believing they are doing it because we want them too. We elect our officials who are looking out for our best interest yet they are getting paid thousands with money that can be helping the working classes. This relates to AWOL because again we are working hard just in order to survive but we can't do much about it because after all it is the American Way of Life.