Author: amazonite345

Reflective Statement- Amazonite345

I. Understand that writing is a practice which involves a multi-stage, recursive and social process.

I believe I had accomplished this goal albeit a lot later than I would’ve liked. Generally I am rather independent so learning how to cooperate proved to be difficult but necessary. Without a thorough discussion of ideas and a number of drafts, my thesis would have been not only impossibly difficult, but almost inherently unworkable as well.

II. Understand that close and critical reading/analysis allows writers to understand how and why texts create meaning.

Early on I was set back by trying to find a singular definition for “The American Dream.” Quite frankly this singular definition does not exist. This led to significant difficulties in the forming of my thesis as well as starting my paper. Only through comparisons of various definitions of the “American Dream,” presented by various authors, and polls and cross referencing them to each other was I able to define what the “American Dream” meant to me and what it meant in terms of my paper.

III. Understand that writing is shaped by audience, purpose, and context.

By having an idea of what I wanted this paper to be, as well as having a general idea of what I was going to find, I knew that the purpose of the paper would be to ultimately address the shortcomings of the United States in terms of fulfilling the American Dream. I knew I would end up talking about the income inequality and it shows, as the main points in my paper focus around the economy and social mobility.

IV. Understand the role of information literacy in the practice of writing.

During my research paper I found a lot of often times conflicting facts. There’s a lot of statistics that can be thrown around and it was important for me to learn how to understand it properly. Had I not achieved this goal, my paper could have been very different, especially when announcing numbers given by polls. It’s important for me to learn how to use the data in the way that benefits me, and in a way that accurately represents what my research conveyed.

V. Understand the ethical dimensions of writing

My paper was very factual and at times could be very wordy. I had to learn how to take the information given to me and represent it accurately without trying to twist their meanings. I also learned that I could not just take someone’s data and just put it in my paper without proper citations. Although it would be easier for me to just put all the stats and data in my paper and talk about them after, I knew that I had to properly mention each source as I brought it up.

 

Bibliography—amazonite

Chetty, Raj, and Nathaniel Hendren. “The Equality of Opportunity Project.” The Equality of Opportunity Project. The Equality of Opportunity Project, 1 Aug. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. <http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/&gt;.

Background- The Equality of Opportunity Project is headed by Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren, professors at Stanford and Harvard respectively. They have many papers, all of which they publish on their website. Their main focus is on opportunity and they even tackle the idea of the American Dream, albeit they only talk about the idea through pure economic terms. Their data is limited to the US and does not mention other countries.
How I used it- I used their research to determine social mobility in the United States. Using their data, I was able to compare it to data from other sources which had the economic mobility of other countries. This website gave me a lot of insight on why the US has a low relative social mobility, which they believe is caused by income inequality.

Corak, Miles. “Social Mobility and Social Institutions in Comparison Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States.” Economics for Public Policy. Cato Institute, 21 May 2012. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. <https://milescorak.com/&gt;.
Background- Miles Corak is a professor at the University of Ottowa who studies social mobility in some of the richest countries in the world. He posts lectures that he gives on his website for anyone to see. He does a great deal of research on the immigration, the economy and a lot of other social/economic issues.
How I used it- Miles Corak had some of the most extensive comparisons of social mobility between countries that I could find. He updates his findings fairly often. This allowed me to compare the US in terms of social mobility to other countries with data dating back to 2011, which is not as recent as I’d like but, it’s still the most recent study out there.

Gass, Bick. “Poll: Half of Millennials Say the American Dream Is Dead.” POLITICO. POLITICO, 12 Oct. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. <http://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/poll-millennials-american-dream-216632&gt;.
Background- This article was written to convey the points made in a recent Harvard Institute of Politics poll.
How I used it- While I was able to get limited information from this article alone, it did springboard me to different sources, including the actuall polling data the author writes about.

Hargreaves, Sean. “America’s Economic Mobility Myth.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 9 Dec. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. <http://money.cnn.com/2013/12/09/news/economy/america-economic-mobility/?iid=EL&gt;.
Background- This article talks about the social mobility of the US and focuses on the reasons why we don’t have as great a mobility as other rich countries.
How I used it- I used it to find other sources, but more importantly, I used this article to find reasons why the US is lagging in social mobility and spent a good portion of my paper talking about those reasons and what America can do to change the way things work now.

Isaacs, Julia B. “INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF ECONOMIC MOBILITY.” The Brookings Institute. The Brookings Institute, 28 July 2016. Web. 08 Dec. 2016. <https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/02_economic_mobility_sawhill_ch3.pdf&gt;.
Background- The Brookings Institute is a think tank formed in 1916. They release papers and studies on various topics, in this case, social mobility.
How I used it- There was a lot of data on here that corresponded to or was exactly the same data that Miles Corak used. However, they had the added benefit of breaking down the population by fifths, and looking at how many people in each fifth moved to a different fifth, either up or down. This breakdown was critical in proving my main argument and helped paint a picture of just how bad Americas social mobility is.

Luhby, Tami. “The American Dream Is out of Reach.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 4 June 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. <http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/04/news/economy/american-dream/&gt;.
Background- This article contained polling data concerning the American Dream. It focuses on millennials and their disbelief in the dream and how the latest generations are much more pessimistic about it.
How I used it- This poll allowed me to make the critical argument that the American Dream is already very close to dying. If no one believes in it, how can it be achievable? The article also gives me an insight on why so many young people are saying it’s just too good to be true, which allows me address some of their concerns in my paper.

Perez, Esten. “The Institute of Politics at Harvard University.” Harvard IOP Fall 2015 Poll | The Institute of Politics at Harvard University. Harvard Institute of Politics, 10 Nov. 2015. Web. 08 Dec. 2016. <http://iop.harvard.edu/survey/details/harvard-iop-fall-2015-poll&gt;.
Background- The Harvard IOP poll shows the belief the average US citizen has of the American Dream. It broke down it’s data by race and party lines (the latter of which I did not use.)
How I used it- I used it to make help support an argument that I made which claimed that if the American Dream was not dead it was certainly on the decline. I showed how people along all races were losing faith at roughly the same rate.

Seelye, Katharine Q. “What Happens to the American Dream in a Recession?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 May 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2016. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/08/us/08dreampoll.html?_r=0&gt;.
Background- This was a poll done by the New York Times that asked people about their version of the American Dream and whether or not it could be achieved.
How I used it- This poll gave me the three set definitions of the American Dream that I talk about in my paper. By taking the three most common answers, I was able to determine what factors I should take into account when determining whther or not the Amrican Dream was dead.

Vasquez, Ian, and Tanja Porcnik. “The Human Freedom Index.” Cato Institute. Cato Institute, 4 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. <http://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2016-11-29/these-are-the-freest-countries-in-the-world&gt;.
Background- The Human Freedom Index is a study done every year that rates countries based on the various freedoms it might have. These include social freedom, economic freedoms etc.
How I used it- I used this index to determine that the US is not the best place in the world for freedom. This piece was essential in proving that one of the most popular answers to the question of the American Dream is also on the decline even though some people may not think about it.

Venator, Joanna, and Richard V. Reeves. “Mobility: What Are You Talking About?” Brookings. The Brookings Institute, 28 July 2016. Web. 9 Dec. 2016. <https://www.brookings.edu/blog/social-mobility-memos/2014/06/05/mobility-what-are-you-talking-about/&gt;.
Background- This article is published by the Brookings Institute which is mentioned above. In it, the author talks about the very basics of social mobility and breaks it down into two categories which are relative, and absolute mobility.
How I used it- This article gave me the idea to determine the economic opportunities through social mobility as well as a general knowledge of the subject in a way that was simple for me to understand.

Winship, Scott. “Does the U.S. Have Lower Economic Mobility than Other Countries?” National Review. National Review, 06 July 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2016. <http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/420794/economic-mobility-united-states-compared-europe-scandinavia&gt;.
Background- This article talks about debunking the various criticisms about the belief that the American Dream is dying.
How I used it- I used it to gather data from other sources which allowed me to find data necesarry to my argument.

Causal—amazonite

One of the biggest reasons the US is falling behind in social mobility is the ever-increasing income inequality. The Equality of Opportunity Project ran a study that showed that 90 percent of Americans in 1940 were able to earn more than their parents, dropping to around 50 percent by 1980, and they cite income inequality as the main reason for the drop. By breaking up the US into sections, we see that it is the poorer, rural areas that provide less chance for more earnings. In the worst sections, particularly in the southern states between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi, the chance of earning more than the previous generation is 4.8 percent or lower. The best chance of moving up in terms of income distribution is to move out of those rural areas. This is not always a feasible option however. Many families are stuck in low-income areas. Inside those low-income areas are poorer and therefore more ineffective schools, which leads to a lower average education level. The lower the average education level, the less potential there is for new earnings. Thus the cycle continues, and the poor remain in the same spot, if not becoming poorer.

Definition—amazonite

The American Dream is a vast topic that differs from person to person, and it would be disingenuous to proceed without addressing the many different versions of the American Dream, A New York Times poll found that the three most agreed upon versions of the American Dream are freedom/opportunity at 27%, hard work leads to success at 18% and a secure job at 11%. To look at both opportunity and hard work translating to success, I will look at the US’ social mobility. Social mobility is a person’s ability to overcome their current economic class and move into a higher one. This kind of social mobility is called “relative social mobility.” It’s important to note that it is distinctly different from “absolute social mobility” which measures the wealth of the population as a whole. If a newer generation of a country has higher wages while adjusting for inflation, then that country has a positive absolute social mobility. Relative social mobility takes a look at the individual, absolute mobility looks at the country as a whole.

Research Position Paper

The American Dream:
Achievable or Legend?

Once upon a time the impressive sight of a shining, glimmering copper Statue of Liberty welcomed millions of immigrants seeking entry to the United States with the plaque containing a quote from Emma Lazarus’ poem “The New Colossus”: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” It should be made clear that these words alone do not promise a better life, despite what many may think. Rather it promises only the opportunity for a better life. Such a belief is the root of the American Dream, the idea that anyone can succeed by working hard enough. As such, America has prided itself on being the “land of opportunity,” the place where everyone can become successful by following their dreams and working hard. But is America really the land of opportunity? That is to say, how successful can you really be in the United States when you compare it to other countries?

The American Dream is a vast topic that differs from person to person, and it would be disingenuous to proceed without addressing the many different versions of the American Dream, A New York Times poll found that the three most agreed upon versions of the American Dream are freedom/opportunity at 27%, hard work leads to success at 18% and a secure job at 11%. To look at both opportunity and hard work translating to success, I will look at the US’ social mobility. Social mobility is a person’s ability to overcome their current economic class and move into a higher one. This kind of social mobility is called “relative social mobility.” It’s important to note that it is distinctly different from “absolute social mobility” which measures the wealth of the population as a whole. If a newer generation of a country has higher wages while adjusting for inflation, then that country has a positive absolute social mobility. Relative social mobility takes a look at the individual, absolute mobility looks at the country as a whole.

There is no doubt the USA has a great absolute social mobility. According to a Pew research study, 84% of Americans have higher wages than their parents. However, despite a high absolute mobility, the United States actually has a relatively low relative social mobility.

It is counterintuitive to think that the country that is heralded as “the land of opportunity” is not the country that best allows its citizens the ability to move up in social class nor is it the one that provides it’s citizens the most freedom. Regardless of whether or not the American Dream is dead, the belief in it is surely dying in newer generations. In a 2015 poll conducted by Harvard’s Institute of Politics, 49 percent of people 18-29 years old responded that the dream was indeed alive, while 48 percent that it was dead for them. This belief was split fairly evenly between whites (49 percent believed that the dream was alive,) African-Americans (44 percent believed that the dream was alive) and Hispanics (52 percent believed the dream was alive.) No information on Asian Americans was given. A CNN poll found that nearly 60 percent of Americans said the American Dream was unachievable.

The lack of faith in the so-called “American” is a mirror of the world as it is today. With a weak economy, it’s no surprise that Americans feel disillusioned with the belief that hard work can get a person into a higher social class. The director of the Economic Mobility Project at Pew Charitable Trusts, Erin Currier says that “The pessimism is reflective of the financial realities a lot of families are facing. They are treading water, but their income is not translating into solid financial security.” But while Americans are thinking one thing, the data shows something else entirely. Harvard economics professor Raj Chetty says that “We find that children entering the labor market today have the same chances of moving up in the income distribution as children born in the 1970s.” Moving up in this sense is relative to the parents of the children in question. This means social mobility hasn’t changed in at least 40 years. So why does it feel so hard to move up in the world in the eyes of many Americans?

The Equality of Opportunity Project ran a study that showed that 90 percent of Americans in 1940 were able to earn more than their parents, dropping to around 50 percent by 1980. The main reason for this they cite is income inequality. The poor remain poor while the rich get richer. By breaking up the US into sections, we see that it is the poorer, rural areas that provide less chance for more earnings. In the worst sections, particularly in the southern states between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mississippi, the chance of earning more than the previous generation is 4.8 percent or lower. The best chance of moving up in terms of income distribution is to move out of those rural areas. This is not always a feasible option however. Many families are stuck in low-income areas. Inside those low-income areas are poorer and therefore more ineffective schools, which leads to a lower average education level. The lower the average education level, the less potential there is for new earnings. Thus the cycle continues, and the poor remain in the same spot, if not becoming poorer.

So domestically we know that the United States hasn’t really had that big of a difference in the percent of people who move on to a higher social class, but how does the US compare internationally? Compared to other rich nations, the US lags behind other countries, specifically European countries. Several different studies show that the US has a .47 intergenerational social elasticity. Very simply, this means that the average person in the US has a 47 percent chance to earn the same amount of money their parents did. The closest countries to the US while having a higher social elasticity are the UK and Italy both at an elasticity of .50. After that, it’s Chile at .52 and Slovenia at .54. Directly below the US is Pakistan at a social elasticity of .45 and France at .42. To recap, that means the average person in Pakistan has a 1 percent higher chance of making more money than their parents did compared to the average US citizen. Other major countries include Japan with a .34, Canada at .19 and Denmark at an astoundingly low elasticity of .15. The other Scandinavian countries, Norway and Finland are close to Denmark at .17 and .18 respectively.

While the US hasn’t changed in terms of social mobility in the past 40 years, it’s altogether no too surprising that it hasn’t. Most rich countries have retained their relative mobility in recent history. An exception to this rule is Canada where elasticity rates, according to University of Ottawa professor Miles Corak, went from a .29 elasticity rate in 2006 to a .25 in 2011 and as low as .19 today. Corak’s data also shows that countries with higher income inequality have lower social elasticities.

The truest American Dream story is one of getting to the highest social class- moving up in social class is nice, but nothing quite beats a “rags-to-riches” story. However, the US seems to lag behind other countries even there. Julia Isaacs at The Brookings Institute compared the poorest fifth of a country’s population and measured their progress. Progress was measured by observing children and what situation they were in, and then finding out what they are in now after becoming full adults. In the US 42 percent of children in the poorest fifth of the population stayed in the lowest fifth into adulthood. 50 percent were able to climb to the earnings of people in the second, third or fourth fifth of the population. That leaves a final 8 percent of the lowest income earners who were able to climb all the way up to the wealthiest fifth of the population.

Looking at the Scandinavian countries that showed the lowest intergenerational social elasticity, we find that their poor have a much higher chance of succeeding. Those countries showed that a child had a 61-63 percent chance of getting out of their parent’s bracket at the lowest fifth by one to three brackets. The amount of people who went from the lowest to the highest bracket was as high as 14 percent (Denmark) with the lowest of the Scandinavian countries (Finland and Sweden) scoring a still impressive 11 percent. Even the United Kingdom, which had a lower intergenerational social elasticity, showed more hopeful rates for their poorest people, with only 30 percent of them staying as the poorest. The UK actually ties with Norway at 12 percent of people who climbed from the lowest to the highest. It’s important to remember that “intergenerational social elasticity” only means that a person makes more money than their parents and is not representative of their social class. A person can make more money than their parents while still retaining the social class of their parents.

Now obviously, the mobility of the lower classes obviously causes others to go down into the poorest 20 percent. The amount of people who remained in the top fifth from childhood to adulthood showed generally a 2 percent spread. With the exception of the UK, the countries mentioned in the last paragraph all had 35-37 percent of their wealthiest people stay as the wealthiest. Only 30 percent of people in the UK retained their status. That is where the similarities end, however, for the US is the only country in which 10 percent of people born into the top fifth dropped into the lowest fifth. The UK trails slightly behind at 11 percent, and the Scandinavian countries all have 15 percent with the exception of Sweden at 16 percent. This is a testament to the income inequality in America. The other countries, much more socialistic than the US, all have a better wealth distribution, which makes going in and out of brackets much easier.
It can be argued that the definition of the American Dream isn’t exactly related to the relative social mobility. It is a fair assessment to say that as again, the topic of the American Dream is broad and varies from person to person. But even if we alter the meaning of the American Dream to mean a stable lifestyle, a house, a car and a disposable income for luxury items. A study taking these variables was done by a group of Canadian researchers with TheRedPin. According to them, no country in the world could support their hypothetical American Dream scenario. Interestingly enough, the two closest countries to achieving this goal were Oman and Saudi Arabia. This is based off the costs of living, buying the items mentioned above, as well as taking the average income earned by a worker in these countries.

Freedom and is the last bit of the American Dream that has not been touched yet. Freedom is the pride and joy of this country, celebrated and heralded by every state, every district and every person. What would America be without freedom? With the freedoms granted by the law, the US ranks 23rd on the Human Freedom Index, and index published by a non-partisan think tank known as The Cato Institute, who collaborated with the Fraser Institute in Canada, and the Liberales Institut at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Germany.
“Human freedom is a social concept that recognizes the dignity of the individual,” says Ian Vazquez, who headed the creation of the index. “The declining performance of the United States, once considered the bastion of liberty, is worrisome,” In 2008 the HFI ranked the US as the 16th freest country in the world. Five years later, they were in 19th. According to Vazquez, “We should all be concerned with the impact on liberty of the war on terror, the war on drugs, and the decline in the rule of law and economic liberty in the United States.” These were the main reasons the US is on the decline in the HFI. At the top of the index we have Hong Kong as the freest country, Switzerland at number two, New Zealand in third, Ireland in fourth, Denmark at fifth and Canada, the UK and Australia tied for sixth. It’s important to note that with the exception of the UK all these other countries have a higher social elasticity and higher social mobility than the United States.

With all of this evidence, it is safe to say that the American Dream is no longer uniquely American. Nothing about the American Dream belongs only to America, and in fact, it seems that the idea of the American Dream is an idea survived only by its fame. Younger generations have less and less faith in the American Dream. They do not believe in it. This doubt in something so quintessential to the American way of life is not unnatural given the world economy, but even in better years, the US is not the best country in terms of economic growth. In better years, the US was not even the freest country, and in the current economic situation, it’s hard for people to afford the houses they want. Research has shown that more progressive countries are doing better than the US in terms of economic mobility, owning a house and even in the freedom of its citizens.

The United States does have a course of action, however. To increase social mobility, they need to invest properly in the poorest areas of the country by investing in education. The government needs to take more conclusive steps to fixing the economy so that people can start making more as a whole, providing them with the jobs that pay out enough for their mortgages. The wars on drugs and terror need to be looked at and reviewed closely. If the US cannot do those things, then it truly doesn’t deserve to be known for its freedom. If that should ever happen, the American Dream will be truly just a legend.

Works Cited

Chetty, Raj, and Nathaniel Hendren. “The Equality of Opportunity Project.” The Equality of Opportunity Project. The Equality of Opportunity Project, 1 Aug. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016.

Corak, Miles. “Social Mobility and Social Institutions in Comparison Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States.” Economics for Public Policy. Cato Institute, 21 May 2012. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. .

Gass, Bick. “Poll: Half of Millennials Say the American Dream Is Dead.” POLITICO. POLITICO, 12 Oct. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. .

Hargreaves, Sean. “America’s Economic Mobility Myth.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 9 Dec. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2016. .

Isaacs, Julia B. “INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS OF ECONOMIC MOBILITY.” The Brookings Institute. The Brookings Institute, 28 July 2016. Web. 08 Dec. 2016. .

Luhby, Tami. “The American Dream Is out of Reach.” CNNMoney. Cable News Network, 4 June 2014. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. .

Perez, Esten. “The Institute of Politics at Harvard University.” Harvard IOP Fall 2015 Poll | The Institute of Politics at Harvard University. Harvard Institute of Politics, 10 Nov. 2015. Web. 08 Dec. 2016. .

Seelye, Katharine Q. “What Happens to the American Dream in a Recession?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 07 May 2009. Web. 10 Dec. 2016. .

Vasquez, Ian, and Tanja Porcnik. “The Human Freedom Index.” Cato Institute. Cato Institute, 4 Feb. 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. .

Venator, Joanna, and Richard V. Reeves. “Mobility: What Are You Talking About?” Brookings. The Brookings Institute, 28 July 2016. Web. 9 Dec. 2016. .

Winship, Scott. “Does the U.S. Have Lower Economic Mobility than Other Countries?” National Review. National Review, 06 July 2015. Web. 10 Dec. 2016. .

Enough About You – Amazonite345

Money seems to have a big role in our society; we can’t do much or get far without any. The value of money is always present, even if the money itself is not physically present. In today’s society we must show faith in the government and in the banking system that the money it is being handled with in the proper manner, or be forced to hide all of the money we made underneath our mattresses or around our houses. I have no clue what happens in the banks, or how they take care of anyones money. I always thought money was simple; we either have some or we don’t—that’s it. However, being introduced to this assignment, the Yap Fei, US gold, French francs, Brazilian cruzeros, and debit accounts now seem similar. No one actually sees their money being transferred. When a person gets paid, they aren’t handed cash, they don’t receive a physical check, the money’s all directly transferred to that persons bank account, and they just have to trust that they got more money.

A:06 Visual Rewrite- Amazonite345

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OVcDtEvhhU

0:00-0:02: Our screen focuses on a woman most likely in her teens. She is looking to our right, and talking to someone off screen. The woman is dancing and people in the background, which appears to be someone’s home, huddled around, most likely talking to each other. One man in the background is holding a bottle, presumably a beer bottle judging by its brown color. All the people are casually dressed, and everone appears to be happy. All things considered, this is almost definitely a party atmosphere.

0:03-0:06: At 0:03 the woman brings a bottle up to her mouth rather quickly. At 0:04 she is staring up at the ceiling in a look of what appears to be both shock and pain. By 0:06 the camera angle changes to a wide shot, giving us the view of both the original teen and her friend, who is laughing and watching as her friend brings her head back down while covering her mouth with her hand.

0:07-0:11: At 0:07 the original teenager cups her hand and moves it into a position that suggests she is catching something from her mouth. At 0:08 the teenager starts to spit out two white objects that are almost definitely her teeth. Her friend meanwhile is standing by and watching, covering her mouth with both of her hands in an expression of shock but also one of laughter and joy that she is perhaps trying to conceal.

0:12-0:18: The girl is now the sole focus of the camera again, and it shows that the teenager no longer has any front teeth. By 0:14 the teenagers friend comes into the camera shot and is looking at the cupped hand with her friend looking and laughing at the teeth that the bottle knocked out of place. By 0:16 they start falling backwards onto a couch, laughing, too drunk to comprehend the seriousness of the situation.

0:18-0:22: The camera cuts to an entirely new area in the original party setting. Two people, one boy and one girl, who also appear to be in their teens, are talking to each other while sitting on the stairs. At 0:19 she lifts up a set of keys, presumably her car keys, in a gesture that suggests she has to go.

0:23-0:30- At 0:23 the girl lifts her finger to her lips, as if to ask the man she was talking to if he could keep a secret. She appears to stumble slightly, hitting her back against a doorway, but shyly laughs it off. By 0:27 the girl is picking her jacket off the floor and runs off screen to the right, all while the man watches her.  It’s at this point the commercial ends, leaving the viewer to assume the ending. Most likely, the ending they wanted to imprint on the viewer was one where something wrong happened to the girl because of her implied driving while being buzzed.

Polio Notes – Amazonite345

Polio is very contagious

Paralyzed millions of children a year

Kills 1 in 1000

Paralysis in most

Thrives in low hygiene environments – Warzones

Polio will be gone forever if we get rid of it once

Smallpox was removed from planet by global inoculation effort

Not wholly embraced – other diseases more prevalent

Tons of money has been poured into this effort

Measles disappeared until 2015 when a Disney guest spread it to other visitors who continued to spread it far and wide

Other diseases considered wiped out have made comebacks

Doctors have not prepared for these outbreaks

Polio vaccine is not without risk – 1 in 3 million will develop disease

Polio is slowly being fought – 2k cases in 2009

Endemic countries- Afghanistan, India, Nigeria, Pakistan

Setbacks have been caused by rumors and fear – some based on truth

1 paper with small sample size published links between vaccines and autism

10 coauthors of original paper has retracted support for conclusion

Threats and violence have reduced the number of volunteers

Practice Opening

Polio is a disease that once left millions dead or disabled and many more millions in fear of the devastation in can cause. Since we have found a vaccination for it, we have come a long way in defeating the disease once and for all, but there have been many setbacks all over the world that prevents us from eradicating it once and for all. Polio is highly contagious, and it thrives in low hygiene areas. As such, war zones and poverty stricken countries still struggle with the disease. It remains unlikely that we will be rid of the disease within the next 20 years as those setbacks have one grown stronger in the past few years.

Missing Dollar-Amazonite345

Despite what the paradox might say, there is no missing dollar. The wording of the paradox makes you want to believe that the equation for the missing dollar is simply 9×3+2=29. It is purposely misleading as to confuse the reader. The equation is wrong. The real equation is 10(the number of dollars per person) x 3(the number of people) = 25( the total value of the bill) + 3(the number of dollars returned to the lades) + 2(the number of dollars the waiter took as a tip.) This makes the equation 10×3=25+3+2. Both sides equal 30 dollars, meaning there is no missing dollar.

To make this even simpler: The price of the meal plus the waiters tip is 27 dollars. The last 3 dollars are returned to the men.

Open Strong-

With over 300 million persons in the United States, it seems illogical the most political beliefs fall in to one of two categories known as parties. Despite most Americans hating both presidential candidates in the 2016 election, most of them will still vote for one of the two major party candidates. While third party candidates have gotten significantly more attention this year than any other year, the people in the US have largely ignored them. The two party system is a failure to the United States and a failure to democracy as a whole.