The Occupy Movement

Okay, so many people seem to think I don't know what I'm talking about, but I'm going to say it anyway. I truly believe that the occupy movement is wrong in many ways. OWS's goals include a more balanced distribution of income, more and better jobs, bank reform, a reduction in the influence of corporations on politics, forgiveness of student loan debt, and alleviation of the foreclosure situation which accounted for 20% of homes sold in 2011. 
1. Reduction in the influence of corporations on politics- If you look at lists of the top donors from every election since 1989 only 3 of the top 20 donors were corporations, the rest were comprised of unions and one political interest group. So if anything is too strongly influencing politics it is the unions in America. Source -  http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/list.php
2. Alleviation of the foreclosure situation- This was caused by the mortgages that were given out by banks to people who really couldn't afford them. If you bought a house you couldn't afford is it really the governments fault, and now that it is public information that you should not take massive loans for houses, I really don't think that people will keep doing this, so problem solved. 
3. Forgiveness of student loan debt- First, if you go to a private college and get a degree in art history or women's studies and you can't get a lucrative job after college, can you really complain? Second, the best universities in the world are in America and they are private. They charge a lot of money so they can have the newest technologies, the best professors and the best facilities for research. The tax payers are already on the line for public education and many other things, it is completely unreasonable to ask them to pay for PRIVATE education too. Third, you don't have to go to a private university, you can go to an inexpensive state school and get a job after college that might not directly relate to your major, so many people do menial labor after college, you can have that job and continue looking for a job that you would rather have, so that you can have some sort of stable income, its been done before and it won't kill you.
4.  More balanced distribution of income- The 'proposed' solution is to tax the ultra wealthy even more. The truth is this: the top 0.1% of income earners in America paid 50% more taxes than the bottom 80% of income earners in 2010. In 2008, the top 1% of income earners paid 38% of all federal income tax, the top 10% paid 70%, and the bottom 50% paid 3%. I included links to my sources. This is completely fair in my books. 
5. More and better jobs- If you tax wealthy corporations more and more they are going to have less and less money in which to hire new workers for their companies, which means downsizing the labor markets. Its a lose- lose situation here. 
         Also, protesting the NATO conference, really? NATO is a military organization that has been putting a lot of efforts into peace keeping. I HIGHLY doubt that officials from Belgium or the Netherlands are going to be able to help you with income inequality in America. 
     And that is all I have to say about it.

Affirmative Action Post

After reading all the articles about the 'race-neutral' college admissions policies, I have to agree with those rather than supporting affirmative action. The universities in Florida, California and Texas all show that their minority acceptance rate was the same or better after they got rid of the affirmative action policies. While looking at two potential candidates for a university who are the same in both academics and extracurriculars, that's when race can be seen as a plus, but having special programs for minority students is not very helpful for increasing the diversity of the school. Socioeconomic status could be seen as an even better way to classify the students, rather than by race. Students who grew up poor and live in impoverished areas should be given special consideration because of their situation. Race is not an indicator of struggles in life as much as socioeconomic status is, a rich Black or Hispanic student have probably not have had to overcome many obstacles in their lives than a White student whose family sits below the poverty line.

"White Like Me"

In Tim Wise's book White Like Me, he discusses the hidden biases in American society. For today I read the chapter called "Privilege", in this chapter Wise talks about how whites are born with certain privileges that are not afforded to minorities in America. One thing that he mentioned is that our schooling is mostly Eurocentric, and it is from the point of view of people from European descent. He then goes on to say that this is not fair to the minorities in America, that it is too 'narrowly' focused. I have to disagree with Wise on this topic. I do not believe that the school system is inherently racist, while a VERY SMALL percentage of teachers might be racist, it is presumptuous to think that all teachers have these biases. He recalls that teacher more readily punished children from minorities rather than white children. Most teachers will treat kids with the respect they ask for, I show up to class, do my homework and take my education seriously. Any student who does not take school seriously will be punished regardless of their race. And now back to the "Eurocentric" views in our history textbooks, it should be pointed out that most Americans come from European descent so it only makes sense that our books would encompass that aspect of our history. America has always been closer with the European countries than anywhere else in the world so it only makes sense that we have more history with those countries, we aren't belittling the success of people from Africa or South America, they don't have as much history directly relating to us. And I know that I have never been taught that any other race or ethnicity is any different than me or my way of life.Maybe I'm just denying because I don't want to face the guilt, but I truly believe students who are committed and focused on school will not get in as much trouble as back-talking slackers, no matter what their race is.

Implicit Bias

This is the second time that I have taken the IAT. The first time I received the results that I had a slight preference towards African-Americans, and this time I got moderate preference towards African Americans. This is not as surprising to me because I have always preferred the look of African Americans, I never wanted the blond barbies as a child. My mom has always thought it may be "I want what I can't have", that since I am blonde and perpetually pale I am jealous of people who have dark hair and dark skin. I agree with her, to a point. I may have grown up in the suburbs of Chicago but I spent my summers in Charleston, SC and I was exposed to many more black people there than I was in Highland Park. I realize that this test doesn't really define who we are, many of our automatic reactions are incorrect and most definitely not what we truly believe. The environment that we grew up in is more familiar and automatically the one that we feel safer in, it isn't that all white people are racist, it is that they have seen mostly white faces their entire life.

America and the World: Americas Role in this World

A lot of people feel that America gets much too involved in other countries affairs and that we should keep to ourselves. I can definitely say that I do not agree with that. We shouldn't be starting random wars with any countries, and I think that is something that NO ONE wants despite what many people think. We shouldn't be a 'hostile' nation, we should focus our efforts in the world on specific causes that cannot be argued with. One thing that we can help is starvation in places like India and Sub-Saharan Africa. We should be able to send troops there, not to keep peace, but to bring food, water and other essentials. America is so lucky to have all these resources and one of the things that this country is founded on is that everybody should be given the opportunity to succeed. Many people in the world don't even have access to clean water and a sustainable food source. These are basic human rights and with our power and wealth we should be helping out those less fortunate. By doing this we are helping the world progress and become more innovative and educated. Of course, there is no clear answer of how to fix the problem of poverty, we should be doing everything to help out. One day all of these efforts will work, making the world a better place is easy if you have the resources for it, which America most definitely does. While it is true that we also need to be looking out for ourselves, I think that by helping out in the world we are helping ourselves. The more advanced the rest of the world becomes the smoother it will run, at least, that is what I believe.

America and the World: Russia and Europe

I think it goes without saying that we have been closer with Europe than any other part of the world. It makes sense because we have pretty similar ideals and social norms.  This partnership with Europe is really important, it stabilizes our economy and our political alliances. It may not occur to many Americans that we need to keep up this relationship because we rely on Europe as much as they rely on us. If Europe's economy collapsed, ours probably would take a large downturn if not fail itself. Something that would be really good for Europe, and in turn good for us, is if they became a more 'unified' EU. They are sharing a very small space in the world and their governments need to communicate better. I think they are moving towards this now, France and Germany seem to be getting over their bitterness towards each other and really coming together. Europe also really needs to start considering Turkey a part of them, invite them into the EU. Turkey is a key nation for us to be supporting. It would be much better for America if they did not go further into the politics in the Middle East, because we are on bad terms with the Middle East right now. Russia is also a big part of Europe that people often forget about. We may have been in a 'battle' with them for a very long time, but now that time is over and we need to kind of lobby them towards the western world because their values and political systems would fit in much better than they do in Asia.

"America and the World" America and China

China is the new world power and we shouldn’t be afraid to admit that. The world is infinitely more stable with more than one world power. The world would be even better off if the super powers played off each other’s successes. Since America was the only super power since the end of the cold war the world has actually been less stable according to many political scientists. China’s ascension into the world’s scene has been very smooth because they are not looking to overturn the current world order; they merely want to join them.  China may be huge for manufacturing but they rely heavily on imports of raw materials because they do not have much of that in their country. It should also be noted that they would have no one to sell to if they were hostile and looking to convert the world into one communist nation. And yes people in China don’t live in the same kind of free world that we do, I have a friend who moved to China because of her father’s job. They do not allow the use of facebook or personal blogs and they are very strict about the use of the internet. America shouldn’t be feeling threatened by China but we should embrace their willingness to be a part of this world and use it to our advantage. The Chinese leadership is very intelligent and they are always seeking to be more informed about the world as it is. It looks like they are looking for the open relationship with the world that would be beneficial to us, we should be wary of any personal secret relationships they make, but since they have not moved towards that it seems that we have nothing to worry about. China is up and coming faster than we could ever imagine and there is nothing wrong with that, America should look for ways that we can benefit from their rise. We cannot think of it as us losing jobs to them, but an opportunity to create more jobs in our country to work with, in tandem, with the Chinese.