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 Most of those out of date reports aren’t even mean for the general public.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. In 1913 a major problem was child labor. Thankfully Julia Lanthrop, who became the first director of the U. S. Childrens Beaurea, stepped up to the plate. She made a handbook with all sorts of data concerning infant mortality, birth rates, poverty, and other child indicators. The handbook became an early model for social reporting. In the 1930’s when the entire country was feeling the terrible effects of the depression, was when the people were most involved and concerned with the social problems. Most of the social monitoring stopped once recovery and the war was on the peoples minds. Ever since 1987 the Fordham Institute has started publishing yearly an Index of Social Health. The index is like an encyclopedia concerning social problems such as national performance, quality of life, child abuse, suicide, health care and all sorts of social problems. This material relates to national global social problems because the United States has problems but much of the rest of the world has much worse problems. By me reading this text book and writing about this stuff says that we at least are trying for better social conditions, but other countries are doing nothing. It is not really the peoples’ fault either. It is usually the fault of the governing body. I believe that there are too many social problems to deal with. I also believe that Americans in general are a very self-concerned and uncaring group of people. But there are some people trying to make a difference and that’s what is needed. The more people trying to make a difference, the more changes and progress we will see. The improvement will have to be big. The media will have to play a bigger role, and the only way for that is for people to make that happen. Hopefully within the near future people get more involved and we start to see a big change.