Americans Question 1

1) Is American society too competitive?

American society is a very competitive culture where the worth of a person is not measured by their morals or beliefs, but instead by how much money the have. Politicians don’t talk about working together; they talk about who is at fault to give them an advantage in the election. Businesses don’t work together to make better products or advancements in technology that would help the people and environment, instead the focus on shipping jobs overseas for cheaper production, undercut the competition and make products as cheap as possibly (even if they have to sacrifice quality) all to beat out the competition.
This amount of competition, however, does not just apply to the American culture, but instead applies to cultures all over the world. The world just tends to see America as more competitive because it is a larger nation and seen as a world leader. This competition also extends beyond just a culture to the whole world, as people (and nations) constantly compete against each other for dominance and the claim of most powerful nation on Earth. A great example of this worldwide competitiveness is the Cold War that the US and Soviet Union were involved in. These two great nations were constantly striving against each other to be the best nation in the world, which meant creating more and more nuclear weapons, so many that we now have a surplus, and which eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Specifically within the US, however, there is still a lot of competitiveness, though that is what makes America what it is. The constant struggle companies have against each other allows Americans to buy goods cheaper than they would otherwise be. There are downsides to the constant struggle though, such as the shipping of jobs overseas and the monopolizing of businesses. Neighbor to neighbor Americans do not seem to be as competitive, though that is just from my experience which is severely limited since I only have one neighbor who is an elderly lady. From what I have seen though neighbors don’t seem to be as competitive, and seem to want to help each other out with their problems unlike the politicians and big businesses who are constantly fighting for control of the economy and country.
So I believe that the major controlling powers in America (the government and the big businesses) are too competitive, overly so to some extent. These politicians should be working together instead of competing, the businesses, however, should be competing, but not to the extent they are (sending jobs overseas away from Americans and lowering the quality of items for a lower production price and sale price). The common American does not seem competitive with his or her neighbor (though I think people will be competitive to a smaller extent, especially kids on subjects such as grades and videogames). This whole world, not just America, is competitive, it always has been and always will be and it is something we will have to get used to, whether we like it or not.