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  2020-10-14

  Competition and Efficency in America

  Competition and Efficiency in America The American economy is built on competition. Everything from business to education has an aspect of competition embedded in it. This goes hand in hand with efficiency because competition is the reason that America is so efficient. Americans have a way of working towards their goals, and a mindset of making themselves better off for the future, instead of right now. For instance, historically the arts have been valued above other subjects such as law and medicine. However in aAmerica law and medicine is studied for more than the arts because that is where the money is. In an American's eyes, more money is a better future for your family yourself. America is currently and always has lived up to the core values of competition and efficiency because of the way that the American people work to achieve their goals to succeed in this country. There are many ways that competition and efficiency are built into the United States education system. It plays a role in the American classroom from grade school to college. One of the most significant changes that the American people have made to education is the way that they value the arts. As in they don’t. The arts used to be praised in Europe, and artists were looked at like royalty. They were paid large sums of money to paint everything from portraits to creating sculptures. However ever since colonizing the United States, art has been on a decline. According to The National Center for Education Statistics, in the last 15 years the amount of people who study art related topics in college has gone down from about 15% to about 5%. The primary focus of study is health professions. The amount of students who study health professions has gone up 175% in the last 15 years. That is because a career path as a doctor will pay a lot more, and will lead to a better future than a career as an artist. The competitive drive of Americans is what makes them want this better future. They want to outperform their peers and better themselves, and this makes America more efficient. Americans have found a way to work competition into every aspect of their lives. Everything from education to business has been improved by them in order to better themselves. That drive to be the best is what makes Americans so successful. That drive to be the best can be seen by looking at unemployment rates of the last 10 years. Unemployment rates range everywhere from about 28% to about 0.1%. In 2009 America had an unemployment rate of 9.1%. All it took was 10 years for Americans to turn 9.1% into 4.2% (Knoema Corporation). As of 2019 America had cut their unemployment rate in half. What this means is that in 10 years 4.9% of the population was no longer unemployed. This is 4.9% of Americans who are competitively driven to improve their future, improve their education, and make sure that their families and themselves are better off. The more that Americans improve themselves, the more efficient the country will be. The core American values of competition and efficiency can be seen in the way that Americans want to improve in order to be better off in the future. The more that Americans use this competitive drive to succeed, the more efficient the country will be. So far America has not shown any signs of letting go of this competitive mindset, therefore it has lived up to these values and will continue to do so. The mindset of Americans is like the mindset of no other country. It is a mindset that is not afraid to let go of the way things are usually done in order to create new and better ways to do them. This mindset results in competitiveness within ourselves and between our peers. This competition results in a more efficient way of life.
• 2015-04-13

  What If We Had Been Better Prepared?

  This story is important to me because I was raised to always be as well prepared as possible. In this video Bill Gates talks about options the worlds governments can take to help prevent and/or aid in global pandemics. The ideas he presents range in intensity, from increasing the amount of first responders to staging pseudo-war games for attacking the outbreaks most efficiently. The first time I remember a large scale disaster that could have been prevented, saved lives, time and money was the BP oil spill in the gulf of Mexico. The cost of the spill range from about 60 billion, reported by British Petroleum, to an estimated 140 billion. The spill and loss of lives, both human and oceanic, could have been prevented by the company implementing and following global operating policies for deep-water oil drilling.
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  2020-09-07

  Do we live up to the values of the past?

  this is a essay writen for american studies about how modern americans are living up to our values of eficency and protest.