Why is America not the Greatest country in the world? How can we change it? | Teen Ink

Why is America not the Greatest country in the world? How can we change it?

March 28, 2021
By Anonymous

So many Immigrants want to come to America, mostly because of the new opportunities they would not have access to in their home countries. However, is America actually one of the distinguished places to live? There are many problems with American society today, and despite all of these good things Americans are not perfect.  Some of the things that we can try to change is discrimination, equality, government, and violence and crime. 

There is a lot of discrimination and equality problems in America’s world today.  But there is different types of discrimination.The first type is called direct discrimination. Which is when someone has been treated differently or worse than any other person. Next is an indirect discrimination, which is less direct and usually unintentional. There is harassment which is when somebody is violating a negative behavior towards a person.  The last type of discrimination is vicitimisation is when someone because a victim of harmful behavoir. Verbal harassment is the most common that women have experienced, which is 3 out of 4 women and 77%. Women are usually the victim of harassment, but men can be abused too. The cause of harassment usually becomes depression or anxiety. There are a few things you can do to try to help fix discrimination and racism. You can call out people when you hear them say anything racist, but by not saying anything you say that you agree with the statement that they made. Another thing you can do is understand and recognize your own privilege because when you do then you are understanding what you are really saying.  Nowadays the pay gap has not changed enough. Women get paid “about 81.6% earned to each dollar earned by a man.”  Which is a problem because if the United States is really equal then people should get paid equally no matter what gender or race you are. Women also have a harder time when paying back loans and this allows them to go into retirement with a lower lifetime of earnings and the overall retirement income, women only have 70% of what men do. The main problem that women face is the lack of women in positions for power. We can solve this problem by realizing that leadership roles don’t only hold back women is the only way to fix society. We have two types of theories of equality in this world. One is equality means equal opportunity to succeed or to fail. “Corporate women  are often afraid to speak up because they’re afraid to be wrong. It’s okay to be wrong. Falling doesn’t make you a failure.” (Dr Lombardo) If women are too scared to do anything about their job then they are never going to climb the ladder in their company. The second theory is equality and inequality are consistent, but in a  substandard way. One way you can fix equality in America is to eliminate gender based roles, so that everybody has a chance at the job that they want, not just a male. To help stop gender equality you need to stand up for your rights and raise awareness about the situation, so we won’t have this problem anymore.  

Government also plays a role in why America is not the greatest country. But, to get that answer you have to ask yourself what made America great in the first place? In the book The Law That Governs Government: Reclaiming The Constitution From Usurpers And Society’s Biggest Lawbreaker it says that “ the anger at, and distrust of, the political class is setting records, and for a good reason.” There is one critical concept that keeps America together which is American exceptionalism, and without it America is lost. American exceptionalism is when a theory that the United States is inherently different from other nations. Which is why the government has a written law over the actual government itself.  Our government was created so that we can leave in liberty, property, and our pursuit of happiness. But by violating these laws the government weakened America by the way of life. In schools today the government doesn’t allow history teacher’s to teach what they think kids should learn, but they keep little bits and pieces of our history out of the picture. They do this to schools because they think it is offending to people. This is just one example of what the government does to people, but there is so much more. When promoting stabilization and growth the government  guides the overall economy to help maintain steady growth, which shows high levels of employment. When the government spends money it affects a large amount of the economy by growing federal debt on things we don’t need, but doesn’t put money in the things we do need money in, like schools, libraries, and ect. One way to get rid of debt is to grow out the economy.  One thing good about that government is that communities throughout the United States are growing and making goals for their society and culture. Also, it helps the economy with employment and boosting energy throughout the economy.

Even though there is crime and violence is in every country, what makes America better than other countries? In America crime rates have been up 21.8% throughout all cities just in 2020 alone. The government plays a massive role in crime and violence throughout America. For example if citizens aren’t living in a certain area because they don’t like what the governments are doing then people are more likely to move. Then which makes the taxes reduce and then there isn’t enough money for basic services which make people move. One reason why crime rates have gone up is because of the changes in police activity. This reason could be due to Covid because officers can’t really do their jobs if they have to try to maintain a social distance and wear a mask. When communities are pulling back from the police that’s mainly why crime rates are rising because there’s no one to call when you are in danger. Some communities of color are pulling back because of the lack of trust they have with the police. For example with all the protests that happened in 2020. In 2018, homicides were the leading cause of death through 15-34 year olds and a 5th leading cause of death between the ages of young teens. One of the problems is that violence from uses of social media showing torture, or threats on the deep web. Crime in America has really spiked and gone down at the same time while being at home from the virus. The crime rates have gone down because there are not going out as much as they used to. Crime in the United States often reflects misinformation from the media or the news because they didn’t get all of the story. Most of the problems throughout crime in the United States is that there are unreported crimes which just leaves the suspect roaming free. “In 2018 43% of violent crimes were reported to the police, but less than half”.  When increation rates are just going up, what is anyone doing to change bad people into good ones? Some ways that we can fix crime and violence in America by having stricter alcohol policies by reducing the number of alcohol outlets, a higher tax on alcohol or revoking alcohol offenders the right to drink. Another way to keep crime rates down is to raise the age or grade for school dropouts. Studies have shown that schools help keep kids off the streets. 

In conclusion our problems with discrimination, equality, the government, and violence and crime are just a few problems we have with America today.  That is because America is not a good country cause there is some bad people who make bad mistakes which is why there is a lot of crimes in America and some of dicrimation. But if we were to change these problems for the better then America might become a better place altogether.



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