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🇺🇸Microcosms of American Culture🇺🇸, Screenshot 2020-09-14 at 1.02.46…
🇺🇸Microcosms of American Culture🇺🇸
Original Source: Country-by-country statistical comparisons on social issues
https://www.ifitweremyhome.com/compare/US/CA
Microcosm/Stereotype #2: Americans are 16.13% more likely to be unemployed than Russians
Cultural Trait: Importance of Unemployment
¨Having a low unemployment rate does not mean a country's economy is particularly strong. For instance, Myanmar had only 0.8% unemployment in 2019, but its GDP per capita was $1,326, according to the World Bank.¨ -Mitchell Grant
https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/062315/unemployment-rates-country.asp
Anecdotal Testimony
: I have seen a lot of unemployed people around my community, but I also see plenty of wealthy people in this same community.
Anecdotal Exception to the Rule
: I have seen some extremely poor communities within Baltimore that are suffering tremendously.
Microcosm/Stereotype #1: Americans make 65.72% more than Russians
Cultural Trait: The U.S has the 4th most average income within the entire world
¨Individuals living in wealthy countries like Monaco earn more than double what Americans make on average, while people living in poorer countries can earn as little as $440 USD a year.¨ -Eric McDowell
https://www.businessinsider.com/average-annual-income-around-the-world-2019-8
Anecdotal Testimony
: I have been to Russia and they make less money on average and have worse living conditions.
Anecdotal Exception to the Rule
: I have seen some very poor regions in the U.S and seen homeless people in large cities like Myrtle Beach
Original source: Five Key Themes of the American Identity
https://www.thegreatcoursesdaily.com/five-key-themes-of-the-american-identity/
Microcosm/Stereotype #1: ¨Passion for Freedom¨
Cultural Trait: Americans are losing their freedoms and do not realize it
America is a unique country, founded on the principle that we are endowed with “certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” Yet today, through taxes and regulations, government takes half of what each American earns. Government regulates what goods and services entrepreneurs can offer consumers, and restricts consumer freedom to buy many goods from other countries. Politicians currently are trying to restrict or ban what we can smoke, where we can use our cell phones, what we can view on the Internet, and which fattening foods we can eat.
-Edward Hudgins
https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/do-americans-still-value-freedom
Anecdotal Testimony
: We Americans still love our freedom and celebrate it every 4th of July.
Anecdotal Exception to the rule
:I have seen more and more of our freedoms being thrown away and the power of the government increase over the years and yet nobody seems to care or notice as long as they can continue buying useless things they do not need with money they do not have (credit cards, loans, etc). The PATRIOT Act is a perfect example of the government taking away some of our freedom by misleading the people.
Microcosm/Stereotype #2: ¨Faith in popular government¨
Cultural Trait: Our Democracy is falling short
The strength and stability of democracy has become a subject of intense debate in the United States and around the world. But how do Americans feel about their own democracy? As part of a year-long effort to study “Facts, Trust and Democracy” Pew Research Center has conducted a major survey of public views of the U.S. political system and American democracy. The survey finds that while Americans are in broad agreement on important ideals relating to democracy in the U.S., they think the nation is falling short in realizing many of these ideals.
-Carroll Doherty
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/04/26/key-findings-on-americans-views-of-the-u-s-political-system-and-democracy/
Anecdotal Testimony
: We can see that politics have consequently torn the U.S into two halves, Republicans and Democrats. We seem to be obsessed with politics and the election, and so does the rest of the world.
Anecdotal exception to the rule
: Over time a government becomes more and more corrupt as criminals get voted into office and get rid of actually good people. We can see this happening with the U.S government, but we the people have let it grow out of control. As our politicians continuously lie to use we no longer can tell who is telling the truth. Some Americans believe whatever the media says and blindly follow corrupt leaders who only want power and money. If you can control the information people get, then you ultimately control the people, the NAZI´s did this through propaganda and our government has taken it a step further through operation Mockingbird.
Original source: 10 things to know about U.S culture
https://www.interexchange.org/articles/career-training-abroad/10-things-to-know-about-u-s-culture/
Microcosm/Stereotype #2: ¨Going out to eat or ordering take-out¨
Cultural Trait: Americans like to eat fast food
¨There are many factors that contribute to America’s obsession with fast food. Fast food is extremely easy to obtain, in most cases you don’t even need to leave the comfort of your car to enjoy a meal. Secondly, fast food is very cheap, a Big Mac meal from McDonald’s costs only $5.99 and includes a burger, fries and a drink (2). Finally, getting a meal from a fast food restaurant is quick, in most cases your food will be prepared and served in well under 10 minutes. These factors are the main contributors to fast food’s popularity in the United States and due to all of these factors, fast food in America has been on a steady increase for years and will not slow down anytime soon.¨
-Spencer Smead
http://web.colby.edu/st297-global18/2018/10/29/americas-fast-food-obsession/
Anecdotal Testimony
: I myself am guilty of always going out to eat as well as most of my friends.
Anecdotal exception to the rule
: My dad rarely never goes out to eat, neither do my grandparents.
Microcosm/Stereotype #1: ¨Americans often prefer loud and luxurious¨
Cultural Trait: Americans are consumers
¨One bright spot in the midst of the country's economic downturn may be a long-overdue focus on reining in our spending. Since 1982, Americans' personal savings rate has dropped from 11 percent to below zero, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, and personal bankruptcy. filings have reached record highs. As the debt load has risen, psychologists have increasingly been called on to explain why Americans overspend. In the last six months alone, APA's Media Referral Service fielded more than 60 requests from media organizations looking to talk to a psychologist about money--more than any other subject during the same time.¨
-Amy Novotney
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2008/07-08/consumerism
Anecdotal Testimony
: I see people all the time spend money they do not have on things they do not need like a jacked up truck that only gets 5 miles a gallon.
Anecdotal exception to the rule
: I have seen few people who do not buy into the consumerism and only buy things they need.
Original Source: America's Dopamine-Fueled Shopping Addiction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qWHJ29-s4U
Microcosm/Stereotype #1: Americans love to consume
Cultural Trait: It feels good to buy things
Shopping online also feels good. Humans get a dopamine hit from buying stuff, according to research by Ann-Christine Duhaime, a professor of neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School. “As a general rule, your brain tweaks you to want more, more, more—indeed, more than those around you—both of ‘stuff’ and of stimulation and novelty —because that helped you survive in the distant past of brain evolution,” Duhaime wrote in a Harvard Business Review essay last year. Online shopping allows us to get that dopamine hit, and then also experience delayed gratification when the order arrives a few days later, which may make it more physiologically rewarding than shopping in stores.
-Aalana Semuels
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/08/online-shopping-and-accumulation-of-junk/567985/
Anecdotal Testimony
: I admit it feels good to buy things, and now it is easier than ever before and it is becoming cheaper thanks to globalization.
Anecdotal exception to the rule
: I have seen some people who just live off the land in rural areas like our own.
Microcosm/Stereotype #2: Americans do not like to return things
Cultural Trait: Americans like to throw things away
Americans represent 5% of the world’s population, but generate 30% of the world’s
garbage.
http://students.arch.utah.edu/courses/Arch4011/Recycling%20Facts1.pdf
Anecdotal Testimony
: I admit that I throw away a lot of things just because it is inconvenient at the time and everybody I know does the same thing.
Anecdotal exception to the rule
: I have seen plenty of people including my dad who will go out of their way so that something is not wasted.
