Social unequally is a huge problem that needs to be fixed. Of the developed countries, the US has relatively low life expectancies, and high violence rates, mental illness, teen pregnancies, violence, drug use, and many other issues. In the article Want a Good Life? Your Neighbors Need it, Too, these issues are compared with incomes in different societies. It was found that “The psychosocial effects of inequality affect the quality of human relationships” (Jarvis, 3). The US would be much better off if the government could manage, at least on some level, the salaries of it’s citizens. It is ridiculous how some people can make so much more money than others who work just as hard!





I have never had a problem getting good healthcare myself, so I never realized how big of a problem healthcare really is in the US until fairly recently. The healthcare system in the US “is superb for people who can afford it, but falls woefully short for those who cannot” (Eitzen, 145). It makes me quite sad that people cannot get the health care that they need and deserve, and it is a big social problem in the US. I believe that Obama’s new healthcare plan is a huge step in the right direction for improving the system. Many of my family members and friends, from all different situations, support the healthcare bill. Action has been taken on the social problem of healthcare, which is hopefully not going to be much of a problem in the years to come.

Should the United States government give more power to the people, and how could that happen? Most Americans, when asked what aspect of their country they are proud of, would say our “freedom”. In reality, “we have been socialized to equate ‘democracy’ with ‘freedom’ ”, but there are only two political parties in which we have the freedom to choose from (Heiner, 28). United States citizens don’t have as much freedom as most of us would like to think we have, and it would be beneficial if we found a way to obtain that freedom. The country was founded with the idea that the people have the power, and that’s the way it should stay. If society was educated about our government system and more people would vote for candidates whom aren’t from the republican of democratic parties, it would allow for significant change and an increase in the freedom and power of US citizens. It would be a difficult and costly process to educate the American people the important things they need to know in order to have intelligent votes, but it would be worth it. One way that this could happen is by having a non-affiliated organization create a movie and a book containing the important information.



Americans seem to be materialistic, greedy, fat, and self-absorbed in comparison to other societies, why are we this way?. As Heiner says; “Americans prefer to horde their money for themselves and loath to spend it for the common good”(p.48). It could be a side-effect of the “American Dream”. People feel that it is important to reach their personal “American Dream”, which usually involves wealth. It is a part of American culture that if a person works hard they will succeed, and they deserve the profit they obtain from their work and shouldn’t have to share it. It could also be that most people elsewhere in the world don’t have the opportunities that we have to to live this lifestyle. We also are influenced by media and tend to make idols out of rich celebrates. There are many reasons why Americans tend to be materialistic, greedy, fat, and self-absorbed, and only speculations can be made to which ones play an important role.

Has the United States become too arrogant to gain from ethnocentrism? The United States is very competitive in many areas, such as scientific discoveries and wealth. Americans were very proud of the successes in such areas and it seemed to be the motto for a long time throughout the states that “We Are Number One!”. Has the United States success in some areas caused it’s people to think they are better than other countries and don’t need their help? Ethnocentrism is a very important process, by which new insight into social problems can be gained (Heiner, 15). The United States has many problems which the insight of other countries could help solve, such as obesity and poverty. Shouldn’t federal programs be using insight of other countries to take action and solve these problems?


Advertisements have become an overwhelming part of life in modern society. The amount of time that we are watching or hearing an advertisement is very substantial, weather we realize it at the time or not. Because media has many “complex effects, many negative” (Kellner, 1), the advertisement industry is a social problem and needs to be changed. I think it would be a good idea for the government to step in and make many more laws regulating advertisement. Although some would say this would impart on our freedom of speech, I believe that it would be an acceptable price, as it would cut down on several very big social problems in the United States.

Why is prostitution still prevalent across the world in modern society? One would think that prostitution, seeming to be morally wrong and unethical (at least to me) would have dyed out by now, but “Many married men sought prostitutes as a sexual outlet, in part because (1) they have been socialized to believe their sexual appetites were uncontrollable and (2) their wives had been socialized not to enjoy sex.”(Heiner, 84). The physical sensations of having sexual relations with a complete stranger whom you share no emotional connections with, or in the prostitutes case the money, is not worth the loss of dignity and feelings of worthlessness that oneself may experience afterwords. The cause of prostitution goes back to media, the educational systems and parents. People need to be taught to value and respect themselves and others, that they can control themselves, and that sex is something to be enjoyed - with someone you love. These are basic concepts that could easily be integrated into our educational system if people allowed it.


The United States of America is lacking in accommodations for the working parent. Most of the other financially well off countries have many more accommodations than we do, including childcare and payed leave of absence for mothers and fathers. These accommodations are enforced by the government in many country. There are many reason why the United States should pass such laws such as “these work/family measures are provided alongside universal health insurance, which adds crucial economic support for families, and gives workers flexibility when seeking employment that best meets their families’ needs”(Eitzen, 102). Many people in our country would benefit greatly if this system was put in place here. The main reason that it isn’t is because Americans are so against socialism, and putting in such laws place could be seen as a set towards a socialistic society.

It is difficult for me to know on several topics weather or not they are actual social problems. It seems that the term ‘social problem’ is too broad to actually have any meaning or importance. The sociological definition of a social problem is a phenomenon which a significant amount of people believe is bad or undesirable (Heiner, 4). How many people do there need to be to count as a significant number of people? Does this definition work for every society and every social circle?

The United States has “the highest infant mortality rate of the 19 countries in OECD”(Eitzen, 5), is this a bad thing? To most people, it would be extremely heartbreaking to loose a newborn child. After going through the pains of pregnancy while gaining hopes, inspirations, and expectations, of creating a new human being, it would be devastating to loose it all when the infant doesn’t make it. On the other hand, natural selection doesn’t play as much of a role as it did before medical care has become as advanced as it is currently around the world. Perhaps a high infant mortality rate is a positive factor aiding in evolution of human genes, making the general population of the United States more healthy and better fit for the environment than it otherwise would be.

Midterm

1) Analyses of the media are integral to whatever social problems critical constructionists study; explain why this is so.


The media is thought to create many complex effects, many of which are negative. Media is a huge part of our daily lives, and it’s almost impossible to escape it’s effects without removing oneself completely from society. Because of it’s affect on society, it can be claimed to be either the cause or in someway related to almost every social problem, which is why analyzing it is essential to critical constructionists' study of social problems.
Media within the United States is completely out of hand. What our news stations play is being significantly influenced by their commercial advertisements, so we aren’t getting all the important news stories from the sources that many Americans are completely dependent upon. The “chances that a problem will receive much attention - or have societal resources mobilized against it - are almost nil without media coverage” (Heiner, 17). The media has also been blamed “for promoting violence and sexism, racism, homophobia, ageism, and other oppressive phenomena” (Kellner,1). It is important that change occurs within the U.S. media structure because “Brent Cunningham writes in the Columbia Journalism Review ‘the press has the power to shape how people think about what’s important, in effect to shape reality’ “(Heiner, 17).
The film Toxic Sludge is Good for You explains that the public relations industry is a multibillion dollar industry controlled by the advertisement industry and it’s job is to manipulate public opinion, news information, and public policy on behalf of it’s clients. In order to challenge it’s hold on U.S. ‘democracy’, more people need to question the experts and be aware of how public relations is spending it’s money. Critical Constructionist are among the people who are aware extent to which the public relation industry is creating issues, which is why it is integral to the social problems that they study.

2.) A. State some evidence that since the 70s the American middle class hasn’t prospered as much as is commonly believed.

It is commonly believed that in the United States that our economy has been greatly prospering sense the 1970s, but it hasn’t as much as we tend to think it has. Our economic growth has dramatically slowed down; “between 1947 and 1973 real family incomes went up 104 percent; during the next 32 years, it only increased 23 percent. And the gap between the rich and the rest started its precipitous expansion.” (Heiner, 31). The United State’s huge amount of inequality plays a large part in the inhibition of it’s once rapidly growing and prospering economy. There is so much inequality here because “Americans are unusually supportive of inequality. They back the moves toward expanding opportunity, but oppose moves toward equalizing outcomes” (Eitzen, 52). A small present of America’s people and companies have become very wealthy sense the 70s, but the majority of people and businesses have been have on average been making less than ever (Heiner, 36).



B. Explain what part individualism plays in exacerbating and lessening the social problem of class inequality in the U.S.

People in the United States tend to have individualistic views, where oneself’ “success” is more important than helping one another. It is the American Dream-if you work hard you will become rich and get all the material possessions that you would ever want and will have a perfect life. It is because these ideas of individualism and what our image of a perfect life would be, constantly being reinforced by media and the culture of our society, that egocentrism is exacerbated along with social inequality.
In our capitalistic society, it was hoped that if everyone perused their individual “interests in a market of free competition, the the best quality products will be made at the lowest possible prices and the society will thrive”(Heiner, 136), unfortunately this didn’t happen quite like it was wanted to. The U.S. has an enormous gap in social class and a great poverty problem. The American Dream inspires and motivates people to work hard, but also provides us with “winners and losers”-the rich and the poor (Heiner, 136).
The majority of U.S. people are in the working class, with a rising gap between them and the rich, and an increasing number of people living below the poverty line. Although individualism in our country has created a huge social class problem, it also created a very large working class in which there is some equality between one another. The rich people dominate the others with power, politically and socially, because they can use their money make things happen that the others can’t. Something needs to be done to help stop the increase in inequality because “extreme inequality of income and wealth gives vast economic and political power to big corporations and wealthy families and weakens the sense of community and common purpose essential to a democracy”, (Eitzen, 45).
Americans are brought up to want to be rich. The media is constantly telling us that we should buy this or that. Reality television shows usually take place in huge luxurious homes. And we are taught that we need to be able to buy big expensive things in order to be successful, and to obtain those things we must individually peruse them. Americans look after them instead of working together like other societies do, causing social inequality.

Social movements would probably be much more effective if they kept to their main goals rather than broadening their goals. The social movements that seem to really make a difference are the ones that have a single main goal in which a large percentage of society can happily back up. Unfortunately this rarely happens, because “as social movements grow, they tend to incorporate more groups with a broader range of goals and more diverse tactics” (Meyer, 425). As the number of goals grows, the people of the movement get distracted with the smaller goals, which can allow for the original goals to get shot down easier.