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Jonathan Garcia

English 101

2 September 2019

The American Individual

One of the fundamental questions in any society is the role in which the government

should play for its people. This is particularly important for it becomes a central theme in

American politics, manifesting itself as either big government or small government.

Should the government play an active role in its citizen’s lives or should it people fend

for themselves. Which begs the question: why can't our government help the poor, and

the homeless?

The American Dream has always been about personal independence and the ability

of an individual to work from rags to riches by simple hard work. It’s a common held

belief that anyone can and should work for better and could achieve it. Should it then

come to anyone’s surprise that the other side of the American Dream is believing that

those who aren’t well off or homeless are by result, lazy. This level of thinking spurs wild

misconceptions on who the poor are and why they are in poverty. From the point of view

of firm believers in the dream, the idea of the poor being responsible for their

predicaments manifests itself in how they treat them, with resentment.

The reason we view the poor in a negative light doesn’t just lend itself to believing the

American Dream, but it also goes into the way we analyze others. Mia Szalavits states

that humans “have a natural tendency to view other people’s behavior as being

determined by their character - while executing our own behavior based on

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circumstances.” While often times the homeless can be deemed to be lazy or

incomptent while many Americans attribute their failings as accidental or a stroke of bad

luck. At times it’s never considered to be the same case for those of a lower class.

Although how Americans view the poor is a personal one, it becomes externalized

through the voting polls. Conservatives have been praised for their views against

government intervention, but it comes at the cost of those who need it most. A current

example can be seen when the Trump administration proposes to cut millions for food

assistance. While work has been done to help remedy the weight of the downtrodden, it

can be said that a concerted effort is and has been done to cut down on such attempts.

The way in which Americans view themselves and the poor greatly influences the way

the US government chooses to help. Although there is virtue in self reliance, there is

little in actively working against those deemed responsible for their financial state. It’s

fair to say that the reason why the American government doesn’t help the poor is due to

the concerted effort to cut down on welfare.

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Citations:

Super, David. “The Cruelty of Trump’s Poverty Policy” ​The New York Times. ​24 July

.2019.

Szalavitz, Maria. “Why do we think poor people are poor because our own bad choices”

The Guardian. ​5 July .2017