Friday, December 6, 2013

Alright, we've had our fun, now let's get back to business

The Progressive Era is regarded by many as a temporary social, economic, and political experiment.  The Middle Class, and eventually governments themselves saw it as their responsibility to fix the problems brought about by massive industrialization and urbanization.  This reading portrays some of the agendas of postwar America as continually forward thinking, and that “welfare capitalism” was seen as the avenue for businesses to support continued economic prosperity. The image of capitalists as the new source of progress was both convincing and appealing, as their “free will” seemed enough to propel them to employ many, pay good wages, keep costs low, and thus encourage spending.  While this may have worked temporarily, it provided no protection to employees during the next inevitable economic slump.  It also made it appear that the new enemies of progress were not the corrupt practices of business but rather the continued vice and inability to assimilate among the poorest immigrant classes and ethnic minorities.  Perhaps this is why a candidate like Hoover was considered ‘normal’—not because he actually fit any previous standard, but he represented the old-stock Protestant American, and thus the best protector against the dangers of a “big-city” driven government. 

Sounds convincing, right?  In many ways it does, but to me, the paradox still seems unsettling.  Why were Americans so quick to blame outsiders yet again for the limits to the American dream?  Do you think Americans were duped by welfare capitalism, or was there some merit to this way of thinking?  And finally, do you think these thoughts still occur today, when immigration reform is a recurring (and seemingly unsolvable) problem?

8 comments:

  1. I think that Americans were so quick to blame outsiders for limits to the American Dream because, “the first world war, unleashed powerful pressures for conformity to ‘100 per cent Americanism’ and it evoked even greater distrust of anything ‘foreign.’” Americans judgmental streak did not end there; with the “red scare of the 1920s, which asserted subversion particularly with the newer immigrant groups, [just] added more fuel to the fire.” Welfare capitalism, “was the contention that American businessmen had learned to look upon public service, rather than private profit, as the main objective of their exertions.” I think that welfare capitalism was the progression from what their current thinking had been. In the article it stated, “ that [the] [people] must be willing to accept the inevitability of ‘bigness’ in modern industrial operations.” The people understood that the natural progression was for welfare to be put in place and for business to expand. I believe that the thoughts of anger to foreigners is still present today because there are still people immigrating to the states and others feel, to this day, that their jobs are at risk due to the ability to find cheaper labor.

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  2. I think that Americans are so quick to blame outsiders yet again for the limits to the American dream because when world war I just ended, when everything is still recovering, it is understandable that people would doubt and worry about themselves and foreigners. From the result of the Great Depression and the red scare of the 1920s, I believe that Americans were duped by welfare capitalism, and it is not good to this way of thinking because being the way too positive and without considering the consequences would cause more risks. I think think these thoughts still occur today because there are always people who are worrying about themselves because they need to get jobs and income. I still remember last time a news said that employers of a company were blaming the company because they thought that Chinese people took their job away with a much cheaper labor. :P

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  3. I think that Americans were so desperate to blame someone quickly so they would not have to deal with it themselves. America does not wan't there reputation for the America dream to be ruined. From the outcome of the red scare and the great depression in the 1920's, I think that we Americans were duped by welfare capitalism, and it is not good to this way of thinking because being the way too positive and without considering the consequences would cause more risks. I also think that welfare capitalism was the progression from what their current thinking had been. In the article it stated, “ that [the] [people] must be willing to accept the inevitability of ‘bigness’ in modern industrial operations.” I think these ideas still occur in today's world because there are always people who are worrying about themselves because they need to make money.

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  4. As for the first question about being quick to blame outsiders, that one i blame human nature or similar concepts of human behavior. That saying that everyone is a little racist, it hold true in the example of Americans, and humans in general looking for something besides themselves to take the blame of their short comings. This shouldn't be surprising since this regularly occurs at the individual level, why not on a national level?
    For the next question about Americans being "duped" by welfare capitalism, i firmly agree that is was simply that. Like previously stated, Its 'human nature', but in this case just because everyone's doing (or in this case thinking) it doesn't make it right. So i do not believe there is any merit in this method of thinking.
    As i believe all the actions/thoughts i described to be human nature still persist today, otherwise it wouldn't be our nature.

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  5. Americans were so quick to blame outsiders because its always the easiest thing to do. Why dampen your patriotism by blaming Americans when you can just pin it on the war stricken Europeans of the first world war. WW1 also gave more of an excuse to the Americans to blame other countries.I think there is most certainly merit to welfare capitalism. While I also dont think it works perfectly by any means, its a much better system than having the government forcefully redistribute wealth creating a class of entitled people. Blaming other countries for taking their jobs is stupid, but so is blaming the companies. You can't possibly expect that a company would put his factories here in the US to pay $8 an hour when they can go to a country like China for so much less. Its the governments fault and their inability to make domestic factories and companies to hire more people appealing. Minimum wage is too high and with the employer mandate on Obamacare things are only going to get worse.

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  6. I believe the Americans were so quick to blame the outsiders because they were an easy target and they had no one else to blame for their mistakes. I also agree with Dean that the Americans did not want their reputation to be ruined because they had provided for many countries during the war. The Americans were definitely duped by capatalism. It gave them a reason to blame minorities for taking their job opportunities and money because usually when they came to America they were poor looking for a new opportunity. I do believe these thoughts still occur today because no one ever wants to take the blame for a mistake so collectively we blame everyone else, but as CJ said that's how human nature works.

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  7. I think that americans see the outsiders as a weak and perfect scapegoat. I think that as things start to get bad, people will aways look for an outsider to blame it on. It is very hard to admit that you have a problem let alone that the country and the citizens of a country have a problem. I also think that when Hoover ran for his presidency, it appealed to the bulk of american for the exact reason he was a "natural and true" american. Being a protestant and a white, hard working guy gave people that impression that he was normal and people wanted that after WW1.

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  8. The outsiders were viewed as a threat to other american citizens because they can compete for jobs. So when something goes wrong, its easy to blame it on someone to your not fond of or maybe defeat the competition. Hoover won the election because of his personality of true american. He gave americans patriotism, making it harder to blame things on other americans. So the outsiders were the easiest to blame.

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