Hiding from Reality Essay Example for Free

Hiding from Reality Essay The American Dream is exactly what it says, a dream. When people describe what they think the American Dream is, it is a utopia where there is no wrong in the world. Reality check, nothing or no one is perfect, this country will always have its faults but it’s the citizens job to make their country the best it can possibly be. Bob Herbert, a columnist for the New York Times, believes that no matter what we do this country will forever be in a sad shape, and unfortunately I agree. There are too many negatives than positives in this country and until we can switch that the United States will continue to live in distress. Major issues like the economy, budget deficits and warfare over seas are keeping the country in a constant panic, and until these are resolved the American Dream will only be a fantasy. Studies show that the economy has improved ever since the Great Recession of 2009, but it seems as if we’re at a standstill and have been for a long time now. Thousands of jobs are being created in power plants, yet some school districts just let go of half of their teaching staff for budget purposes. Information from the Pew Hispanic Center tell us that, â€Å"Foreign-born workers in the U.S. gained 656,000 jobs while native-born workers lost 1.2 million. But even as the hiring of immigrants picked up during that period, those same workers ‘experienced a sharp decline in earnings.’† The Pew Hispanic Center’s point is that the U.S. should never discriminate against the foreign-born workers, but with these statistics our country should develop an economy where anyone who wants to work can and be able to live a standard life with their families. Along with the economy, budget deficits are greatly impacting the nation. The wreckage from the recession and the new crash programs are doing nothing to help get us out of the hole we’re in today. The U.S. believes that we can continue to spend trillions of dollars on overseas warfare and somehow that money will find its way back into our economy and everything will be fine. Wrong, because of the amounts of money spent on warfare, state and local governments are challenged with having to reduce services. Examples are: cutting their work forces, hacking away at health and pension benefits, and raising taxes and fees. These services that are reduced for everyone are leaving some of the most vulnerable people- the children, the sick, the elderly and disabled- disadvantaged and incapable of living a standard life. Until we start focusing solely on America and getting back to the way it was before, we may never come out of this recession. In the end there is no such thing as a perfect society, or utopia. But that does not mean that we shouldn’t try to make improvements to help rebuild our country. Bob Herbert is right when he says this country will always be in a sad shape, that’s because as of right now there is little to no effort in rejuvenating our nation. There will always be unemployment and inflation, that’s inevitable, but things we can stop are warfare overseas and budget deficits. Reform is possible, we just have to focus solely on our nation and our nation only