Mon(k)eys for nothing and the Chimps for free...

After doing the random lives economic exercise in class, I have realized that making ends meet for a family isn’t as easy as I had originally thought. Before doing this project, I assumed that the average American salary for a family of four would have no problem balancing a monthly budget. Boy was I wrong. The mean US (married family of four) income is $68K. This should be enough to support four people, right? A monthly paycheck for this would be about $5,700 before taxes. According to http://www.paycheckcity.com/netpaycalc/netpaycalculator.asp, add up to be around $1,150, making each paycheck come out to be about $4,550. Now, with major expenses of a mortgage, food, utilities, car payments and daycare, there’s not much money left over for other expenses such as clothing, entertainment, college funds, retirement funds and any withstanding loans. In my case, I was able to give myself room to breathe by eliminating daycare costs because I know my family would be able to watch my kids when I need them to because there are so many members of my family and they are all incredibly helpful. I know, however, that everyone isn’t as lucky as me, so I can see how this can get tough. Mind you, we’re still dealing with an average salary. What if we went to the median salary, which is only $50K, or to someone working minimum wage for 40 hours a week? You can imagine how difficult it would be to live off of this.

How can the U.S. help in these situations? There can be anywhere from a socialist “equal shares” approach to a laissez-faire “hands-off” view. The U.S. currently uses “safety net” programs to give aid to those who need it, such as welfare, Medicaid and food stamps. “Overall, the typical American defined as poor by the government has a car, air conditioning, a refrigerator, a stove, a clothes washer and dryer, and a microwave.” (http://www.heritage.org/Research/Welfare/bg2064.cfm) This shows that to be defined ‘poor’ you don’t have to be living as terrible a life as many presume. I think that this definition needs to be stricter so less money needs to be put into the welfare budget and therefore taxes can be lowered. The welfare system is over-used and corrupted by Americans who would be able to support themselves, but choose not to. Instead, welfare should be given to those who lose their jobs and are in situations where the person cannot recover without outside help.

Additional sources:
http://www.newstrategist.com/productdetails/Spend10pages.pdf

Freedom (he did it again?)

Freedom can be measured in different ways from degrees of freedom in motion to freedom in government. In a socio-governmental aspect, basic rights are needed in order to truly be free. These basic rights include food, shelter, freedom from physical abuse, clothes, and the perspective of being free. For instance, a man who loved math and only wished to do math problems all day could consider himself the ‘free-est’ man in the world if he was able to live in a space big enough to do these problems and live a healthy life. On the other hand, he could be given everything in the world, but be banned from doing math problems. This would cause him great distress and he would feel like a prisoner to whoever banned him from his passion. These basic rights are not being given in China to the Falun Dafa members who are being captured for their spiritual beliefs. Falun Dafa members meet in large groups on the street to do exercises to promote healthy lifestyles. These members are not free since they are not free from the physical abuse of the government. According to one of our speakers, Ms. Chen, these Falun Dafa practitioners are being rounded up and sent to labor camps or killed and exploited for their organs. The Communistic government of China itself isn’t to blame for this; it’s the fear of an overthrow from the masses that is causing the corrupted government officials to react so fiercely. Without For instance, Mr. Song, another speaker, told us that in China he lives a free life. He also added that the only reason that the Falun Dafa members are being detained is because they denounced the Communist Party, thus becoming a threat to the government. In either case, the basic rights would be needed in order to enjoy freedom.

The United States doesn’t have much to worry about in terms of freedom as the government is slowly allowing more ‘freedom.’ For instance, at Renmin University, the students have created their own speaker’s corner where students from all over Beijing come to speak freely on Friday nights. Whether or not this is legal, the government does not step in to stop it, showing signs of leniency in the government. The youth of China, not to mention those attending the Communist’s university, is the future of China and from the steps that they are taking China is headed in the right direction.

In a personal sense, perspective determines whether one is free or not. For instance, a monk who has practiced meditation for 25 years may think he is not free until he reaches nirvana, whereas a high school student is free once the weekend rolls around. It’s not always psychological. A paraplegic may never consider himself to be free again, since he cannot walk. He no longer has the freedom to move freely. The bottom line is that freedom is a very general term that can be applied in many aspects of life, but when used in a governmental aspect basic rights are necessary.

Sources used:
http://www.faluninfo.net/
http://www.falundafa.org/eng/faqs.html#persecution
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=5353