America has always been known as the land of opportunity,
where a working man could come to make a living and provide for his family. Providing
for a family during these hard economic times almost seems impossible due to
the fact that the successful people in our society control all the wealth. The
way George Carlin views things, the successful people continue to succeed while
those less fortunate continue to struggle. Carlin suggests that our school
systems are messed up because the government doesn't want us to be informed so
they purposely teach students what the government wants them to be taught. That
is a scary thought to me. The people in our country that we trust to make our laws
in our land would rather make money than pass a law that would help public
school systems.
We are recovering from a recession because of banks tricking
people into taking out bigger loans or bigger mortgages than they can chew. The
banks then immediately sell the debt to other companies knowing that the people
who took out the loan most likely won't be able to pay it back. When the person
can't pay off his debt the bank doesn't lose any money the company that bought
the loan off the bank does. This shows how the little guy is always screwed
over in our economy and the fat cat has tons of money and is still getting
more. The idea of distributing the wealth is often considered a socialist view
but maybe a little socialism in a capitalist economy might be a good thing.
Just by reversing the economic standard that we put big
companies before the people we can have a more socialist capitalism
economy where the rich are heavily taxed and the poor are slightly taxed giving
them more money in their pocket each month. If our economy doesn't change the
poorer will continue to get poorer, our banks will continue to gain money they
don’t need and the 99% will be continually taken advantage of.
This is why I would like to make the distribution of wealth
a main focus in my field study. I want to compare and analyze the economical
decisions made between different classes. To see what makes someone successful
and to prove or disprove the common presumption that poor people are poor
because of bad decisions made previous in their lives.
We can’t deny that money is important. Every culture has a type
of currency or activity that determines what is important within that culture.
(RCA pg. 59) In our culture today what determines success is the amount of
money one makes because in todays society it is what people use to judge
happiness. Different people spend their money on different things however
everyone uses it. During these exchanges people form relationships with one
another and what makes these interactions possible is money. (RCA Ch. 3)
In my case study I will take a look into what people spend
their money on and some of the social aspects that influence these decisions.
HSU has a large diversity of ethnic groups and many students that come from
different economical backgrounds. This is why I thought HSU students would be a
perfect group to interview for my project. As a college student we achieve a
new sense of freedom and responsibility. Many of us are getting our first jobs
and realizing that it is time to provide for ourselves. This is very new to
most students it is often difficult to determine what we want and what we need.
What students choose to spend their money on in the long run is what they think
is most important. I would like to see if the new members of American society
are making strong or poor economical decisions.
My goal is to find out what college kids spend their money
on. When people buy commodities money goes into the economy and that is how it
grows, because of this it's important to keep a supply of what people want to
buy. By looking at what my fellow HSU students purchase we can hopefully
project the type of materials that we need to supply in order for people keep
buying.
I wanted my study to yield results that were unbiased and to
do that I needed a large group of subjects with varying economical backgrounds.
I decided to interview 20 students from each; the Sunset and Redwood dorms,
Creekview dorms, student apartments (on campus) and 20 students from off
campus. The price to stay in each one is different so I thought that would be a
good way to diversify my data.
After I figured out who I was going to study I had to figure
out how. So I came up with 6 categories I thought college students would most
likely spend their money on. The 6 categories were gas and transportation,
food, clothing, books and school supplies, recreation and housing.
I chose my subjects by using a random number generator to
randomly pick 4 unit numbers corresponding to room number. Not everyone
answered or was there so I had to come up with more than just 20 but after I
had 10 from each Redwood and Sunset I moved on to surveying the rest.
For the Creekview dorms I went around knocking on doors
until I found 20 people that agreed to taking my survey. Next I moved to the
student apartments. Kids living there where a little less friendly and I only
found 13 kids who agreed to take my survey. Realizing that I didn’t even know
20 kids who lived off campus I decided to combine the 5 that I knew with the on
campus apartment kids. In my study I decided to group the 18 surveyed from off
campus and the campus apartments to off campus because the campus apartments is
most like living off campus, only upper classmen can live their and it’s
considered your apartment, you pay for your own food, laundry, rent and any
damages to the place your held accountable.
After I got all my Information I averaged the proportions
for my final results. In Redwood and Sunset the results where gas and
transportation 5%, food 19.2%, clothing 9.6%, books or school supplies 12%,
recreation 44%, housing 12.5%. For Creekview it was gas and transportation 8%,
food 16.4%, clothing 10%, books and school supplies 7%, recreation 49%, housing
14.3%. And for the 18 kids living in apartments or off campus the results where
gas and transportation 18.4%, food 33.6%, clothing 5%, books and school supplies
4%, recreation 12.8%, housing 35.5%.
Over the last 10,000 years we have seen our society evolve
from bands of nomadic hunters and gatherers into the industrialized nation that
we live in today. (RCA pg. 29) Instead of roaming the land freely hunting game
as our ancestors did, it seems that adults in this day and age devote most of
their time to getting money. In my study I compared what college students spend
their money on.
With different needs and wants from each other, they had certain
things more important due to their beliefs and situation. In every culture
there is some type of monetary exchange between it's members where the main
purpose is to acquire what is needed to survive and thrive. (RCA pg. 59) For
example, kids living on campus spent very little money on transportation
because most things they need are accessible on foot or by bike. While students
living off campus need to commute to get to class so a large portion of their
money is spent on gas or for the bus.
Another big discrepancy I found was how much students spent
on food. Those living on campus got meal plans so they didn't spend a lot of
their own money on food. Where as those living off campus need to feed
themselves. This is the first time for a lot of students living completely on
their own with out mommy or daddy to look after them. They gain this new sense
of freedom and how they regulate their decisions and lives is completely up to
them. This is a great example of political capital. (RCA pg. 63) Where people
choose to put their money has a huge effect on the economy.
Today, modern economy thrives off of small businesses and
providing services that cost nothing to start but can be translated into
profit. This process is known as capital conversion. (RCA pg. 63) The decisions
we make on what we buy can have either a positive or negative effect on the
economy. For example, in my study the biggest percentage of money spent was on
recreation. In Humboldt County we know that a lot of people habitually smoke
marijuana for recreation. So giving that 20 dollars to the homeless drug dealer
in town most likely won't help us get out of this economic recession.
On the other hand, this is a college campus so the
consumption of alcohol is everywhere. Instead of spending that 20 dollars on the
black market and taking it to the liquor store where items our taxed that money
is directly deposited into the economy. We have a greater impact in this world
than we may think. What we do and what we buy directly affect our economy. In
the years to come the ones we call students today will be transformed to hard
working, tax paying Americans. If we want to see our country thrive its up to
us.
