Blog Post 5: Final Draft

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.