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Films role in portraying culture
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Film’s role in portraying culture
Films possess the significant role of portraying culture and reinforcing given cultures that are deemed instrumental for humanity. However, the film’s reflection of the society is the most instrumental role as it describes ordinary stories that express the beliefs, insecurities, and aspirations of ordinary individuals. Both of the films, Stagecoach and True Grit express personalities of individuals as reflective of the cultures and events of their age.
Aspects of morals emerge in the movie. Moral elements embed in the different economic choices that individuals make. To begin with, it is discernible that Doc Boone is a highly regarded individual since he is a doctor. In spite of his responsibilities, he is an alcoholic who seems to indulge more in his whiskey. Given the certainty that a medic’s work should embody, it is ironic that alcohol can accord the same accuracy that involves prescriptions and treatments. Interestingly, a trader in whisky sits closely to the doctor. These two individuals relate in a unique sense since the former fuels the alcoholism of an individual who ought to be responsible. The trader fidgets since he is aware of the moral implications of his trade. In the relation between these two individuals, it is discernible that each person conducts his duties as long as the duties grant him the necessary profits (Driscoll 78). It does not bother them whether their lifestyles and trade impacts negatively on the respective societies that they thrive in. As the bus continues moving, a banker, who has defrauded his bank of $ 50, 000, boards. It is not discernible whether the banker is escaping his guilt or running away from the police.
These elements combine to manifest an individualistic society whereby each individual makes one’s pursuits without minding respective implications. In spite of the individual pursuits, it is emergent that all the persons can afford a single destination. All the individuals coalesce within a single purpose of advancing their societies in unique ways. Within their duties, certain practices and habits are the destructive forces that diverges the society’s need for inclusiveness and beauty. For instance, the doctor carries out a noble trade but engages in alcoholism. Besides, the banker engages in a noble trade of banking but carries out a dirty habit of theft.
In the culture of heroism, it is discernible that individuals can become noble and communal in their endeavors (Nichols 48). This is a savior syndrome that appears as a savior ideal. Ringo Kid initially possesses a dream of avenging on the death of his brother and father. The interest in nuclear family, in this case, is an individualistic behavior that regards conducting murder. Ringo’s selfish character vanishes when he starts taking to Dallas. Ringo shares a determination of revenging on his brother’s and father’s death. In spite of Dallas’ persuasion, he goes against the Plummers and precariously rescues his brothers. This is a risky venture that almost sees his death and his brothers’ misery. It is discernible that the Marshall takes after Ringo because of his heroic displays. This is an element of an individualistic culture that opens up for communism at instances of heroism. All the same, this heroic display is instrumental for the society’s energy towards war and destruction of other people. In this spirit, individuals manifest the determination of defending their loved ones at all costs. It is notable that Hatfield utilizes his last bullet to rescue Mrs. Mallory.
The film, True Grit, share a similarity in the idea that John Wayne was the starring role in both of them. However, John Wayne acted in the earlier version. The greatest similarity lies in the idea that they reflected the Western life. The film manifests familial love as Mattie Ross quests for the revenge of her father’s death. She takes this responsibility into her own hands as she tracks down an old Marshall for the duty. The old Marshall, Cogburn, is a fearless old man who expresses reluctance in executing the odd business of killing murderers.
This film navigates about the concepts of individualism and communism as expressed in the personalities and activities of the characters. Mattie seems to be a selfless individual at a young age. At the age of fourteen, she had learned of her brutal father’s death. This replicates in the American teenage spirit of conducting one’s life towards fulfilling family’s aspirations. Mattie does not want to appear impotent towards murderers who had escaped the responsibility of a heinous crime. In her determination, she goes to the local sheriff who almost makes her give up at her quest. Instead, she implores and takes the option of hiring a retired sheriff. The determination does not break down when she realizes that she cannot meet the cost of hiring the retired Cogburn. The young Mattie has to trade a horse in raising the money that would contribute towards compensating Cogburn.
On the other hand, Cogburn, just as me in my younger days, professes mild interest in the affairs of Mattie. This occurs in spite of the idea that Mattie is a young girl of whom he should sympathize with. Cogburn remains adamant until he receives the amount that satisfies him to risk his life against the Pepper gang. At this time, it seems Cogburn does not perceive such a venture as a risk because he is used to guns and dealing with criminal gangs. In this sense, he demands the compensation because he just loves money. Cogburn, unlike me, does not profess a preference towards an activity that he can undertake without financial compensation (Detweiler 36).
This situation changes as the plot progresses. This is because Cogburn attains the purpose of avenging the death of loved ones. As the story progresses, it becomes evident that Cogburn views Mattie as her own daughter. Cogburn offers to suck poison out of Mattie’s hands when a rattlesnake bites her. This manifests in Cogburn’s spirit to take Mattie to the doctor in spite of the horse’s exhaustion. At this point, it is arguable that Cogburn is not just giving value to the money that Mattie offered her. Cogburn seems to be giving sense in his aged life (Broker 123).
This is a factor that reflects in my personal life as I attained the sense of purpose. In order to realize what my personality and background entails, I offered to take myself through a rigorous experience. The rigorous experience was a trip to the wild that made me realize the value of my family and the individuals around me. Cogburn is a character who seemed to have lost hope on the honesty of individuals. In this sense, he imposes a high charge on Mattie as a manifestation of his mistrust on individuals. In my personal life, there was the need of skepticism as a tool for keeping individuals off. In the end, Cogburn uncovers that individuals, such as Mattie, can be real in their endeavors towards their loved ones.
Works cited
Broker, Keith. Alternate Americas: science fiction film and American culture. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. Print.
Detweiler, Craig. Into the dark (cultural exegesis): seeing the sacred in the top films of the 21st century. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008. Print.
Driscoll, Catherine. Teen film: a critical introduction. New York, NY: Berg, 2011. Print.
Grant, Barry Keith. Film genre reader three. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2003. Print.
Economic Issues
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Economic Issues
People in New York have been dealing with economic problems such as unemployment, rising rents, and low incomes and salaries. In New York, there has been an issue with unemployment for a long time. The problem of unemployment has arisen as a result of population growth; work opportunities are insufficient to meet the needs of everyone in the population. New Yorkers who have lost their jobs can apply for unemployment benefits through the New York State Department of Labor. Joblessness in New York is commonly referred to as unemployment insurance. Unemployment insurance coverage, on the other hand, is not guaranteed to all unemployed individuals in the state.
The harsh reality is that several of the city’s most essential industries, such as finance and Marketing, are unlikely to see significant job growth in the next decades. In several other high-end businesses, New York City is losing jobs and market share to the surrounding region. New York City faces far-reaching structural economic issues that, if left unchecked by city leaders, will restrict job creation in the five boroughs for a long time. Manufacturing industries and Fortune 500 corporations are no longer the only ones abandoning the city for less expensive locations. Securities firms, advertising agencies, publishers, and other high-wage service sectors are rapidly shifting units out of the city, or preferring to create the majority of their new positions abroad, thanks to globalization and technological advancements. Even though New York remains the nation’s financial hub, the state has only accounted for 3% of all securities positions generated since 1987, consequently, the city’s share of national securities positions has dropped from 36percent to 23percent over the same period.
Despite its famous background as an entrepreneurial hotbed, the data finds that New York trails behind most other cities and several of its suburbs—as an incubator of growth enterprises. Only five of the top ten fastest-growing companies in the New York region were based in the city in 2001. Only 31percent of the total venture capital spent in the region in the first half of 2003 went to enterprises in the five boroughs. However, having to focus the city’s economic development plan solely on Wall Street will not help it flourish in the future. New York has been sensitive to trends like centralization of industry, which has been developing for nearly a decade and was magnified and accelerated by the city’s long-standing strategy of doing whatever it takes to keep large firms in industries like finance and expecting everything else to follow.
Excessive reliance on Wall Street has also enabled the city’s economy to deteriorate from one of the most resilient to one which fluctuates dramatically with the stock market’s ups and downs and performs poorly in the US economy during boom and bust periods. Although the city’s unemployment rate was much lower than the national level in 1950 and 1960, it’s been higher than the national rate in 28 of the last 32 years. What’s needed is a fresh, forward-thinking economic development plan focused on boosting long-term growth in a variety of industries, restoring entrepreneurial vigor, fostering a more welcoming environment for expanding businesses, and improving the overall quality of life. As part of this, the city must see all five boroughs as potential growth zones. It should also make use of numerous powerful local assets that have previously gone largely untapped, such as the city’s entrepreneurial immigrant community and dense concentration of academic research institutes.
New York has the innate capabilities to solve these formidable obstacles. Most cities can only dream of having the financial, human, and cultural capital that the city has. It is still substantially ahead of where it bottomed out in the early 1990s, despite nearly three years of recession.
References
McKinsey (2019). New York City Economic Development Corporation. “Sustaining New York’s and the US Global Financial Services Leadership” (PDF). The city of New York.
P. Richard (2018). “Cornell Alumnus Is Behind $350 Million Gift to Build Science School in City”. The New York Times. Retrieved August 1, 2014.
Economic Inequality 2
Economic Inequality – 2132476
Economic inequality refers to the situation whereby wealth, assets or wealth are not distributed equally among individuals within a group, among some groups within a population or even among countries. Economic inequality is also described as income inequality, gap between the rich and poor, wealth and income differences and inequitable distribution of wealth. This issue of economic inequality can imply various notions such as equality of outcome, equality and the equality of opportunities. There exist differing opinions on the importance of economic inequality and the impact it has. There are some studies which have put emphasis on inequality as being a social problem. Whereas some inequality might promote investment, when it is too much inequality can end up being destructive. Though income inequality hinders long term growth, it can also help long term growth. Economic inequality differs between different societies, historical periods, and the existing economic systems and structures. This paper will look at the extent of inequitable distribution of wealth and its causes. The paper will also look at some of the effects of inequitable distribution of wealth. Finally, the paper will highlight some of the policy responses that have been put in place to reduce or completely eradicate inequitable distribution of wealth (Hacker, 2012).
The organization of Economic Co-operation and Development carried out a study titled Divided we stand: Why Inequality Keeps Rising gave its conclusions on what causes inequality, its consequences and the policy implications for ever rising extremes of poverty and wealth across 22 Nations that are its members. Income inequality within the OECD countries has been recorded to be at its highest level over the past half century. Wealth inequality in the United States has further increased from its already existing high levels. When looking at median incomes for the upper 10% and then contrasting it with the lower 10%, countries that are traditionally more egalitarian like Germany, Sweden and Denmark have seen an expansion of the gap between the rich and poor to 6to 1 today from 5 to 1 in the 1980s (Krugman , 2014).
A study conducted by the World institute for Development Economics Research carried out at the United Nations University states that the richest 1% of adults alone were owning 40% of the assets in the globe as ta 2000. The three richest individuals in the whole world have more financial assets as compared to the lowest 48 nations put together. According to the PolitiFact, the top richest 400 Americans posses more wealth as compared to half of all the Americans put together.
Even though there is an existing discussion on the recent trends in the economic inequality in the globe, the issue is just clear and it is true when it comes to both the entire global inequality trend and also its components of between-country and within –country. The existing data shows that there has been a large increase in the international component between the year 1820 and the year 1960. This however might have gone down slightly from that time at the expense of an increase in inequality within countries (Hacker, 2012).
Causes
There are various factors that cause the unequitable distribution of wealth within societies. The recent increase in income inequality particularly in the OECD countries has been as a result of an increasing inequality in salaries and wages. These factors are such as labor market. A big factor that has led to economic inequality in the modern market economies is to do with how wages are determined by the market. A small part of the economic inequality is as a result of the differences in the supply and demand for the different work types. In a mode of production that is purely capitalist, the wages of workers are not controlled by organizations or employer but they are under the control of the market. Wages work in a similar way as prices of any other good. Therefore, wages can be termed as a function of the market price of a particular skill. This means that inequality is driven by this price. Under the supply and demand law, the price of skill is determined by the race between the skilled worker demand and the supply of this skilled worker (Madrick, 2013).
Alternatively, markets can concentrate wealth, pass on the environmental costs over to the society and abuse the customers and workers. Markets, even though they are stable they in many cases lead to high inequality levels. Those employers that offer wages that are below the market find themselves understaffed with their competitors taking advantage of this situation and offer a higher wage so as to snatch the best of their labor from them. A job with many workers that are willing to work for a large amount of time –high supply that is competing for a job that has few people require-low demand leads to low wage for that particular job. This is due to competition between the workers hat brings the wage down. On the other hand a job where only few people are willing to work-low supply but has a large need for the position-high demand leads to high wages for the job. This is due to the competition that exists between employers for the employees will end up driving it up. This interactions between supply and demand lead to a gradation of the level of wages in the society which in turn has a significant influence of unequitable wealth distribution (Krugman, 2014).
The other factor causing unequitable distribution of wealth is taxes. This is in terms of the rate at which income is taxed together with the progressivity of the existing system of taxation. A progressive tax is one that the tax rate goes up when the taxable base amount also goes up. In this progressive system of taxation, the level of top tax rate has a direct impact on the inequality level within a society either through increasing or decreasing it as long as there is no change in income due to the change in tax regime.
The other factor that leads to unequitable wealth distribution is globalization. Trade linearization can lead to a shift in economic inequality from the global scene to a domestic scene. When there is trade between rich and poor countries, the workers that are low skilled in these rich countries end up getting low wages as a result of competition while those in poor countries see an increase in wages. Trade liberalization therefore has a significant effect on the increasing inequality within the United States. This increased trend in trading with poor countries as well as the fragmentation of the means of production has led to low skilled jobs becoming tradable (Madrick, 2013).
The other factor causing unequitable distribution of wealth is education. This is in terms of the variation of an individual’s access to education. Education, particularly in areas where there is a high demand for workers lead to the creation of high wages for the people that have education. However, an increase in education first increases and then decreases growth and also income inequality. Therefore those who are not able to afford education or simply make a choice of not pursuing optional education end up receiving lower wages. This is justified by the fact that lacks of education results to lower incomes and hence lower aggregate savings and investment (Friedman, 2010).
Effects
There are various effects of unequal distribution of wealth that researchers have come up with. These effects include high rates of health and social problems, a lower level of economic utility within the society from resources hat are devoted on high-end consumption and even a lower level of economic growth incase human capital is neglected to a high-end consumption. A rising inequality in the world is the most important problem since it brings harm to economic growth. Where there exists high and persistent unemployment that leads to an increase in inequality, leads to a negative effect on the subsequent growth of an economy (Friedman, 2010).
Higher rates of social and health problems such as ;obesity, homicides, mental illnesses, teenage births, drug abuse and lower rates of social goods such as; educational performance, country life expectancy,, status of women, social mobility are higher in countries or states that have higher inequality. Social stratification and inequality often result to higher levels of psychological stress and status anxiety that might end up causing depression, less community life, dependency on chemicals, diseases that are stress related and parenting problems )Domhoff, 2009).
Crime rate is also related to unequitable distribution of wealth in the society. Studies have shown that there are tendencies of violence within societies that have a higher income difference. Economic inequality is significantly related to the homicide rates, most of those who are inv0lved in crime do so because of the low incomes they have and hence go into crime so that they can be able to get some sort of income to satisfy their needs.
A high income inequality also leads to less forms of social, civic and cultural participation among those who are less wealthy. When there is high inequality the poor do not shift to less expensive forms of participation (Domhoff, 2009).
Policy responses intended to reduce unequitable wealth distribution
Progressive taxation leads to an absolute reduction in income inequality when there are higher rates on the higher-income individuals are paid and they are not avoided. Transfer payments and social safety nets result to progressive spending by the government. A proposal on wage ration legislation was made as a way of reducing income inequality. According to the OECD public spending is crucial when it comes to reducing the ever increasing gap between the rich and poor (Beckow, 2013).
Another recommendation made is a higher top marginal tax rates only on the wealthy people. This recommendation made is of up to 50 or even 90%. There are also calls made for financial transaction tax that is going to bolster social safety net and the public sector.
There is also a proposition made on the setting up of a minimum wage provided that the minimum wage is not set too high. This could lead to the boosting of pay with absolutely no ill effects whatsoever on jobs (Beckow, 2013). There are various public policy responses that have been set up in the U.S to address the causes and effects of income inequality and they include; progressive tax incidence adjustments, the strengthening of social safety net provisions like Aid to families that have dependent children, food stamp program, welfare, Medicare, social security and Medicaid, increasing as well as reforming subsidies in higher education, increasing the infrastructure spending and placing limits on as well as taxing rent seeking.
References
Krugman ,P. (2014). Why we’re in a New Gilded Age. Retrieved October 11, 2014 from http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/may/08/thomas-piketty-new-gilded-age/Domhoff, W. (2009). Wealth, Income and Power. Retrieved October 11, 2014 from http://www2.ucsc.edu/whorulesamerica/power/wealth.htmlMadrick, J. (2013). Inequality is Not the Problem. Retrieved October 11, 2014 from http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/apr/24/inequality-not-problem/?insrc=
Hacker, A. (2012). We’re More Unequal Than You Think. Retrieved October 11, 2014 from http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/feb/23/were-more-unequal-you-think/?insrc=relFriedman, S. (2010). Consequences of Unequal Distribution of Wealth: The Rich Get Richer… Retrieved October 11, 2014 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/saul-friedman/consequences-of-unequal-d_b_674779.htmlBeckow, S. (2013). The inequitable distribution of wealth in America depicted. Retrieved October 11, 2014 from http://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/03/04/the-inequitable-distribution-of-wealth-in-america-depicted/