KARL MARX assignment

Karl Marx was a phylosper around the time of 1948 when he wrote his first book against capitalism. He was against capitalism for many different reasons. Those reasons being ; exploitation, alienation, base and structure, political economy , and more. Marx was really against how capitalism worked and he believed that it was draining out the workers souls and alienating them from what they really want to do and should be doing . one concept and metaphor he used that really caught my eye was when he mentioned that capitalism was like a vampire. the connection between the two is that capitalism sucks all the money and work out of the labor while the owners get EVERYTHING, this is just like vampires sucking out all the blood in a humans body , ending up with what THEY want. The more the capitalism exploits the works, the more blood getting sucked out of the humans! The capitalist are making all this money off of the labor workers while they only about a percent of what the capitalist are making off of THEIR WORK. this reminds me of when i was working at american eagle outfitters, and i would sell them about 10 jeans an hour while i was only getting 8$ an hour while each one of those jeans cost 50$ . it doesn't make sense at all . its crazy how people and even myself was up to getting paid such little amount of money. overall ` Marx was against all of this because he believed in humans creating their own ideas and not being ruled around by other people.

Inauguration Assignment

Well first off i was actually in Puerto Rico when the inauguration was going on , and was about to get on the plane, so i wasn't able to watch it . but i did read the text of his speech and found it moving.
What i was able to catch on TV was the very beginning of everyone walking in to greet. When i saw that i couldn't believe how many people where there for Obama to support him. It felt like a revolution because they had mentioned that it was the most people America has ever gotten at an inauguration. i wonder what as going on in Obama's mind when he saw how many people where there for HIM.
One thing i noticed about the speed was that when everyone compared Obama's speech to the past inauguration speeches, they said that his wasn't all about encouragement and such, but that it was like he was already in work , that he had been doing this for years. I liked that aspect about his speech because it had a calming sense to it , and made me very proud of who our president is.
One thing that Obama mentioned that caught my eye was "Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America." when i read that i was kind of confused because i believe that you cannot remake America, that that is a job that will take years a years to accomplish. i feel like by him saying that, he is putting so much pressure on his shoulders to make America "perfect", and that now people will be looking forward for the new America when i feel like that is not possible.
Which connects back to our AWOL unit because through out his speech he mentions all the bad things that America has going wrong such as "Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred" and "Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered" and more. Those words coming out of his mouth show that this country is in danger and that it is a serious deal. By him stating all the things wrong with the country just shows how the American way of life is , everyone from around the world was probably watching the Obama inauguration and all they hear is this bad stuff about America, they must make opinions wrapped around what he said.
Obama must seem to emphasized the "the American Way of Life" as all these challenges he needs to complete while he is president, and i hope he will fix most of it before our reputation gets worse!

big paper updated 1/2/09

When you look at americans , you can realized that theres definitely an " American Way of Life" you realize that we live a very specific kind of way. its hard to describe but when you analysis different situations such as thanksgiving, christmas, our economy and how it works, the constitution, etc. you notice that we are one of a kind, and not in a good way.


capitalism is broken up into many different parts, but overall what it means is that its "an economical system in which good services are produced , distributed,and consumed though the mechanism of free markets". meaning that its all about how products are bought and sold and the logic behind it . another point to add in would have to be that its all about the "free market" and "private property", meaning that it all depends if its free market and anyone can sell the product , or if its private and you have to have the right to sell the product.
the three main parts of capitalism is : land , labor , and capital . meaning that the land is literally the land that you sell your product on ( aka the store, the street, the grass). the labor is who you choose to MAKE sell the products for you , or the labor that you do to sell the products or to produce your products, and then the capital is the stuff that you use to sell you items like signs, advertisement, and then the wealth comes in !
the wealth is when you get profit from the products you sold and are able to increase your profit by upgrading ! the most fun of it all ! it all turns into a cycle sell,profit,upgrade,MORE profit, sell upgrade, EVEN MORE profit.. etc etc. its a way to get rich !
the main objective of the seller would be to make the most money possible while spending the least amount possible. meaning that he wants to buy the product for a cheap amount of money and make the buyer pay extra , so he gets profit. but then its not all up to him , he always has to relate back to the supply and demand chart. [Photo] the supply and demand chart lets you know the highest price you can sell the item for and the lowest amount of money the buyer will pay for the product, which is the market price. you have to revolve it all around the market price which ends up changing here and there, it all depends on the supply and demand if it shifts or not !
now going a little off topic, theres always going to be competition, if theres a free market, there will be way more competition because you'll have more competitors trying to sell along side of you while if its private , you don't have as much.
thats when the invisible hand comes in! the invisible hand is when you put your own interest ahead of your self so that you do stuff automatically , its kind of like your instincts. people use the invisible hand in these situations because they are competing with others so their first instinct is to do BETTer then their competitors and they do it without thinking about it . if one person is selling a coffee for one price, you sell yours with a donut for the same price etc. its all about the competition!

Holiday Assignment 1/2/09

Every year for the holidays i go to my grandmothers house in Canada where my whole family is. I love going to Canada because it is so different from the states, the way people act , eat, everything. People say that out of all countries canada and USA are the most similar, but i see them so different. Every year me and my family celebrate Christmas and Hanukkah because my father is Jewish while my mother is Christian. I find it weird that we dont just celebrate Christmas because one is supposed to follow your mothers religion , but im my family i guess we want to make my father proud of his children by saying the prayers and lighting the candles every night of Hanukkah. A little more description of my holidays in Canada is that we went skiing, spent a lot of family time with the cousins, bowling, went to a couple parties with a cousin my age, and stayed at my uncles cabin in the woods for a couple nights.

This year was the first time in a while that my father came with my sister and mom and i up to canada since their separation , and since he was there it was funny because our usual Canada exertions were americanized. Its kind of a stereotype when families go skiing during the holidays, and my moms family doesn't really go skiing but when my father mentioned it , to make him happy we all went. So i think that that little trip to the mountains made the trip different then others.

Its hard to connect how my holidays connect to the "American Way of Life" because i wasn't in america, but i can say how its different from New York City. What i can mention is that the teenagers in Canada think that living in nyc is like a dream and how they all wish they were my sister and i , it was weird hearing that because i dont find it that way at all, i feel like i have everything that they have. its just the fact that they are in the suburbs in the middle of the country were they dont see a lot , everyone lives the same in the town i go to in canada and that in NYC theres alot of diversity compared to them. THis connects to the american way of life and that us americans may not realized what we get to experience until others from another country tell us what we have. It pretty much goes along with the saying " you dont realize what you have until its gone" .
That we dont realized what we have until we loose it or something makes us realize it . that kind of shows a "selfish- ness" in our way of living , that we dont appreciate.