Transitions emphasize the shape of the paper and come in various sizes.

In the first place, you can make statements like, “This paper will reveal three reasons you should consider voting for the Vegetarian Party in the next election.” Now readers know more or less what’s coming and they don’t have to keep wondering, and thus can focus on the points you make instead of wondering where the paper is headed.

Visual transitions are cues to a paper’s shape such as headers or titles (like the paper titles on this page).

Transition phrases can link major ideas (and show the relationship between them), like “in the first place,” “next we address the question of…”, and “finally,…”.

Transition words make connections or comparisons within a main idea. (“I like you BUT you can’t have my sandwich.”)

Watch for various types of transitions in the following paper drafts and suggest good ones where they’re missing.

 

Increase your audience awareness by asking after each paragraph (at least) how you are responding to the following paper drafts.

Feedback on your own writing trains you to be more aware of how readers respond to your style.

Incubation lets you read your work with fresh eyes and see weaknesses that you were blind to when you first wrote them.

Should We Let Our Physical Self Determine Our Inner Worth?

Head held down, clothes clinging for life on my thin frame, I was terrified of eye contact as a high school student. Knowing the false accusations made about my health caused me to dress for another’s body type. I did not suffer from an eating disorder, however lived in a time period where a little chub was charming and a bit of fluff was fabulous. I was the complete opposite. Being assigned the nick-name “Joan the Bone”, I tried to hide myself behind baggy clothes, thinking if I just acted like I wasn’t there, they wouldn’t see me. However, by today’s standards my boney body would have meant that I was the model perfect figure. Though I didn’t notice it at the time, they had negatively labeled me, stamping me with a reputation needed to be upheld that has haunted me into adulthood.

1. What is your reaction to this paragraph? Are you engaged? Curious? Empathetic? How does pathos affect the message? How open are you to the paper’s ideas?
2. Note the concrete/visual description, alliteration, sentence variety, and other rhetorical devices that make it work.
3. Do you know exactly what the topic is yet? If not, are you patient to wait and find out? Why?

Today’s culture is riddled with examples of what a real woman should represent. If not for her looks, she is nothing. If not for her perfect physique, she is no one. With so much pressure on today’s society, many women are met with anxiety, shame, and negative body image. On what authority do people have to label women? How is it another’s responsibility to put a person in a distinct category, only to harm their self worth causing them to grow more and more insecure in their actions, feelings, thoughts, and self value?

1. Note that it switches from concrete to abstract here. Is that okay? Why or why not?
2. Do you know what the exact topic is yet? If not, is that okay?

The influence of body image is begging to show it’s cruel face towards younger ages more than ever before. Beginning in the adolescence years, these young girls are faced with the assumption that in order to have an equality of self worth to that of someone they deem more physically beautiful, they must obtain that same magnificence. Originating at puberty, these young girls are already proclaiming dissatisfaction with their growing body types, longing to be the thin model airbrushed on their favorite magazine cover. While already dealing with the changes in their bodies, they must also face the challenge of “suffering from personal deficits such as low self-esteem, and may be particularly vulnerable to societal pressures concerning appearance.” (Polvy & P. Herman). Turning away from a healthy life style, these girls are already comparing their dieting habits with their friends, beginning as early as junior high school.

1. Note the emotionally charged diction (word choice) like “begging,” “cruel face,” and “magnificence.” How do they help or hurt the paper’s purpose? When would it be ill-advised to write this way? How much is too much?

As these young women grow into young adulthood, their physical comparison soon transforms into more than a simple thought of dieting. High school and college aged girls begin to socially diet, joining in on “quick weight loss” measures while becoming anorexic, bulimic, or using laxatives at a dangerously high rate. In combination with their weight loss program, their “negative body image triggers negative emotions such as grief or shame, which may again elicit negative dysfunctional beliefs about one’s appearance.” (I. Kollei et al) Whether it’s a verbal attack from a peer or a bout of gossip from a stranger, an already unbalanced self worth can only distort a young woman’s self perception.

1. Note the smooth integration of sources. No need to state which article the quote came from.

In recent years, a new form of body dissatisfaction has been added to the radar of ‘mostly female disorders’. Body dysmorphia is a form of a psychological disorder in which a person becomes preoccupied with their physical features. Like those who suffer from eating and dieting disorders, body dysmorphia causes it’s victim to suffer from feelings of “shame, anxiety, and hopelessness”. Upon ending my first semester away at college, I had happily gained a whopping ten pounds. My mother cheerfully congratulated me on my weight gain, My friends on the other hand, exclaimed, “well at least your nose isn’t as huge now that you’ve added some fat on your face to balance it out.” Instead of being excited about the weight I was able to add to my frail frame, I was now conscious of my apparent enormous nose.

1. The paper’s topic and purpose continues to grow clearer. Is it okay that it took several paragraphs to reach this point? Is it better than beginning with an unfamiliar concept like dysmorphia?
2. Note how the paper continues to weave the personal narrative into the topic overview and how the narrative is used to support/illustrate the main point being made.
3. Some readers thought all the negatives in the paper were starting to sound whiny. How could the author use a concession to defuse such thoughts?

Those who suffer from body dysmorphic disorder, like one who is bulimic or anorexic, have a negative body evaluation. Instead of being obsessed with only their weight, those with dysmorphia tend to find their body to have impairments that are not usually in existence. They suffer from hopelessness in their “deformity” and will occasionally take dangerous steps to fix this abnormality. In September of 2010, Bethany Storro threw acid on her own face, claiming that a stranger had done this to her. After investigation, Storro admitted she had done this to herself in order to obtain a new face. Though this is an extreme case, many women have anxiety and embarrassment about their physical features. This can lead to extreme measures or to depression and or disgust over one’s self image.

1. This is an informative paper. What question could you ask (or other strategy) to engage readers even more?
2. What visual or other transitions could help guide readers through the paper with more clarity?

It has been found that women with BDD and those with an ED both suffer from “intrusive thoughts”. Those with BDD have thoughts such as “My nose looks horrible”, while someone with an ED will contend, “My thighs have grown so fat”. I often wonder which one of these “disorders” I myself might fit into. I have always been afraid to run into someone from my past in fear that the absence of my boney body will only cause judgmental speculation of overindulgence. While those who found my nose to be too large for my frail face, might soon find my cheeks to have overrun my facial features. Is this the norm? Do all women have these thoughts and insecurities, or is this something I need to stop fixating on. Possibly labeling myself as a woman with a psychosis emotional disorder…. Body Dysmorphic Disorder. I certainly do not suffer from an eating disorder, unless extreme yo-yo dieting has its place in the spectrum of eating disorders.

1. Do you feel like this paper gave a fairly complete overview of the topic?
2. Did it use its sources as “ingredients” and not merely “seasoning”?

College Dropouts

Every existing problem has an origin and the college freshman drop-out rate has more than one stated by Alison Damast of Bloomberg Businessweek Business Schools. Damast states that private coaching services for students at the University of Dayton, costing $200,000 for 400 out of 2000 freshman students, shows a retention rate to be multimillion dollars in revenue savings. However, University of Pittsburg Dan D. Bundy and Cheryl A. Paul argue, the area for focus is High School and interacting with student and parents to be academically prepared for the college freshman year is the key to retention. A report written by Daniels, ‘Why College Freshman Dropout’ with factual data referencing, states, the colleges and universities preparation for the freshman student: orientation, mentoring programs, leadership, tutorial, and several other programs are available to aid curriculum and yield freshman year prosperity and retention and he believes that these programs are working. Which of these programs are effective? We see each enhancing but none are effective in keeping freshman retention low enough. Daniel suggests that “The federal government may soon challenge education on the dropout issue, perhaps with fines for high numbers of students that fail to make it to graduation.” Can they all work together to promote an outcome for freshman retention? All of the authors have a valid plan that is working however, all seem to not agree on the origin of good for our freshman; is it the high school, or the private coaching services, or the many mentoring, tutorial, accessibility and etc. programs placed at colleges and universities.

1. What do you think of the first sentence? Does telling the author’s name and affiliation help or hurt?
2. What about sentence 2? Do you know what it’s talking about?
3. If you wrote a thesis statement or a paragraph to introduce the main idea, what would you say?
4. Does this topic seem important? What does this author do to help emphasize its significance?

“First year on campus, given all the factors, is a tricky balancing act. Groundwork for fist year transitions must be built. On the other end of the spectrum, it is just a dream that U.S. high school education will make the sweeping changes necessary to lead kids to college level academics; to inspire them as opposed to bore them?” (Daniels)
INSERT TRANSITION

1. Do you have a clear sense of this paper’s direction? What could help clarify it?

We have varied data on the effectiveness of high school preparation. Damast suggests, coaching in the higher education, freshman year, is crucial and more effective than high school because high school funding and staffing cannot cover the cost on a per student basis (Damast). Communication between student and parent in high school and definitely the first year higher education freshman is crucial; having said this, it is important for parents to communicate with their freshman, who is now into psycho social maturity. Parents previous “NO” must be replaced with more effective communication, to herein keep a voice rather than retaliation from student. Complete communicate can be lost because of parent authority, which infringes on new found freedoms (Budny and Paul). High School course work was the top factor influencing whether students earned a college degree even more than family income, high school grades, ethnicity or test scores, if students are not academically driven to start college courses or continue academically in their senior year of high school, instead of the relaxed laid back completion of credits they could become “academically bankrupt,” after a full year of cushy coursework and time off from serious studies (Daniels).

1. Does this paragraph have a clear focus? What is the main point? How would changing the paragraph’s organization influence your reaction to it? (For example, begin by stating the main point (claim), then warrant and evidence.)

It is clear from the research that “if” parents are involved, the freshman student seems to stay in higher education however, the new found freedoms may well drop the parent relationship unless communication is less parental and more genuine listening and carefully weighing responses.
INSERT TRANSITION

1. How could this paragraph be improved?

The epidemic of higher education dropout is a prime focus of colleges and universities. This is evident in changes with the Colorado State University, in which they eased new admission requirements for incoming freshman or risked losing about 20% of their freshman class (Daniels). While we are seeing backup data of the importance of parent involvement that eases awkward transitions and recognize the challenges young freshman convey, all can be more aware, of the academic support from their college choice and transition into a freshman year smoother (Budny and Paul). We see quite the contrast in belief of college and universities courses aiding and supporting the freshman. With the data from liberal arts school in Northfield, Minn., and University of Dayton proclaiming that the mentoring and peer coaching is not as effective as the results received from coaching services and factually entered data with bottom line: coaching freshmen reduces undergraduate dropout rates and ultimately saves millions of dollars for colleges ( Domast)
INSERT TRANSITION

1. What do you think of the first sentence in this paragraph? How closely does it relate to the content that follows?
2. How closely does the evidence in this paragraph relate to the claim that precedes it?

New found freedoms inhibit the academic outcome. Sleep/Wake Up, dating, drinking, eating, roommates, fraternity / sororities, money, drugs, clothes, classes, communication, parents are some of the dynamics plummeting freshman students out the door (Budney and Paul). Students are responsible for their freedoms but there is a high focus on those who fail because of study skills, internet abuse, different learning styles, boyfriend / girlfriend and other reasons which are being address at the college and universities to aid those who are deficient due to doable changes with the aid of higher learning sources (Budney and Paul). Mentoring, successful student classes, stress management class, leadership mentoring class, women’s success center, accessibility Services, Turning Point services, TRIO, labs for all curriculum are few of the many resources available to support freshman enrollment however are these programs implemented early enough and made aware to freshman? From the view of all sources I find that all are falling short to retain freshman and fewer are having a graduation ratio incline. Orientation is set up for incoming freshman however calculating the number of invites to the enrollment factor we are not seeing effective orientations.

1. Who would be interested in this topic? Even though it’s not required for this assignment, how would addressing a specific audience change the reader experience of the paper?
2. What types of personal narratives could be woven into this paper? How would they affect your reading experience?

Every author has factual backup research and data to proclaim their main focus regarding ‘the freshman dropout’ resolve. However, with each of their strengths I find all can serve for higher retention of freshman and graduating students. Now it seems that high school is plan A for early intervention. Coaching services are in my mind categorized as plan B. The most effective strength is once a student has enrolled and the college or university takes every plan and presents it in orientation and gets the word out to freshman. Further summarize

1. Note that this paragraph shifts from providing a topic overview to a rhetorical analysis of the articles. Why might this be an important thing to add? How could a smooth transition be added to clarify how it fits in to the paper?

How Does Depression and Anxiety Affect Quality of Life

Many people consider countless forms of depression and anxiety disorders to be related with quality of life, a relation to everyday exercise is the process in which people have low self-esteems. There are those who have engaged action and taken precautions to enhance their quality of living, exercising daily is an upright technique used to make people feel lively and healthy. Nonetheless, there are those who endorse notions that exercise has nothing to do with the relation of depression and anxiety disorders. This opposing point of view sees that depression has no impact on real-life outcomes. Obviously, the supporters of this contemplation are in the category of those with no signs of depression or anxiety disorders who believe that exercise is a way to boost self-esteem and that everyone who wants to decrease the risk of depression that they exercise daily. The risk of depression is known as “Related Considerations” where the supporters believe that people with low esteems have the capacity to commit suicide. It is likewise my argument that people should exercise daily maintaining a high self-esteem lowering the risk of depression and anxiety, therefore the quality of lives will be enhanced.

1. How do you like the first sentence up to the first comma? What audience(s) would find this topic interesting? How could the topic be introduced to catch the interest of a specific audience?
2. After the first comma, the sentence introduces two more concepts. How would you rewrite them to make each point more clearly and effectively?
3. Where would you add paragraph breaks to clarify and emphasize main points?
4. Does the paragraph make any claims that you don’t fully accept? How could they be adjusted or supported to increase credibility?

There are many researchers who have done mass accounts of investigation and have theoretical belief that self-esteem is considered to be the ratio of success and pretensions in important life domains. In the literature, it is debated whether self-esteem is best conceptualized as a global evaluation of the self (i.e., global self- esteem) or as an evaluation in specific self-relevant domains such as intellectual abilities, physical appearance, and social competence (Swann & Bosson, 2010). Self-esteem is generally considered to be something vital, a value in itself, in Western and Eastern societies. Dr. Simon has plenty to say about the potential dangers of uncritically valuing self-esteem. But not every society puts the same value on self-esteem; in fact, not every society has the same sense of self.

1. Write an outline of the main points of this paper and organize them in a logical, effective order.
2. Do you feel like you got a complete overview of the topic at hand? What concepts could be added to round out the paper?

How Outsourcing is affecting America’s Economy: Pros, Cons

Recently, there had been many debates over the important issue on how companies and governments in the past decades have been increasingly sourcing a wide range of tasks to offshore sites. As an overseas buyer for my company, I am fortunate enough to experience firsthand what that is like. As a buyer I am required to travel to different countries where large labor and talent pools are available at lower costs to try to procure goods and services at the lowest price, in order to help my company to reach higher profits. For example: if a product can be made here in the United States by a working making 15 dollars an hour plus many different benefits, or you can make the same product somewhere else where a worker is making four dollars an hour with no benefits which one would be more of a logical move? After all, it is the bottom line companies are chasing here. Why wouldn’t companies want to take jobs overseas? Which leads me to question my line of work? Is what I am doing hurting the economy? If so, why are so many companies consider offshore outsourcing to be beneficial?

1. How do you like the first sentence? What would happen if it was removed? Where would you add the topic back in?
2. How do you like the personal aspect of this paragraph? How does it affect your reading experience and your disposition toward the topic?
3. How clear is the overall paper purpose or topic at this point?

I started by searching news articles on the internet for this topic. I found out many Americans believe that outsourcing is one of the main reasons that the unemployment rate has been increasing in the United States, so they complain and publicly criticize the companies and governments who outsource jobs abroad. Also many U.S. workers (from white- collar well educated individuals to semi-skilled workers) have become more concern about the security of their jobs due to increasing global economic integration since the early 2000s.

1. Did this paragraph transition smoothly from the previous one? How could it be improved?
2. How closely does the first sentence relate to the rest of the paragraph? How could the main ideas in the paragraph be connected even more clearly to the overall purpose?

The topic of outsourcing has been controversial for Americans; it leads to many heated arguments and detailing the pros and cons of the effect of outsourcing to The U.S. economy have been plentiful, which provides me with both sides of the arguments about offshore outsourcing. I hope at the end of this paper I will determine if there really is a need for American concern about companies outsourcing jobs

1. How would you describe the progression of the paper? Is it going from general to specific? Is it making main points and supporting them? Is the organization effective?
2. What do you expect to find in the next paragraph?

First, we will need to understand what offshore outsourcing is. In the IMF working paper “Fear of Service Outsourcing: Is It Justified?” , Mary Maiti and Shang-Jin Wei , explain that offshore outsourcing (also commonly called offshoring or international outsourcing) refers to a company obtaining inputs or services from a firm in a foreign country. The object of offshore outsourcing is the same as that of outsourcing. But the concept of comparative advantages still applies. Businesses have discovered that they can hire workers in the other countries for a lower wage rate, which lowers their cost of production. [Amiti and Wei, 2005a, Page313]

1. “First” is a transition word. What two things does it join?
2. In the second sentence, what is the effect of telling the article title and authors?
3. Are there any terms in this paragraph that you don’t fully understand or that could be explained more fully?
4. Outline the information in this paragraph. Change the order and see how it affects the ease of understanding it.
5. Did this information seem important and catch or keep your interest? How could it be presented to do so better?

I then went the to Bureau of Labor website to look for more information on what type of t jobs are being affect by offshore outsourcing. In the Bureau of Labor Statistic (2009) states service jobs that are highly labor-intensive are most likely to be shipped overseas. Companies will experience a large decrease in production costs when they move jobs to a country where labor costs are very low like India or China. The most common labor-intensive jobs that have been internationally outsourced are service jobs like telemarketing or call centers. Another type of job that is more likely be out source according to the Bureau of Labor is information-based jobs. The reason being information can now be accessed anywhere in the world. The internet and improved communication channels have allowed for easy accessibility of information common service jobs that are information-based are accounting, customer service , and billing.

1. This paragraph continues the narrative of doing research. How does it affect your reading experience and your reception of the information?
2. Is the BofL an academic source? (answer: not really, though it’s a great source for these statistics).
3. How clear is the paper’s purpose at this point? How engaged are you in following it? How could the research question become more important to you or another specific audience?
4. Does the paper’s research question have a “complex” answer (not required for this paper, but a good idea to start working that direction).

Many people believe jobs being outsourced will continue to increase [N. Gregory Mankiw, 2006, page 7] as long as workers in other countries are willing to work at a lower cost than workers in the United States, companies will always use off shore outsourcing as an option to lower the cost of the production and increase their profit. Many people (such as Henry Kissinger) see offshore outsourcing as dangerous to the American economy and have express concerns over the number of jobs that are filled by non-American workers in other countries. He stated in his book “Henry Kissinger on China” page 211:

“The question really amounts to whether America can remain a great power or a dominant power if it primarily becomes a service economy,” he said. “And I doubt that.” He went on to say that the movement overseas called for “some careful thought of national policy of how we can create incentives to prevent that from happening.”

Kissinger believes, there is also a need for new arrangements—both within the United States and between countries—that prevents tax competition. Such competition is generated by corporations shopping for tax abatements and lower rates as conditions of making investments. The result is either an unfair shift of the tax burden onto labor incomes or an underfunding of needed public investment and spending when corporate tax avoidance strips the public purse of revenue.

Another area requiring new institutional arrangements is exchange rates. Here, the need is to prevent countries from using undervalued exchange rates as a means of competing. Engaging in competitive devaluation is a form of economics wherein countries rely on demand in foreign markets rather than building domestic markets. Undervalued exchange rates are an unfair subsidy that distorts the pattern of trade. They also risk causing global deflation because they promote increased supply of exports without increasing global demand.

In Kissinger’s book, he is concerned outsourcing to other countries like China will led to lower wages in the United States. He feels that American now have to compete with workers in the other countries who are willing for lower wages ,which causes American workers to believe they will have to settle for lower wages or risk their jobs to foreign workers. Kissinger also believes American workers being forced to accept lower wages is unfair since cost of the living is much higher in the United States compared to developing countries.

Kissinger also believes lowing wage is a declining standard of living. If American workers have to accept lower wages in order to keep their jobs, their Standard of living is going to fall. American are no longer going to be able to afford the consumption they had at the higher wage. In order to meet their needs people will have to cut their consumption, therefor lowering the standard of living

But is Henry Kissinger’s thinking correct? Is offshore outsourcing affecting American way of living? Are American being laid off because more jobs are being outsourced? I, Personally like to look at data in addition to just listening to one’s opinion, So I went back on to the Bureau of Labor website to look for answers. By looking at past trend of the unemployment, I observed that it has basically unchanged for the 5 years between 2004 and 2009. What happened after 2009 is another factor. But a study has found that the number of jobs lost to outsourcing is offset by the number of jobs created with insourcing. New Positions are constantly created as old ones are eliminated by outsourcing.

For example, Many overseas companies comes to United States to invest in American own businesses. Like I mention before many of the jobs that are outsource are semi-skilled jobs like customer service or tech support jobs. Many countries that are not manufacturing heavy that will come to American manufacturing in order to expand. Even countries like China and India whom has strong manufacturing bases comes to America to invest in business and products .

If offshore outsourcing is as bad as people say, then why are companies are still doing it? There has got to be some good in it? I then found a book called “Outsourcing America: The True Cost of Shipping Jobs Overseas And What Can Be Done About It” by Ron Hira and Anil Hira. They argue that offshore outsourcing is a form of free trade. They believe outsourcing lowers costs and encourages competitiveness [Hira and Hira, 2008]. This argument often comes from economists who see this topic by looking at the long term effects, while many Americans Look at the short- term effects, Economists consider that some jobs are lost with outsourcing, but many people are forgetting the number of jobs created during this same time period. For example An Institute for International Economics study by Catherine Mann notes that globalization of computer hardware manufacturing led to a 10 to 30 percent decline in prices, making such equipment more affordable and leading to a far greater increase in jobs in the long run. They also consider an example like this has a positive effect on productivity. If a business can relocate the less efficient processes of its production to another country that has the good process at a lower cost, the business can then focus on its more efficient processes. When one businesses are allowed to focus on what they do at best, the productivity as a whole goes up.

Another study done by Gregory Mankiw and Phillip Swagel of Harvard University, found that small companies and new startups gain more from outsourcing than large corporations. The latter have managerial structures that hinder their ability to take full advantage of outsourcing’s benefits. Smaller and younger companies can easily organize themselves to utilize outsourcing, thereby gaining sales and competing better in today’s global marketplace.

Nowadays, a large majority of people are still apprehensive regarding the subject of outsourcing and concern about increase in service offshore outsourcing. Mainly because of the fear of losing jobs, lower wage rates, or lower living standards, they assume that outsourcing hurts the economy and that the U.S. has been losing jobs for a long period of time. Many people even blame the current economic downturn and the several billion dollar trade deficit on outsourcing. other people support the increase in offshore outsourcing and believe offshoring is beneficial to society. They find that international out sourcing is a form of trade that allows companies to specialize. That will lead to improvements in the overall economy. Companies realize higher profits and consumers see lower rate.

All the research I have done supports the second argument. Overall, negative effects were found on the unemployment rate, more jobs have been coming into the U.S. and gross job gains are mostly greater than job losses. I believe outsourcing is an inevitable trend that will not stop and cannot stop because it is vital to the world economy as well as U.S. economy. If the U.S. corporations cannot outsource work overseas, undeniably they will become less competitive in the world market; thus, the health of the economy will be undermined and declines. Also, the companies will lose opportunities to increase their productivity, invest in new business chances, and resources to create higher value-added jobs at home. At the industry level it is clear that jobs have disappeared. It is also true that the industry has gone from having no impact on trade to becoming an import industry, one that adds to the current trade deficit. But if you look at the companies themselves, they are growing, they are prosperous, they are productive, and they have added U.S. jobs. We might easily conclude that outsourcing creates growth and jobs in the United States.

We must be careful when we talk about this topic because benefits for offshore outsourcing are good for the public as a whole. Those who have seem the negative sides of the economy probably have trouble seeing the net benefits and have good reason to be concerned about outsourcing. One must be aware of the overall effect and realize that offshore outsourcing has not hurt the economy, by many goods have occurred because of offshoring. I believe there is still need for more research needs be done on the reason of job lost now the economy is slowly coming out of the recession.

 

 

Synthesis Paper

With the 2012 United States Presidential election close.  There are debates about what the most important issue is right now.  There is, however, one recurring theme that both sides are talking a lot about. Is debt the real problem with America’s finances?

This topic matters because, it affects almost everyone globally.  Silvio Contessi of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Lois states,  “The developing international debt crisis has unleashed unanticipated fears that more government in some advanced economies may default on their sovereign debt and trigger a global financial tsunami. “ (Contessi 2012) According to Silvio the government finances could end up effecting everyones personal debt and create problems for everyone.  Scary Right?

It’s a topic that is especially important to parents, voters, workers, and homeowners.  It is related to most of us.  Parents are wondering if their government debt is going to be passed on to their children.   Sara Aliabadi says, “We conclude that government spending should be reduced to eliminate government budget deficit and national debt.  Otherwise, the burden of our luxury life will fall on our future generation, our children.” (Aliabadi 2011) Is this a moral issue?

Voters have the responsibility to make a decision this election.  Hopefully we start asking focused economy questions like, Is now the right time to work on paying back the national debt?  Aliabadi also mentions.  On the other hand, government spending increases individuals’ and firms’ income and this in turn increases savings, and as a result investment increases. Higher investment will lead to higher job opportunities and lower unemployment rate.  I ask this question.  Does Government spending have an effect on the unemployment rate.  Aliabadi states, “We predict that the opposing effects of government spending on unemployment rates and price levels offset each other,” (Aliabadi 2011).  This means that we can see job growth from spending money and we can also see jobs disappear  when businesses get in over their heads.

Homeowners are very affected by this whole crisis.  Part of the reason debt  has become such an issue is because of the housing crisis we’ve seen.  In the past there has been the mentality to pay things later.  People had variable interest rates that were low then hoped those interest rates wouldn’t increase.  But, they did.  And unfortunately this is an issue that has flowed all they way up to national debt.

This mentality has to change because it’s not fair for everyone else to bail out failed policies people and businesses.  For example,  I was able to buy my first home as a fixer-upper when I was twenty four.  Because we worked hard to fix it up we now will have a 12 year mortgage.  I want to emphasize the hrs our family put into fixing up this home, the time we had the live in a “hole”, and the fiscal responsibility my family had to be disciplined.  Unfortunately   my taxes will increase due to the fact that the government helped bail out people who had loans they could not afford.  I realize this isn’t the case with many people who lost their jobs.  However the housing crisis and bubble did happen before unemployment went up.

In conclusion, we should be passing on a better place for our children to live not a more difficult one.  It should be easier to find work.  Houses should be more affordable.  And the country should be progressing.  Right now we are on a steady decline.  And there isn’t any significant evidence that it will be easier for our children in the future.  So as voters, workers, parents and united people it’s important that we take responsibility for making a budget and being financially responsible for our actions now.  This is the greatest country on earth and it should keep progressing not digressing.

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