Who has the power?

I agree with C. Wright Mills that there is Power Elite that runs this country through running our economy. The everyday person still has the right to vote and voice their opinion, but is their opinion really heard? There are three major realms that run the country, the political, the business, and the military. These all come together to form the power elite. They decide how the country is run and make all other decisions that affect everyone's daily life. But, is it in our country's best interest to have this type of government system running us? I personally do not think so.

The Power Elite only thinks about what will help them in the end, that is why the original political system was not set up this way, the business man will not want to support unions because it could topple his empire and the military do not want to the public to know all of their plans because no one would want to join. Finally the politicians don't want the average person to know that most of their "promises" about how they will make the country better is purely to gain their vote than to actually put in the effort to make the change because then they would not be in office.

I am not very big on talking about politics because I feel that no matter what I believe in, there is someone else that wants me to believe the opposite. I want to live in a country where the "Power Elite" make decisions that are better for the whole community and economy rather than to just fulfill their own dreams. We have many problems within our country that need fixing but they will never be fixed just hidden. America has become selfish and if we want to further ourselves in the global society that we are in today is to listen to the needs of the people and stop allowing the Power Elite to make all the decisions for the rest of us, so we can come out of this economic and political rut we have found ourselves in.

Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

Although the idea that Wal-Mart started out with was a good economic plan to improve the nation and our economy, the formula that they follow today where they shut down American factories an drive others out of business in order to get cheaply made products from other countries has been a big factor in the decline of the US economy in my opinion. Since we are now focusing more on buying cheaply made goods from other countries, we are draining our own economy by eliminating millions of jobs throughout the Midwest where generations of people have worked the same jobs. Even though the movie was filmed in 2004, I believe that Wal-Mart has only made our economy worse by killing jobs and forcing those people that lost their jobs to work at Wal-Mart for much lower prices and barely any benefits. How can an American based company do that to its own people? Many were forced out of jobs that their family have been in for generations, what are they supposed to do when that job is no longer available? How are they supposed to feed their families and live a comfortable life when their entire life's earnings suddenly disappear?

I also feel that Wal-Mart may be creating a monopoly that were outlawed back when big industries started. A monopoly is when a company controls all the goods and all the raw materials and products used to make the goods. Although the Wal-Mart name is not on all the goods they buy, the manufacturers are obviously dependent on what Wal-Mart is doing which in a way, in my opinion, makes it a monopoly. Honestly, I do not really shop at Wal-Mart very often. In fact I would say that I shop there maybe 2 or 3 times a year. I much prefer Target mainly because the type of people that shop at Wal-Mart are usually low income families and the goods they sell are not as high quality as they advertise and claim. Especially after the reception hit, the quality of Wal-Mart's goods went way down.



In my opinion, Wal-Mart is not good for America because it not only takes good jobs from Americans and gives it to other countries, but it gives the jobs back at half the amount of pay that the workers originally got at the factories that Wal-Mart closed down so they could increase their wealth. Wal-Mart has been in the middle of many controversies and I hope that eventually karma will catch up with it and cause it to close like it made all those factoris