Tenzin Nanchung

Sociology 103
Professor Jeffery Beemer
10/29/12
Statement 2
In our society today we are ruled by the economy and how it fluctuates. The
economy effects everyone in the country and is one of the major problems that we as
Americans face today. On the economic side there are two systems, capitalism and
socialism.
In a capitalist economy, the means of producing and distributing goods and
services are privately owned; in a socialist economy, they are publicly owned.
However, there are no purely capitalist societies and no purely socialist societies
in the world. ( Heiner, 25)
The economy measures how well our country is functioning and it is the Presidents duty
to maintain and improve it. In the United states when we elect a president we choose
one according to their believes and decisions they will make towards certain issues.
Presidents are separated by these believes, the two groups are Democrats and
Republicans. Both parties are pro-capitalist but democrats are considered less capitalist

although there have been democratic presidents that passed laws which enforce less
government regulations.
When we speak of socialist and capitalistic economies we often think about the
rich and poor. Many companies and firms have great influences on the laws that
become passed. An example is NAFTA, proposed by President Clinton, it eliminated
barriers to trade and invest, it allowed companies to do more trades with Canada and
Mexico. During the 90s boom of the economy, the incomes of the middle class seemed
to stay roughly the same but economy expanded. Most of the expansion came from
CEOs of companies so these people thrived and their wealth greatly increased.
President Reagans trickle- down economics was the idea behind the large increase of
income among CEOs. He believed that if the government made the rich get richer
easier, they would spend their money and it would trickle down to the poor. Instead the
rich invested their newfound gains and/or sent them overseas (social problems, 28).
Later, in 2001 president George w. Bush proposed tax cuts, which ultimately increased
the top 1% of households income to 275%. From 1982 to 2004 the .01%, which is one
hundredth of a percent ,increased their incomes to 42 times as much as the average
worker to 431 times as much as the average worker. We see that there is a large gap
between the rich and the poor in America, in other advanced countries such as Japan
and Germany, CEOs do not make nearly the same amount compared to America. We

see that there is indeed a social class in America, CEOs have a lot of power because of
the influence they have on the social class and the working class. They allow people to
work and have jobs by the thousands so they are more valuable in terms of society.