Monday, December 6, 2010
Prosperity
President Harding wants the US to "return to normalcy." Why might he say that? He and President Coolidge seem to return to laissez-faire with their pro-business platform, but there are also many schandals tha wrack the Harding administration. Is there a contradiction between these new policies and the new immigration restrictions, or were these restrictions overdue? At the same time, people made a lot of money during the 20s and wanted to spend it, but there were other aspects involved. They bought on credit, they bought a lot of new machines, especially the car, which brought forth its own social changes, and they bought stocks on the stock market. All these changes are important, but might they lead to more problems down the road? (20.2, 20.3)
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Emma Sales
ReplyDeleteDear Blog,
President Harding wants the US to "return to normalcy" but maybe that isn't the best idea. These immigrant restriction laws I think they are unfair. Some people live in poverty-stricken countries and want to come to the United States for opportunities and freedom which we claim to have but do we really have these things if we are pushing people away. I think it's great that we are finally making progress by having cars and radios but since we are all trying to have the latest gadgets and we don't actually pay for it, people may keep doing this and we all could get in serious debt.
[Nayara]
ReplyDeleteHello fellow bloggers
I’ve been catching up on the news recently and I can’t help but notice president Harding’s claim for normalcy. I’m glad that he’s working towards peace, but they’re doing it all wrong. What kind of country signs a pact for peace, and then twists through the loops to screw those countries over? Only a country with no morals. I don’t get why president Harding didn’t realize that the tax on imported goods wouldn’t only negatively impact on foreign countries, but that it prevented people to buy the things they need. Not to mention that the government got involved in Germany with France, which they then manipulated to gain money. The government sent in a man of ours, Charles Dawes I believe his name is and got the other countries, Germany, Britain and France to all pay the US, and virtually the US paid less for the damages of the war.
Not only is the manipulation but, the US is also beginning to restrict the same foreigners who paid their debt for them. Nativist feelings began to grow when new immigrants arrived from southern and Eastern Europe. It was a social faux pa to mix with the new immigrants. In result the quota act set up a quota system that restricted the amounts of immigrants that could come to the US. It’s ridiculous that the gov’t would do such a thing. Immigrants are people just like the rest of us.
You know, the US, it seems, is getting more and more stuck up and high end. Now that we have all of these electronics, people are going out and buying all these new gadgets. The big one is a car; I wanted to know what all the hubbub was about so I got myself one. Well now I understand where the excitement comes from. This baby can do anything! Whenever somebody needs me, whether it is for a story or meeting, I can make it there, no problem! I’m glad though, that I paid in cash, because these so called “installment plans” do nothing but suck money right out of you! But Americanism is consumerism so what do you expect now a days? Whatever these people choose to do, it’s their consequence in the end.
(Pierre Youssef)
ReplyDeleteDear blog,
This is Darryl Black, and i had just head President Harding talking about how he wants the US to return back to normalcy. Returning to life back before WW1 is what he seems to want. There have been many rumors going around Harding's administration. Many people are saying that his administration is full of corrupt people that are his friends, that he hired mainly to help him out. What conformed that this rumor was the Teapot dome scandal. He had been selling government land, and pocketing the money. Sure he has been working hard, but I am not liking the decisions that he has been making recently. Since I am an immigrant I do not agree with the quota system. This goes against what this country was based on. They cannot just have fewer people coming into the country. It is just not right. They should let anyone be able to apply for a visa, and have an opportunity to come to "the land of opportunities".
There have been many inventions recently. I am just amazed by all these new forms of technological advancements. I was finally able to buy my first car. I will be paying monthly, for the next 12 months, until the whole payment is finished, unless I end up deciding to pay more then what is needed, and finish the payment earlier. The dealer who sold me this car pointed out all the great things that come with a car. I just could not say no. They were very affordable as well. Whenever I am behind the wheel, I feel asthough my stress flees away, and I am as relaxed as I could ever possibly imagine. I feel much happier when I am behind the wheel. I have bought a few stocks on the stock market. My stocks are up 300%. I am very happy with this. With the stock market it is all mainly luck, and I guess you can call me lucky. I am very happy with all this money that I have invested. I wonder what would of happened if my stocks dropped, considering I had invested most of my money into them. I would have went bankrupt, and had to take out loans from the bank. What if I could not pay them back, then I would be in some major trouble. Well thankfully I do not have to worry about this. Life is just great.
There are so many new electronics that I want to buy but the thought of debt has crossed my mind. I have a feeling debts will be a problem. Yes sure people are buying like crazy now, but what about later on if they cannot pay for all the items they have purchased. What will they do? I think this might not be the best idea.
Dear Blog,
ReplyDeleteYou would not believe the amount of new technology that is coming out! It seems like there's something new each day. My family recently bought our first car. You would not believe how much easier it has made life. Instead of taking 20 minutes to walk somewhere, we drive and it cuts the amount of time to get there in half! Its also much more convenient when the weather is bad. My husband recently started making more money and we have been able to afford many new things. Instead of using cash we use this thing called credit. It seems like all my friends and I can talk about is how many new things we're buying. It crossed my mind one day, what if we spend so much that we can't pay it all off? Are all these new products worth being thousands of dollars in debt? And if we can't find the money to pay the companies won't they go into debt? Eventually this will hurt the economy.
Good Mornin' y'all,
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit depressed this morning; I've got money problems on my mind. I barely make enough money to live comfortably, yet today in the newspaper I saw something about people buying all this new technology and all that. I can't imagine how people find the money for that, although I heard the other day something about the number of millionaires increasing by 400% over the past decade. I sure wish I was one of those millionaires.
Another thing on my mind this mornin' is the issue of immigration. A couple cousins of mine were gonna pick up and move to America from Poland, yet apparently they can't as there's some new quota allowing only 2% of the immigrant population from 1890 to come into the U.S. It looks like my cousins aren't going to be able to come, and it's too bad because I know they really hoped to experience all the wonders America has to offer.
- David G.
Dear Blog,
ReplyDeleteI have recently heard about the KKK and I am very worried about what they will do to those who do not agree to what they feel the qualifications of an American is. They seem as if to be growing exponentially. I have begun to notice more and more of people I know becoming members of the KKK. Later in the week while at the parlor a KKK member attempted to get me to join the group. I almost said no to avoid the risk of being tortured for not joining. The next week president J.F.K developed a plan to stop the KKK by joining and using their secrecy and making it a mockery. When I look back at the KKK I feel that more fear of terrorism than actual terror happened.
Dear blog,
ReplyDeletePresident Harding’s new immigrant restrictions are absurd. Why limit the number of people coming into the country? Like there is an overcrowding problem. Immigrants, who can work in factories, contribute to society, and make this country better. It seems as though I don’t understand, unless the real reason is that Americans are afraid of new immigrants; which is ridiculous because ever since immigrants have came here they have been nothing but helpful, the occasional riot or strike, but for good reason. Rarely ever violent, I don’t understand the fear. I believe these some of these new changes are extremely overdue, like the model T; it makes my family’s life a lot easier and its actually affordable! I believe these changes are necessary for America to advance in general. Harding’s taking and selling of property and pocketing all the money was not as shocking as to be expected because of his campaign of laissez-faire. I don’t believe what Harding is doing is right, to want to go backwards, the past is the past and there is a reason why it didn’t work. It’s time to move on and make changes; for the betterment of America.
-Kendra Rumbika
I have never seen in my 42 years on this earth such an injustice as that in the Sacco and Vanzetti trials. Being a fellow immigrant I was shocked at the lack of justice presented in this trial. I came to this country thinking it was welcoming to immigrants, treated everyone with equality, and seeing that it was founded on values in democracy and liberty for all. But I quickly learned what can go wrong when you use your first amendment right, founded by this very country that chooses to ignore it! It makes no sense. I brought my family here for a better chance and to have equal chance for a better life, and this happens! It’s outrageous. Sacco and Vanzetti had alibis for the time of the robbery/murder, they were not allowed to present witnesses, and they simply fit the description of having “swarthy complexion”, well I have a swarthy complexion did I kill him too? Basically the prosecution already made up their minds that they were the murders because of where they from and what they looked like; the only problem, there was nothing distinctive in those descriptions, they could have been describing me or my wife, or any of my children! This town has millions of immigrants that look like just like that, but because they had caused problems before it was assumed they committed the crime. It’s frustrating because you never know when you could be blamed for something that you did not do, but if you speak your mind or are an immigrant in the eyes of every U.S. official you did it. End of story. No chance to defend yourself. It could mean your life, in the case of Sacco and Vanzetti, they died for something they did not do, and that is not what America was founded on. We should fix this as soon as possible because it could cause mayhem among immigrants, or anyone who believes in justice or furthermore the truth.
ReplyDeleteDear Blog,
ReplyDeleteAside from the unjust American values, my family is doing quite well these days. My husband, Henry, has been coming home from work everyday smiling and saying that our money is increasing each day. It appears that the wealth of the nation is increasing and developing to make that nation a wealthier and more advanced place. The government is trying to stay out of people’s businesses and my husband is very pleased with this as other businesses. Thing are not only getting better for my family but the immigrants as well because the unemployment rate is going down. Today my husbands brought home a radio. It was so much fun to sit around it and listen to the Jazz music with my sons for a moment. It seems as though our house is getting all sorts of improvements and just last week Henry was talking about a Model T. Can you imagine what it is going to be like when we get ours! These changes are important because they are benefiting so many people and there is also an increase in money throughout the population. Now we can start spending our money on other things more so than we did before. I cannot see a future problem down the road because everything is positive, at lease for us.
-Abigail McGinty
Shanice Hird
ReplyDeleteDear Blog,
President Harding claims says he wants to return to “normalcy” Which is returning to the idea of laissez-faire. Since the war America has become wealthier and things are becoming more modern. People seem to be enjoying the change and I don’t believe that we as a country want’s return to laissez-faire. Harding and Coolidge want to do this for selfish reason and their own beliefs and not the beliefs of the people in this country. People are making more money and this allow them to buy refrigerators, cars, and radios. Unemployment has also gone down and that is a good thing. So it’s obviously that President Harding wants to return to laissez-faire to please himself and his colleagues. Harding doesn’t know what’s best for this country because he has put all his friends in the cabinet A.K.A “Ohio gang” and them and himself have been taking public oil and land and selling it off for money and I don’t believe that our country needs a con artist to tell us what to do or better yet guide us. New immigration restrictions are unreasonable and not overdue because it confined immigration from European countries by 2% of the number of those living here in 1890. This shows favor to old immigrants and that is the reason why the quota act of 1921 should be abolished. I don’t believe that as of right now these changes will lead to more problems down the road except for the people who are buying things on credit because they might end up not paying back the money which will lead to debt but otherwise the country is just fine the way it is and Harding should learn to accept change and stop being so selfish and rebellious towards America’s prosperity and let the people of our time Live as it is.
To those who shall be reading the words that I am writing:
ReplyDeleteAll this prosperity and wonderment is considered to be a joy to the world. A real... gem if you will. Millionaires are dropping in like bricks from a wall (or in the cities, crap from a bird), and people are slowly progressing into a new urban happy lifestyle...
WELL SWEET MADONNA! Things are looking up for the land of the gangster now isn't it? I mean I can get 100 canolies for just a dime, and I'd still have enough to buy myself lunch for a week! (Obvious exaggeration is obvious) But in all seriousness, the more modern things get, the better off the mafia can make themselves. Thanks to a mister Gerald Ford, we now have a faster mode of transportation thanks to him making Cars so god-loving cheap. Me and the rest of the family can go out and buy a whole squadron of cars and we could still get away with any crime for miles.
And lets not forget all the cash that's been circulating. More money for the country means more money in our pockets. We can buy ourselves better more equipped "pieces" (Guns, glocks, etc), more cars, more speakeasies (Places to buy alcohol) and most importantly: More power to the family. You know we're watching. You know we are.
Now, allow me to side-track for a moment, and talk about the politics in all this.
As far as I can tell, there are these yahoo's in the white house talking about "return to normalcy"... As a gangster I really don't know what he's talking about. All I know its something about "old values" and something about laissez-faire , but that's not what I want to talk about.
Oh boy, you should've seen this Harding fellow. If you didn't know any better, you could've said he was a "friend of mine". This man mad land-smuggling contracts, ponzi schemes, and other under the table stuff that you DONT EVEN KNOW ABOUT! This guy is so corrupt that I swear he would've been the great "Capo" himself if he stayed in business. I tip my hat off to him every time. He is a gangster if you ever knew it, at least in my eyes.
(By Adrian Toledo)
Dear blog,
ReplyDeleteToday was a very interesting day! I started my morning reading the news paper and came across an article that talked about the new technology. Because I was so interested I went out and spent money that i don't have on thing that might not be of need to me right away. One of my Investments was a car! This car has been very useful so far.The time it used to take to walk place to place, is now cut down because of the less amount of time it takes to get from place to place. My family has money but i would not consider us wealthy, my husband makes a decent amount of money but much of it goes to the things that are extremely necessary, i guess a car could fit into that category. All of these new products are very reliable, but seeing as they are new who knows what problem they will cause in the future.
Dear Blog,
ReplyDeleteBeing an Italian immigrant I am very against President’s Harding’s “return to normalcy”. I believe returning back to laissez-faire is going to be a failure because the government should be running the country during these drastic changes in the U.S. I think the new immigration laws are dumb because a lot of new inventions are coming out and we need more people to work in the factories to construct them. I do think these inventions are a success for the U.S. With a car people could now travel places in less time, but having credit is going to hurt the economy. People will never be able to pay back their credit because items such as cars are costing thousands of dollars. Most of the United States citizen’s are in debt and the economy is suffering from it. Also I believe the U.S. should do a better job with the money of the people. Some people are very wealthy and others had little to nothing. Most people had little to nothing like myself while a small percentage of the U.S. citizens are millionaires. The government should step in and make it fairer for the poor people.
Dear Blog,
ReplyDeleteI have heard recently from the news that President Harding wants the US to “return to normalcy.” I do not know how he can say that when he has arguably the most corrupt administration in the history of the presidency. He wants to return to the laissez-faire, or hands off, business approach. He wants no government regulation in privately owned businesses. I believe that the government does need some regulation because if they do not have any regulation, the economy will get out of control. People are making more money these days but many are spending it through credit. They are buying cars and more important things that will change society but if there is no government regulation, this economy will get out of control. There could be bad things to come for this nation if we return to laissez-faire.
Alex
Dear Blog,
ReplyDeleteAs a young girl of color, the new prosperity of the country did not affect me much. Since I befriended the cute little white family next door I have seen how much the economy is changing with lots of new jobs. Day by day I see more and more people with delivery trucks in front of their houses with tons of radios, refrigerators and other gadgets that I will never see in this household. Our president Harding is try to have our economy go back to normal since there are more jobs for everyone and a new millionare on every corner. My older sister is obsessing over the new model T car which I find racist from the white folk that it only comes in the color black. Everything seems to be falling into place for the white folk and hopefully that will spread to our people eventually.
David G -
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about your cousins, some cousins of mine from Germany also tried coming here, but after the quota, and the racism spreading, it's unsafe and unreal. All they want is to experience some of the wonders of America and it's a shame that the government is denying it's own people the right to do so, cause as we know, the US was created by immigrants.
Day two of using this machine and I have to say, it ain’t half bad. It’s noisy, messy, and ain’t easy to use, but it’s the best new thing; it’s the bee’s knees, the gnat’s whisper, the eel’s hips, so on and so forth. Also, I got myself a new lacquered gramophone from England. Top-notch construction, plays disc records- it really takes the cake. I wanna get a car, but my pop says that they’re “absolutely frivolous” or somethin’. He says that after the last few presidents, we’ve not been at such a great place economically and all that. I know that we ain’t the wealthiest of families but we ain’t broke I says to him, and he just says to me, “You should pay more attention to the business world, maybe learn about the stock market- everyone’s getting rich from it.” President Harding’s “normalcy” he says is gonna be a real turnaround for us with the return of “lazy fair” or something like that. Pop says that it helps keep businesses healthy and competitive and keeps the money flowing aplenty. Well, whatever it does, I sure hope it gets me a car.
ReplyDeleteJohn Smith (nom de plume)
(Using semi-contemporary language)
I'm surprised to hear about cousins from Germany, which, being a "old immigrant" country, had a high quota attached to it.
ReplyDeleteAlex Bowen- I agree with you! I am having a hard time paying my brand new car. I think this credit thing will affect our economy. Maybe it is not only me. What if people lose their jobs and cannot afford to pay the credit that they asked for? This could really damage our economy if everyone just decides to use credit when they do not have the money for anything they need or want. Just because it is there does not mean we should take advantage of it. We should wait until we know we can actually afford it.
ReplyDeleteEmma I agree 100%.It is not right for president harding to be pushing these immigrants away. It is unfair and something should be done about it. It is true that people are less fortunate and the countries that they are living in are poverty stricken and they need to come to the U.S for better opportunities. I Like the way you think, you are not as ignorant as the those who are pushing the immigrants away, I am glad that there are still people in this world with morals.
ReplyDeleteDear Blog,
ReplyDeleteAll these New Inventions are great. Im living the good life and i think that President Harding wanting the US to Return to normalcy is the worst idea for the nation
-Phil