Jay Midnyte

Check my little brother out... Just started 10th grade and this is his first one page paper for English Honors II.

What does America Mean to Me?

If I had a choice to live anywhere in the world, I would definitely choose America. I love the country, but I am not a blind follower who has no eyes to see that there are several faults within the system in which we operate. Two major faults are the economy and education.

We live in a country where the corporate fat cats engage in the pillaging and looting of the American populace. They financially abuse taxpaying Americans under the guise of a bailout. In cooperation with the government, they swindle us, and hand out bonuses upwards of half a million dollars, all at the expense of the citizens. Goldman Sachs has given $11.4 billion in bonuses this year, an average of $770,000 per employee, after being saved by a government bailout that kept them from falling apart. Because the government will not let them fail, they can make reckless financial decisions without any risk factor.

The U.S.’s secondary school students ranked 18^th out of 36 countries surveyed in 2008. In our school system people are often taught things that do not have practical uses. The unemployment rate is ridiculous, and the dropout rate remains unreasonably high. In an economy where innovation and production are the solutions, we need a workforce that will supply those needs. An uneducated workforce is incapable of executing these solutions.

America is a great country, but if severe problems such as the economy and education are not repaired, the outlook is not good. Hopefully this country will one day come back to the fundamentals great men like Thomas Jefferson set out for us.