Being the President of the United States Josh Wainwright Sociology 101: Principles of Sociology- Word Count: 2111

Abstract The purpose of this essay is to express how to address current issues in today’s society. The issues that I have to address are poverty, crime, education, health and a 5th problem of your choice. The 5th problem that I chose to address was jobs. I go about addressing these issues as if you were the President of the United States. This essay gives I a chance to express how you feel about these issues and what would you do to fix these problems. As President of the United States, it is my duty to address problems in this American society. The five main problem that I want to address are poverty, crime, education, health and jobs. These are important issues that I am working on fixing immediately. My plan is to dramatically decrease the poverty and crime rate. I am also going to improve education, health insurance and job opportunities. Poverty America’s poverty rate is too high. Let’s look back on 2013 poverty rate. According to the United States Census Bureau, in 2013, there were 45.3 million people in poverty. For the third consecutive year, the number of people in poverty at the national level was not statistically different from the previous year’s estimate. The 2013 poverty rate was 2.0 percentage points higher than in 2007, the year before the most recent recession. In 2013, the official poverty rate was 14.5 percent, down from 15.0 percent in 2012. This was the first decrease in the poverty rate since 2006. This progression isn’t good enough! Poverty is one of the main social problem faced by nearly every society. It is assumed that poverty cannot be put into an end but it can definitely be reduced. Many people who live in poverty have a mind-set that it was a normal cycle that was generated from their forefathers, but as a matter of fact, this poverty cycle can be broken through education. Many nations offer free education for its children and I believe there is no excuse for anyone to be in poverty. When a child is offered an education they will then develop their knowledge and skills and also discover their full potential. I know that it is hard to make a living, provide for your family, or start a new business when you spend your time and energy looking for safe drinking water or your next meal. My plan is that the next step must be to establish a framework for what basic infrastructure must be present in each community access to food, water, health facilities, transportation, education, and daycare to allow the people in those communities to work productively. I also plan on increasing minimum wage for higher income. Education I also have a concern about our education system. There are too many high school drop outs and many students aren’t graduating on time. According to dosomething.org, if the 1.3 million dropouts from the Class of 2010 had graduated, the nation would have seen $337 billion more in earnings over the course of the students’ lifetimes. Also, 1.3 million high school students don't graduate on time yearly. States with highest rates of 80-89% are Wisconsin, Iowa, Vermont, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. States with lowest of less than 60% are Nevada, New Mexico, Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina. To fix this problem, I plan to propose a law that requires all students to finish high school. A diploma will be mandatory and it will be difficult for people to get good paying jobs without it. Many people feel that our educational system needs more teachers and smaller class sizes to fix the problem. This is not the case. There is way too high a number of inadequate teachers that have no business teaching American youths. America needs better teachers; not more. Also, classes need to be taught in a relevant way that can be applied to everyday life. Too often the connection between school-work and the real-world cannot be made. Many students know how to do the work, but cannot apply it to real-world scenarios. The present education system is lacking in the practical knowledge. We do everything bookish nowadays and also we have started overburdening our kids. The text books should be emphasized on what we want to teach an also we need to ensure that teachers are efficient enough. There should be no reservation for teachers and doctors specially because if our foundation will be not strong the building will also not be strong enough and we have to see our national development. We have given enough reservations, now let the best person enter into the best position. The system should be flexible enough. Health Another big issue is healthcare. Many people don’t have health insurance. The bottom line is that people that incur a life threatening illness with no health insurance are 7 times more likely to die from that illness as people with health insurance. Health insurance can be the difference between walking again or being in a wheel chair for the rest of your life. According to www.pnhp.org, we spend $2.8 trillion on healthcare annually. That works out to about one-sixth of the total economy and more than $8,500 per person and way more than any other country. Most go without needed care, and many are dying as a result. According to a Harvard study, 45,000 Americans die each year due to a lack of health care insurance. I plan to decrease the cost of healthcare and make it more affordable. For those who can’t afford healthcare, I will provide a program that pays for their insurance according to their income. Crime Crime is a big issue in American. In fact, there are many communities in the United States where it is simply not safe to go out at night anymore .According to research, there are approximately 12 million crimes committed in the United States every single year. That is by far the worst in the world. No other nation has more than about 6 million reported crimes per year. U.S. law enforcement authorities claim that there are now over 1 million members of criminal gangs inside the country. These 1 million gang members are responsible for up to 80% of the crimes committed in the United States each year. There are a lot of factors which may cause the violence. Some computers games and movies are full of violent and brutal scenes. What is more, the easy access to alcohol, cigarettes, drugs and guns influences on the increase of aggression. They young people can get the drugs and guns without any effort. But the biggest influence on our perception has everything what we see, for example movies and scenes in computer games. Sometimes people lose the sense what is wrong and what is right. Breaking the law seems to be for them something normal, because they don't see the difference between the reality and the fiction. In my opinion, every form of crime should be punished. Nevertheless the crime was committed by the youth and it wasn't very harmful, he should be punished. The punishment should be proportional to the crime. The age of criminals doesn't matter. Some juvenile criminals are more dangerous than the adult ones. I think that some less harmful crimes may be punished by fine or public works. To sum up, violence and aggression make the crime rate higher. People should be more careful and control their temper. We should try to calm down in stressful situations. On the other hand, the punishments should be stricter. It would prevent many crimes. I plan to decrease America’s crime rate by putting more police and public safety in heavy crime ridden areas. I will put FBI investigation on gang members to crack down gang violence. Job Opportunities Job opportunities is an issue. We need more high paying Jobs. More jobs will decrease poverty rate because more families will have higher income. According to research, 53 percent of all wage earners in the United States make less than $30,000 a year. Approximately one out of every four part-time workers in America is living below the poverty line. McDonalds, Kmart or rinky-dink sales positions don’t pay very well. Specialty pays. It’s not always the jobs, but the cost of living. Lifestyle and location play a huge part as well. If you live in a rural area in New York, you can live more comfortably making 20-22 dollars per hour then some who make 10-12 dollars per hour because of the cost of living. It's an issue of supply and demand and also of how much money you can make for the company, or how valuable you are. If you lack education and skills and just about anyone can do your job with minimal training, then the job will not pay well. If you do have education and skills, but so do many other people, or there is simply no great need for your skills, then the job will not pay well. So, the secret to getting a good paying job is to have the right education and skills - they must be in demand and there must be a shortage of qualified people to do the job. Once you have your foot in the door and have proven performance, negotiations can easily be opened up again for a higher salary. The cost to lose a great employee and the risk in searching, hiring and training someone new isn't worth not paying you 10 thousand more per year and you quitting. To solve this problem, I plan to provide more middle class jobs to increase work opportunity. I will also raise minimum wage to 12 dollars an hours and keep the cost of living in each state the same. This will help decrease the poverty rate because more people with jobs will have higher income. Although there are many more issues in this country that needs to be adjusted, these are the min ones that I am focusing on now. To decrease the poverty rate, I am going to start a government funded program to give access to each community with food, water, health facilities, transportation, education, and daycare to allow the people in those communities to work. With this program, parents and guardians will have no excuse not to get out and get jobs to provide for there families. To increase the graduation rate and decrease the school dropout rate, I will propose a law making it mandatory for students to graduate high school. If you do not current have your diploma, you have to go out and get your GED. Good paying jobs will not hire those who dropped out of formal education. I plan to decrease the cost of healthcare and make it more affordable. So, for those who can’t afford healthcare, I will provide a program that pays for their insurance according to their income. I plan to decrease America’s crime rate by putting more police and public safety in heavy crime ridden areas. Since majority of violence come from gangs, I will put FBI investigation on gang members to crack down gang violence. To increase job opportunity, I plan to provide more middle class jobs to increase work opportunity. With these plans, great changes occur. These changes will make the United States an even better country. Works cited Neustadt, Richard. (1991) Presidential Power and the Modern Presidents: The Politics of Leadership from Roosevelt to Reagan. Free Press; Revised edition Gibbs, Nancy (2013) The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity. Simon & Schuster; Reprint edition Obama, Barack. (2008) The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Vintage; Reprint edition Carter, Jimmy. (2010) White House Diary. Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1 edition Updegrove, Mark. (2014) Indomitable Will: LBJ in the Presidency. Skyhorse Publishing; 1 edition United States Census Bureau. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty/ 11 Facts About Education in America. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from https://www.dosomething.org/facts/11-facts-about-education-america 8 facts that explain what's wrong with American health care. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://www.pnhp.org/news/2014/september/8-facts-that-explain-what’s-wrong-with-american-health-care 10 Facts About Crime In The United States That Will Blow Your Mind. (n.d.). Retrieved April 6, 2015, from http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/10-facts-about-crime-in-the-united-states-that-will-blow-your-mind