The Money-Driven Culture

The Money-Driven Culture.
The USA is a multicultural state where specific cultural heritages bind people. However, just like the state is great, everyone wishes to be remarkable too. To do this, they must coincide with the growing economies. Adopting the world-class kind of lifestyle comes at a cost. The sacrifices one has to make is losing their moral and cultural bonds and become all-time moneymakers. With the rise of multinational trade links, increased cost of living and the need to keep the superiority status over other nations, USA has to make sound strategies, professional marketing, have dynamic pricing system and appropriate distribution over all other competitors. All this revolves around money and resources. The difficulty the state is facing lies in the fundamental issues of place, price, product, and promotion. It has to transit from domestic-based operations to a global view taking into consideration all other essential factors for success. However, morals and expectations within these cultures influence all business transactions. The more they hold on to the traditional ethics, the greater the challenges are to future developments. In her effort to transform to the wider economy, USA had to disown the traditional business etiquette to a new era of economic liberalism. This bore the general modern elegance, the money culture.
From conducting multilateral businesses, vast industrial productions to massive infrastructural developments, it is evident that the US will not settle for less than their Chinese, France and Western rivals.

The current economy has shifted from a normal societal growth to a challenging uniqueness and superiority. Over the last decade, places all over America have turned from mere towns to cities that can only the wealthy few can afford. In Canada itself, the house prices have inflated by about 12% over the last one year. It is indicated that the average national average price of a single storey home shoot up by about 14.4% over the past one year. Further, the local markets have been experiencing fall in sales and rise in taxes due to the inflated cost of living. While people have been tuned to adjust to the gradual changes over the last one decade, the culture could be getting out of hand for many Americans who live in the lower half of the average annual income. According to Kasser “growth provides the incentive for investment spending on the part of businesses that seems necessary to avoid unemployment, and thus to provide laborers with the income that they can use to purchase the goods and services provided in the marketplace by corporations and other entrepreneurs” (5). Anyone who has been in the country for the past ten years will confer with the ideology that there is no longer a conservative economy but a culture driven by money and affluence.
The entire inflation could have come with increased wages, but they are no longer in tandem with the buffer pain of higher living costs. In the near future, there is a possibility of a larger impact of inflation especially on the people’s ability to afford certain goods and services. This period could, however, be almost starting considering the rate at which companies are changing terms and traders are shying off the state. Further, comparing the price of commodities in the early 1930s to date it is evident that the pricing power has significantly been impacted. The then average family income ranging from $3300 to $7354 has currently increased to annual average earnings of $51,017. However, the medium home price goes as high as $188900. This has been brought about by the dramatic increase in housing, clothing, transport, education and even food. The worst most targeted are the children. As a result, residents have been compelled to live in congested and miserable housing standards and work for long hours to meet their daily standards. It is evident that the money culture is breaking even with some new forms of earning sprouting day by day.
The change to a money culture in the US is entirely wrong for the citizens. Everyone requires a happier living standard and a new lifestyle. When they many people in a state cannot afford the basic pleasures and feel discontent with their living standard then they will always find alternative ways to get money. This comes at a cost part of which is deterioration of our moral and ethical standards. The central question the natives are concerned about is how much is enough of average living in the USA. In the modern economic times, everything worthwhile is accessible through the private businesses. As a result, hospitals, schools, and public amenities have all been privatized. They are being manned by the rich goons who in a similar manner for cartels to dictate prices and charges. Their primary interest is the gains they accrue from the businesses and not the economic and social impact it leaves on the ordinary citizen. They have dictated a culture where people depend on newer fashions, use the modern transport systems, study education aligned to benefit the industries. According to Eskow, “the average lifestyle is determined by the rich few who own the business and sources of employment, and the amount of money one has”(2). This is a disadvantage to the poor lot who cannot afford better education, staying around the city squares and putting up their businesses.
According to the current reports, there is a large crisis in the young generation. Younger people are moving back to the rural areas and t their parent’s homes. This has been instigated by the lack of sustainable employment opportunities and the inflated cost of living in the cities. One segment that has been struck by the money culture is the education system. Currently, the majority of fees fall under the tuition and personal maintenance fees in most public institutions. These go as high as $7000 a year for public or state colleges and over $26000 in private institutions. The latter, being the places to get a standard education, has a fee that is almost equivalent to the annual average earnings for an American citizen. This is less some other uses like clothing, transport, and food besides the urge to cope with the changing lifestyles. Since the demand for higher education is going up with the increase in population and need to remain at the competitive edge, even though the government is offered a lot of financial aids it is levied back through increased tax.
Money culture is an initiation to social immorality. Since inflation hit America, they have been experiencing a lot of illegal businesses, the defection of the legal standards and other troubling acts. Most of the people held up in a mess are the youths. Culture has three primary levels. The deeper and obvious comprises of the things and activities that many consider dear to them. They are the one that guides their behaviors and conformance to particular groups in the social status ladder. The access to essential commodities and higher lifestyle falls under this category. This level combined the hidden aspects of personal values represent the assumption we adopt and how we deal with reality. Essentially, the young will indulge into easier means of earning money. These include selling drugs, robbery, procuring defective goods and dodging state taxes. The situation in the US clearly explains this given that the crime rate has increased by a substantial rate over the last decade. Axelrod asserts that “the number of gangs and gang-related activities in America is on the rise, and there are no signs of relenting soon” (2). He indicates that there has been an 8% increase in the number of gang groups, 11% rise in the number of members and 23% increase in the gang-related homicides. All are related to high unemployment rates, family’s instability and poverty, academic problems and general frustration out of high expectations or requirements. However, a significant number of the cohorts engage in the activities in order to achieve certain lifestyle aspirations.
Each of the youths has a different point of reference, but in most cases, they will always yearn for richness and power. However, those in the categories of the affluent are equally immoral. From running illegal businesses to selling counterfeited products, they introduce a culture where the young can only imitate negative cultural ethics. According to Schor, children’s involvement in the consumer culture has two sides. She reports that “less involvement in consumer culture leads to healthier kids and more involvement leads kids psychological wellbeing to deteriorate” (Schor 167). People are likely to have a reference point with incomes four to five times higher. The result is indulgence into a culture of upscale spending referred to as new consumerism or money culture. Part of the new lifestyle is conformance to a social or economic class. For many of us, the neighborhood has been replaced by a community of co-economic classes. The friends are determined by how wealthy we are, what pleasures we can afford and how we earn our living. The money culture has been built on a relentless upward standard. No one is settled in their current earnings and lifestyle. Technology is one of the sector people are competing for is. The new consumerism has dictated that one is never up to the standard is they do not own the new type of phone, TV set, car and other forms of electronics. Oddly, it does not seem as if we are wasteful or running for a lavish lifestyle. The culture continues to consume us gradually.
Spending and social status are consummately comparative and competitive. The modern generation is living in a culture where they are rivaling for wealth. It is a situation where the creditable day-laborer can no longer afford to take her children to amusement park due to the high entry fee. The phenomenon is mediated and controlled by the wealthy through a consumer culture where the less fortunate live from hand to mouth. Ironically, the shift is further turning from mere affluence to individuality through the creation of localized conformity. And while the government is working towards bridging the gap between the rich and poor the average citizen is continuously being deprived of the core requirements. It is high time the concerned parties reverse the economic liberalism to include the less privileged in the society. If the federal government does not curb the consummation of the wealth culture, then they must be ready to deal with the adverse results.

Works Cited
Schor, Juliet. Born To Buy. 1st Ed. New York: Scribner, 2004. Print.
Axelrod Tal. Gang Violence Is On The Rise, Even As Overall Violence Declines. 2015. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.
Eskow, R.J. “6 Signs Greed Has Destroyed American Culture”. Salon. N.p., 2016. Web. 11 Nov. 2016.
Kasser, Tim et al. “Some Costs Of American Corporate Capitalism: A Psychological Exploration Of Value And Goal Conflicts.” Psychological Inquiry 18.1 (2009): 1-22. Web.