Category Archives: Social Issues

A Wall Can Cause America to Crumble like Rome

A Wall Can Cause America to Crumble like Rome

By Jackie Lewis and Shea Laura

December 22nd, 2018, America witnessed its longest government shutdown in history.  For 35 days, 9 federal departments went without pay; leaving 800,000 workers without income.

The result of this seemingly never ending nightmare was the quarrel over the funding of our President’s wall on the southern border of Mexico.  Our President’s desire for his wall pushed him into shutting down our government to receive the funding for his partition on our southern border.

The Parties’ Points of View

Our President thinks that if we can block out Mexico then most of the country’s problems can be fixed.  But the reality is that the majority of the crimes committed in the country aren’t done by immigrants, but native born US citizens.

Most of the republicans side with President Trump on these matters, but not all. They are willing to side with the President because they see it as the most fit way to get what they want.

Democrats on the other hand, rather use the money for more appropriate matters.  Democrats actually supported giving money to border security, but not funding for the wall.

The Effects On Our Own Citizens

The standstill in congress between the Democrats and Republicans to pass an appropriate spending bill for President Trump’s wall caused our government shutdown, and left over 800,000 employees unpaid.

Most government workers were still going into work so that when they got paid after the shutdown ended, they would have a paycheck to take home to their families.

While the government has shutdown three times during Trump’s presidency, this has been the most catastrophic shut down in his presidency, and the history of the United States.

Just like Rome…

A major disagreement like this one is a telltale sign of failure.  Sooner or later our country will split more than it already is, for a second time.  Past empires, governments, and civilizations have failed because of major disputes between itself, and as history continues to repeat, we are on the path to failure.  

A famous empire that fell due to a civil war between government bodies is Rome.  Ancient Rome may not seem like it is similar to the United State, but in present time, it is.  The United States have followed the wrong footsteps into Rome’s slow descent into nothingness. With our government shutting down, and the never ending dispute between Republicans and Democrats, America is looking quite similar to Rome.

Rome’s government split over time, and when the non-stop fighting between the two government bodies piled on year after year, 300 agonizingly slow years later Rome fell.  300 years, the United States have barely been a country for that long, but is still experiencing the same amount of disagreement between our government.

There is no telling how it may play out, but if the United States continues to argue and disagree between our government, we may end up like Ancient Rome in a hundred, or less, years.  And if it’s all over a wall, I’m sure history would be disappointed.

Is Being Rich Always A Good Thing?

Is being rich always really a good thing? By Jamie Kaine and Avery Jones

Rich becoming lazy and showing  little interest in trying to solve Rome’s problems was an issue way back when, but when looking at today’s economy, you see a very similar issue.

Is a 5% donation too big for billionaires?

How many times have you said “I’ll just do it later?” Almost everyone, right?

Well, billionaires think the same way. They think that all of these issues needing help, and problems needing solutions, will still be there in 10 or even 20 years. This doesn’t push them to donate large amounts towards all of these issues, because they can “just do it later,” right?  Or can they?

Are billionaires becoming “bothered” by charities?

The answer to that question is no, the rich are the ones bothering the charities.

Being asked to do something after you finish what you are doing is something that no one enjoys, but this happens on a day to day basis. From teachers asking you to do a paper after your test, to your mom telling you to do your chores after your homework. The rich feel the same.

They are asked to donate money  to charities that need the help, but say they’re “too busy or bothered” to do anything at all. Though it is their money and they are not requires to, it is a great thing to do since they have so much wealth and are earning more and more everyday. But sometimes, they don’t see it that way.

 

Rich don’t donate due to their “values not aligning”

Finding an organization that believes in all the same things you do, is against all the things you are against, and supports all the things you support, can be very challenging sometimes. People with more money are often very particular about where their hard earned cash is going.

Say there’s a charity that gives 85% of donations towards a foundation you believe in, and keeps the other 15%, a lot of people see this and do not think twice. But often times, people with more wealth feel that 100% of all donations should go towards the foundation they choose, and if they don’t, oftentimes, they will not donate a lot of money towards that foundation.

Finding a charity you fully support and where donations go directly to the foundation can be rare,  people with wealth are even more specific with where their money is really going.

It does not take long to figure out what things you like and don’t like, after that it’s just a matter of what charity will make the most of your money, but most don’t even take the time to think about what they do or do not like.

Will rich go broke after donating small portions to charity?

This is a silly question that most billionaires fear and most people with regular incomes laugh at simply because, this will not happen.

If you had $10 and you gave away $5, then yes, you could fear the thought of losing the rest of your money easily.  But if you have $72 billion, and are making even more everyday and won’t even give $10 of that away, that may be an issue.

5% of one billion dollars is fifty million. That sure does seem like a lot, but if you think about it, that is only 5% of their wealth, they still have literal millions left. And even less than that, 0.1% of one billion is one million.

0.1%!!!!!!!

But when you have 100 dollars and spend 10 and see that how much you have is no  longer three digits,  you may panic. There are so many millionaires and billionaires that fear that number of digits going down, that it really never does. 

Many of the wealthy with millions or even billions are scared of giving even the slightest bit of money away from the fear of losing it all and going broke, which is crazy and not at all a rational fear

 

Could America meet the same fate as Rome?

By: Jordan Harris

If you aren’t aware, our president is constantly putting the safety of our home state at risk and at this point, basically have no say in the decisions.

There is nothing we can do to change the way our president does things because he doesn’t pay attention to the people as much as he should, which could lead to the fall of America.

If you think about it for a good minute, America these days is working a lot like Rome did back then, that means that America can also end the same way as rome, here’s why…

Illegal Immigrants in America

During the Roman Republic (509 B.C.-27 B.C.) and the early Roman Empire, immigration was largely confined to those whom Rome had conquered and enslaved.

Early immigration also occurred when armed migrant tribes seeking new lands attempted unsuccessfully to conquer Roman territory. A famous example of this was the migration of the Germanic Cimbri and Teutones into Gaul (now France and northern Italy) during the period 120-101 B.C.

America is very iffy on the welcoming of immigrants into America. They aren’t as “barbaric” as they used to be in Rome with slavery and conquering, but most officials don’t treat it lightly, nonetheless.

The more immigrants there are in America calls for more job openings needed, in Rome more immigrants or “barbarians” were used as slaves and there were not many jobs needed because they mostly filled in farm work.

So more immigrants in America could need more jobs but that is including the naturalization process which wasn’t really a thing in The Roman Republic and Early Roman Empire.

3 Facts to Consider

-1.) Immigrants = More Jobs

-2.) More Jobs = More Money

-3.) More Money = Inflation

America is still very different from Rome.

On the other hand, we still remember Rome as one of the strongest empires that we’ve seen. Well, not exactly seen, but have heard of. The military situation is vastly different.

After fighting off all challengers for centuries, Rome’s military power waned and it was finally overtaken by a series of military losses to Germanic tribes, including the sacking of Rome in 410 by the Visigoth King Alaric, and another sacking by the Visigoths led by Geiseric in 455.

In 476, the Germanic warrior Odoacer led a revolt from within that deposed the Emperor Romulus Augustulus, making him the last Roman emperor to rule Italy from Rome. The Eastern part of the Empire actually survived until 1453 CE, when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks.

The U.S. has powerful military opponents like Russia and China, but an all-out conflict involving any of the nuclear powers seems highly unlikely due to mutually assured destruction.

However, asymmetrical warfare like terror attacks by Islamic fundamentalists or cyberattacks and subterfuge from Russia can cause more gradual decline in American power due to weakening confidence in its leaders and institutions.

Still, this is not likely to result in a serious military loss unless a more direct confrontation takes place, which at this point seems impossible. So the world’s most powerful military should keep America intact for the time being.

Still either way, America is making the same mistakes as Rome.

The country is less a melting pot today, but a stew of competing ethnic, racial, and social divisions. National, state, and local debt loads are unsustainable.

Our national infrastructure – roads and bridges – is falling apart from neglect and lack of maintenance even as our electronic infrastructure lags many of our international competitors.

Political corruption is rife and influence is based by the size of financial donation to the political party and candidate

Many political observers believe that in the era of rampant partisanship, America’s system of checks and balances in government is no longer operative

There is still a possibility, but we just need to be cautious.

The possibility of the fall of America is a very popular topic nowadays and has been for a while now. It is very prominent and could happen at anytime, all it takes is one mistake.

Our President is very nonchalant about the topic, and his little dumb slogan “Make America Great Again,” probably just jinxed us for the worst. If he does one thing wrong or breaks one of his connections, that could EASILY result in war.

This is basing off of how hot-headed all of our connected leaders are, so they all have the power to start a war if the time comes or if our “AmAzInG pReSiDeNt” gets on someone powerfuls’ nerves.

Is Rome like America?

Is America following in Rome’s footsteps

By Shahyan & Jr

In Rome the rich stopped providing money for the army and the army started to fall, and that was the cause of the decline of army.  This was a reason why Rome fell, could this also happen to the U.S?

Rome is different from the U.S because we don’t have only the wealthy in the army, anybody can be in the army now.

In the U.S  these days people become selfish with their money and do not like to donate to good causes to help others. Some of the rich help others but also some of the rich waste their money on valuables and after a while they start to be in poverty and want people to help them when they had the chance to help  people they failed to do so.

If the rich stopped helping the army by joining or by providing funding for army then we will start to lose our advantages that we’ve some of the things we may lose is our technological advances and our large manpower causing foreign nations to invade with ease.

Rich stopped caring for lower classes

The upper class people like to earn their money and not give to lower classes. The upper class likes to keep their money to themselves and not help or give to others that are in need.

The upper class spends their money on material things and stop spending it on things that could help the U.S. this is like Rome because in Rome the rich stop providing for the army and the army started to become week and eventually they fell because of the lack of help the upper class gave.

This caused a large social class gap to form causing some hostility towards the rich from the poor causing a internal struggle within Rome trying to control the poor from rising up and causing a civil war. The reason is why is the rich stopped caring about the poor and treating them poorly.

Rich stopped donating to better causes:

Finding the correct program to donate to is difficult for people, and donating to something you like or agree with is difficult. The rich have the chance to donate to the lower class or better causes but they choose it and they like to do their own thing with their money, but the middle class donates to better causes and the richer class is apathetic towards those things.

If the rich did donate to these good causes it would improve the environment and how the lower class would be a lot nicer to the upper class, and everyone would be happy. This would end all the hatred in Rome and in the U.S the poor wouldn’t be jealous the Rich wouldn’t be prideful and cocky.

What happened with rome? Is the fall of rome similar to our american society today?

 

-by colin and brian

There are tons of reasons why rome fell it would take days to explain all of i.

 

Rome’s plebeians and patricians were both extremely different the poor and normal people(plebeians) could barley help the society and contribute to anything because of the prices to pay of everything in rome.

 

After years and years of rome being live and well the wealthy and rich people stopped caring pretty much and stopped paying the higher taxes and stopped helping be in the army

 

And all of that as you can probably tell, literally made the entirety of rome collapse…

 

The army came down because the rich didn’t care enough to put themselves in it…

 

Rome’s army needs help

Rome  needed soldiers so they hired mercenaries…

Which was more money out of their pockets

 

And those mercenaries weren’t very good fighters because they didn’t really care about rome since they were from different countries.

 

But rome needed the soldiers because while everybody inside of rome stopped paying for things everybody on the outside of rome was at war.

 

The difference of the social classes

The gap between the two social classes was growing and while the rich stopped caring the poor couldn’t do anything because they didn’t have the money to help the society grow again.

 

The plebeians and patricians were so economically different by this point that they could not help the fall of the empire.

 

Most of the poor actually cared and wanted to help out with rome but by then slaves were taking their jobs and making them homeless pretty much making them powerless within the empire of rome.

 

Instability in the social classes

The plebeians jobs were taken then they were homeless and that would anger them to start an uproar within the empire making it continuously fall

 

The gap between the two classes grew further and further apart

 

The plebeians were angry with the gap and started more problems than the romans already had before

 

So now with the plebeians not having jobs and the patricians not caring enough to pay for anything the economy is crashing faster than ever

 

How is rome similar to america now?

Based off all the differences i’ve stated just now i bet there’s some thoughts about america and our economy.

 

We have the same problem with the super elite rich people of america not caring about paying taxes or paying for the army.

 

Our army  right now is very strong but seems the more and more rich people stop paying for taxes and that will not soon but eventually make a huge dent in our economy and our army.

 

As is now in america it’s already hard to get a job as a lower class person and if a lower class person even got one it wouldn’t be a very good one.

 

And since it seems like nobody seems to know or care about the decline of our american economy we need to start paying taxes and be more involved with our country.

 

In conclusion…

 

Americans could have a similar end like the romans so we have to make sure that doesn’t happen…

 

you wanna be around here for a while…don’t you?

 

I know being rich has its benefits but also its declines as in paying higher taxes, just do it, help the economy, please, we need it.

 

Is the U.S.Following In the Footsteps of Rome?

By:  Cherise Woodfolk and Nicole Feipel

Improving Our Country vs. Working for the Money?

 

In our world, more money equals more opportunities.

It’s the key to worlds others don’t have access to, you just have to pay your way through.

To be a politician it would be extremely helpful to have loads of money to spend on your campaign. How many people in our world today do their jobs just for the money?

I was surprised by the amount of people that don’t like their jobs yet go to them everyday just so they could pay the bills. According to The Washington Post “only 13 percent of people worldwide actually like going to work, 63 percent are “ not engaged” – or are simply unmotivated and unlikely to exert extra- while the remaining 24 percent are “actively disengaged” or truly unhappy or unproductive”.

A politician is someone who contributes in how  the country is run. He/she is normally part of a political party which is a group that shares similar beliefs. Politicians have an influence  on what laws may get passed. While also doing their jobs they may be pursuing personal interests, to increase the amount of money they recieve and doing everything they can to stay in that position of power.

 

U.S. Complications vs. Rome’s Issues

 

Here are some of the many reasons why Rome’s Roman empire fell.

The first problem was that overtime Rome’s citizens felt no duty or connection to the Roman Empire.

During the time of the Pax- Romana many romans were not interested in helping or improving the Roman Empire. Emperors became infamous in ruling authority because they would waste money on unnecessary stuff.

When comparing Rome to the U.S. there are definitely some things that the U.S may spend money on that one may call trival. For instance, Trump’s wall. Some may argue this is a good decision made by the government., while others may say it’s completely uncalled for.

The United States spending budget for the military is slowly increasing every year to 700 billion dollars.

Back to Rome. Rome suffered due to their Public Health complications. Many of the wealthy romans brought water to their home without using aqueducts. The wealthy romans used pipes to bring their water to their homes, lead pipes which caused lead poisoning and many wealthy romans died because of this. Some deaths occured Coliseum.

Since loads of romans were placed in the arena of the Coliseum, diseases were spread quite easily because people passes to diseases on to each other just by coming in contact with one another.

America’s Public Health is completely different, but much better. The United States struggles with drug  addiction, mental health, and helping global health, though there are solutions and help available for most of the U.S’s problems.

The last obstacle Rome faced was their military spending. Rome spent loads of money on their military to defend their borders and block the barbarians attacks. Due to this the military spending left few resources for vital activities. For example maintaining and keeping the roads and aqueducts in good quality.  

Americans military spending also quite large but  for good reason. The accounted military spending is a little more than 50%. The exact number is 589.5 billion dollars.

Comparing the 2, the U.S. does  spend a lot on the military, but we also have enough money to pay for other expenses which Rome failed to do.

 

Is the U.S. Next?

This is what you’ve all been waiting for, the big question of whether or not the U.S. will end the way Rome did. The answer is  . . . no the U.S. will not end the same way Rome did. Why you may ask? Well based on the 2 other head titles you’ve read, show just how different the two are, and for good reason I may add. Where Rome failed the U.S. is flourishing.

 

 

By: Cherise Woodfolk and Nicole Feipel

What happened with rome? Is the fall of rome similar to our american society today?

 

There are tons of reasons why rome fell it would take days to explain all of i.

 

Rome’s plebeians and patricians were both extremely different the poor and normal people(plebeians) could barley help the society and contribute to anything because of the prices to pay of everything in rome.

 

After years and years of rome being live and well the wealthy and rich people stopped caring pretty much and stopped paying the higher taxes and stopped helping be in the army

 

And all of that as you can probably tell, literally made the entirety of rome collapse…

 

The army came down because the rich didn’t care enough to put themselves in it…

 

Rome’s army needs help

Rome  needed soldiers so they hired mercenaries…

Which was more money out of their pockets

 

And those mercenaries weren’t very good fighters because they didn’t really care about rome since they were from different countries.

 

But rome needed the soldiers because while everybody inside of rome stopped paying for things everybody on the outside of rome was at war.

 

The difference of the social classes

The gap between the two social classes was growing and while the rich stopped caring the poor couldn’t do anything because they didn’t have the money to help the society grow again.

 

The plebeians and patricians were so economically different by this point that they could not help the fall of the empire.

 

Most of the poor actually cared and wanted to help out with rome but by then slaves were taking their jobs and making them homeless pretty much making them powerless within the empire of rome.

 

Instability in the social classes

The plebeians jobs were taken then they were homeless and that would anger them to start an uproar within the empire making it continuously fall

 

The gap between the two classes grew further and further apart

 

The plebeians were angry with the gap and started more problems than the romans already had before

 

So now with the plebeians not having jobs and the patricians not caring enough to pay for anything the economy is crashing faster than ever

 

How is rome similar to america now?

Based off all the differences i’ve stated just now i bet there’s some thoughts about america and our economy.

 

We have the same problem with the super elite rich people of america not caring about paying taxes or paying for the army.

 

Our army  right now is very strong but seems the more and more rich people stop paying for taxes and that will not soon but eventually make a huge dent in our economy and our army.

 

As is now in america it’s already hard to get a job as a lower class person and if a lower class person even got one it wouldn’t be a very good one.

 

And since it seems like nobody seems to know or care about the decline of our american economy we need to start paying taxes and be more involved with our country.

 

In conclusion…

 

Americans could have a similar end like the romans so we have to make sure that doesn’t happen…

 

you wanna be around here for a while…don’t you?

 

I know being rich has its benefits but also its declines as in paying higher taxes, just do it, help the economy, please, we need it.

 

Is America on the same path as Ancient Rome?

IS AMERICA ON THE SAME PATH AS ANCIENT ROME?

By: Ty Grinnell and Hailey Mowery

Is America on the same path as Ancient Rome? The many reasons why Ancient Rome took a fall are current things that are starting to happen in America today.  

 

Religion

 

There’s many different religions in the U.S and there’s a lot of arguments about which one should be the best.

 

Currently, Christianity is the most popular in the U.S and some other religions believe that their own religions should be superior causing arguments. Potentially these arguments could lead to a war or a split of country.

 

Over Taxation

 

Over taxation was a major reason why ancient  Rome didn’t succeed.

 

Currently the more money you make in the U.S the more taxes you have to pay.

 

In ancient Rome almost everyone payed about the same.

 

Political Instability

 

Ancient Rome had a lot of issues politically, people disagreed on a lot of things which caused a split in the country.

 

You can see the same things happening in the U.S with Republicans wanting one thing and the Democrats wanting another thing. It’s creating tension and it could potentially lead to a split.

 

Inflation

 

Rome had emperors that debased the currency in order to make more coins. This screwed up how much the value of the coins were and cause massive inflation.

 

The U.S has inflation too but our government can control it better. However if the government fails to control it and money was worth less the economy wouldn’t function properly and could fail causing a corrupt country.

 

AMERICA IS JUST A BIG ROME!

Rome and America are very similar. In Rome the rich people didn’t care and did little to no work. Just like present  day America.

Romans relied on slavery to complete work and women had no rights. And at the start of America it was the same thing.

But as time went on the slavery had ended in the US. And America was going through the same trouble.

So is America falling in Rome’s footsteps and is gonna collapse?

The president of the United States Mr. Donald J Trump thinks he has so much power that he thinks he has everything under control, when he is making things worse instead of better.

Mr. Donald J Trump is going to ruin and destroy America and we will fall just like Rome. 

The main reason I think america is going down the same rate as Rome is because people with money think they can sit around on their lazy butts and do nothing while people who are not doing anywhere near as well are going through life by the skin on there back and are barely able to feed their kids.

There is also the fact that Donald J Trump thinks he has everything under control but really while hes fixing one issue another one comes along to ruin it and eventually he’s not gonna be able to keep up with america’s issues and we will fall apart little by little.

Not My President

America likes to copy Rome in so many ways.

Rome made arches, so they don’t have to put peelers in the doorway. My house has a big arch on the front door.

Rome also had a lot of sculptures, the post famous two in Rome is   Augustus and Crassus. In America it is Abraham Lincoln and Mount Rushmore.

By, Ash Carroll

 

Are the Poor Taxed More?

Names: Mia Baltimore and Anna Lewczyk

Are the Poor Taxed More?

Have you ever wondered why someone else’s taxes are much less or much more than yours…

Overtaxing has been a growing issue in the United States that many Americans suffer from, and it does not help Americans are also being overworked and underpaid….

The richest people in the United States aren’t treated fairly with the amount that they pay with taxes. It’s unfair because many people work minimum wage jobs and they struggle to pay their bills and taxes. People with the highest income, don’t have to worry because they pay less in percentage than the poor and middle class Americans

How Much do Low Income Households Pay?

Most of the poor are paid less than $19,000 a year and 11% of that paycheck goes to state and local governments. Meaning if you make $19,000 you pay $2,090 in taxes.

America is known to be the most overworked country and America was #16 in the world’s highest income tax rate list in 2017. Alaska one of the most overworked states with 41.6 hours per week while New York is the highest taxed state in 2018 with a total of 13.04%.

Differences and Similarities?

Well, Rome’s citizens did not pay taxes so the country could not pay for their army. Unless America’s government is in debt, our army is being paid for. The differences add up but many other issues are the same too. There were ten main reasons why Rome fell, but the United States could not face some of these problems now. Starvation and disease was one of the reasons Rome fell, but unless a new virus emerged, our medical professionals would have it covered. Another reason that Rome fell was because of tribes taking over. While it is still possible, there is an unlikely chance that tribes would take over the whole country when we have advanced military weapons and officials.

Is America Becoming Rome?

As unbelievable as it might seem America is suffering from many of the same issues Rome suffered from hundreds of years ago. But overtaxing wasn’t the reason why Rome fell, Rome also had social and political problems that played a role in its downfall, but there is also a possibility that America could experience these same problems later on so is America becoming the new Rome?

Our Thoughts

Although America is facing many problems Rome had faced hundreds of years ago we do not believe America is the new Rome, When Rome fell it was a completely different time but now we have more advanced technology. There is way more that goes into a country falling nowadays then back in 476. The country could fall if many factors lined up such as wars, economic issues, and if our military did not care to fight anymore. The country could also fall due to environmental issues as well, but governmental issues are more probable. So in conclusion, we do not believe that America is gonna fall like Rome.