Inequalities and Interdependence

1956 Words4 Pages

Inequalities and Interdependence

According to my small nephew, milk does not come from cows, it comes from stores. He's never seen a cow being milked, but he has been to the store with his mother to buy milk, so in his world, milk comes from stores.

Purchasing is a major activity in our daily lives. In fact, if there were to be a national crisis of some sort that would prevent us from being able to purchase the barest of daily necessities such as milk, bread, cereal, toothpaste, deodorant, toilet paper, or soap, it would be a very unsettling experience.

In fact, as Dr. Nassar is so fond of saying, "I know almost everyone in here is too young to remember"...everyone except me. I do remember a time in 1974 when within four hours of the onset of a national trucking strike, the shelves in the stores were empty. Not just slim pickin's...but empty. We take a lot for granted in this country. We're very lucky that we have been able to do so.

As students, we are not producers of goods, we are consumers. We live in state of economic dependence on the goods of the entire world.

So, what is interdependence? Interdependence means that two or more parties rely on what they can do for each other to succeed. Mutual contribution is necessary for the well-being of the parties involved. As a nation-state, the economy of the United States of America is interdependent on other nation-states for its well-being.

Because of the relative isolation of this continent, the U.S. was able to remain free of foreign intervention and develop a strong national identity for nearly 150 years. We were free to develop a strong sense of nationalism: an inclination toward self-reliance and rugged individualism in which we took fierce pride. It was sort of the John Wayne approach to national and international relations.

We were able to amass great wealth from our natural resources of gold, silver, furs, timber, steel, cotton, coal, and oil, to name a few. The entrepreneurial experiments of individuals were allowed to develop unhindered. Personal industry and imagination eventually developed major industries of steel, intercontinental railroads, textiles, and shipping. Innovation led to the development of the internal combustion engine and its subsequent uses in industry. Agriculture became an industry, and with the aid of intercontinental railroads and shipping, contributed to the general economy and personal wealth of many.

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