AP+US+History-+Summer+Assignment

1. What is Capitalism? Capitalism is an economic system where people can own something that is rightfully there's and they are entitled to make money off of it. Whether it is selling, buying, renting, and along those lines of profiting. It is a persons ownership which means the government does not have entitled ownership of that product the original owner has. However, governments can change some aspects of it's definition. For example, the United States controls things like taxes and interest rates which means they are taking some percentage of your profit. On a pay check, your total amount is shown, but there is federal taxes and state taxes in which the government is now controlling some part of your profits. That changes capitalism from being pure to mixed.

2. What form of capitalism does the United States practice? What are the details of this form of capitalism? The United States does not practice a pure form of capitalism, in fact it could be described as a mixed economic structure between capitalism and socialism. Pure Capitalism is a structure where things are owned by individuals and not the government. Socialism is a co-owned economic system which means that the owner and the government have an equal amount of share on the profit. But in the United States the government runs things like welfare and health care programs in which profits are distributed to the private business owners and or workers while a portion goes to the government yet the government also redistributes the taxes it takes out to the people again. The government also controls taxes and interest rates, which is an indication we are not a pure form of capitalism but a mixture of socialism because in pure capitalism taxes would not be happening but we take a percentage of profits from individuals which is similar to socialism. With these types of governmental interventions it makes the United States to be a mixed form of an economic structure.

3. Why does the U.S practice capitalism - why is it the system that the founders of the United States established? The U.S practices capitalism because of the encouragement of private business to open and be able to make profits. Capitalism was made to help start the economy because of the profiting that would boost it and hopefully make sure the country would end up stable with it. This type of economic system gave the opportunity that we all have a chance to be business owners and to make our own money. This is the system our founders established because of the impact the British made before the revolution. Our founders had made it a priority that the new government would allow individual opportunity, that it was not the government that was controlling us but that we as the people controlled out own destiny. It was important to them for the new country to not contain a rigid class system, but instead to have social mobility. Meaning just because you might have been born in a lower social class there was nothing any longer stopping you from being able to move up and control your own life.The motivation for our founders to be able to set these expectations were King George Acts such as the navigation acts. The Navigation Acts were established in 1651 which restricted the colonies from being able to trade with other places in the world, this only allowed the colonies to trade to Britain which did not help the economy at all in fact it was making the colonies downgrade in money and supplies so they had to rely on smuggling. This act of strict government regulation helped motivate the idea of a much looser government interference to the new country after gaining independence. The Sugar Act was also important to the founders ideal rules to the establishment of the U.S. In April 5, 1764 British parliament imposed the Sugar Act, raising a revenue (tax) on molasses, the people of the colonies automatically reacted harshly to this because molasses was a necessity to what they needed and taxes would make it harder to buy because of a lack of high living and pay, the founders wanted to establish no taxes in the U.S but as of now taxes still exist. Although taxes was not something anyone in the colonies wanted they realized after that taxes helped fund cities, education, military and etc, so the abolishment of it was nearly impossible, however their idea of limited government control is still true because the government still does not take much.

4. What are the positives and negatives of having this economic system? The main negative part of this economic system is the uneven distribution of money and wealth. In this type of economic structure it kind of represents a ladder. At the top of the ladder are the wealthiest people who pay lesser taxes and have a better life style then someone who is in the lower end of the ladder and who doesn't have a life style similar to the more wealthier people, but this system also has people who are between both spectrums,however in the U.S' government the lower class pays more taxes then the wealthier class, but the class you fall under, all depends on the work a person does and their annual paycheck. This uneven distribution could be called evil, the wealthy are given more while the people who work so hard every day are taken from more. There to be no justice in the U.S capitalism in it's distribution. Those who can help themselves more have an easier break yet those who struggle have only more struggles put down on themselves. The positives of this economic system is the ability to have social mobility. A person who was in a lower class one day could stumble upon a job that one day could move them to the higher class living in the united states. Although it could seem slightly impossible it isn't exactly impossible to try to move to a higher level of living.

5. What is democracy? Democracy is a type of government where people can chose their leaders to hold out the type of policies and conduct whatever in office that would benefit them mostly in their situations. The person who wins is usually by majority of votes to whomever. However there are many types of democracies not only one underlying definition. There's a presidential democracy(representative), a direct democracy, and parliamentary democracy. Each democracy does have the underlying code of voting. In a direct democracy each person in government is given a year to rule basically just going in order. In a representative democracy the majority of the people in that nation vote for a president to carry out the needs of the people for their term as president. In a parliamentary democracy, it's not the people of the nation who are up to decide who is elected but the people in parliament. It could simply be a monarch, or even an elected person in parliament. But in most cases democracy importantly should just mean the fact that the people of that nation have an equal say into their own rights.

6. What form of democracy does the U.S practice? What are the details of this form of democracy? The U.S practices representative democracy. Representative democracy is a form of democracy where the people of that nation come together to elect a person that in their eyes holds the best direction for the nation. That person elected runs in office and is held to by his supporters that they carry on all promised in elections. The Founders of the U.S chose it this way because they felt that some people were more fit to be in politics then others, not necessarily judged on intelligence but the chances of being a good leader. Represenatives in the political system were known to the founders as filters. These filters responsibilty was to be able to control what was right and what was wrong, what would be best for the country and what would be horribly wrong. The Representatives have the power of vetoing a presidents decision, putting in it's states voice and opinions and is as other postitions in the congress constricted by the constitution to what it can and cannot do.

7. Why does the U.S practice democracy - why is it the system that the founders established? The U.S practices democracy for the chance of citizen choice and the freedom of being able to speak your rights and have your voice heard. Without deomcracy we would have no say in anything and we would have to unwillingly live with the decisions governement makes,with representative democracy we are at least given the chance to be able to choose someone who in our eyes holds everything you think will guide the country in the better direction. Our founders established this during an event that helped lead to the revolution. During the 1750-1760's the colonies came to an agreement of a slogan called "no taxation without representation" this was developed because of the unfair british policies put onto the colonies. Not only did the british parliament inflict all sort of taxations on the colonies but they did not give the opportunity of being represented in parliament. All the inflicted barriers of trade and taxes with the navigation acts and sugar act, the colonies finally put up the fight with refusing to pay the stamp act, the bristish revoked the act soon after. They then preceded to put a tea act but colonist violently reacted to that as well by wasting all imported tea in the boston tea party. These open riots began to alarm british parliament and soon after Britian released compliaments that the colonies had positively been lifted from taxation without representation. After this battle with Britain it was a priority to the founders to make sure that now the U.S had representatives that allowed everyone orderly to have a say into the dealing of what happens in the country.

8. What are the positives and negatives to having this system? The positives are people feel as if their opinions can be heard and that they actually matter. With people believing that their opinions matter it builds a unity in the country. As people start to feel things are improving and they become more comfortable with the status of the country, then it allows the country to be more stronger knowing there are loyal citizens. Not only does it build strengths but does it build an equal set in our country. Democracy basically allows us to speak up and fight for our opinions that could help the country, with the people having power to equalize the country it would help set things back into balance. Democracy also allows an example of a more justified equal rights to citizens, it isn't perfectly equal but close too. The negatives to democracy are the near impossible amounts of having everyone have a say in the governemnt. Also is the peoples influences on another, some people who vote in elections are not even aware to what is going on and what isn't yet they still vote based on popularity. A lot of times you see a candidate boost on the poles because they are associated with the media more then another, and just because they are associated with the media they became more popular and voted for. SOmetimes the real intents on some candidates are overshadowed by the others popularity.

9.Michael Moore's 2009 documentary: Michael Moore had made the points of theft, freedom, religion, and friendship throughout his documentary. He showed how banks were stealing from workers who tried hard for their money and was threatened to get nothing while banks were given money. He showed how people elected president Obama to have the point of freedom and to be able to fight foreclosure and to stay in their houses because he helped and supported middle class people. He showed the power of religion where religious figures believed that capitalism was not the way they believed the country should be going in. They showed friendship when a neighborhood stood by people whose home was foreclosed but stood against the police and the person who kicked them out of their home to let them get their house back. His movie shows lessons and priorities that shows our nation today. I think that he left out the balance of capitalism and democracy and how they coincide, I think he focused more on capitalism which made the movie take a dark theme toward the country, although it was true. The only thing I had a problem with his approach was the lack of democracy overshadowing all the bad in capitalism. I think he should have maybe mentioned democracy more to show its power with the people and equal situations. However I think that his overall approach of devastation early on was a good tactic because it did really captivate watchers as they witnessed what capitalism really means and democracies involvement.

10. The relationship between capitalism and democracy is the involvement of the people but I think that's where it ends with similarities. Capitalism can be describes as the give and take to the people in that area, and democracy is more the equal rights voters can choose in elections. These two coincide together to help benefit the other. Capitalism helps give the wealthy a break while gives the middle class and the lower class struggles, however representative democracy helps to even this out. Elections give people the choice to find the candidate that hold the options of straightening out everything they need to fix something. For example foreclosure on homes is an example of capitalism taking away the peoples homes and their right to live in their own house. The people could elect someone that told them otherwise, like that woman in congress who encouraged them to stay in their own homes to be able to fight away banks and that they didn't have their mortgages, that they didn't have the rights to take away their homes. The point of the matter was that democracy still gives the hope of fighting for equal rights and the right to do whatever they need to help benefit themselves, and that it is not about the banks and wall street it's about the health of the people. These principles both coincide in the ability of still being able to give to the people then to take. Without democracies, we would have more taken then anything else. Democracies help us to earn back things that were stolen from us. As quoted in the movie capitalism is evil, it's an evil principle yet democracy can help regulate it to a circumstance that maybe it won't become so evil. These principles go against each other as capitalism does not view that natural rights of the people, in fact it favors the banks and the government but democracy is for the people not the banks.

CITATIONS: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism http://www.democracy-building.info/systems-democracy.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representative_democracy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_Acts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_taxation_without_representation http://www.buzzle.com/articles/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-democracy.html