Cause and Effect Essay - The Causes of America’s Social...

Cause and Effect Essay - The Causes of America’s Social Problems The causes of social problems exist on many levels. When we ask why social problems such as poverty, unemployment, crime, and war exist, each time we determine a cause, we can ask why again, as children often do until they are hushed. Poverty exists because some folks cant find jobs or the jobs pay poorly. But then why is the wage level so low? Because of the tax and land-tenure systems. Why do we have those systems? Because special interests pay to legislate it. Why do special interests get away with it? The voting structure lets them. Why does that structure exist? The voters dont demand to change it. Why not? When we dig down through all the layers to the†¦show more content†¦By itself, avarice does no harm, and may even do social good as a motivator to produce wealth. The desire of the owners and managers of polluting industries to avoid the social cost of their pollution is greed, a morally undeserved portion of income. Greed can take the form of seeking undeserved subsidies or privileges, or protection from competition. Greed also motivates dictators, politicians, and government officials to seek and maintain their power. Greed alone is not sufficient for policy failure, since the question then is why the people do not organize to counter the influence of the greedy interests and power seekers. The answer is the apathy of the voters. With the benefits concentrated among a few interests, and the costs spread among the whole population, the incentives of the greedy dominate the incentives of the masses. For the average voter, the cost of organizing and lobbying is greater than his own benefit, since the benefit goes to everybody. But these benefits and costs are still not sufficient to cause the policy failure. Voters could overcome their financial and time cost of getting informed and organizing an opposition if they were sufficiently interested and aroused to contribute resources to defeat the minority interests. Besides their low financial incentive, there is a low sympathetic incentive. Apathy combined with low commercial returns is sufficient to prevent social action. Apathy,Show MoreRelatedThe War On Drug: Reasons Behind The Criminalisation of Drugs and Functions of Crime In Society1255 Words   |  6 Pagesthe popularisation of the criminality of drug use was when President Richard Nixon coined the term ‘War on Drugs’ in 1971 (Provine, 2011, p.45). This essay focuses on the disproportionality of incarceration rates between African and Anglo Americans, and illustrates the unequal operation of law enforcement on African-Americans (Provine, 2011). 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