Year enrolled
2011
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Abstract
Yes, I said it. Cue the USSR anthem and call up the retired McCarthyites to put me away for good. I think there’s a maximum amount of money you should be legally allowed to make. Try your best to swallow my words. Remain skeptical; don’t trust me yet. But, I beg you to keep an open mind. Remember, I am no politician; I’m not trying to trick you with some underhanded rhetoric. I have a bona fide, genuine concern for the majority of Americans who are fighting an uphill battle in their “pursuit of happiness,” and I will use the principles of Macroeconomics to fortify my argument and fight for you—the little guy.
Emanuel Grant: Greetings, fellow Americans. Like most of you (I’m assuming), I am an American college student—a 3rd year Italian major at the University of Virginia. “The University of Virginia?” you might ask, “this is a James Madison University journal.” I have had the great pleasure of attending both universities, although I wrote ""With Liberty and Justice for Some"" while a student in one of my favorite classes at JMU—good ole’ GWRTC 103.
In my essay, I write for social justice when it comes to wages in America. If you like what I have to say, feel free to contact me and discuss it more! If not, please feel free to contact me and tell me how much you hate it! Either way, it has been an honor and a pleasure to work through GWRTC and to produce something I am truly proud of—and to get recognized in e-Vision is the icing on the cake.
"With Liberty and Justice for Some" explores my inner, socioeconomic beliefs. I’ve been raised Red, yet for the last eight years of my life, I’ve been socially Blue. Unfortunately for my psyche, these two separate ideologies dictate completely different societal structures. By today’s standards, the more Republican your worldview, the more you embrace the free-market; the more Democratic your worldview, the more you embrace government intervention in order to help the common man.
I try to (only) see the positives on both sides of the spectrum. But, when it comes to wages, I think there is a time when the government needs to step in. Though by some social standards—civil rights, women’s suffrage... you name it—we (society as a whole) have progressed over time, when you take a look at our income gap, we haven’t come too far. It’s medieval.
I propose a way to use elementary economic principles to try to convince you, my fellow Americans, that there might be some societal benefit behind a maximum wage—or at least, as you will find, something like it. In the end, it’s all hypothetical. But, I have spent countless hours in and out of class, in books and with professors, researching the topic. And, I think my idea holds water; maybe you will think the same."
Recommended Citation
Grant, Emanuel
(2011)
"With Liberty and Justice for Some,"
e-Vision Journal of Undergraduate Writing: Vol. 12, Article 15.
Available at:
https://commons.lib.jmu.edu/evision/vol12/iss1/15
