The helpful American values

There are a lot of influential social values and spirits in America, which has been shaped and developed in the many aspects of society such as religion, frontier movement, education and business. For example , self-improvement , inventiveness ,the can -do spirit and so on.Among them, I think six values are the most crucial and basic. They are individual freedom, self-reliance, equality of opportunity, competition, material wealth and hard work. Individual freedom, equality of opportunity ,material wealth are what Americans dream of and the other three are the prices to be paid.

All six play an important role in the forming and development of the present US. For example , Individual freedom, self - reliance ,and

equality of opportunity are closely associated with the frontier heritage of America. This is because there was less control over the individual on the frontier than anywhere else in the United States.There were few laws and few established social or political institutions to confine people living on the frontier. In the united states, where freedom from outside social controls has traditionally been valued ,the frontier has been idealized, and it still serves as basic for a nostalgic view of the early united states ,a simpler time that was lost when the country became urbanized and more complex. In addition, these three values -hard work ,material

wealth ,and self -reliance are associated closely with the Protestant heritage- self-improvement. That is because we improve ourselves by hard work and self-reliance so as to gain material wealth and other goals. And in business, competition is the most influential value. Of course , all six are so crucial in the forming and development of the present US that each is almost indispenasble . But in my opinion, the equality of opportunity and competition are more important than other four values and could be helpful in keeping a sustainable development and to prevent from possible mistakes which may hinder that development of China.

The values are associated with each other .In Americans' opinion, the equality of opportunity means that each individual should have an equal chance for success. They see much of life as a race for success. For them, equality means that everyone should have an equal chance to enter the race and win.and competition is the price to be paid for it. It means if much of life is seen as a race ,then a person must run the race in order to succeed ; a person must compete with others,even though we know not everyone will be successful . The two play an important part in Americans' forming and development such as in business and education. For example, in business aspect,since competition is seen as the major source of progress and prosperity by most Americans, competitive business institutions have traditionally been respected. It is seen not only

as a value itself, but also the means by which other basic American values such as individual freedom,equality of opportunity , and hard work are protected. Competition protects the freedom of the individual by ensuing that there is no monopoly of power . It can also strength the ideal of equality of opportunity . Americans compare business competition to a race open to all ,where success and status go to the swiftest person , regardless of social class. Gaining success and status through competition is often seen as the American alternative to systems where social rank is based on family background. Business is therefore viewed as an expression of the idea of equality of opportunity rather than the aristocratic idea of inherited privilege. In order to succeed , business people must continually compete against each other ,they must develop the habit of hard work in order not to fail . Because of dreaming of material wealth, they try their best to compete and do a lot of effort. In addition , based on equality of opportunity and on \"working your way to the top\Americans view their public school system as an educational ladder ,rising from elementary school to high school and finally college undergraduate and graduate programs. There are no separate public educational systems with a higher level of education for the wealthy and a lower level of education for the masses . Rather ,there is one system which is open to all . Individuals may climb as high on the ladder as they can . The abilities of the individuals ,rather than their social class, are

expected to determine how high each person will go . That is to say , everybody in America has the equal opportunity to get an education regardless of races, ages ,sexes ,heights, weights or the social class . But the fairness of education in America isn't from the beginning. It developed and changed through the efforts of people who cling to the equality of opportunity.After the civil war in th 1860s, the southern states developed a social and legal system which segregated the former black slaves from the white population in all public facilities , including schools . Black people in the southern states were prohibited by law from attending schools with whites. Blacks had separate schools which were inferior to the white schools by almost any measure. But with the efforts from generation to generation, this phenomenon has changed a lot . In a historic decision in 19, it held that laws that forced black students to go to racially segregated schools violated the US Constitution because such schools could never be equal. And for the next twenty years ,the courts required Americans to try to achieve racial balance in the public schools to give each person the equal opportunity to get education.

At present , it's well-known that there are many unfair phenomenons in China, the most influential of which is the unfairness in the university entrance examination. As we all know ,people don't have the equal opportunity to go to university in fact . Students in Henan or Shandong must get much more scores than those in Beijing to get the same

university. That means students in Beijing who go to the top university may go to a ordinary school even can't go to the university if he is in Henan. Because of this , many brilliant students can't gain the education that really suit them and therefore the the amount of specialists are fewer than it could be. Moreover, some government officials has become corrupt and they use their power to gain benefits instead of giving everybody an equal opportunity to compete. Due to various reasons such as institutions or decisions, unfair phenomenons such as this will prevent from the sustainable development of China more or less in many aspects such as education ,business or medical treatment . Additionally, it may make people unhappy and make contradiction among people .However,I believe these two American values can be helpful in solving these .Based on giving some rational privileges to the minority , it's necessary to give each people equal opportunity when doing the same thing . After the equality of opportunity to everyone, using competition to let brilliant people to win so as to get what they dream of all long is indispensable. Only through the fair competition ,everybody can perform their brilliant abilities and can try their best to do .people are more likely to work hard in order to win in the competition to get success and other goals . Therefore , I believe it must be useful and helpful in solveing some mistakes which hinder the development of China and keeping the sustainable development of China by using these two American values ,.

In a word , traditional American values especially the equality of opportunity and competition are essential and functionial in almost every aspect in the US . And the two could be much helpful in keeping a sustainable development and to prevent from possible mistakes which may hinder that development of China.