Kinsley High School

Kinsley, Kansas

Teacher: Dr. Galen Boehme

By Amber Kirkwood

12th Grade

I can improve my sense individual responsibility for the common good by improving my self-pride, by having a touch of empathy, and by expanding my social and community involvement.

As a graduating senior I want to focus on making myself a better person. Four key words help me understand my level of responsibility: First, we consider pride as the satisfaction I find in reaching a goal. We consider empathy as my understanding another person’s situation, feelings or motives. Involvement means being active in an endeavor. Expanding involves improvements that enhance my life.

I am basically a selfish individual who has a history of acting irresponsibly. Now that I have reached the point of high school graduation, I see the importance of becoming more independent. For too long as a teenager, I have been too dependent upon others to help me.

To expand my pride I need to understand how to tend to and care for myself and my belongings. Many situations in life consist of making impressions. I need to present myself as I want people to see me at every acquaintance. The way that I express myself and care for my possessions is the way many people see me as a person. If I am to act inappropriately among people I do not know, my next impression would be centered on the way I had acted before.  I can enhance my social life and my compassion for others by showing empathy towards others. In the past I have had financial mix-ups and I know now how to change that. I need to prevent myself from having more wants than needs. I know that I need to make myself aware of the welfare situations and prevent myself from becoming a welfare case.  I need to understand where I belong in my community and where I need to be involved. Being able to understand all that is going on in my area is very important; I need to know when activities such as local elections and other voting opportunities are available to share my own opinion.  

I have a passion for nice vehicles and living in expensive facilities. I like to have nice belongings to impress people. I know life is not about impressing others, but if I do not have any money I cannot live the way I want to. I need to find a nice car that runs. It does not need to be brand new; I need to train myself to always think in this manner.

After graduation from high school I hope to strengthen my overall person by going to college and forcing myself to have a better financial life. I have been practicing budgeting for about two years now and I know that I have to be prepared for what is expected. I must learn to save my money. I have to learn show foresight in my life. In the future I plan to have a family; I want to be prepared to pay for all unexpected money expenditures. With children anything can happen; I have to be prepared to pay for education and hospital bills.

I need to train myself to spend my money only for the items that I need. Spending money has always come easy for me. That is why I need to budget my money for the lifestyle I desire. I need to set my priorities higher than what my life calls for. This will prove to myself and my parents that I can live on my own and have what all is needed without their loving handouts.

To carry out my good life and have enough money, I will take extra steps in the financial world. I plan to do this by spending less and saving more. I use three principles to organize my budgeting areas. First, I place 10 percent of my weekly income into the offering plate at my church. Tithing every Sunday will help my moral issues as well as give back to God. After all it is His money; he is only sharing it with me. Another 10 percent should be placed into a savings account or a place where I know I can turn to it in need. This money is to only be used in emergency cases. This “savings” is what I plan to pass down to my children when I leave. The third budget area is the proper amount for bills. Every month I add up the amount needed to pay my rent and utility bills. I find which bills are necessary and which bills can be discontinued. For example if a television is needed the basic, cheapest cable is all that is essential, not a high dollar satellite system.  Any other money that is left over after putting a good 20 percent away and paying my bills I can either treat my savings account, take a friend out to eat, or even add a little extra in next Sunday’s offering plate.

My overall goal to be reached after all my hard work is to maintain a successful future.  My desired results include having a well maintained household, knowing my children are in good hands, and staying out of debt. I want to have all bills covered, but not have so much money that I become greedy. I want to continue giving to the church and to those in need.

In conclusion, I plan to improve my sense of individual responsibility for the common good by improving myself pride, having a touch of empathy and by expanding my social and community involvement. I will properly save and spend my money after I graduate. This will make it certain for me to live a life of satisfaction.

Answers To Questions Triggered by the Required Reading

Machan uses the word “steal” to prove the emotional effect on our ethics.  We have spent so many years stealing what we want that it now comes natural. We have been making a repetitious wrong, right. Machan does not refer to taking candy from a store, but by manipulating others to giving us what we want. Everyday we spend wanting more than we need. We have all grown up learning new ways to get “our” way. People today have no sense to stop. We all want the bigger, better items than our neighbor.  Machan refers our choices to the snowball effect; we just keep desiring and wanting more. We continually replace our old items that are now not as new and big. Gradually we lose our sense of need and our snowball ends up so large that we have no where to go but down. Our debts raise and our snow balls will soon have to melt. Maybe then we will be able to control our desires.

Q2- Machan said: “For that which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it.” Give two examples of this form your personal experience.

Here Machan stresses our ability to be irresponsible and unhelpful. Two examples come to mind when thinking of situations where we should participate, but do not. One occurrence is our class meetings. Our class sponsor spends his own free time to make out schedules for our class to attend certain meetings. All but a few meetings should have the whole class’s attendance. Rarely do more than three or four members show up to further decisions. Then after all is decided the rest of the class complains that his or her vote was not used. But if one does not show up to the meetings, he suffers the consequences.  The second example concerns our loyal volleyball team and someone’s willingness to fill water bottles. The team does not have a manager. The duties of a manager are shared among the players. At the beginning of the year we all decided that the varsity team would fill water bottles for the junior varsity and the junior varsity would do the same for the varsity. This idea soon became extinct. Then it all comes down to everyone getting her own water bottle. This worked, but if a player did not have water, then the war was on again. If all girls would have stuck to the first plan, all factors would have been equal in routine. 

Q3- Do you agree with Machan that “…everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill; as in families many attendants are often less useful than a few.” Give an objective example of this.

Machan’s point about Aristotle’s quote has merit because Aristotle is correct with his theory. The human nature can be predicted for today and can easily be predicted for tomorrow. Our ways of dealing with welfare have not changed in 2000 years. Aristotle understood the way people work. He understood that no matter what dreams we possessed we would still be dealing with the unproductive welfare applicants. For example Bush’s thinking is that the current welfare program involves too much administration. This causes the needs of the people to be sacrificed. By putting money into the hands of the local charity groups there is more money for the people. The less spent on administration the better. Consequently this can affect several more people.

“Are We Going the Way of Rome” (Lawrence Reed)

Q4- State Kershner’s First Law. Do you agree or disagree and why?

Kershner’s First Law: “When a self-governing people confer upon their government the power to talk some and give to others the process will not stop until the last bone of the last taxpayer is picked bare.”

I agree with Kershner’s law only enough to say that this is what is happening. But I do not agree that it is right. I am a taxpayer; I work hard for the small amount I receive. I do not like to give away my money to those who do not work on their own. This law reminds me of the movie “Robin Hood.” Prince John taxes the poor to feed the rich. Robin Hood tries to prevent this by robbing the rich to feed the poor. Either way the money one makes should be his own, not taken away for the lazy. All men should work for their money and support themselves.

Q5-What industry was the first to be taken over by government in both ancient Rome and the USA?

The first industry the government got involved in was transportation. The government thought that it needed to control all aspects of transportation to move all goods.  In Rome the government started to control the shipping. The only way that the government could control several taxes was to control the shipping. In the United States the government first took over the railroad system. By doing this the government could control the transportation of goods between coasts. The government then gradually regulated transportation more and more.

Q6- Is cheapened money the cause or the outcome of inflation? Explain.

Cheapening money had caused inflation. The government began to take the silver out of the coins and that caused the prices for goods to be harder to pay for.  By cheapening the money this made the coins less valuable. The reason was to increase the circulation of money, even though the value is less. This also helped businesses and schools maintain an effective budget.

Q7- How did the Edict of 301 affect Rome’s economy?

The Edict of 301 hurt Rome’s economy incredibly. The rule of wages and prices increased the shortage that Rome had. After the threats that Rome had the Rome economy and culture fell dramatically and was soon completely destroyed. Many of the items people needed were not available and not affordable. As a result the Edict of 301 was soon made void.

“Liberty and Individual Responsibility” (Dwight R. Lee)

Q8- Lee claims that individuals could be “entirely independent of others” except for what? Explain.

Lee claims that individuals could be “entirely independent of others” except for scarcity. He explains that each individual in a society of abundance would run around and do as he wishes without thinking of anyone else. Now because of scarcity we must all interact with each other; we do this by rules of social conduct. This helps us do more special activities, but helps all people around us to be more cooperative. Lee states that with certain rules and restrictions, the rules help control all types of activities. This control also maintains the levels of respect among people and their lives. These rules help foster people's liberty.

Q9- Describe the dilemma concerning rules as discussed by Lee.

The dilemma Lee discusses is the rules could be over detailed or not enough detailed. He explains that all rules are based on a way to stop chaos. Rules that contain too much detail could destroy liberty as easily as no rules. Lee describes how we need to find trustworthy leaders who are powerful enough to run a society with effective control. We should find a person who will not take our rules and our society and put us through “enormous abuse.” This right leader needs to follow the guidelines of the Constitution and understand the power of liberty that our founding fathers incorporated into the Constitution.

Q10- Why is the concept of private property crucial to freedom?

Lee thinks that we need to clearly understand the definition to individual rights and give our full assurance that other individuals will do the same. Lee describes that if we have little assurance in others, then the lack of motivation will exist in civil manners. Private property is the most important piece of ownership in some people’s lives. If the small amount of privacy is lost, we will soon not have the freedom of possessing our own private property. This private property allows us to take responsibility for what we have and own, to communicate more freely with others and to foster cooperation and communication. The truth is essential to maintaining freedom.

Lawrence Reed’s testimony before the U.S. Senate Budget Committee.

Q11- Argue both pro and con that in his testimony Lawrence Reed was advocating compassion and aid for the poor.

To begin the argument, understanding three key terms will help the process:

Compassion: To have sorrow for, to provide sympathy for another, or to have mercy.

Aid: is to give money, services or intangibles to another in need.

Poor:  is a relevant term, usually pertaining to the less fortunate.

In his testimony, Reed states seven principles that show his compassions and anti-compassions towards the ideas. A few examples are expressed well in principles one, two, and six.

In principle one, Reed states showing compassion to the laws as ethical matters are stronger than the economical matters. He is less compassionate for this principle. He believes that our equality is a continuous cycle, and that it is the economical truth of our lives. In principle two, Reed shows a stronger pro vs. con argument. He believes that we care for “our” items. We earned them; we deserve them. He also states how the government gives too much care and that the people they care for need to learn to do it on their own again. In principle six, Reed has a strong anti-compassion for the government’s giving and taking being too flexible.  He believes that our compassion for these people is leading us to weakness and causing us to show less leadership. Reed expresses in principle six that learning is a life-long process.

In conclusion, Reed tries to teach us all to have a tougher compassion for others, and that we need to stop looking at the needy as “homeless puppies,” but as people who need mentoring.

Q12- “If people are free, they will not earn equal incomes; conversely, show me a people who have equal incomes and I will show you a people who are not free.” Explain in your own words Mr. Reed’s meaning.

This comment suggests showing the wealthier people in the world that the poorer people or less fortunate are not as “free” as they should be. The people with less money are the individuals that we see working two, or even three jobs to keep enough food on the table and a roof over the house of their families. He feels that the poor people work 40 hour weeks and bring in an acceptable income. The few people that work 50 or 60 hours a week are not free. They do not have time to play and enjoy their families because they work straight time to feed their families. In conclusion, few people are actually free when we consider economics as a primary factor.

Back