The United States of America were founded on July 4th, 1776, when the Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence written by Thomas Jefferson. The independence of the USA was a result of the American Revolutionary War against Great Britain. The most important reason why they wanted the independence was that the North American colonials hadn’t representation at the Parliament of Great Britain and consequently, there were important differences between American citizens and British ones. Only thirteen states at the east coast made up the United States then and their first president was George Washington. After obtain the independence, these thirteen states start conquering territory to the west, where lived the American Natives. When war ended, the Unites States of America were made up by fifty states. Then USA became an important country and victories in World Wars I and II make them the most important power of the world. Nowadays, USA are a referent in science, culture, music, politics or economy, so sometimes it seems like the world depends on the United States.
At first sight, the United States seem like a paradise. They proclaim themselves as the land of freedom and opportunities, and that’s true. With some money and effort everybody can make a living in America, because if you have a good idea or hope, it would be able to execute it and then become rich. An example is Apple Inc., which was founded by two brothers in their garage when they made their first home-made computer. Bank’s work is very important to make it possible, because before the current crisis they gave people loans to help them carry out their projects. These days, banks are trying to resolve the crisis and go back to economic prosperity. The big companies which want to invest on young people are also important to make true “the American dream”. They are very important to musicians, writers and actors, because they give them an opportunity to succeed. In fact, the most of successful groups began playing in a little bar and one day, they were listened by a head-hunter or they presented a demo to a record company. Furthermore, universities and high schools help sportsmen and good students to make their dream come true giving them grants and scholarships.
Another positive aspect is that American citizens pay fewer taxes because there isn’t “social security” and less public service. This is because they have a very extreme capitalism as economic system, so government hardly ever takes part on economic operations. Besides, new movies, albums and books are released first in the USA because they have the most important music, cinema and literature industries of the world. Moreover, they are the first economic and military power of the world and people from other countries want to imitate their lifestyle.
However, behind this pretty face, the United States have a dark side. Extreme capitalism causes huge social differences between American citizens. In big cities, whoever doesn’t have enough money become very poor because there is not public medical service or aids, and these people sometimes need to steal to get some food or clothes. In little towns at the centre of the USA some people live in very small farms without electricity or roads. Moreover, sometimes American people are too much patriotic, even chauvinist. They look down the other countries because they think the USA is the best of the world, but they don’t think about the negative aspects of their own country. In politics, the United States are a little bit overbearing too, because it seems like they could repair the world with their army. This mentality is the source of some wars and we can find a lot of examples through the history: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kuwait… Another negative aspect is that there is still extreme racism in the USA. There are Neo-Nazi groups in every big city and they fight against Latin or black people bands, which represent a serious problem because it makes cities more dangerous.
To sum up, America’s a good country to live in, but there are many problems that should be resolved. If I could, I would live in the United States, because I like their culture very much and I think that it is possible to make “the American dream”, but if they don’t care about their country’s troubles, they won’t be able to stay as the first power of the world. In my opinion, the source of all their problems is their economic system. The economists call it “anarcho-capitalism” because there is not any control on it, so it can be very dangerous. In fact, because of that less of control, now there is a world economic crisis. If they change that system, promoting public service (like president Obama is doing) some social differences and problems would disappear, and maybe they would see that they can be wrong too.
