Do You Want It Fast, Or Do You Want It Done Right?

There is nothing new in the idea that Americans value efficiency and productivity, and that they prioritize the final product over the experience of its creation and anything learned in the process.  But the ideals of America have successfully wooed its people, many of whom hold a romanticized notion of their country.  How do Americans reconcile efficiency at any cost with the lofty ideals they not only attribute to the United States, but verbally and ardently defend?

The stereotypical US ideal is the American dream in which any decent, hard-working person can rise to the upper-middle class and live the cookie-cutter life of material fulfillment.  However, there are numerous romanticized illusions far less precisely defined, but far more systemic.  Whether celebrating nationalism, or exerting influence in foreign lands, Americans frequently tout the indelible moral rectitude of a fully-functional democracy.  A “government of the people, by the people, for the people” means ordinary Americans listening to the wills of the masses and prioritizing public desires over personal interest.  Even pure statistics disband this notion: the population is 66% white, the senate is 94%; the population is 13% black, the senate is 1%; only 17 out of 100 senators are women; the majority of senators and other congressional workers come from the top 2% of American wealth.  There has never been a minor-party president.  The two-party system forcibly polarizes the population, making Americans choose between only two rigid – and sometimes fanatical – policy packages in order to have a voice in government at all.  Yet despite clear evidence to the contrary, and hastily redirected public frustration, people cling to the notion of America as the ideal democracy.

If Americans are so excited about their national and personal virtue, why are they so willing to sacrifice it at the alter of expedience.  123helpme.com, englishessays.org, i-termpaper.com, bookrags.com, even websites with obviously condemning URLS like echeat.com; simply type “[subject] essay” into Google and the number of websites offering cheap, prewritten essays and term-papers is astounding.  Is it disgustingly dishonest cheating?  Yes.  Is it illegal?  Yes.  Does it rob you of all possible personal growth in the assignment?  Yes.  But these websites would not exist, especially in such numbers, if the “solution” was not so popular.  How does a nation so enamored with its own superiority (the greatest country in the world) trash morals and benefits alike for the simple chance to make a task easier?