Persuasive Essay 4-Is America the best country?

Prompt: Many people immigrate to the United States because they believe that it is better than their native country. In fact, many people believe that the United States is the best country in the world. Do you agree? Why or why not?

America prides itself on being the “Land of Opportunity”. Everyday thousands of people come to America, both legally and illegally, to find a better life than what they have in their native country. Therefore, there has become a presumption that America is the best country in the world. However, this belief is false. America is actually a country covered in its own flaws that include an unequal economic system, overpopulated cities, and an inadequate public system.

            Many immigrants come to America chasing the “American Dream”, the ideal life in America categorized as owning your own house with a white picket fence, a car, and a stable job. However, they are unaware that there’s a striking division in America’s economic system. The top 1% of America’s wealthy own 34% of the total wealth. The rest of the population (which more often than not includes immigrants) suffer from earning minimum wage, handle more than 1 job, and refrain from obtaining necessary luxuries. The Middle and Lower classes of America certainly work for a living if they can find jobs. In hard economic times, America is a horrible place to be because it is almost impossible to find a job, causing the poor to toil in whatever they can or accept being homeless. In contrast, the wealthy continue to live their comfortable lives.

            It is no secret that the world is becoming more populated; one need only come to America’s biggest cities to see this with their eyes. Los Angeles has the worst traffic in the West Coast and the streets of New York are crowded with people. There are simply too many people in America’s large metropolitan cities. Yet, most of the opportunities available are found in these cities causing immigrants and more Americans to flock to these places. Overcrowding has led to the housing in these places to be less than favorable if you have a low-income. The most common form of housing is apartments that overlook the largely polluted streets. More people s synonymous with more crime and dirtier streets, making overcrowded American cities not exactly picture perfect.

            Immigrants may claim to view Americans as a wonderful land where their children can have a better future. Thus, the parents of these children are relying on America’s public school system; however, this can be a lost cause. Public schools in America are in dire need of help. They find it hard to compete with the more prestigious private schools. Public schools receive less funding than private or charter schools and that results in fewer classes with more students per class. This makes for a difficult learning environment  for students because more students generally means there will be less books in the class to use and the teacher will have a hard time controlling the class, causing a distracting and unproductive environment. Also, most states have implemented certain standards that they mandate all teachers to adhere to; this restricted teaching prevents teachers from using creative methods of teaching to truly give their students knowledge. Perhaps this is the reason why the math and science scores of American students are significantly lower than those in Japan and China; American students are slaves to a public school system that doesn’t teach them to use critical thinking skills to solve problems.

America’s wealthy status symbols and its proud history have caused Americans to believe their country is the best; the seemingly endless opportunities of acquiring wealth and living the “American Dream” are what have made immigrants think America is the best country in the world. However, they are wrong. They are unaware of the harsh segregation of social classes in America that cause the lower classes to work harder, the sordid conditions of America’s large cities due to over crowdedness, and its flawed public school system. Sometimes immigrants come to America to escape a sort of oppression in their own country but sometimes these people are better off staying in their own country because coming here simply means being oppressed in other ways. America is one of the strongest countries in the world and there are privileges in living here, but it is far from being the best country in the world.