I believe that living in a foreign country is one of the most exciting things one can do in their lifetime. Not only do people get to embrace a new culture and lifestyle, they also get to reflect upon their own. People try to think of reasons for differences in some basic everyday habits. Being an international student, I personally experienced this a lot. I always try to see the big picture and try to understand the reason behind the differences. But I realized that Houghton is a college town filled with students and the vacations were one such opportunity for me to visit some new places and understand the differences in culture.
During the vacation, I was lucky enough to visit the southern part of the country. I spent 2 weeks of my vacation in Texas enjoying the warm weather. I had a chance to experience the life of an average American, and the culture shock was phenomenal. I could see the differences in almost everything and was always comparing it with what I saw in the rest of the world.
The first big thing that caught my attention was the mode of transit commonly used by the people. None of the people use public transport. I have seen buses and trams roaming around with four or five people in the rush hours and mostly empty rest of the time. Though I do realize that this is not the case in all cities, it speaks volumes of the mentality of the people. It has become a part of the American lifestyle that every individual has a car and that public transit is for financially backward people. This mentality has also led to increased production of cars, making them cheaper and easier to buy. This forced the government to use their resources on building fast and safe road networks connecting the country while other countries in Europe or Asia made investments towards public transit.
I believe this kind of situation has come about due to varying reasons and one of the biggest reasons is the influence of corporate America on people’s lifestyles. It is alleged that automotive giants like Ford and GM are responsible for pushing the use of automobiles by removing the old rail lines and slowly destroying the train and bus industry. It has reached a stage where the companies have leverage over the American people. These companies can inflate prices as per their requirement and will be able to make profits as they have created such a market where the people are forced to buy the product.
A similar phenomenon can be observed in the way people shop. Superstores in America have spread to such an extent that one can hardly see an ordinary grocery store anymore. Today people go to stores like Walmart or Target to buy any item from apples to an Apple device. Due to this leverage and control over their market, Walmart has the capability to push any product which they wish to sell by manipulating the prices of other products. I believe Walmart has the ability to change what people have for breakfast. Due to the dependency of people on such corporate giants, the government is also forced to divert their efforts to ensure the smooth functioning of these companies.
In almost every industry, from retail to technology, from telecom to banking, it can be observed that power has been consolidated among some very big companies and everyday life of Americans depends directly or indirectly on these corporations. The companies have influenced and manipulated the public and they have done this to such an extent that the newer generations would not even be aware of the options they have. The people are forced to depend on the companies and the government is forced to serve these companies and bend laws to help companies to function without a hiccup. It is necessary for people to be aware of how companies are manipulating them. It is important to create awareness so that people realize the importance of small- and mid-scale industries and businesses and their contribution to the GDP and the economy of the country.
