The Characterization of America
The society which exists today is very diverse with many different types of people. This was shown by Paine in his characterization of America. Even Though, the society we live in today is very diverse this diversity is broken by a fair and equal government. As described by Paine people live their lives through the differences which they have, so a lot of people don’t have much in common. Ways in which people don’t have much in common is through race, religion, and ethnicity. Paine explained that regardless of those differences which people lived by they should live in equality. Equality in Paine’s mind should began once we had separated and gained our independence from England. Paine’s characterization of America holds true today since the rich and the less fortunate are dealing with the same consequences for their actions, taxes can be argued of whether being fair or not but doesn’t take an outrageous amount from a person's salary, and revolts, protests, and disputes are handled smoothly such as through court.
As Paine characterizes how America should be he states “there the poor are not oppressed , the rich are not privileged.” This shows that in America there is a fight for equality no matter how much money a person has. This shows that being wealthy does not exempt a person from the consequences which a poor person would receive for a negative action. An example of this in today’s society is millionaires Bill Cosby and R. Kelly. They are two famous, rich and famous celebrities receiving their consequences for rape cases. The amount of money they have does not privilege them from the consequences they deserve which is jail time. Two people in different categories of riches being able to receive the same consequences as another who is poor shows how “the poor are not oppressed, the rich are not privileged.”
Paine also characterized that America should have taxes that are fair. He states “their taxes are true because their government is just.” This is true because society in America today most people wouldn’t call taxes outrageous or unfair. The government give taxes which most people can actually afford. The taxes which they take off of a person’s salary are fair to the point where they are ave to afford what they need. They even have tax returns which allows a person to receive some money back. The taxes are shown to be not too much and not too little. The taxes which are taken for the government to function are just since they allow a person to still function and purchase items.
In Paine’s characterization of how America should be he explains that there shouldn’t be riot, protest, and revolts against something being wrong. His characterization applies to how the world is today conflicts will never be stopped since people will always disputes. This shows that the world is not perfect but there is nothing that the government purposely allows to make citizens protest and riot against. Their are protest that do exist such as the unarmed shooting of of innocent black men but the government does oppose that and tries to fight to those situations and other ones that would lead up to “engender riots and tumults.”
Although, Paine’s characterization of America holds true in certain ways, it has its faults. An example would be a person are not treated equally as the rich since, they are not paid the same amount for the same work as other people. Some people might argue that taxes are way too much but that is a back a forth argument that could go since the government has a lot to pay for to make the country better and people might overreact. Another is that people still do riot and protest throughout the country but the truth is that the world isn’t perfect and something will find something wrong within it but the government does fight to try and fix those things.
Paine’s characterization of America holds true today since the rich are given consequences for their actions, taxes are viewed as just, and even though riots do exist the government opposes it and tries to end it.
