The American Ways6 The World of American BusinessWord文档格式.docx

1、1. Why do you think business has high prestige in the United States?2. Why do people want to go into business for themselves? Would you want to be your own boss?3. What does it mean to go from rags to riches?4. How is the workforce of the United States changing?The Characteristics of American Busine

2、ssAt is essential to become familiar with two words in order to understand the meaning of business to Americans; they are private and profit. Businesses are directly or indirectly owned and operated by private individuals （or groups of individuals） in order to make a profit. In contrast to these pri

3、vately owned, for-profit businesses, there are public government-owned and operated institutions as well as nonprofit institutions such as churches and nonprofit charitable organizations. These organizations and institutions are not to be confused with businesses.The Prestige of Business and the Ide

4、al of CompetitionThe statement by President Coolidge in the 1920sThe business of America is businessstill points to an important truth today: Business institutions have more prestige in American society than any other kind of organization, including the government. Most Americans believe, for exampl

5、e, that businesses are more efficient and better-run than the federal government. Why do business institutions possess this great prestige?One reason is that Americans view business as being more firmly based on the ideal of competition than other institutions in society. Since competition is seen a

6、s the major source of progress and prosperity by most Americans, competitive business institutions are respected. Competition is not only good in itself; it is the means by which other basic American values such as individual freedom, equality of opportunity, and hard work are protected.Competition

7、protects the freedom of the individual by ensuring that there is no monopoly of power. In contrast to one, all-powerful government, many businesses compete against each other for profits. Theoretically, if one business tries to take unfair advantage of its customers, it will lose to a competing busi

8、ness that treats its customers more fairly. Where many businesses compete for the customers dollar, they cannot afford to give them inferior products or poor service.A contrast is often made between business, which is competitive, and government, which is a monopoly. Because business is competitive,

9、 many Americans believe that it is more supportive of freedom than government, even though government leaders are elected by the people and business leaders are not. Many Americans, believe, then, that competition is as important, or even more important, than democracy in preserving freedom. So clos

10、ely is competitive business associated with freedom in the minds of most Americans that the term free enterprise rather than the term capitalism is most often used to describe the American business system.Competition in business is also believed to strengthen the ideal of equality of opportunity. Am

11、ericans compare business competition to a race open to all, where success and status go to the swiftest person, regardless of social class background. Gaining success and status through competition is often seen as the American alternative to systems where social rank is based on family background.

12、Business is therefore viewed as an expression of the idea of equality of opportunity rather than the aristocratic idea of inherited privilege.Business competition is also seen by most Americans as encouraging hard work. If two business people are competing against each other, the one who works harde

13、r is likely to win. The one who spends less time and effort is likely to lose. Because business people must continually compete against each other, they must develop the habit of hard work in order not to fail.Americans are aware that business institutions often do not live up to the ideals of compe

14、tition and the support of freedom, equality of opportunity, and hard work. Americans sometimes distrust the motives of business people, believing that they are capable of putting profit before product safety, or a cleaner environment. Therefore, most Americans believe businesses need some government

15、 regulation, although they may disagree on how much. Even with these flaws, however, most Americans believe that business comes closer than other institutions to carrying out competition and other basic values in daily practice.The Prestige of Business and the Dream of Getting RichThere is a second

16、reason why business institutions receive respect in the United States. One aspect of the great American Dream is to rise from poverty or modest wealth to great wealth. In the United States, this has usually been accomplished through successful business careers. All of the great private fortunes in t

17、he nation were built by people who were successful in business, many of whom started life with very little. Careers in business still offer the best opportunity for the ambitious individual to become wealthy.Alexis de Tocqueville observed the great attractiveness of business careers for Americans as

18、 early as the 1830s. He wrote that Americans strongly preferred business to farming because business offered the opportunity to get rich more quickly. Even those who were farmers were possessed with a strong business spirit. They often ran small businesses to add to the money they made from farming.

19、 De Tocqueville also noticed that American farmers were often more interested in buying and selling land for a profit than in farming it. Thus, even in de Tocquevilles day, when most Americans were still farmers, the seeds of a business civilization had already been planted.Not only is business seen

20、 as the best way for individuals to become rich, it is also seen as benefiting the entire nation. Through competition, more people gain wealth. By contrast, a socialistic system of production and distribution of goods （one that is owned and operated by the government） is seen as greatly inferior. A

21、socialistic system is distrusted because of the monopoly of power held by the government that eliminates competition. There are few countries, if any, in the world where business institutions are so strongly preferred over government institutions as agencies for producing and distributing goods and

22、for providing services. For example, the United States is one of the few industrialized countries in the world that does not have universal health care guaranteed and managed in some way by the government. Americans have traditionally preferred to have a system where health care providers compete wi

23、th each other in a free market and individuals are free to choose their own doctors and hospitals, even if that means that some people go without health insurance.Two Kinds of American Business HeroesBecause of the many beliefs that connect business to the wealth and the traditional values of the Un

24、ited States, people who are successful in business have sometimes become heroes to the American people. Two kinds of business heroes have gained widespread respect: the entrepreneur and the organization man or woman. Entrepreneurs provide examples of traditional American values in their purest form,

25、 and these people are most likely to be idealized by the American public. The second kind of hero, the organization man/woman, is seen as a less perfect example of basic American values, but he or she still commands great respect.The Entrepreneur as HeroEntrepreneurs are the purest kind of business

26、heroes for a number of reasons. The first reason is that they succeed in building something great out of nothing. The people who, more than 100 years ago, built up the nations great industries, such as steel, railroads, and oil refining, were usually entrepreneurs. They started with very little mone

27、y or power and ended up as the heads of huge companies that earned enormous fortunes.The fact that these early entrepreneurs built great industries out of very little made them seem to millions of Americans like the heroes of the early frontier days, who went into the vast wilderness of the United S

28、tates and turned forests into farms, villages, and small cities. The entrepreneur, like the earlier hero of the frontier, was seen as a rugged individualist.Entrepreneurs made so much out of so little that they became heroes to the common people in America. Entrepreneurs often began as common people

29、 themselves; without the aid of inherited social title or inherited money, they became self-made millionaires. They were thus perfect examples of the American idea of equality of opportunity in action.The strong influence of the success stories of the early entrepreneurs can be found in the great po

30、pularity of the novels of Horatio Alger, which were published in late 19th- and early 20th-century America. About 17 million copies of these books were sold to the American public. The central theme of Algers novels is that in the United States a poor city boy or a poor farm boy can become a wealthy

31、 and successful businessman if he works hard and relies on himself rather than depending on others. This is because the United States is a land of equality of opportunity where everyone has a chance to succeed.By diligence, a quick-witted young fellow can rise from rags to riches.In Algers first pub

32、lished novel. Ragged Dick, a poor city boy who shines shoes for a living becomes Richard Hunter, a successful and wealthy businessman. The hero rises from rags to riches and fulfills the American Dream. Dick succeeds only partly because he lives in a land of equality of opportunity. His success is also due to the fact that he practices the American virtues of self-reliance and hard work. According to Alger, Dick knew that he had only himself to depe