JohnnySwims

     An interesting portion of The Best We Could Do is on page 286 when Thi’s parents are allowed to take classes as part of a government program to earn certificates for future employment. This would help them replace the degrees they had earned in Vietnam that employers wouldn’t recognize. They would take various classes on computers, programming, math, etc. excelling at all of them and earning the credits. Later in their life, these classes were critical for them to gain jobs as part of the American workforce and help them support their family. The question posed by this section is in what way did taking these classes truly benefit them when looking for a job?      Traditional thinking says this: the answer is obvious, of course taking those classes helped them earn a job by teaching them new skills and improving their knowledge. Education is one of the determinants of the productivity of labor, an economic concept that measures the value of the output ...

  A topic explored throughout The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui is the idea that our circumstances often shape who we become later in life. This theme serves as an extension of the nature vs. nurture debates, where people wanted to see whether a person's genetic disposition or environment had a greater effect on their life. Although the consensus is that both factors play a vital role in a person's development in life. I share a view, and I believe Thi Bui would agree, that nurture plays a bigger role in a person's life than nature does. To understand this complex relationship between nature vs. nurture, I believe that this debate is best represented in terms of supply and demand. Although some might object saying how economics, a field dedicated to the study of money and finance, allows for the representation of this nuanced situation. The truth is economics, although often associated with money, is more the study of people and how they make the many decisions that they e...

  A labor union or trade union is an organized group of workers who unite to make decisions about conditions affecting their work. Labor unions strive to bring economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation.  “Labor unions bring economic justice to the workplace”, a quaint idea that seems to present labor unions as the last line of defense against ever the greedy capitalist ideas of the elite in America. The truth is that unions often act as monopolies in labor, a group of workers banding together to artificially increase the price of their employment, which economists coin as a cartel. By restricting the supply of labor available, they can win higher wages and better benefits for union members, at the cost of non-unionized workers. This eliminates the total number of employment opportunities available or forces nonunion workers to work for worse pay. The rise in the cost of labor, also forces the final price of the good to increase, raising the cost of l...

  "Tom," I inquired, "what did you say to Wilson that afternoon?" He stared at me without a word and I knew I had guessed right about those missing hours. I started to turn away but he took a step after me and grabbed my arm. "I told him the truth," he said. [A more truthful retelling of what happened between Tom, Wilson, and Gatsby. Except everyone is a swimmer and Wilson is better at swimming than everyone thinks.] Full of righteous conviction, Wilson forced his way past Tom’s butler, bellowing, “Tom, you dirty little cheat, I know you here. Come out and face me like a man!”  “Sir, please don’t go upstairs. As I told you before, Master Tom left for the country approximately an hour ago. "Any grievance you have with him, you may leave with me, and I shall notify him of it as soon as I can," Tom’s butler called out as Wilson made his way to the stairs.  “You can save your breath for someone who’ll believe those lies of yours. I’ve wised up more t...

     One of the biggest themes that Fitzgerald uses to drive the plot in The Great Gatsby is the division between old and new money during the 1920s. He represents the division between the classier, almost aristocratic, old money and the eager and gaudy, new money through the water between the East and West Egg. The physical division between the eggs is as much an obstacle to Gatsby as the division between classes to his end goal of Daisy. When thinking about what type of message this was designed to convey to the reader, it immediately reminded me of something that happened to me about 2 years after I started competitive swimming.      Lane 1, or the Senior group was the penultimate of Lifetime swimming, that’s where Coach Mike would spend most of his attention and where the fastest swimmers would be. Even though I was already considered one of the veterans of the team, and I was swimming at the same times as the Senior group, I saw Senior as the key to al...

     Looking at the 1920s as a decade, it's often called the “golden age” of America, where economic prosperity seemed to abound. Innovations began to transform American life, and women began to gain various rights, putting them on more equal footing with men. Culture began to develop, and Jazz music and silent films began to take America by storm. However, beneath this golden veneer, the ugly reality of income inequality, exploitation of workers, and immorality swelled. This “valley of ash” was eventually exposed, in 1929, when the Stock Market crashed, and America entered the Great Depression. This would completely upend the economic prosperity that America had enjoyed so freely prior, and cause the transgressions of the previous decade to be revealed. The Speedo LZR Racer tech suit being revealed Although in completely separate circles, a similar story emerges for swimming during the 2000s. Companies like Speedo, Adidas, and TYR, greedy for more sales, looked for way...