Reading: Inequality and (Un)happiness in America. Arthur C. Brooks.
Understanding the Text
1. Why does Arthur Brooks put parentheses around "Un" in the word "Unhappi¬ness" in his title?
2. It takes eight paragraphs to get to the thesis of this piece. Did that seem too long to you, or did Brooks effectively keep you interested through suspense?
What methods of suspense does he employ?
Have you ever written a paper with suspense in mind, or have you left suspense exclusively to fiction writers? What assumptions about fiction and nonfiction are reflected in yoktir answer?
Reflection and Response
3. Brooks includes several types of evidence in his argument: statistics (which he spreads throughout), individual cases (Bill Gates, etc.), comparison (the ice cream analogy), and appeals to authority (like the Chinese saying). Do certain types of evidence carry more weight with you than others do? Explain.
4. Has Brooks succeeded in convincing you? Why or why not?
5. Which forms of equality do you personally think should be guaranteed?
______equal access to the best health care
______equally good housing
______equal pay
______equal say in decisions of the government
______equal access to the best education
______equally effective protection from crime
______equally long vacations
______other:
______none of the above
What rationale underlies your responses? That is, what's your philosophical basis for supporting certain forms of equality and not others?
Making Connections
6. Of the different authors you've encountered in this book, who is most likely to want to take Brooks on and to refute his argument? Explain.
7. About 175 years ago, a French aristocrat named Alexis de Tocqueville wrote a book based on his travels in the U.S. titled Democracy in America - perhaps the most insightful book published about our national psyche. In it, he, like Arthur Brooks, remarks how little we Americans seem to care about economic inequality. Look up Tocqueville's book to decide whether he and Brooks explain this American indifference on the subject in the same way.