Fall 07

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It is difficult for me to continue reading a paper when, within the first two pages, it frames the divergent history of the US and Europe with the following:

In America there was enough cheap and free land and resources so that newcomers could become rich.

In the margins I have scrawled “What? For who?” in an attempt to disguise my rage at this statement. The way this phrase is used, and the type of historical whitewashing it calls forth, makes it clear what type of audience the author is trying to talk to: those who agree with this statement, or agree enough to read past it and on to the rest of the paper (it also uses the phrase “America” or “American” in place of the United States or US citizen).

This article is part of a Yes/No debate around the topic “Is Sustainable Development Compatible With Human Welfare?” Both the Yes and No “sides” take first-world standards of living and economic systems as those to aspire to, without really critiquing them in a non-banal or trite manner.

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