Social Problems

Social Problems and My Views One might think they know a lot about certain issues going on in the world, but in many cases, they do not know all of the details. If they did, they might think of these issues much differently. Before taking the Social Problems course I thought I knew what the most important problems going on in the United States were. The systemic view of the course has made me feel as though the problems we learned about are very serious, and capitalism in the U.S. is involved in many of them. I knew that the economy was a major issue and unemployment was a side effect of the collapse. I also knew that there were environmental problems that could lead to global warming. What I did not know was the all the details within all of these problems, and how they became problems in the first place. Some of the problems we discussed in class I did not even realize were problems in the first place. I did not know that our healthcare system was an issue, and I also did not know how involved we were in global inequality. In general, I feel as though this course has brought to light how serious certain social problems are, by explaining why they are happening and introducing topics that I did not realize were problems to begin with. The problem I found to be most disturbing was the healthcare system in the United States. Before taking this course, I did not think there was anything wrong with the U.S. healthcare, and I actually believed it was probably one of the best in the world because our country is so developed. When we began discussing this topic in class in the perspective that the system was to blame, I was shocked to learn that healthcare in the U.S. is more expensive than most places because of our insurance companies (Eitzen et al. 490). The insurance companies are for-profit, and even though most jobs offer some kind of health benefits, they can be very expensive for people who have lost their jobs and are unemployed. These companies are the