Think carefully about the issue presented in the following excerpt and the
assignment below.
Many people believe that our government should do more to solve our
problems. After all, how can one individual create more jobs or make roads safer or
improve the schools or help to provide any of the other benefits that we have come to
enjoy? And yet expecting that the government — rather than individuals — should
always come up with the solutions to society’s ills may have made us less self-reliant,
undermining our independence and self-sufficiency.
Assignment: Should people take more responsibility for solving problems that
affect their communities or the nation in general? Plan and write an essay in which you
develop your point of view on this issue. Support your position with reasoning and
examples taken from your reading, studies, experience, or observations.
