Social Problems

#1 Do you have personal troubles or do you have public issues? If you thought they were the same, I must say they are not. According to C. Wright Mills’ essay, "The Promise of Sociology", having troubles is a personal problem where issues are social problems that do affect us personally. Mills states, "Troubles occur within the character of the individual and within the range of his immediate relations with others and Issues have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life (NEED TO SITE THE BOOK????). In the essay, Mills challenges us to see how personal troubles and public issues are interrelated and not separate issues. I enjoyed reading this chapter because it challenges me to think differently than I ever have. I need to not just look at an individual and their troubles but look at the whole picture and how the one trouble affects everyone becoming an issue.

The examples that Mills writes about are still relevant today.  He talks about unemployment, war, metropolis and divorce.  Unemployment rates are far above what they have been in the past.   With large corporations moving their companies to other countries to lower their labor costs, it is driving the unemployment rates up.  Taking jobs away that citizens are fully capable of doing here.  Divorce rates are up as well.  These rates may be up because cultures have changed on how marriage is viewed.  (do I talk about the possibility of unemployment could be tied to divorce?)  Wars are still going on with no real end in sight.  It can be a world war or a war on “your own turf”, they are happening and affecting the entire world.

I can see how troubles are different than issues in my own life.  I work in a company that does quarterly fundraising events for a local program that sends bags of food home to low income children attending area schools.  This program creates over 500 bags of food a week to send home with children on Friday so they have food to eat over the weekend.  After reading Mills’ essay, I see that this is not just a personal trouble for one child, it is an issue for our country.  Without proper nutrition a child can have: health issues causing them to miss school, inability to focus on class work due to hunger, find illegal ways to fulfil their hunger and the list goes on.  This is just one example of how someone could see this as a personal trouble when in reality it is a public issue.