Eitzen and Zinn argue that it is not the broken family breaking society but society breaking the family. They see the classic argument of family breakdown not acknowledging that there are structural reasons for the breakdown of families and the assumption that families are the building blocks of society as false. I believe that the all powerful, all consuming desire for money and power in a capitalist society often undermines the values that are supposed to exist in the modern family. In the american society the pursuit of happiness has actually become the pursuit of money and possession as opposed to what really makes people happy. Now I have a question for my fellow students. Why are you in college? Is it part of your pursuit of happiness? You sacrifice a giant part of your precious few moments on earth to spend time study things that aren't even interesting to you. What drives you to do this? Is it knowledge that drives you? Wanting to know more? Or is it the great cliche "I got to get what's mine". Every time I here this from a student I want to puke. This is what breaks apart and destroys families and society, it is the all consuming blood lust for power and money. Watch the movie "American beauty" it shows how people's need for material possession destroys them. The more time people give to greed the less they spend with people whom they love and I'm not talking about just family. I'm talking about friends and neighbors and people you don't even know that you could be getting to know if we all could drop the chase for cash for a second and realize that it consumes our friendships, robs us of our humanity, and worst of all is freaking boring.