America’s Sales

America is a country that makes its profit by selling and buying products and is how most businesses are created. When Charley told Willy that “the only thing you got in this world is what you can sell” (1256) he meant exactly that in the 1940’s most working class men were salesman it was the prominent  job back in that generation if you couldn’t sell your product you couldn’t bring home the bacon. Today’s generation is not really that different in sales and it is still a prominent job available to people though it does differ in how we get paid. In the 1940’s, it was mostly based on commission where as in this time we have a base pay and depending on the company they will include a commission along with a base pay. People today are doing a little better than in the 1940s. Since the pay in this day in age is base and not commission only. There are still struggles with how much a person gets paid and work issues just like in the 1940s. Although, the method of sales have changed the underlying principle is the same. Just like Willy, people come to old age and have issues which some people overcome and others might not. Now, people have a backup plan like the 104k and retirement plans, while back then they probably did not have any backup plan of that nature; thus, leading to more hardship and finical issues. Looking back at the 1940’s, when I think of salesman I think of a door to door representative, where as in this day and age most people in sales are referred to as a sales associate working for companies like Wal-Mart or Kroger. So in the 1940’s Charley was right “the only thing you got in this world is what you can sell.”