How Can Someone Live Off Of Minimum Wage?

In his essay “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s”, Brent Staples argues that many colleges have less vigorous grading rubrics than in years past because of the increase in student-consumers. Consequently, this “new” grading policy has led to an increase in A’s that are awarded to students. A few factors have led to this unfair distribution. Firstly, students who earn high grades in poorly attended classes assure that these classes will remain viable in the future. Secondly, high grades guarantee the presence of student consumers at a college {REWORD}. Additionally, the tenure status or salary of a professor may be affect if (s)he does not give out high grades to students, leading to disapproving evaluations.

In the twenty-first century, there is heavy competition between colleges. Unfortunately, the ideal theory of the free market economy does not exist in the real world, because no one actually values quality. Most consumers never care about quality nor do they have the time to inform themselves; they only care about convenience. In other words, they will likely prefer inferior products. As a result, colleges have been competing in a downwards spiral of education quality. In his essay, “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s,” Brent Staples criticizes colleges for inflating grades through comparing and contrasting, exemplifying, analyzing cause and effect, and making an argument.

The minimum wage of today is not enough for Americans to live off. Nevertheless, obtaining two and three jobs to survive occurs to often and should not be consider a way to live in the United States. Workers of today making minimum wage simply do not earn enough to live off. As a result, they depend on the government to stay afloat. They apply for food stamps in order to buy food each month. Most or on some kind of public housing assistance, because they are

“In some cases, campuswide averages have crept up from a C just 10 years to B-plus today” (411). In Brent Staples essay “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s” he makes many issues and arguments on the subject. Many college level institutions are faced with demanding consumers and competition from other universities over grade issues. The colleges have simply started just handing out more and more A’s to their students to better their satisfaction. This action taken by the colleges is having many repercussions on grade inflation and making the value of degrees meaningless worldwide. With this alarming statistic about the campus wide averages and the universities resorting to giving the consumers what they want is creating a terrible

In Barbara Ehrenreich’s documentary novel, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America (2001), she claimed that it is almost impossible to live off of minimum wage in the united states. She supports her claim by writing a documentary novel explaining the details of the life of the American struggles caused by the minimum wage. Through her book, she supports that minimum wage salary is insufficient means of survival and leads to a difficult life. After encountering many people who falsely accuse welfare receivers of being lazy and not work hard enough, she wrote a book to challenge and change the public’s negative opinion towards them and also about the day when the minimum wage workforce will stand up for themselves and demand to have a higher wage. Ehrenreich’s purpose for writing this novel was to bring attention to wage workforce by showing the general American public the life of their fellow citizens who are struggling to survive.

Higher education has become a staple of American society. With over 20 million students attending over 4,500 degree granting institutions, the role that higher education has played on larger society is paramount (Thelin, 2017). However, despite the popularity of higher education institutions, the exact purpose of higher education has changed from century to century and may serve different purposes depending on who is asked. Higher education today is arguably both a public and private good. While state and federal governments have invested in a variety of higher education initiatives, as well as assisted thousands of students with attending college through loans and scholarships in hopes that students use their acquired skills and

This then causes students to shy away from the mission, thus affecting their overall performance of acting or learning in class and public. According to Hacker and Dreifus, “...professors must make an effort to reach their students...they must become conscientious, caring, and attentive to every corner of their classrooms” (Dreifus and Hacker 180). While this may be true, colleges are definitively becoming overly involved in satisfying students through specific programs and activities, which results in little concern of actual student welfare and education. If colleges have no concern for their students, then why should students be expected to pay and not receive an acceptable education? Though students have significant qualms towards the expected payment for tuition, they are more focused on

Barbara Ehrenreich establishes her claim on how society and the government are detrimental to people in poverty. The negative generalization that minimum wage workers experience in America affect their ability to move from the low class and into the middle class. I agree with Ehrenreich because many people who are in poverty are categorized as lazy and many people also believe that poverty does not occur on a large scale in the US. While government assistance does exist, most individuals surpass the threshold for welfare, yet still can not afford basic necessities.

In present times in The United States the average person working a decent full time job is only earning $15,080 with the minimum wage of $7.25. That money is in your pocket if you work those 40 hours each week for a year which sounds like a decent amount of money, but now imagine all the expenses you do throughout the year as well. The money earned is not sufficient enough to care for families. If the minimum wage it is raised families will be able to live in decent homes, survive everyday obstacles.. The minimum wage needs to be raised to an amount where families are able to only work one job and not two or three.

Not very many people make minimum wage. In 2016, 79.9 million people were paid hourly and, of that, only 2.2 million were paid minimum wage or less. Since 1979, when it was first tracked regularly, the percent of people who make minimum wage or less has decreased from 13.4 percent to 4.7 percent in 2012 to 3.3 percent in 2015 and now to 2.7 percent in 2016. The 11 percent of the people under the age of 25 make up 50.4 percent of people who are paid minimum wage or less. The 10 percent of 16 to 19-years-olds alone make up 24 percent of those who make minimum wage or less. Only 2 percent of those over 25 make minimum wage or less. 3 percent of women and 2 percent of men make minimum wage or less. 3 percent of whites

The average minimum-wage worker earns more than half of their family’s income (Bernstein & Spielberg, 2015). Naturally, you would assume that although minimum wage workers bring in most of the income for their families, they bring in enough to keep them well fed with shelter. Sadly, this is not true. The National Low Income Housing Coalition

The tuition increases have come in response to the lack of federal funding to universities, leading them to find their own way to provide for their upkeep. “Recent increases in university tuition fees are part of a new entrepreneurial trend in higher education in which institutions are expected to generate more of their own revenue” (Quirke). The universities have decided that since they can no longer look towards federal funds to fuel their costs of maintenance and revenue, they must find a new route towards attaining much needed funds, and they have chosen to

Twenty-one million students are anticipated to attend some sort of higher education (Barrow et al.). And tuition costs are reaching all-time highs; about high as the salary an average American makes in a year (Kay 36). This is a drastic change in the higher education system in America. Colleges used to be mainly religious institutions hundreds of years ago and were based on moral training and proper conduct. Overall, making better people for society. In the present day, American colleges are helping aid students in getting jobs while building up the student’s values. Many have pondered over if the value of higher education that is taught is worth the price being paid. Some have said that the costs are too high for anyone besides the upper class, but people are still enrolling with increased rates each year. Higher education is worth the price because it provides lifelong benefits to the people who graduate with a degree. People who obtain a degree attain life skills that everyone should learn, get paid more money in their lifetime, and gain a quality education.

One of the most expensive fields in America today are colleges and universities. As time has gone on, so has the inflation of the nations market. In order to qualify for scholarships, students need a good education to help them compete with millions of other students across the nation. Therefore, being educated effectively will help better prepare them for the challenges universities require. Obtaining a good education will not only help students take their next steps in learning, but help them be ready for it

in 2012, the tuition fee cap of universities in England increased to £9000. Wales, Scotland and North Ireland also raised their fee. With the agreement of the parliament, the UK government allowed universities to charge Students up to £9000 per year instead of the £3375 in the previous two years. This contentious policy leads to protest in London and strong objection among students and schools. The opposition argued that raising the cap on tuition fee will put huge pressure on both universities and students, as the cuts to university funding will force the universities to increase the tuition fee that adds up to student 's financial burden. Supporters, however, claimed that by cutting down university funding will benefit the rest of the economy.