Barbara is from New York, she was working as a counselor in a juvenile detention center. She is raising five children on her own, working full time, and putting herself through school so she can have a more stable living environment for her family and herself. She makes $8.25 an hour at the juvenile detention center, she makes about $900 every two weeks, and lives off of government aid. Barbara gets a raise to $11 an hour, but gets her government funding taken away; it includes medicaid, food stamps, and her housing assistance. Barbara finally finishes college and gets her associates degree which leads her to becoming a recreational therapist that pays $15 an hour with a 90 day review that includes a raise. Mary is from New Jersey, she was working as a …show more content…
She is beginning to lose her car and house because of how much the divorce is costing her, and decided to give her children one last good christmas instead of paying the car payment. She gets food from food pantries, borrows money from friends, and gets up to $15,000 in debt. Mary's work place gets bought out and some of the staff is let go or quits; they had to hire new people which means Mary gets even less money than she was making before. After almost losing everything, she meets someone who helps her turn her life around and help her get into a computer college course so she can get new skills and get a better paying job to support her family if everything goes sideways again. Jean is also from New Jersey, she works as a CNA (certified nursing assistant). She is supporting three of her children including her daughter Bridget, who has cancer, and two of the four kids Bridget has. Jean makes the maximum wage that the nursing home allows her to make which is $11 an hour; her work does not include health insurance so when Bridgets medical bills for her cancer treatment start coming in, Jean has a hard time trying to pay those bills and the house
Coming from a lonely and abusive home Mary had to find happiness outside of her house. Her mom made a friend from their church and she happened to have a three month year old baby. Mary always occupied the Richardson’s by helping with baby Alyssa, while also distracting herself from reality. Meeting the Richardson’s ended up being Mary’s worst nightmare. One night the Richardson’s went out and asked Mary and her mother to watch Alyssa.
Daniel is a department of human services worker (DHS). Daniel is close friends with the Yinger family. While reviewing multiple applications at work for renewal of state aid. Daniel realizes the Yinger receives state aid. He determines the families of eight is making $50 over the maximum household monthly income. Daniel informs and questions Ms Yinger about exceeding the $50 dollar maximum household income. Ms Yinger becomes irate that Daniel was questioning the Yinger family, they are barely above the state guidelines. Ms Yinger asked the Daniel if it was fair to allow the family of eight to go without food or health insurance because the family exceeds the minimum household a lot of income by $50. Kindly, Ms Yinger questions and bribes Daniel, she will pay him $50 monthly cash to edit the household expenses and income. Ms Yinger knows that the $50 dollar cash is a smaller loss than the $800 SNAP and full coverage health insurance.
Anthony was working as a teacher, making $2.50 a month, when the male teachers were making $10.00 a month. She joined a
Since Barbara Ehrenreich makes this extremely clear in the introduction, I don’t believe her socioeconomic standing affects her argument in anyway. Barbara is simply trying to see if she can maintain living off of the minimum wage. I’m sure as we read more into the book, her argument will become more translucent and I’ll see how her socioeconomic standing really does effect the argument. I find her experiment fascinating and I’m extremely curious to find out what it’s like for an individual to transition from wealthy to poor overnight. I’m sure this experience is going to be an eye opener for Barbara Ehrenreich and also myself as the reader. I predict that she will actually struggle to maintain these low income jobs and find that living off minimum wage is extremely difficult and at times
Having parents that tried so hard to set themselves apart from society, all while struggling to earn money, had an impact on their children's lives, and it wasn't for the better. These children lived to struggle. With a bad home life, and parents that didn't seem to care for them enough, Jeannette, Brian, Maureen, and Lori Walls all eventually moved away from their careless parents, to New York. Although it took time for Lori and Jeannette Walls to save up what little money they had, due to the fact that the father continually stole it, they were able to move to New York successfully. Later in the memoir, their parents also decide to move there, except they don't try to better their lives like their
Since they aren't able to keep a stable job for long, of course they are going to have money problems. If they don't have money then how will the children be able to eat. Throughout the novel, Jeanette explains multiple times of herself and her siblings, having to fend for themselves, because her parents did not have enough money to buy them food. For example when she states that, “If I was playing in a friend’s yard, I’d ask if I could use the bathroom, and if no one was in the kitchen, I’d grab something out of the refrigerator or cupboard and take it into the bathroom and eat it there…” (The Glass Castle 68). Jeanette was so hungry all of the time because her parents never had the money to buy food, so her only choice was to take food from her friend’s
The main character Jeanette walls and her older sister Lori walls represent the decision making process the best between the other characters in the memoir. Both of them recognized that living in poverty is not what they wanted. They would have sleepless nights and go days without eating food. As time went on they identified alternatives to try and end their poverty. Their type of poverty was situational because it happened through a situation involving their parents not keeping a steady job. After identifying alternatives they evaluated the alternatives and realized that their father would never stop drinking and change his ways on finding a good job. They later selected and implemented an alternative making a big decision to save up money behind their parents back and to leave their parents to move to new york, and start a new and successful life after leaving. In New York City, Jeannette was able to quickly s as a reporter, which has always been her life time goal. She and Lori began eating very well and enjoyed the fact that they finally had a roof over their head. They eventually ask their siblings Brian and Maureen to move in with them.When they come to live with their sisters they enjoy having each others company and were
Great discoveries always begin with great questions. Barbara Ehrenreich asked two great questions, “how does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled” and “how were the roughly four million women about to be booted into the labor market by welfare reform, going to make it on $6 to $7 an hour” (2001, p. 12). To answer the questions, Ehrenreich embarked upon a journey to discover for herself, whether she could match income to expense as a low-wage worker. In effect, Ehrenreich tested the fundamental premise of The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, also known as welfare reform, in order to determine whether those individuals formerly on welfare and largely unskilled, could earn a living wage on the
Phoenix, Arizona was their next destination. Jeanette’s original thought of living with their grandma again were cast aside as Mary reveals that she passed away during their stay at Battle mountain. Upon arrival the family stays in a fairly large house that was left in Grandma Smith’s will for Mary. Things were positive at first as the usually are, but slowly took a wrong turn as they usually do. Jeanette attends a new school where she is bullied for her intelligence, however this conflict soon ends when her brother Brian steps in and stands up for her. Rex got another job and supplied for the family as usual. Just as things were getting nice, Christmas day comes. This time the kids actually had real gifts, they each got a bike as well as small gifts they bought each other. Everything is looking up until their father got intoxicated and accidently burned their presents after opening up his, and using the lighter inside of it. Their father loses yet another job, and things tumble downwards. From people breaking into their house, touching the children, and just sleeping in the house. The big moment comes when
Mary and Fred are a married couple who live in a big, beautiful house. Even though Mary and Fred both work two jobs they constantly fall behind on paying their bills. Despite their struggles to pay their bills, Mary and Fred insist on living in their big, beautiful house.
After the death of her husband, Mother struggles to keep her family together by providing the support and guidance they need, and encouraging them to use good judgment and think of the family as a whole before making their decisions. As the family faces various obstacles, each seemingly more severe than the last, Mother begins
Barbara works in a group home with a wage of $8.25 per hour. Barbara also collects food stamps and Medicare. Jerry is a middle aged man who works as a security guard. He lives in Bayanihan House, which is just
These include relationships with the director of nursing, senior nursing staff, newer nursing staff, patient care assistants, physicians, and administrators. We will explore some of these relationships and the problems and issues associated with them, followed by recommendations and a plan of action that Barbara can implement to achieve her goals.
After the accident, Jamie’s mother tells her, “You know you got to help them,” referring to Charlton’s family (Rash 246). Her mother expects Jamie and Matt to give up all their dreams and plans, including their house, to help them. But the reason Linda, Charlton, and their family have no money is because they waste it on booze, unnecessary make up, and an abundance of vehicles that are not needed. Jamie feels there is no reason to give up what she and Matt have when there is plenty of other ways for Charlton to receive help. Jamie’s mother believes, “That lake house, you had no right to expect such a place so young… It was a miracle you got it in the first place. You cannot expect miracles in this life, girl.” Jamie will not sell her miracle and says “Maybe not, Momma, But when they come a person has got the right to take them” (Rash 247).
After putting a down payment on the new house, Mama gives the rest of the money to Walter and ultimately gives him the role of the man of the house and to step up to take care of the family. However, Walter goes against Mama and decides to follow through with his dream and invest the money in his potential liquor store business. Although, his plans fall through when Willy, one of the “investors” runs off with the money. Not only Walter, but his whole family lose the chance of a better life and are forced to start back up again. They no longer have the money to put Beneatha through medical school or the money to support themselves. Despite the backfall, the younger family keeps trying. Even though the road ahead may be difficult, the Younger family has each other to support one another and that’s all they need. By picking themselves back up after they have lost everything, it shows that they aren’t ones known to give up at the sight of defeat. They kept trying after they had lost everything because having nothing left to lose means that things can only get better from here on out.