Wage Crisis By Michael Maher : Money, Power And The American Dream : Why Poverty?

These minimum wage jobs can barely keep her alive even if she was rationing her money as well as she could. “If we want to reduce poverty, we have to stop doing the things that make people poor and keep them that way. Stop underpaying people for the jobs they do” (Ehrenreich 195). She could see that the system was against the poor and prevented them from climbing the social ranks without luck. Although still attainable, the author depicts the difficulties of those in poverty and why the American Dream is more difficult to achieve than it is observed to be by the middle and upper class.

The situation Ehrenreich is describing is the reality of millions of Americans; they work multiple minimum wage jobs, and are paid “so meagerly that workers can’t save enough to move on.” In addition, Ehrenreich recalls the actions of the U.S. government in regards to assisting these Americans. The article opens with the contribution of President Lyndon B. Johnson on the “War on Poverty”, then the “attack on welfare” in the 90s, concluding with The Great Recession. While writing Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, Ehrenreich abandoned her comfortable life to live the life of a low-income American; she worked multiple entry level jobs including Wal-Mart, a maid service, and as a nursing home aide. Through these actions, Ehrenreich establishes her ethos. Because she’s lived the lifestyle she’s describing, she has the authority to speak on the topic. Ehrenreich concludes with her proposal to help the

Think about your goals that would lead you to your definition of the American Dream. Would you let economic differences ruin your dream, or work harder? The American Dream would be considered reaching your ultimate goal and having a stable life and job to provide for oneself and their family. Most people in our country think that the main reason why the American Dream is dying is because of income inequality. Income inequality can play a huge role in why people’s financial situations have a toll on their goals.

People are still living on $2 a day here in the United States. As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, how is it possible for people to live with this little amount of money? I know that I cannot. In $2.00 a Day, Jennifer Hernandez, a single mother with two kids, is a person who lives on $2 a day as she tries to survive and support herself and her kids in the collapsing economy. The minimum wage job for cleaning houses reinforces the cycle of poverty that Jennifer and her kids live in. This cycle of poverty reveals that there needs to be major changes to the economical infrastructure of the United States since the poor cannot get themselves out of poverty even though they actively look for work or have a job.

“Money talks” is an expression many form as a simple analogy to the problem associated with wealth today. However, the value of money is not to be taken in vain as money does not always showcase the attributes of knowledge and power. At the same time, those who do possess money do, in some cases, possess the attributes commonly associated with the wealthier class. “Money and Class in America” wrote by Lewis Lapham in 1988, showcases the pessimistic feelings Lapham has towards the American faith in money. Lapham believes that Americans are at a loss to hold the majesty of money at bay. Though I agree with Lapham to a point, I also believe that the assumptions of Americans do apply to a point.

“Something is wrong, very wrong, when a single person in good health, a person who in addition possesses a working car, can barely support herself by the sweat of her brow” (Ehrenreich, 2001, pg. 199). Barbara Ehrenreich wrote this in her captivating book Nickel and Dimed, where she embarked on a journey that revalued the truth behind life in low-wage America. Growing up I was led to believe that nothing worth having comes easy. As long as I worked hard and gave everything 100% I was guaranteed success, in essence hard work was the key to success. Ehrenreich revels the sad reality for many Americans where hard work, the type you never thought possible that leads to exhaustion, does not guarantee success. Ehrenreich had very unique objectives for writing this novel and she was able to reveal the impacts of social policy then and now.

In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, Barbara Ehrenreich tells a powerful and gritty story of daily survival. Her tale transcends the gap that exists between rich and poor and relays a powerful accounting of the dark corners that lie somewhere beyond the popular portrayal of American prosperity. Throughout this book the reader will be intimately introduced to the world of the “working poor”, a place unfamiliar to the vast majority of affluent and middle-class Americans. What makes this world particularly real is the fact that we have all come across the hard-working hotel maid, store associate, or restaurant waitress but we hardly ever think of what their actual lives are like? We regularly dismiss these people as

Together, they made around $83,000 and had around $90,000 in assets which placed them solidly in the middle class. Twelve years later, Allison and David experienced setbacks but increased their income to about $125,000. Their financial assets quadrupled to a whopping $368,000 and saved up thousands of dollars for retirement. However, with the economy downsizing on the heels of the Great Recession and uneven job recovery heavily tilted toward low-wage jobs, David joined millions of other Americans in unemployment. Having spent half a year unemployed, David returned to work working at a significantly lower wage. Over the course of 12 years, David witnessed how work became less stable and more contingent for many Americans. The working experience illustrates a larger transformation in America’s employment landscape, away from middle-class jobs and jobs with significant benefits toward low-paying jobs with few benefits, accelerated by the Great Recession.

The American Dream is becoming less attainable, and now resembles a myth that Americans can only hope to achieve. In Robert Putnam’s Our Kids: The American Dream Crisis,the author begins his book by analyzing his own hometown, then branches out to other locations in showing the growing disparity within communities and families. Putman portrays the growing class differences through statistics and narratives on actual people. In this essay I will evaluate Putnam’s book and apply it to the actions of the Democratic and Republican parties during the 2016 Presidential Election, and outline two objections I have relating to Putnam’s arguments.

Everyone in the world wants and needs to make money one way or the other. People in the world say that money is not everything. Money does not equal successs. Money does not It give back themselves an oppurtunity to feed themselves, or enjoy the luxuries that America has to offer. When reading Wilson's Article, “When work disappears” According to the trading economies in the United States of America, the US unemployment rate was recorded at 4.9 percent in August of 2016, which not been changed two months prior. 7.8 million people in the United States are without jobs. Making it hard for an Average American to live comfortable. William Julius Wilson’s article “When Work Disappears” discusses the disappearance of work in the industrialized

In the essays “The American Dream: Dead, Alive, or on Hold?” by Brandon King and “Confronting Inequality” by Paul Krugman, the authors discuss a wide variety of ideas that affect or maintain the idea of income inequality in America today. In the essay by Brandon King, he clearly states that the values of the American Dream are still alive today, but are getting harder and harder to achieve for the average person. King argues that the American Dream of today has drastically changed from what it used to be, and that the thought of being successful only lays within having a steady life with little to no struggle. However, in “Confronting Inequality”, Krugman has a different approach on the topic, arguing that the American Dream is no longer alive. Krugman states that the rise of income inequality will also lead heavily to social inequality, and that the rise of income inequality is a huge cause of social inequality as well. The two authors use a majority of viewpoints and methods to explore the same topic of inequality. However, there are also many ways in which both authors offer different sides of the argument and how it should be handled.

The hardest thing to do was to find housing within the monthly salary that Ehrenreich was getting because every apartment was above her price range for survival in that state (109). Most of the co workers, had to walk or ride bicycles because they could not afford cars or even to pay gas prices(112). Overall, even though there is a high poverty rate in America, low-income people are still finding ways to survive either by moving in with family or strangers, or living in cheap motel rooms with no luxuries

The documentary entitled "My Reality: A Hidden America" produced by ABC News showcases the struggles of individuals living in the middle-class, living with little to no money to spare at the end of each month. Diane Sawyer reports on the huge wage gap between the middle and upper-class and its effects on the lives of Americans. The documentary presents itself in a way that allows viewers to obtain a thorough understanding of what it is like to be a middle-class American today. Several service workers were followed through their daily lives; this includes firefighters, college professors, cafeteria workers, fast-food employees, custodians, and several others. Ronnie Thomas, a fifty-five-year-old man makes an eighty-mile commute to his job at Stanford University.

The modern day American society hosts a broad spectrum of industries with various occupations and professions to engage today’s workforce. America, much like most first world countries is a service economy based on the exchange of knowledge and expertise rather than materials and products. People have a long history of work and work evolution that has ultimately brought America to a service economy producing both strengths and weaknesses within the society and its economy. As America has moved to a service economy, much of the manufacturing and production jobs have moved oversees to third world countries creating a reliance on other economies. This globalization of the workforce as well as unionization, and the

Every American dreams of finding a job that pays well enough so that they may comfortably take care of their loved ones and themselves for years to come. Most Americans hope to find some way to make a living that they enjoy, something that they view as productive. Unfortunately, many do not have this luxury. In our society, a good portion of the population is forced to hold the base of our country in place while hardly being redeemed for their time and effort, and thus the problem of income inequality. Numbers of these people live from paycheck to paycheck, barely getting by, not because they manage their money poorly, but because the value of their time at work is negligible.