When Work Disappears Essay example

“The Economic Policy Institute recently reviwed dozens of studies of what constitutes a “living wage” and came up with an average figure of $30,000 a year for a family of one adult and two children, which amounts to a wage of $14 an hour.” (213). According to Ehrenreich, about 60 percent of American workers earn less than $14 per hour. In all of places where Ehrenreich worked paid seven dollars or less per hour, which means those of people who work in those place cannot even afford to have some essentials services such as health insurance and telephone. Since they cannot even struggle to get out, politicians could takee an action; however, they didn't do any works. “The Democrats are not eager to find flaws in the period of “unprecedented prosperity” they take credit for; the Republicans have lost interest in the poor now that “welfare-as-we-know-it” has ended.” (217). And, they also had a catastrophic error. “In fact, very little is known about the fate of former welfare recipients because the 1996 welfare reform legislation bithely failed to incude any provision for monitoring their postwelfare economic condition.” (217). Congressmen need to read this book to realize the problem, and not satisfy themselves by ignoring failures because they have

This demonstrates that if Sam’s school had got more funding then Sam may have received a proper education, and would have learned the intellectual skills that could help him to obtain a high paying job. Unlike many other people in richer parts of America who are able to achieve a lot in life due to their education, Sam’s lack of wealth ruins his future. Another example is one that hits closer to home- in terms of educational funding, the Illinois system is corrupt, and one of the districts that suffers most is that of Chicago Public Schools. In an interview with Ryan Young from CNN and an anonymous Chicago Public School teacher over the recent strike over budget cuts and the overall lack in school funding, the teacher states, “We care about the students. We want funding for our schools so our children can have supplies… gym, art, and PE., just like the kids in the suburbs do.” This is a direct representation of what is occurring in the Chicago Public School system today as a consequence of budget cuts and unequal funding. In general, the lack of school funding gives poorer children disadvantages when it comes to supplies that can help them to thrive. Also, budget cuts weaken the capacity of schools’ to develop the intelligence and creativity of the next generation of workers. In fact,, funding cuts lessen the ability of the schools to help prepare children better for their future, such as improving teacher

This chapter go into how racism can have negative effect your job search workplace, career and even your earnings. It discuss how mental health influences things on the job, such as the turnover rate.

The effects of the 1996 welfare reform bill helped declined caseloads on the social and economic well-being of fragile families, single mothers, and children. Although, the welfare reform was documented for making several positive changes such as reducing poverty rates, lowering the out of-wedlock childbearing, and formulated a better family structure, it is undeniable that poverty remained high among single mothers and their children. The reality of the matter was that most welfare recipients experienced serious barriers to maintain a stable employment due to their lack of skills, not having anyone available to take care of their young children when they leave for work as well as not gaining long-time employment with decent pay to help foster the family. As a result, most poor women and children were faced with the instability of economic and social future as welfare eligibility exhausted their efforts of supporting their families.

Jonathan Kozol, in the chapter entitled “Other People’s Children, discusses and justifies the kinds of limitations placed on children who must attend poorly funded, educationally inferior school. Kozol argues that children in the inner-city schools are not fit to go to college and that they should be trained in schools for the jobs they will eventually hold, even though these jobs are less prestigious, lowest-level jobs in society. Kozol’s argument is based on the fact that students from the inner-city or rather from the societies that do not have enough job opportunities are not supposed to learn much because their society cannot accommodate most of the courses that are often found in the urban settings. For example, there is a point where Kozol cites one of the businessman’s statement which says, ‘It doesn’t make sense to offer something that most of these urban kids will never use.’ The businessman continues to argue, ‘no one expects these ghetto kids to go to college. Most of them are lucky if they are literate. If we can teach some useful skills, get them to stay in school and graduate, and maybe into jobs, we’re giving them the most that they can hope for’ (Kozol 376). This statement clearly indicate that the society should accept the inequalities and exercise the same inequalities even in education.

This country’s education system was built on the back of meritocracy and was created to function as an objective measure of a child’s performance and their intelligence. It was the gateway to the American Dream, and provided everyone with an equal chance of success in America. It was a place of not only intellectual, but also personal growth. In her essay “From Social Class and the Hidden Curriculum of Work,” Anyon argues that this is no longer the case. Anyon’s study concludes that from the fifth grade, students in poorer communities are groomed to succeed in low-class, blue collar jobs, while children in wealthy communities are prepared for more desirable careers. Anyon analyzes four different types of schools that all varied based on

David Zucchino’s captivating book, Myth of the Welfare Queen, sticks to his journalistic roots and reads like an extended news article as it captures two separate yet interconnected stories of women struggling to get by in Northern Philadelphia. Philadelphia was—and is—an impoverished city in many ways, with huge percentages of the population struggling to get by at or bellow the poverty line. Zucchino spent much of 1995 with woman and families on welfare as it was a time when welfare was a particularly hot topic directly preceding the passing of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act. Zucchino strove to cut through the stereotypes and misinformation surrounding welfare and those relying on it. In his own words, “this book is the story of

In a way, one could view this as a way that the system is being cheated. According to Malcolm Wiener, professor of Social Policy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, the nation's 3.7 million welfare families confront an urgent problem: they do not get enough money from welfare to pay their bills. Nor can most single mothers earn enough to cover their expenses. The only way most welfare recipients can keep their families together is to combine work and welfare. Yet if they report that they are working, the welfare department will soon reduce their checks by almost the full amount of their earnings, leaving them as desperate as before. The only way most recipients can make ends meet, therefore, is to supplement their welfare checks without telling the welfare department that they are working.

The public school system of America is the driving force of the nation’s job market. There is a direct correlation between the nation’s job market and the nation’s economic opulence. Despite education being at an all-time high for tax dollars spent, the heightened accessibility of schools across the country, and continuation of schooling after high school more than ever, the public school system of the United States continues to pump out insufficient workers to the work force. For almost two hundred years, the citizens of America have held a belief that going through the school system will be the necessary element to the life one wants to live in America. Over the years, schooling emitted a false hope that made job assurance possible. Fifty

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

“If you work, you should not be poor” (Duncan 1). This quote is essentially the theme of the book, Higher Ground: New Hope for the Working Poor and Their Children, as well as the motivation of the founders of the New Hope Antipoverty Program. This experimental program was implemented in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1994. The goal of the program was to help low skilled and low-wage working individuals whom did not receive all the benefits they deserved because of their low incomes. One thousand three hundred and fifty-seven low-income adults, living in the two poorest neighborhoods of that city, volunteered to take part in the study to see how effective this experimental program would be. The participants were all randomly assigned, and half of them would receive the New Hope benefits while the other half served as a control group that would not receive the benefits. These benefits included earning supplements, subsidized childcare, and subsidized health care to anyone who would work weekly, full time (thirty hours per week). If you could not find a job, the program offered community service jobs for up to six months, paying minimum wage (Duncan 3-4, 12). The study lasted for three years and the results were tremendously encouraging. The MDRC concluded in their evaluation that, “Overall, New Hope increased employment and earnings, leading in turn to increased income...and enabling more low-income workers to earn their way out of poverty…New Hope

Reynolds uses her own personal experience to help support her argument by using multiple examples of when she is at work and sees the misuse of welfare at first hand. This helps her make a connection with the audience and shows her honesty. She further argues with using a metaphor to help support her argument “if you build it, they will come” to suggest a resemblance between welfare and people, meaning if an individual were to receive welfare they will feel financially stable and therefore, never feel motivated to search the job field. These ideals not only help make a connection, but help show her authority as an educated woman who supports finding a new way to make the welfare system more manageable, free from bias, and free from injustice. Reynolds wants the reader to think about when people abuse the welfare system, in particular the food stamps, and wants them to think is it fair for a working class citizens to be required support multiple people who abuse the system that get food or items they themselves cannot possess because it is too expensive and to think about if it was fair to that child or baby that was not thought about

Edin and Lein wanted to discover the surviving strategies of single mothers who are on welfare or work on a low-waged job. They argue “neither welfare nor low wage work gives single mothers enough income to meet their families’ expenses” (253). To find out the set of survival strategies of single mothers to make ends meet Edin and Lein interviewed 379 low income single mothers. They chose their interviewees from different cities, different aged group, and different ethnic background. Most mothers who are on welfare wanted to find a job and be out of the welfare but the primary problem that single mothers face was that “family economics”. With the minimum wage income it was impossible for the single mothers to bring the ends meet. Neither working nor being on welfare was enough to survive therefore mothers who are on welfare supported their budget by generating substantial supplementary income. Edin and Lein states that “welfare recipients generated extra income by working at side jobs, obtaining cash from network members, community groups and local charities”. They also get cash help from the family members, child’s fathers, and from a boyfriend. Because they were afraid to lose welfare benefits they did not tell anyone about the extra income they have. To survive they needed both the welfare benefits and the extra income. It was very difficult to establish a trust with the interviewees in the beginning because they were afraid if they talk about it they might lose the

government is already working to address income inequality and poverty. Some people believe that the government should be doing more, some believe it should be doing less, and some feel that the current role is about right.” (Gorman, 2003, What’s the Government Role, para.1). With the government assistance being abused by people who really do not need assistance, it is becoming very difficult for people who really need assistance to obtain it. Single parent households must compete with people who use false identification, people who do not report their income, and even people that do not report their marital status. If a single parent is disabled, this means that they are not able to work at all. They should be able to receive the maximum amount set by the laws to take care of their family. Once again, others have made it complicated. They must go through a series of doctors, counselors, fill out countless form and papers, and in the end they get denied their benefits time after time. They become depressed and stressed. Sometimes this can lead them to harm themselves or someone else because they feel they are being mistreated. If they are finally approved, the bills are so far behind and children have so many needs to be met, they are back at the beginning once all the finances are brought

In order to best understand how the failure of American public education factors into Edelman’s discussion on poverty, we must first pull the curtain away from the his principle focus on the economy. Edelman suggests that the decline of union power, a weak minimum wage, and an increase in the number of people entering the labor market have had a comprehensive deleterious effect on those who are most economically disadvantaged (50-54). To add to Edelman’s understanding, we must consider the underlying negative effects of the structural failure of public schools and how it compounds issues that influence poverty. We can see, for example, how the public education system fails to match student skills with employer needs, which leads to unemployment and limited job mobility. In his argument, Edelman recognizes that a number of employers “cannot find qualified workers” (57). Rather than focusing on the economy as the principle point of failure, if we dig deeper into Edelman’s argument, we find that our current system of education fails to provide students with skills sets that match those employers are