According to a 2017 job survey, in America only 24% of employees are very satisfied with their jobs. (Jared Lindzon). This means in America over half of the employees are less satisfied or unsatisfied with their jobs. However, in order to survive, these people must continue to work where the jobs are available. One author who addresses this problem, is Karen Olsson in her article “Up Against Wal-Mart”. Americans are working hard labor and not getting a good salary. Many other countries believe that America is wealthy, but Americans are not. Also, people are suffering the jobs they do not like. In contrast to Olsson’s argument, another author Joseph E. Stiglitz “The top 1%, by the 1%, for the 1%” explain the top 1% people are getting richer …show more content…
She uses many real-life examples to explain how cruel society is. People always suffer from bad services from Walmart’s employees, but clients do not realized employees have unpaid extra working hours and poor benefits. For example, Olsson uses statistics shows readers how had salary Walmart’s employees earn, “The average hourly worker at Wal-Mart earns barely $18,000 a year at a company that picketed $6.6 billion in profits last year.” (Olsson). Wal-Mart employees are not getting paid enough for their hard workers. This statistic example has big number, and it is surprising to readers because Wal-Mart does not like to pay hard-working employees. Walmart owner Walton family scorn workers’ working, and Walton family does not realize labor consist his …show more content…
In Stiglitz’s essay, most of ideas are talking about how 1% people good life; people think the society to be equality of opportunity, and a sense of community, but it is an imagination. With Olsson’s help, we can see something new in Stiglitz’s observations. Stiglitz talks about inequality, “Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. So what if this person gains and that person loses? What matters, they argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie.” (Stiglitz) with Olsson’s ideas we can see inequality is everywhere even in the 99% people. A store manager would use little power or profit to control workers. Olsson helps readers to look at the society problem in another view, such as, between middle class to low class people exist monopoly issue. However, without Olsson, we just pay attention on high class people to monopolize opportunities. Olsson is important article to assist we to understand the inequality issue occur in 99%
My article deals with the study of society and social interaction of the Middle Class and how they survived on a Nickel and Dimed. In our text (n) 2, (pg. 42, paragraph 2) the journalist Barbara Ehrenreich brought the two stories together by research, that it is, impossible to make it on minimum wage work. The journalist observed in her study the mindset of the working Middle Class people, their persistence to make ends meet, to take care of their household, family and the will to make thing change. The “Middle Class” an aimless expression applied to those who is not on the system of welfare. In the United States certain development changed the past three decades, due to after World War II, the benefits of growth, and money making flow to
Melanie Castellanos Daniels ENGL 3 - B5 26 August 2014 Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America: Merit of Experiences Although much criticism revolves around Barbara Ehrenreich’s experiences as a minimum wage worker, it can be widely recognized by various critics that she deserves credit for at least attempting to understand the lower class, considering her privilege as a white, wealthy, middle-aged woman. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America is a novel regarding minimum wage workers and a single woman’s experience jumping into the lower class; the overall theme of the book is that even the lowest class deserve more credit for their hard work, long hours, and demeaning lifestyles. Overall, Ehrenreich is praised for her bravery to dive into a minimum wage lifestyle. Although at first it seems demeaning for such a wealthy and
From around 1870 to 1914, the U.S. went through the Gilded Age where giant corporations such as Standard Oil and J.P. Morgan & Co. sprung up. However, such big corporations hurt the average U.S. citizen by underpaying workers, being run unfairly, and allowing a small few to practically control the nation's economy. During the Progressive Era, from 1890-1920, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act and other laws were implemented by President Theodore Roosevelt to put a leash on large corporations, and ultimately help the average citizen and small business owners. Big business leaders hurt the average citizen by not fairly paying workers.
In the book Nickel and Dimed, the author Barbara Ehrenreich who is a reporter, but she describes a cruel fact of the American low wage workers’ life after she experienced poverty. She illustrates a series of stories about the poor life of low wage workers from different aspects, such as food, shelter and health insurance. She had been worked as three kinds of jobs in three diverse places, but the common point of these three jobs is low salary, which means that the money she earns was not enough for living. The author also mentioned some of her coworkers’ life, the life of low wage workers seems like a circle, it is hard for them to escape, it repeats all the time, nobody helps them to get out of the circle. To find out which obstacle keeps the poor poor, we should to know what kind of characteristics that the low wage workers had.
According to Robert Reich, inequality is a major problem in the United States because of both economic and political issues. Taking a look at the economic standpoint, one can see the major discrepancies between the top 1% and the other 99%, showing that the United States has the most inequality for a developed nation. But why is this? A point Reich introduced is the vicious cycle; wages stagnate, workers buy less, companies downsize, tax revenues decrease, government cuts programs, workers are less educated, unemployment rises, and then the cycle begins again. The stagnation of wages, when productivity goes up but wages remain the same, causes workers to buy less which is a problem because 70% of the US economy is made up by consumer spending.
The myth of the 99% and the top 1% “The statistics that describe the magnitude of economic inequality are stark. Before taking into account the effects of redistributive government programs, the richest 1% of Americans make 20% of the income.” The wealth gap between these two categories is for sure bigger than it should be and it might an issue that politicians and our system might have difficulties to reduce but does our world would function if no gap exists at all ? In fact, while the wealth gap need to exist because this is how our world works, especially our business world is there something to do to reduce the gap between the 99% and the 1% knowing that because politics and globalisation plays an important role, then, does inequality has
The controversy is about overcoming inequality verves the rise of inequality, also the inequality of education resulting in noble prizes and immigrant entrepreneurs. In America, there can be different views of inequality. In the article, “The upside of income inequality” – Gary S. Becker and Kevin M. Murphy. They
In the essay titled “Labouring the Walmart Way”, author Deenu Parmar explains the unhealthy effects of Walmart, how to stop them, and the challenges of doing so. Parmar begins by detailing how Walmart has done little for local economies. By hiring financially vulnerable people, the franchise insures that no one would dare to unionize; thus ensuring employees will only earn the bare minimum, and thus out-competing local competition. Parmar also goes on to explain how a local community removed Walmart. They were able to do this through the use of fierce union protests that made the store unprofitable.
The American dream is a dream of a land in which one can prosper with ambition and hard work. This idea has created many illusions for some because in reality the American dream is proven to be something that is rarely achieved. No individual is guaranteed success or destined for failure, but it is apparent that women, people of color, and those born into poverty will face greater obstacles than others, despite being a greater part of the American population. An author that tackles the issue of class in the United States is Gregory Mantsios. In his essay, “Class in America-2009”, Mantsios aims to prove that class affects people’s lives in drastic ways.
Wealth and Inequality in America Inequality The inequality in America has increased over time; the gap between the rich and the poor has become a problem that many Americans don’t see. Inequality is the extent of income which is distributed unequally among the citizenry. The inequality of the United has a large gap between the poor and the rich making it unfair to the population, the rich are becoming wealthier and the poor remain poor. The article “Of the 1%, By the 1%, For the 1%”, authored by Joseph E. Stiglitz describes that there is a 1 percent amount of American’s who are consuming about a quarter of the United States income in a year.
There are people who work 40 hours a week and are still in poverty; this is a highly prominent issue. The uneven distribution of wealth, known as wealth inequality, is a problem that plagues not only America but also the world. With wealth inequality, there are two main issues and one solution to those issues. The problems are that the wealth in America is unevenly distributed and there people in America who work 40 hours a week and still have very little money. Wealth inequality is the root of all problems faced in America.
They also attempted to shape thinking, to make acceptable difference in income that would otherwise be odious”(395). In economic and political fields, people who are in charge take advantage of the authority, in other words, the dominance to consolidate and bolster their superiority. They influence (or manipulate, to some extent) the public’s thoughts and convey the idea that the difference in income is reasonable and justifiable to the public. Both Ho and Stiglitz mention people’s desire to maintain and strengthen the status.
The problem with the widened wealth gap is that the inequality may harm the quality. Meaning that those in the higher classes see it as you can use the money with no restrictions. However, economist believe that the “relationship between inequality and economic freedom, with the possibility that policies that are meant to reduce inequality will reduce economic freedom, which will then only make inequality worse.”
“There is something profoundly wrong wrong when one family own more wealth the bottom 130 million Americans.” The United States of America has always had economic growth problems. Income Inequality is a big factor for this situation. We are currently in the 21st century and yet we have no improvement on income inequality. In 1984 by George Orwell the low income are the proles who are the incredulous of the story.
If you hate Mondays, maybe the day itself is not the problem, but the job is. Indeed, it appears to be difficult to find an enjoyable job, as for 90% of the workers, their job causes frustration. The essay prompt tackles the famous debates if money can lead to real happiness. Through the simplified scenario of two workers: one with a mid-level salary, enjoying their job, versus one with a high-level salary, hating their job, opens itself to several points of view.