The first article was, “From Nickel
and Dimed”, by Barbara Ehrenreich. She shares the troubling story of a maid who
has come to America to have the “American Dream”. She works extremely long
hours, for very little pay. The conditions of her job are not well either she
gets very short breaks and has to clean up other people’s mess. She works for a
women named Tammy, and it is somewhat ironic that Tammy used to be a maid now
she owns her own maid company. If you work hard enough day in and day out you
can get the “American Dream” just like Tammy you can go from the bottom of the
ladder like just a maid to the top by owning your own business.
The next article was “RIP, the
Middle Class”, by Edward McClelland he talks about how the middle class is disappearing
and he says that it is the government’s fault. In the article he states “The
United States will never again be as wealthy as it was in the 1950s and ’60s.
Never again will 18-year-olds graduate directly from high school to jobs that
pay well enough to buy a house and support a family.” He brings to attention
that people need a higher form of education to get a better job, but sometimes
even with a college degree you are not guaranteed a job. I think it goes back
to the notion about the American Dream and having to work extremely hard to
achieve that.
The first essay I read was RIP, the Middle Class, McClelland, states that the middle class is a dying breed and that everyone is going to have to work a whole lot harder for living by the standard of what we call "The American Dream". He also places a large blame on the government. He makes it seem like there is going to be no middle class, only a poor and a rich, and that no matter how hard you train or how long you go to school there is still no guarantee for anything.
ReplyDeleteThis is unlike From Nickel and Dimed, in which Barbara Ehrenreich tells her story of the American Dream, she worked a very very long long with awful conditions with no benefits and no fun. She goes on to tell us that while the American Dream seems like an impossible thing, that she now own her own service and is extremely "successful" in her own eyes. Its doable if you're willing to go through the bad to get to the good.
In regards to this I agree more with Barbara Ehrenreich than Edward McClelland, I believe if you work hard enough for long enough you can get where you want, even if the world is completely against you you can still achieve the "american dream" if you work hard enough, the issue is people want it to come so easy to them, when in reality you have to fight so hard for everything you want these days.
I believe even if you work hard enough, the American Dream still may not come true for a lot of people. People work a job their whole life waiting for the day where they get promoted or hit it big, but life just isn’t that sometimes and it doesn’t happen. In RIP, The Middle Class it talks about how the middle class is becoming more and more nonexistent; and that eventually there will be no middle class at all, just a poor and rich. McClelland talks how no matter how much you work or if you go to school there is no automatic way that you will succeed in life.
ReplyDeleteThe other story, Nickle and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, tells the complete opposite of the first story and shows her rags to riches story and how she accomplished the American Dream. She worked countless hours in terrible conditions for a long time, and she eventually made it to where she owned her own place. She struggled and fought and is successful to herself and that’s what matters to her.
I would have to agree with McClelland more because I believe no matter how much you work, you are not guaranteed anything in return. In Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller the concept of the American Dream is the same, the main character works his whole life at the same place waiting for his big break and it never comes, just leading him to being let go from the company and his death soon after. There are no guarantees no matter how hard or how much you deserve to be successful.
In the first reading “From Nickel and Dimed”, by Barbara Ehrenreich, she gives you the perspective of a Latin woman coming to America in hopes of the “American Dream”. After a week at her first job, which is basically dusting and cleaning floors, she goes home to find herself in the shower thinking “all this water is mine. I have paid for it, in fact, I have earned it” (Ehrenreich, 12). Although she works in pretty shitty working conditions and doesn’t get paid very well, she seems to be content with this life. From the excerpt, we really don’t know her past, but you can assume that it had to be worse than whatever she is doing now. Showing how her hard work does pay off in the end. Another example is the owner of the company, Tammy. Barbara states in the excerpt that Tammy was once a maid, and now owns her own cleaning company. Validating that the “American Dream” is still obtainable if you work hard enough.
ReplyDeleteWhile in the second article “RIP, The Middle Class: 1946-2013”, by Edward McClelland, he seems to be shutting down this dream. He states that the government has created this society that competing for jobs. That to get a sustainable job that buys a home and feeds a family, you must attend college for at least 4 years. But even after getting your degree, you’re still not guaranteed a high paying job in that field. The government has created this huge gap between the rich and poor, thus killing the middle class. He believed that in order to fix this problem, the government must interfere and create this “Newer Deal that will raise the minimum wage, reduce obstacles to union organizing, levy higher taxes on passive wealth. . .” and so on.
I believe that poverty is inevitable, but that the government is to blame for such a high percentage of Americans living in poverty. This idea is supported in an article written by Edward McClelland called,” RIP, the middle class: 1946-2013”. McClelland talks about the economy when he grew up in the 70’s saying it was “still possible for a high school graduate , or even a high school dropout to get a job on a assembly line and earn more money than a school teacher”. The 70’s were a tasteless time because this was “the time when people without culture or education had the money to not only indulge their passions, but flaunt them”. But when foreign cars, steel, and products started giving domestic goods serious competition, President Nixon knew “America’s economic hegemony was coming to an end”. This decline was inevitable because the government didn't do enough. I believe they could've put higher taxes on foreign products or even have advertised to warn the American people. However, Nixon did make an attempt to slow down the decline by “putting a 10 percent tarrif on imported good”. I believe the government failed by not doing more to prevent this outrageous amount of poverty from happening in the first place. In the article “ From Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich, my belief that the government should be to blame for poverty is also supported. Ehrenreich goes on to tell a personal story about her struggle as a maid. She was hired onto a cleaning company making 6.65 dollars an hour, but if she were to pursue being a maid on her own with out a corporate company to back her, she’d make 25 dollars an hour. She takes the job anyway knowing how hard it would be to freelance. Her and her coworkers clean houses all day and get a 5 minute lunch break even tough they were promised 30 minutes. They scrub the floors by hand because it gives “cosmetic touches” and the old timey maid look is their selling point. She proceeds to talk about the harsh working conditions the endure with little pay because when it comes down to it she gets “a dollar, the equivalent of about ten minutes of sweat”. The government is to blame for allowing companies to treat their employees with such cruelty. The government is to blame for keeping hard workers like Ehrenreich in poverty.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the American Dream is what you want it to be. If someone is satisfied at a low paying job and they believe they're living the American Dream, that's their prerogative. However there's people out there who are never satisfied with their position in the work place, and work extremely hard to reach their idea of the American Dream.
ReplyDeleteIn RIP, The Middle Class, McClelland presents the idea that the middle class is deteriorating. And in Nickle and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich, she presents that if you work hard enough you will be able to achieve success.
I agree with you, Lauren, when you said that you do have to work hard for the American Dream. And I loved how you tied that idea in at the end to both readings.
I agree with McClelland to an extent because I believe that you are not guaranteed anything in life and you have to work for the things you want. However I don't believe that the middle class is fading away because as I said before the American Dream is whatever you want it to be and whether you want to be a CEO of a fortune 500 company or an owner of a maid company you still have to work your ass off to achieve that dream. The middle class isn't fading away, it's just becoming harder for people to get to where they want to go. That's where motivation and determination come in to play, and you go and get what you want.
The American Dream used to have this exact definition as well as a clear line of what it was not. Now a days, I feel as if there is no real meaning to the American Dream. I feel like it can be broadly defined as success that is found in the amount of money that one has. With that being said, something that really stuck out to me was when Barbara Ehrenreich mentioned that there will be no middle class, and that it will strictly be Upper or Lower. Poverty is a real issue in America and if more people become poor than I strongly feel that the economy will become even more corrupt than it already is. I feel like so many people are giving up on the American Dream today because America is lazier than it has ever been. I feel like yeah, people will get what they work for and since some people are not willing to put in the work that maybe, just maybe that is the reason for the "extinction" of the middle class.
ReplyDeleteWhen being unstable finicial wise, one has two choice, to give up or work hard to reach our needs. While the blame is upon both, the rich and the poor, I lean more towards the poor for the blame. The poor, in most cases, can sometimes give up and expect certain things to be given to them by the government, such as food stamps. However, the only respectable people are the ones who are poor yet still work hard in any condition to get their pay. In "From Nickle and Dimed," the author Barbara Ehrenreich a perspective is illustrated as a women who maintains a job as a maid, though not the most enjoyable job, still remains strong in the struggle to maintain a living. These are the few sort of people that can be respected and not blamed for their poverty. In the second article, "RIP, the middle class:1946-2013," the author discusses how hard it has become to maintain an average job without some sense of education. Without a high school diploma, it has become challenging to obtain an above minimum wage job. This was not an issue in the 70's, but now, with no strong government presence, it has become harder for a middle class to even exist without average jobs. While the government can be part of the blame, the real blame is upon the poor with no motivation to resume to a higher status. The only exception is the few lower class individuals who still work with any job given.
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