Oh man it’s been a while since we have had to blog or
comment.
Nickel and Dimed by
Barbara Ehrenreich is a first person account of her time working for a maid
service. She uses the article to show how these workers undergoing this
physical labor are working hard through the sweat and fatigue but are not paid
enough for their services. Now although she doesn’t outright come out and say
how she feel about the crappy pay they make for labor she uses subtlety such as
referencing how they couldn’t scrape together 2 dollars for the work amongst 4
of them. I think this article shows a good point in society, many people that
still believe in the American dream believe that hard work and constant effort
can help you achieve success (at least financially), but the author uses first
hand experiences to disprove this idea. She shows how nearly none of the maids
had homes or enough pay to truly enjoy themselves, despite the hours and hours
of sweat they put into work. The American dream does not exist anymore for everyone
but rather it is only a dream based on opportunity, for any of these maids the
American dream no matter as hard as they scrub or as quick as they run will not
move very farther up the ladder of success. They can all put in overtime and
try as they might but she points out how its hard to apply for a better job
when all you want to do after work is take what time you have to relax. Many
conservatives that do not believe in welfare programs or in the income tax
often claim their viewpoints to be right because they themselves have “achieved
success” but I guarantee that, although I do not know the exact statistic, the
number of successful people that come out of communities and families with
better opportunity and circumstance is much higher than those not exposed to
the same opportunity. It is a sad but very prominent thing in society that we
as Americans crave success and the big house and fancy car and nice objects but
the truth is many will never achieve that, and because that is what the American
dream is portrayed as in movies, many will never achieve the true American dream.
My father has always told me its not what you know, its who you know, and I only
see it to be more true as I see society for what it truly is.
I agree that after reading Nickel and Dimed by Barbra Ehrenreich, I have gained much respect for anyone that works at a minimum wage job. It must be hard being a maid and having to hold a vacuum cleaner that weight close to fourteen pounds on your back, or having to get down on your hands and knees to wash floors for a minimum wage job. Every living person on this earth has a starting point in life, and has to make it to the top some how. Though I concede that her job as a maid sucks, I still insist that everyone has a bottom starting point in life. This story just proves that hard work and determination pay off in the end and in order to survive, it is necessary to work hard. One part of the story pointed out that they do not get a thirty minute lunch break as promised, and the maids often work passed the time that they are supposed to get off. This is harsh, so I generally learned to respect anyone who has a minimum wage job, and is willing to do anything just to survive and feed themselves, or their families. The fact that the main character did not complain and did her job as enthusiastically as possible also proves that she is a hard worker and I respect that. I also agree that people come to America, in order to achieve an American dream, but this does not always get accomplished.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your point about the essay showing that the American Dream is not within reach for many workers anymore, even if they work as hard as possible. The firsthand account shown in the essay makes it very clear that hard work alone is not the secret to prosperity like many people think it is for a variety of reasons. The main reason for this is the fact that not everyone actually has the equal amount of opportunity, meaning that working as hard as somebody else does not mean that both people are equally likely to achieve the same goal. The problem is that many people don’t actually realize this, resulting in them being against most forms of assistance because of the belief that they aren’t needed. Because they believe that everyone has equal opportunity, they see assistance as a way to give some people more of an advantage over other while also encouraging them to work less. However, while some people do abuse assistance when it is given to them, many other people need it in order to have the same opportunity to succeed as those around them. If society recognizes that the opportunity to succeed is not the same among everyone, then the issue can more likely be addressed so that individual opportunities are closer to being equal than they currently are. If this problem is not recognized, then the hard work done by many people in order to succeed will continue to be impacted by levels of unequal opportunity that aren’t properly being addressed.
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