The Obliteration of Alienation

According to Leyton, the Industrial Revolution and the more recent technological revolution intensified the sense f alienation among many workers from different classes in society. Elliot Leyton states that the Industrial Revolution was positive in that it liberated people and freed them from "unthinkable slaveries of caste, race, gender, and class. On the other hand, however, they were alienated from "the product of their work, their fellow men who had become competitors in the market, and from their own selves".
MSF is an organization that stands for Medecins sans Frontiers, which literally means doctors without borders. It is an international groupof physicians who dedicated their lives to helping victims of genocide, war, disasters, and epidemics, often occuring in Third World countries. The alienation motivates MSF doctors because they can relate to the alientated persons. They too felt like non-persons when trapped in their dull, previous lives. Membership into the MSF program actually disalienates individuals. It liberates them as human beings, allows them to explore fully their potential as they seize the opportunity to act. They also construct their identities by witnessing atrocity and fear, treating vile diseases, healing terrible wounds, digging the latrine, and delivering clean water.
It is important that they do not consider themselves heroes, even though they very well may be. Since they do not brag about what they do, it is easier for people to be more appreciative of them.

The Next University Drive Thru U: Higher Education for People Who Mean Business

Online universities such as the University of Phoenix transform the meaning of the word campus. People who attend online universities do not have a campus so to speak. Their "campus" is their home. They will never fully understand the feeling of attending an actual college or university.
Negatives and downfalls of online universities aside from the college experience is the distractions. I can only imaging how distracting taking college courses at home would be. When in class sitting at a desk it is so much easier to concentrate. For instance, think how distracted one may get while doing homework. Now imagine not only doing the homework at home, but also taking the courses at home as well. Also, having an online college degree may not look as well as an actual college or university degree when it comes to looking for a career after college.
There are also many advantages for the online universities which are as follows: time, affordable, accessible, etc. The online university is accessible throughout the day and night, while an actual college or university has hours of operation. This allows the student to work on papers and take class when it is convenient for them. Also, while the average college student pays close to $22,000 a year for college, the online university is only $12,000 which adds up to a $10,000 difference. Also, online universities are usually a two year degree, instead of a traditional four year program.
John Sperling was the creator of the University of Phoenix. He made the University of Phoenix with the working parent in mind. Working is hard enough to do while attending college, let alone having a family on top of that. Now parents can have a full time job and still have the time to take college courses online when it is convenient for them.

Media Magic: Making Class Invisible

When reading this selection, it was extremely shocking to me that there are forty million people living in poverty in America alone. To think that forty million povished Americans can fill seven northeast states is mind-blowing. Gregory Mantsios states "in those instances when inequities are revealed, we are provided with messages that obscure the nature of class realities and blame the victims of class-dominated society for their own plight."
Who provides these messages? Mainly, the media. Another astounding statistic is that the average American will watch twenty-eight hours of television a week! And this number does not even include watching movies. The media also hands out messages in the form of periodicals, newspapers, journals, and magazines. While there are forty million povished Americans, the middle and upper class are, for the most part, unaware of how serious the situations actually are. This is done by the media desensitizing the information provided to us.
The media desensitizes the poverty in America by reducing the poverty to a number. In this way, it is providing the "wealthy" with quantity, but not quality. We have no idea how serious this situation actually is. We do not live through the suffering, indignities, and misery that they live through each and every day. The only way we would have any slight idea is through information from the media. Since they desensitize the information, we think of the issue and nothing, and that provides for a list of more troubling issues. Also, by giving reducing the issue to a quantitative number, it makes the povished Americans faceless.
The media also portrays the idea to Americans that the poor only have themselves to blame for their life of misery. They focus in on typical black urban communities or women with attitudes that lead to divorce or single-motherhood. While these examples can sometimes be true, the idea as a whole is not realistic. Many Americans work just as hard, they simply did not his the genetic lottery or had the money to afford college. This is not their fault by any means. Telling the poor that they are the ones to be blamed puts a negative image in the minds of middle and upper class Americans. If only the media would be more realistic in their explanations and choices of words, maybe the poverty number could be lowered in some instances, or at least be more recognized by the wealthy in America.

The Creative Class

According to Richard Florida, the Creative class is an economic class in which the individuals do not have property necessarily, but what they physically own is what they use in their head; their creativity. This class is based purely on economics. Richard Florida makes it known that "it is not an economic class in terms of the ownership of property, capital, or the means of production." The Creative Class is not yet seen as part of the working class, but as one class that is on the rise in America.
The first component of the Creative Class is the Super-Creative Core. It includes careers such as scientists, professors, poets, artists, entertainers, actors, analysts, designers, and architects. The second component of the Creative Class is creative professionals "who work in a wide range of knowledge-intensive industries." These include but are not limited to high-tech sectors, financial services, the legal and health care professions, and business management. These two categories of the Creative Class differ in that the Super-Creative Core component is "less professional" than the creative professionals component. For example, in many of the careers in the Super-Creative Core, college degrees are optional, while most in the creative professionals component require college degrees at a minimum. The categories of the Creative class are similar in that they both are "earned by a strenuous effort of discovery in which curiosity and originality are indispensable." You cannot be born into the Creative Class, one must work toward becoming a member.
Values of the Creative Class include individuality, meritocracy, and diversity and openness. These values are interesting, because in America years ago, one may not think of these values to be so important. Workers are finding themselves wanting more individuality, rather than working as a union or an institution. Also, the Creative Class favors hard work, challenge, and stimulation. Workers are now putting forth the effort not only to make money to survive, but also to get ahead because they are good at what they do. Openness is a huge value in today's society simply because change is occuring more frequently nowadays. Employees strive to be able to pack up and move without the worry or unknowing of losing their career. The values of the Creative Class enable workers to be more free and unique in today's society.

Is Your Job Going Abroad?

"Outsourcing, before acquiring its current incendiary meaning, was referred to the practice of turning over noncritical parts of a business to a company that specialized in that activity". Now, outsourcing is more commonly known as sending the labor overseas, so the labor costs are cheaper than those of America. This could be an extreme negative for the future of work in America. The jobs we used to send over were simply "running the cafeteria or cleaning the office. Then it started moving up to corporate-service functions." With foreigners getting the American jobs, it not only is causing Americans to become unemployed, but also is building up those third-world or developing countries, such as India.
I believe this has been so utilized by Americans for one main reason. It's all about the money. If they can find cheaper labor, that means more money in their pocket, which is just what an employer wants. America will not lose jobs all together that are medical or educational. We will always need teachers, and we will always need someone to take care of us when we are sick. I believe these two types of careers, along with maybe a couple others, are safe from the constant outsourcing between America and foreign countries.
This trend is almost impossible to stop. There are a few ways to minimize the amount of outsourcing, but many would require major laws, unsure results, and upset people. In the end, it would be extremely difficult or next to impossible to completely end outsourcing altogether. However, something must be done to minimize outsourcing or America will continue to economically decrease.

Scripted Talk

Taylorism, also known as scientific management, is a theory of management that analyzes and synthesizes workflows, improving labor productivity. Frederick W. Taylor was "the originator and foremost proponent of taylorism." He advocated a strict separation between thinking and doing, and was able to cut down unnecessary body movements. This made the working force much quicker in carrying out actions, thus saving manager's time and bringing them in more money.
Scripted talk fits into this type of management because it cuts down unnecessary words, allowing the flow of labor to quicken. For example, when eliminating full sentences and only speaking in phrases or short questions, a drive thru at McDonalds is able to move quicker, thus bringing more cars in throughout the day. It is for this reason thatso many businesses organize their companies in this fashion, making their employees use 'scripted talk'. It saves time and money, and that is every employer's dream.
In my opinion, and from my personal experience as a employee at Skyline's drive thru, I feel that scripted talk does improve the rate at which cars come through, thus making skyline more money. After using scripted talk so much, it got to the point where after a while I was able to rattle off questions or read back an order with no hesitation at all. This, however, can also be a negative, in that the employee has to know how to be quick, efficient, and polite all at the same time. Overall, I believe that scripted talk is very beneficial to employers in the working force.

At the Edge of Poverty

In this essay, Shipler argues that poverty in America is not easy to define. He says this because there are so many factors that go into determining the poverty line, such as income, number of people to support, etc. For example, if one makes $30,000 per year, one might say that the amount is living in poverty, or not well off. However, if this person is just supporting their own being, then they are actually able to provide for themselves, while also getting certain wants as well. Another way people may be considered in poverty is due to their frame of mind or self-confidence. If an individual always wants more than what they have, they may consider themselves poor, even though others may not have as much as they do.
It is a proven fact that once a family hits poverty or rock bottom, it is very difficult if not next to impossible to come out into the middle or upper class. I believe this is because of the "snowball effect". Once one thing goes wrong in life, it costs money which causes something else to go wrong and more money to be spent, and so on. It is extremely challenging to reverse this effect unless family or close friends help out with the situation.
Despite the national War on Poverty that occured in 1962, the financial gap between the 'rich' and the 'poor' is constantly growing. In 1962, the poverty line was based on food. In the 1960's, this may have been a legitimate way of measuring the poverty in America. In modern day America, however, this is not an accurate measuring tool. The price of food has lowered, and the number of families are increasing.
It is more difficult to be poor in America than a developing nation, Shipler argues. This is due to the fact that "the skills of surviving in poverty have largely been lost in America." I very much agree with this statement. When visiting a third world country, you will find people or tribes with not a lot to their name, but a smile on their faces. Also, they work long, hard, laboring days with little or no income, just to survive. In America, the electricity would go out for a few hours and we would all go crazy. To them, our less important items mean the world. It is astonishing at how little they NEED, and how much we WANT. This is a troubling issue that must be fixed, or America is going to get itself into more problems than it's ready for.

Technology Versus African Americans

Walton believes that African Americans have had and are continuing to have struggles with the growing technology. In the past, technology was never provided for them, due to slavery. They never had the rights to engage in anything other than picking cotton or doing their master's daily chores. Even in the present, technology is harmfully affecting the African American society. They are far behind other races in the technology provided for them. In looking at these facts, Walton asks the question, "where are the armies of ghetto youths ready to meet the innovation and programming needs of an exponentially expanding electronic frontier and get rich in the process, in what is perhaps the last gold rush in American history?"
Economics has always been presented as a problem for African Americans on the topic of technology. Many who come from the "ghetto" or the "slums" of America do not have the financial supply to purchase newer technology, much less produce products such as Microsoft or Hewlett Packard. Everyday that people do not take advantage of the technology presented to them is a day they fall farther behind in America. Technology has changed so much even over the past ten years. Another puzzling question is how much technology is actually presented to them?
Getting involved with technology beyond consumerism is crucial. Many African Americans are more involved with entertainment-type careers more so than educational-type careers. Poor education is a major problem for them. Many schools lack the money and therefore lack resources necessary to gain a good education with the use of technology. Another issue is the way they were brought up, or their "folkways". People in general are more likely to follow what they know rather than make their own pathway. Walton says "folkways, the consciousness of the race, change at a slower pace than social conditions do - and so a working strategy can turn into a crippling blindness and self-limitation. While much of these issues are out of their control, I feel as if they still need to encourage younger generations to become apart of the technological mainstream. "Otherwise they will be unable to cross the next technological threshold that emerges in human civilization."

The Just-Add-Water Kennedys and Barbecue Bread Violence

Polyestra's opening response, "fewer than one percent of Americans break out of the social class they are born into", actually does not shock me. I think it is very difficult to have a large economic increase from one generation to the next, due to the fact that large sums of money are not simply thrown at you, unless you win the lottery, which doesn't occur to just anyone. Another way to receive large sums of money relatively fast would be by talent. For example, if a very talented singer or football player were to be born in the lower class or middle class life, using their talents to become famous would be a complete turn-around for them. This would cause a class jump in their lives.
The American dream has many meanings, but for this particular exerpt, it was based on finances. The American dream to many families is the white-pickett fence, two car garage, and big backyard. It is unfortunate that even though many people have this vision, it will merely stay a dream, not reality. However, this was not the case for Polyestra's family. Her parents were influenced by their parents that every generation must increase financially. It was frustrating for them because their wishes weren't coming true no matter how hard they tried.
Finally, Polyestra's father pulled through for the family and landed a high paying real estate career. Because the extra money was new to them, they went out on a spending spree and did not stop until they have bought everything from new clothes to new cars. Also, their attitudes went from hopeful, to snobby. They ate outside at places just to show off the money that they have. Her dad ended up getting drunk, and yelling at random strangers. Obviously his money had advanced, but his attitude and behavior had not.
Polyestra's father had chosen to commit suicide. I feel there will always be a 'what if' question for that family. What if they had not received that sudden burst of money? Would they still have to be in that present situation? What does this say about what money can do to the American family? I believe that money can have just as many disadvantages as advantages. Clearly, this short story shows both of the ups and downs of the situation.

She Works, He Doesn't - Discussion Questions 1-3

The irony of Laurie Earp's decision to go back to work after her child is born comes from the statement made in the opening paragraph. She imagined herself having a part time job, which would enable her to spend long afternoons with her children. Her decision to enter the major working world caused her to become the "Alpha Earner" of the family. This was ironic because many parents, if not all parents, of the generation always saw the male as being the "primary breadwinner."
An Alpha Earner is when the female of the household provides the high income for her family rather than the male. This situation is occurring more frequently due to the fact that in this economy careers will have highs and lows, therefore causing couples to "take turns being the primary breadwinner." This is both a positive and negative turn of events. For some couples, such as Dan and Lynn Murray, after the wife has the children, she realizes she prefers working in the office where she can control the environment. This also allows Dan to stay home and provide for their five children. While some families show that this can be a positive outcome, statistics show it can be negative when choosing a mate as well. Economist Maria Cancian from the University of Wisconsin states that women who have high paying careers are now seen by men as a "good catch." This shows that personality is no longer what people are looking into when choosing a mate. It's unpleasant to know that the people of today are beginning to focus on more financial stability than the personality of the individual.
In these types of situations when the female begins to bring in more income than the male, there are typically two reasons for it. Either it was planned, or the husband was laid off. In situations where the husband had a decent job and was laid off, the decline in household salary is unexpected. This causes money tension in the house. It is proven that when a family knowingly has the "Mr. Mom" situation, tensions are lessened in the household. The family is able to adapt easier than the family of the unexpected job termination because the decline is something that they can prepare themselves for.

Response to Second-Grade Teacher by Katy Bracken

When Katy Bracken first introduced herself, she was very confused as to what she wanted to do with the rest of her life. She was in a way wandering through life, unsure of her next step, with no long-term plans for her future. After giving up waitressing, she stumbled across a teacher's aid position and, after being hired, fell in love with the job. She states in the end of this reading that she was "redeemed by teaching." I believe this meant for her that her life had taken a drastic turn for the better. Her life had been redeemed in a sense that she knew what she wanted to make of herself, she had long-term plans for her future, and it did not matter to her what her dad thought of her decisions.
After Katy had taken the head teacher position, she had mixed emotions about beginning the challenging occupation. A few years had gone by, and she began to realize that the nerves she encountered at the end of the summer right before school started were completely normal. Once everything was normal again, she noticed more and more her love of being a second-grade teacher. I consider this love to be due to the "mutual adoration" between her and the children. She adores the love that arises from the kids she is with day in and day out. Her "ability to be affectionate has also been deeply influenced by the job."
Katy Bracken has also learned so much from becoming a head teacher of the second grade. She stated that the children "teach her" and make her "less nervous". It seems that by the end of the reading all of her previous pressures from her father to become a successful medical teacher had vanished. I believe this is directly reflected from her new found teaching passion. She had also discovered that her previous passion of dancing was not nearly as important to her anymore.
This reading has proved that work will take us in unexpected directions throughout life. Sometimes we just have to go with the flow and trust our instincts on what is right and wrong. As this story shows, it could possibly alter your life for the better.