fSharlene has 11 post(s)

In the report, “The Roots of the Widening Racial Wealth Gap,” by Thomas Shapiro Tajana Meschede, and Sam Osoro, The research shows that their are cultural and structural differences racial differences in and they identify the variables in different ways, such as inheritance, home ownership, educational attainment and lastly income. To help us understand the racial wealth gap and how it reflects towards Whites and African Americans, The economic divide.

Homes are usually the largest asset in any persons life. You need shelter in order to survive. Research shows a 25 years period and the difference to home ownership is the 27% of income/growth between blacks and whites. The research shows that owning a home benefits most white-families because they have more access to financial assistance and credit more than African American families, and it provides them with more wealth and security. In contrast to African Americans where they tend to have high-risk mortgages and are more likely to foreclosure their homes. Another factor is that because African-American are more likely to be without a job than white, they are forced to be on unemployment and survive and low or no funds. When it comes to Education, Although many students attend college, not many of them finish. When it comes to college completion there are more whites than African-Americans that finish with a degree and are weight less by student debt than African Americans. This is one of the biggest obstacles for any family household to be in a significant debt because they want to send their child for a college education.

Overall the studies show that there is always going to be a slight inequality og both races and that poverty is always going to run more around african americans than whites.

Part A

In the essay, “Doing Gender by Giving Good Service”, Elaine Hall explains how gender roles play a big part of how people are treated and how a persons gender scripts of “good service. It tends to break it down to role and gender played. Friendliness, deference, and flirting is perceived asa stereotype for waitressing. On page 456, Hall explains how waitresses have to preform a job flirt,  and we know that the only reason they have to do it, is because thats the way they will make their money. Waitresses are perceived to be happy-go-jolly cheerful attitudes. She explains that because of her “gender”  employers are likely to hire women for jobs like these, or other like, house keeping,  My understanding of “to give good service” has to do with a man and a women’s job. In a way it also shows us how the gender in organization acted upon. She also talks about gender-neutral jobs such a policemen. She explains how women and men working in this type of organization are perceived differently, and described women police officers are the “problem resolving” or conflict. How Genders play a role in jobs.

PART B

In the essay, “Wage Penalty for Motherhood,” by Michelle Budig and England, I completely agree with their entire point of view. In the essay it shows that mothers earn lower wages that other women women without children. Mothers may earn less money than women without children because they lose job experience, be less productive, trade off higher wages for mother-friendly jobs and be discriminated against employers (204). In page (204), Budig and England explain how having children and in order to work it can cause many interruptions. I agree with this statement because as a Mother of 2 (small) children sometimes I cant work because I don’t have childcare or enough money to pay for childcare. At a point in my life, when I had my first child, because he was a premature baby, I was unable to go to work or finish school because I had to stay home to care for him. That is an interruption and its also like a small break from school.

Another point she mentions is that mothers choose jobs that have less energy, flexible hours, demand for travel, on weekends, daycare of site, availability” (page 207) OnE advantage that women without children is that they can work without any limitations. They will be able to work all kinds of hours and overtime without a problem. This is also true, I also speak about my own experience as a working mother, that there aren’t many people available (for children) unless you pay them. You must be able to work flexible just because you have children or incase there is an emergency. When you have an employee who doesn’t have these things extra things on their plate have nothing to worry about.

On page 209, They tell us that discrimination is used against mothers as far as, education, experience, work less. (Budig and England) That one of the differences against mothers and other women is work effect or not enough work effort, which I disagree because regardless of how “tired” I am I still have to get and provide for my children, why, because I am the caregiver and because no one else will. Which also leads us too the statement the writes say where there is an interruption from your daily life. Part time and full time work, school take approximately one-third wage penalty for motherhood,  5% lower wages.  Its unfortunate how mothers  or women in general are discriminated upon and taken advantage of, when we do double the work.

When reading the chapters, Enrenreich realizes that people who work two or more jobs and are in poverty cannot afford food or shelter.  She cant imagine how people who work $8.00 an hour or less can survive so she wants to find out how. She starts by telling us what she is going to do and how she is going to do it. She cant use any of her education skills, she will take the highest paying job and make it her best to keep it and find the most accommodating place to live. She looks for a place to live and settling on a $500 a month efficiency apartment, and this is the start of her low-wage life, taking place in Key West Florida. The struggles of applying for jobs and no one calls you back until eventually, she finds a waitressing position. She explains how she works from 2:00 in the evening to 10.00 at night for $2.43 an hour plus tips. She tells us how wages are too low and rent is too high. She was giving another job as a housekeeper and a dietary aid on the weekends. She learns about different types of medications for pain and how she basically ended up feeding an entire alzhiemers ward all by herself. She tells us about the conditions and how sad it is to see.  This was an experiment that she will never forget, and if she didn’t take the chance to experience it she would of never know how it is like for people that are less fortunate. Who don’t have the same access too things as she does. My own personal opinion I believe that a single mother can survive without welfare. Enrenreich realizes that poor are poor and there is almost no escape from it. She learns that people with low or no education, have fewer opportunties, low-wage workers have few options and that is it hard of people to change their lives.

According to Ritzer, McDonaldization is broken down into four different components, which are efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. He wants us to understand that society and human plays a big part in this social structure. He compares McDonaldization to fast food restaurants and when we think about fast food we think of something quick. Fast food restaurants are dominating the society. That is the efficiency part of fast food, it is convenient, it is the fastest way of getting something without losing time. He explains this on page3, how the food production, and the organized productivity makes it more efficient for us to sit all day, and more efficient means a good thing for some! With so many fast-food chains all over the place it gives the people something quick a reliable, Its quality over quantity. In the end of it all as consumers we are always going to receive the same service for the same product every time and that is the way society is always going to be controlled. It is not going to change, the only thing that is going to change is humans are going to be replaced by machines. On page 6, he says that manual work is history and we are going to replace human technology with non human technology. We are basically getting rid of humans, period. Everything now, is pre-packed or automated and you are basically not required to think anymore, just put the button and you are done! He says that we should be able to rationalize things in a good way. Human act on things and they don’t think rationally, saying” I want think” rather than, “its not good for me.” Its all about the quickness. Comparing this to Max Weber, these kinds of work puts a stop in society and a stop in human creativity. Humans suffer from these bureaucracies because its no longer an interaction but a business. Technology has has such a big impact in our lives, that it is almost impossible to get away from. Our lives are already in control, how much more are we going to let it control us. People are being replaced by machines as much as possible, and it makes it that much easier for us. Its changing the society. Ritzers argument is that it is taking a toll on all aspects of our lives and this is the kind of thing that leads to many other problems in the future.

This week’s reading, “ In working, Studs Terkel(1972: xxvii); Basically he says, Do you hate your job? Guess what. Most people do! What is our relationship to work and ourselves. He explains work confessed by working people. The concept is pretty simple, its the common activities we do as human beings. Terkel talks about the workers like the waitresses to confess what is really work to them and how they feel about and what they do to make a quick buck. He explains how it is so surprising how the universe feels about the jobs they have. What Terkel found in his interviews was there are many people from all different types of phases in their lives and each person had their own different perspectives on what makes work meaningful. For example Mike Lefevre, he made many sacrifices in his life, has an aspiration for his son to go to college, how he goes to the bar to let steam out. How and when to set boundaries for work time and personal time. It finally brings us down to what work is and what it means to us. Most people go to work to maintain their living, and others go to work because they simply love their jobs. But work in a way keep is functioning. This takes us back to the article where Terkel wrote about someone who gave up their job to continue a career that he loved to do. In the end, sometimes we realize that it work will always be work and it will always be here. Why not do something you love to do.  Lastly, my dream job is to be an ART teacher. I love everything about art, at the moment I am not pursuing my career because I need to money to care for my children, but eventually I will. He also brings up the idea that work is meaningful and how work connects to “human matters”. People spend most of their lives working and sometimes the right job can give you different and even positive opportunities. Terkel is saying that its not the time at work that matter but the investment we put in it,  like our spirits. It is important for people to know the meaning in their lives and their jobs.

I think that work under capitalism, the worker is alienated this is what Karl Marx says. What my understanding is from all three articles is that human beings are separated from their own nature. We are denied from our own nature, we are separated from what makes us human and that is work.  In the Charlie Chaplin video clip, technology forces humans around machines. In order for us to keep going we must engage in this type of work to exceed our own needs. In the video, Chaplin went on a “lunch break” and was immediately sent back to work. I see the worker in a way like a commodity. The worker is paid to give his or herself their energy, The more production that happens the less value the worker has. In capitalism the product of labor is not in the worker, because the worker has no control over the labor. Which It leads us to the Frederick Taylor’s article on “The Principles of Scientific Management,  He wants us to know that in order for a worker to work efficiently he has, the worker has to be involved with his owners to make good business and wages for the workers. In the quote he presents as “himself a quitter in sport”, he believes that workers should be able to perform any task with the right support. The worker should not feel a sense of failure because its about the work. People should feel a sense of manager to worker relationship to improve their contribution to work. The worker shouldn’t feel like he is “soldiering” himself if it is for the satisfaction of work. In a way I reminds me of Marx, where he says, the worker, “only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself”, so you know you are working but its not for you. Finally, In the” Tracking sensors, invade the workplace” article, This was a hard article to grasp. I felt like this experiment was strange because these people were being tracked on everything they were doing. I understand that the concept of this was to see how workers interact with each other and work in offices but; Sometimes for me, it is hard to interact with people because I am a shy person. So I feel like in a way this could be forcing people to shut down, because their movements are being recorded. If you think of it in a different matter, it is probably a good thing to see how people process information and show leadership skills, which are beneficial to high corporate companies, But in my opinion It was a tad bit strange.

Capitalism as we all know is about, private ownership, competition, profit and rapid growth. In the article, “What are Wages”, Karl Marx says that capitalism is presented as a “natural system” and it forces beyond human control. I completely agree with this statement because we labor to pursue our own needs. We have to do it because society has in-bedded in our brains and in the system that we “cant do anything on our own. It is “supply and demand, they demand and we supply, and this to me is unstoppable because its “considered” and “good thing” because it generates wealth. It increases the market, the profit and it changes the society. When I think of capitalism, I think about Starbucks. What does Starbucks have? I believe  when Starbucks started it was about coffee and for coffee drinkers. Starbucks is capitalism, it grows; it started off small, it started with 1 vision and now it is everywhere. According to Karl Marx, In capitalism it means “money” and that is the highest stage of human development, “Money means power. We, the people, advance is the participation and it goes to the division of labor and it becomes oppressive. The working class is always exploited and we will only survive as long as we let it. This is what Karl Marx is explaining that the cost of production is the labour that we have to keep investing in the things we already have. For example the machine that cost 1,000 shillings, you have to keep adding on to it, in order to be able to replace it when its worn out.

The article by Rank, Hirshil and Roster “From High Hopes to Low Wages”, Its like a combination of everything like welfare, and inflation. He explains how people are willing to take a job that pays them less than what it should be getting paid, then the employer will find more people that are willing to take that low paying job. The employer is okay with paying you less more because it becomes convenient for them. The more we get paid the higher the living goes. I really like this quote that Karl Marx says, “What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers.” Its the truth, we are our own destruction.

Why do people obey? For example, Why do you speak Spanish or English? My native language is Spanish and then I learned to speak English. Living in the United States it is a standard pattern to learn to speak English, anything out of the norm would be different. It is a social behavior expected from people. This is something that is except from the people.  This is my example of what I think Harry Bravermen means by the Working U.S society. What is a working class? A working class is a group of people who work in industrial or manual labor for wages. What is labor? Labor is individuals who are persuading for their own needs. Harry Braverman explains that we grew up in a society that seems to us as a “natural condition”. We see this as human nature, it is a natural thing to do so survive in this economy. We live in a society where it is normal for people at the “top” (with wealth and power) to live great, while others like the “bottom or poor” work with little resources to try and live great.  People are exploited and degraded by the system. It shows how the economic struggle in the U.S controls our dignity about our wages; And although we dont see it like this, it is our new way of life. Braverman also explains that we are separated by work. We are separated by industries and occupations in which we work . We are separated by factories, offices, banks and warehouses (pg. 5). It separates us from living, in a way, because we will work in the labor market with nothing except our physical labor. We live in a capitalist system that is built to increase, so the more we expand the more the value increases. At the end of the day we still have to work together for the economy to keep going. It doesn’t have to be where I am not highly educated or have great job credit ails to be “lazy” because even the “lazy worker is involved in the manual labor. That is how we are separated and exploited in so many ways. In conclusion, i explained before that we have to work together as an economy because both populations of “high” and “low” working classes still increase the sales and services that we need. I think its a good way to make us understand the history a little better and the struggle.

In Chapter two “The Spirit of Capitalism”, by Weber, he explains to the connection between the spirit of capitalism and rationalism, and he uses Benjamin Franklin’s quote to explain capitalism. He says, “time is money and credit is money”. He believes that a man should be punctual with everything that he does. Franklin says, “Honesty is useful because it assures credit, punctuality” (pg.17) He believes people would benefit from doing things on time and that anything outside of it would be a waste. He thinks it would take the people to a path of “righteousness” and it encourages them to work together and inspire each other; Its good for the society. As long a a man earns money and does it the right way everyone would benefit from it. Weber on the other hand says that a capitalist economy depends of the workers and their productivity, there has to be a increase int he work. People are selfish and greedy, capitalism is a business about making money, we exchange work for money.  Its like now we get paid and we are forced to work because we cant make out own products.

Franklin believes in the “spirit of capitalism” and he thinks its the right way to go because it balances everything. I agree with Franklin’s statement, but then again I don’t.”Time is money” applies to a capitalist society, because its such a crucial thing for the market. I think sometimes people are stuck with jobs they hate, the world is just all about money. Anything can be expressed in time, the more hours you work the more you earn, right?  I can give up my time for money but money wont buy me any time back. I am still slightly unsure of what weber means by rationalism, but the “spirit of capitalism, is good for the economy, its had an impact on everyone.