Ch. 11 response

WOW this chapter is absurd. I just love the good ole' US of A and its government Bullsnap. Why create programs like head start and basically expect the rest of the country other then the government to run it and pay for it. The government, not only what is projected in the chapter, but all together seems to have a nice way of creating "solutions" to issues that solve nothing. Foodstamps, medicare, welfare, unemployment, all nice and help the population a great deal but at the same time often hurt people like from other chapters for instance. When children do not have the same opportunities as others it is not their fault and we need the youngest of the population to grow and become successful to carry our country and better it, and best what has been done so far. We need the government to create programs and support them, keep them successful, and operated efficiently so it carries over to the children and whoever else it is aiding. Pretty good chapter overall. Not quite as substantial to pay ttention to as others because stuff like this we here about every day, other problems in the book have been hidden from the naked eye and even someone like me who reads and watches the news didnt know about.

Ch. 10 response

Ch. 9 response

I think the main idea of this chapter basically is that parents mend and mold the way their children grow up by how they are raised and subject to. This is up to the piont when the children have to start making their own decisions and learn their own path through life. When it came to this point for me I basically began making choices I thought were respectful to my parents wishes as to how I matured through life. For some it doesn't work that way or they try that way and it ends up screwing them up but for me it has worked out nicely. I graduated top of my class in highschool I have a nice car good paying job and all the necessities/wants I can use. And I am enrolled here for a bachelors in Criminal justice which is not only my dream to succeed in the field but my parents are very proud so it has worked out.

Ch 7 response

I liked this chapter, simply because it shows that the specific characters from Shiplers book are not alone. He did not single people out he just made a generalization of all the people that are just like the characters in each chapter. I think it was Kara and Tom from this chapter and Ann afterwards. I actually used the quote from pg. 175 about how a gentleman from the bar payed the couples dinner bill out of the niceness of his heart. Although it was a kind gesture Kara was very unhappy because she felt it was charity and it made her feel down on herself as a human being. However there were times when the couple had to except certain "charities" to survive and manage their homelife and children. This case actually touches close to home for me so I can relate to the chapter quite a bit. Not the case at all now but in my childhood years yup. Then there is Ann towards the end of the chapter and her story is that of the mom who stays home and doesn't work in order to take care of the house and kids. This seems to be the case quite frequently in todays society and throughout. Overall a good chapter not quite as dreary as others I feel, maybe a good sign of what to come.

English 11011 scavenger hunt

1. Krystal
2.
3.
4.
5. I probably do at least once
6.
7. Anthony P.
8.
9. Anthony N.
10. Gayle

I commented on Brooke's blog, the newest post.

Shipler Ch. 6

Shipler, can I really look at five women and expect one of them will be raped? That is such a gruesome thought, YUCK! According to US statistics its true. What a great country where one out of five women have the chance to get sexually assaulted, great, right? Sike! Not saying we don't live in an amazing country, and I gaurantee that 1/5 is much bigger in other world countries, but come on seriously people were supposed to be setting an example and wanting other countries to follow in our footsteps. But yet we have recessions, bankruptcy, poverty, unemployment, high victimization rates and crime rates, among a lot of other things. No wonder so many countries and ethnicities hate the U.S. and Americans. Anyways this chapter is based primarily on sexual abuse and molestation and is proven many times within the chapter that it has a much bigger impression and much larger destruction on people then poverty and stuff from the prior chapters. This is proven through and through and even the little header intro to the chapter from "peaches," a homeless working woman, about not being able to let anyone to close to save herself of being robbed, hurt, or taken advantage of! (Shipler pg. 142) Apparently sexual abuse is so avid in America that in some places it is talked about in schools and kids think it happens to everyone. (pg. 142) This chapter really can't be compared to the others so far because sexual abuse is nothing like any other topic Shipler has touched on. Poverty for example can be dealt with, overcome, a person can relieve themselves of the struggle with pride and hard work, not always but its possible. However, abuse can haunt a person for an entire lifetime like a ghost hanging onto something in their soul. Even a person that is young and survives and thinks they have surpassed it can have recurrences and nightmarish problems through life. A child may not mature right because of it. A mature person may end their life for it. As hard as it is to read these awful stories throughout the book I understand Shipler is just opening our eyes to reality. Life isn't perfect, no one is perfect, America isn't perfect. He has realized that we all need to realize it. Wendy Waxler is a prime example of reality. Physically, emotionally, verbally, financially abused her entire life. A suicide risk? Would you be if you were in her shoes? She even had to endure watching others go through what she went through and could do nothing about it. She also had failed relationships and failed births one after another! Incredible to say the least that she went through it and still lived life. Unless you have been through what she went through no one can imagine how it affected, hurt, and deconstructed her. If I were her suicide and retribution would most likely be strong thoughts trying to take over evry day so I am sure every minute was a battle. I would have to say this chapter wasn't nearly as "boring" and repetitive as the others and was incredibly interesting I guess in a bad way because it is not like anything about it was good. I hope everyone that ever reads this book applies it to their lives, opens their eyes, and succumbs to reality. The fact that these stories are everyday in America should be enough for people to stand up and want something better. We should never settle for what we have America can get so much better. The entire world can!!!

Shipler Chapter 4

What is this world coming to? People in other countries look up to Americans for our free country, free will, will to be free. That is, until they come here to follow a dream and are shit on by "Americans" that promise these people shelter, food, money, and to help them catch their dream. All these people want is to come over to this country, make a few more bucks then what they make at "home" and raise a healthy happy family. I do not agree with the fact they come here and take jobs illegally and what not but some of them just can't help it. I won't go into that again as it would be redundant to my other blogs but I wish we could create a policy for them to come over and gain citizenship and be here legally, maybe a military contract where they serve two years minimum while making the same wage as every other legal soldier. But of course they have to pledge allegiance to our flag and respect this country to reap the benefits. Until this happens or we figure out some better foreign policy on immigration, all we can do is hope that there will be more people like Jimmy, who bring them here give them reliable shelter and transportation by helping them get these things, and supplying them in some way with a responsible, realistically paid job. In fact Jimmy says “They are not up here to make me rich,” “They’re here to make a living for themselves.” “They got their own dreams.” (Pg. 105) I respect this man as he is dubbed with a good heart and is also realistic and humanistic. We also have to look at the fact with these people, that they are doing us all a favor doing the dirty jobs no one wants to do. They need done so "coyote's" scam Aliens into doing them for next to nothing, and supply them with basically no basic survival utilities after telling them the exact opposite. The least we can do for them and ourselves is to come up with a policy to make everyone happy, healthy, and give America a better name. Is this possible? I think so, do you?

Working Poor: Ch 3

I don't really know what to think of this chapter. At first I kind of feel like Shipler wants me to boycott designer clothing and what not because of the conditions the people putting it together have to work in. I understand fully the process a immigrant goes through when they do not get their green card and are forced to work at less then minimum wage and less then fathomable environments and conditions. Then again my view on that situation is that those people put themselves in a predicament when they come to America looking for the high life and bypass laws, legal citizenship, and such, giving them no rights, and no freedoms. Shipler even insists on telling us of certain cases where immigrants set aside the fact they weren't legal citizens, and got the courage to stand up for themselves as human beings, then after lawsuits or other means got themselves a better chunk of change over their less then minimum wage. Bottom line for me is that when it comes to immigrants and working conditions, they get what they apply for! Most of them don't even complain because they are making a wage that is supporting them to an extent, and sending some to their families for help.
Then there are the people that are legal citizens both born here and not. These people also work in the garment industry for unpleasurable wages and conditions. Why? some say it is their only hope of surviving, some say it is all they amount to. I say they, for the most part, put themselves in an unruly predicament. Any job for any wage could almost be their motto. Considering if we look at stories from last chapter we realize when people are in need they will do anything and usually will look for the easiest "in" for that aid. I can't really say whether these said people bring it all on themselves, which I don't think is the case, or if they fall prey to so many hardships that the conditions and wages the garment industry provides seem to be the only means of hope. I say a mixture of both because in America we are always given some form of a choice.
What I cannot really understand is how people and companies can be such capital mongers that they have to far more then "short-change" employees to put as much money in their pockets, and satisfy themselves. What makes it hard to understand is the fact that good hearted, industry loving people in the end of the chapter pay employees an excellent wage when they do excellent work. And because the employees do such excellent work and are happy with their wages, the company succeeds. Some still say they would purchase more if for a lower rate, but excellent craftsmanship and hard work are expensive characteristics and well worth it.
So when I said I felt like Shipler wants me to rip off my "Aeropostale" or my "American Eagle" clothing, and boycott the industry, I feel violated. Simply because I work hard for my minimum wage and purchase things that appeal to my nature. It is not as if the immigrants and what not are doing what they do for what they get, and then I go take those things for free. I do the country a service and in return use my hard earned capital to be rewarded with goods crafted in some way, shape, or form, by another hard working human being. I suppose because of the fact that no one is holding a gun to their head and saying do this for practically nothing, makes me feel like they don't have to be in such a predicament. So that makes me feel like I shouldn't boycott anything, and shouldn't put to much stock in Shipler's written theories within chapter three. Agree? Disagree? Like what I say or not, it's your freedom as an American, just don't judge me by my opinions. Same goes for the fact we shouldn't judge those in such positions as stated in this book so far as we live in a completely biased, choice based country.

Shipler chapter 2 response

"Land of the free, home of the brave?" While the latter part of that statement seems to fall into place when we look at stories such as Christie and Caroline's, "Land of the free" just seems obscure. Yes the meaning is contradictory to the purpose of my response, but when we look at a story like any of the real life people so far in the book, we can realize that this is not a free country. The government supports people with no jobs, no priorities, and usually no hope of turning there life into something of importance. In contrast the government punishes the minimum-wage, barely making it by, hard working Americans by taxing, scamming, and flat out ripping them off. If we look into Christie's story we see that she works exhausting hours for meager pay and gets food stamps along with other government and state services to aid her and her children. When She works hard and gains a pay raise as reward, the government takes other things away, like how she gains ten cents an hour but loses ten dollars in food stamps. Yes this puts her ahead but at the same time it doesn't help get her out of the hole she lives in called poverty.

There are so many different aspects to look at when it comes to poverty and people like the character's we have met so far, along with the people we have touched basis on with Shipler that do nothing with themselves but get paid. Politicians try and throw blame at the other parties responses to poverty and the economy and point fingers at why we are in such a predicament. However, the "party" a person belongs to is not a legit reason for there responses and attempts on a fix for recession and poverty, but what is mainly to blame is the politicians and government departments that base figures off of a fraction of what needs accounted for, i.e. how poverty is based off one thing to the government even though there are so many causes, and then these departments think of ways to better the system or help the country but cause-and-effect leads it nowhere. I could go on and on with politics and government shame but realistically there is nothing we can do. Simply put, we can all become knowledgeable of the countries financial, economic degree and start with what we have, what we can do, and start the youngest generation on a path to succession to break the cycle. How do we do this? I do not know for sure but I think we are not at that point yet, a bit more trial-and-error and we will all be on our way, whether it be now or in the next decade or so.

Working Poor: Chapter 1 response

Taxes, legalized loan sharking, work place scams, ridiculous interest rates! All prime examples of the economic deficit of a country we call United States of America. This chapter is an amazing piece of reading as it takes us into the homes and daily lives of the low and middle class Americans who work hard, actually more then hard, and barely, if at all, scrap enough change together to make the monthly bills to survive. This chapter is the real introduction to why Shipler wrote the book. An in depth reasoning as to why people file bankruptcy, end up living on streets, and how our country is so indentured with debt and recession. I especially like this book so far because Shipler uses prime examples over and over again to state and prove points. He also uses examples of peoples financial problems like taxes and the IRS, and explains how places like H&R Block work. I would also like to state that so far I have concluded that the financial hole America has dug itself into is no ones fault but our own. Mainly to point fingers at interest rates from credit card companies and such, tax representation costs such as "rapid refund", and legalized loan sharks like "PayDay loan, check into cash".

Shipler Intro Response

What would Shipler's reason for writing a book about the working poor, the impoverished, and the indebted backbone of America be? I think his purpose is a pretty clear one. That of the fact that this country is not ran by the president, senators, legislators, or even czars at the moment. This country is ran by the people that work most hours of the day then spend the rest of the waking hours taking care of family and just making it by on their minimum wage. This countries foundation and infrastructure is based on the low wage hard working Americans such as the factory workers, clerks, law enforcement, and medical staff, among the many other jobs people don't even recognize in their lives, that without someone to do them we couldn't function. I think Shipler's reason for writing this book is to convey a message to the ignorance of people and their day to day lives. The message being that we need to respond and aid the people that make this country a success and we need to better understand poverty and what not so we can better solve the issues dragging the economy down.



A few things I learned from this introduction to David Shipler's "The Working Poor", would be first of all that we the people tend to forget all the people and jobs it takes to run a country and keep our fluent, non-chalant, easy going lives running smoothly. Perfect example would be stock clerks in grocery stores, without their hardwork and wage sacrifice how would we get our groceries. Another thing I learned from the introduction is that another thing we fear to address is the youngsters of the country and how poverty affects them. Whether it be a parent not being able to afford proper diet for the child leading to malnutrition, or not being able to afford supplies for school, or as in the book eye glasses to read; it all leads to a less prosperous country when a flock of children grow up from these hardships. One other thing I gathered from the reading is that there are several partitions to poverty. That being said they include financial disability, psychological avertedness, part societal, part personal, and part past and present. This all means that if you have a family with financial hardship, a person with low self-esteem, courage, or heart, a not so prosperous environment, and a difficult past, then the present time for the person or person's will most likely follow into poverty.