Ron Hillier
Professor Wetzl
College Writing I
28 September, 2009
The Working Poor: Reading Response #3
In chapter two of The Working Poor, titled Work Doesn’t Work, Shipler wants to give the reader a better understanding of what it’s like to be an impoverished American. The general point of chapter two is that working a minimum wage job gets you absolutely nowhere in America, even if you receive government benefits on top of your wage. In fact, a promotion or a pay raise can actually work against you if you receive benefits.
Shipler’s first example is a lady named Christie. She worked at a YMCA in Akron, Ohio where she watched young kids while their parents went to work. She earned a measly $330 every two weeks. Needless to say, this was nowhere near enough to support her 2 children. In order to pay bills and support her children Christie received government benefits such as food stamps. The most surprising part of her situation to me was the fact that when she earned a $0.10 raise in her hourly wage, her monthly benefits decreased by $10. So in the end, her raise only earned her $6 more a month. I do have pity for Christie, but the situation she’s in cannot be completely blamed on society. She was enrolled in the University of Akron for a year before dropping out, and she had two children with two different men that were no good. I’m sorry for the situation she is in, but she did not make the wisest choices in her life either.
Another example Shipler uses is the story of Caroline Payne. Caroline is an older lady who has never met her accomplishment of holding a good paying job although she has an associates college degree. Instead, she has worked low paying jobs her whole life. A staggering statement is that Caroline earned $6 an hour in the 1970’s, and currently earns $6.80, only $0.80 more than she earned more than 20 years ago. She works as a cashier for a Wal-Mart Superstore and is a grade-A employee. She’s willing to work any hours of the day or night, not to mention she has to walk 20 minutes just to get to work, and she’s always on time. The unfair part of Caroline’s situation is that she sees younger, slimmer men and women being treated better at work by her bosses, although she feels that she’s a much better worker. I definitely believe Caroline when she says this because physical looks play a huge role in everyday life, right or wrong, and I have a lot of sympathy for Caroline because she seems like a very nice older lady who just has very bad luck.
Chapter 2 of The Working Poor opened my eyes to how hard it really is to live on a minimum wage job even if you are receiving government benefits. I realize how tough it would be to live on a low paying job because I haven’t had anything better and it’s very hard to make ends meet even with my short list of bills to pay. I can’t imagine trying to raise two kids on a paycheck as low as $330 a month. But the thing that stuck out most to me from this chapter is the fact that government benefits decrease in reaction to such a small pay raise. It makes sense that benefits would decrease as income level raised, but I think a decrease in benefits because of a $0.10 raise is ridiculous.
Monday, September 28, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Shipler Reading Assignment Response #2 - Ch. 1
Ron Hillier
Professor Wetzl
College Writing I
21 September 2009
The Working Poor: Reading Response #2
The first chapter of Shipler’s The Working Poor, Money and It’s Opposite, was a very interesting and informative chapter. The general topic of the chapter is how expensive it is to be poor. Not only are people on the line of poverty always struggling to pay their bills, they’re also always struggling to pay back their accumulated debts.
The working poor class that’s always struggling to pay their monthly bills most likely has other debts to be paid back. What the first chapter is trying to get across is that poverty builds on itself. Purchasing on credit only worsens an individual’s situation by adding interest to monthly credit payments.
The second point the first chapter is trying to make is that American’s need to learn how to conserve and save money. Poor people don’t save money because they feel they don’t make enough to save, and middle-class American’s don’t conserve money well because they feel they earn enough to spend a lot. This can cause a problem if sudden car troubles or health issues surface. I can relate to this argument personally because I spend too much money myself, and I know that I do, but I am horrible at tracking how much money I have coming in and out. Overall, the first chapter was a decent read and feel that I have a better understanding of what it’s like to make ends meet for those on the line of poverty.
Professor Wetzl
College Writing I
21 September 2009
The Working Poor: Reading Response #2
The first chapter of Shipler’s The Working Poor, Money and It’s Opposite, was a very interesting and informative chapter. The general topic of the chapter is how expensive it is to be poor. Not only are people on the line of poverty always struggling to pay their bills, they’re also always struggling to pay back their accumulated debts.
The working poor class that’s always struggling to pay their monthly bills most likely has other debts to be paid back. What the first chapter is trying to get across is that poverty builds on itself. Purchasing on credit only worsens an individual’s situation by adding interest to monthly credit payments.
The second point the first chapter is trying to make is that American’s need to learn how to conserve and save money. Poor people don’t save money because they feel they don’t make enough to save, and middle-class American’s don’t conserve money well because they feel they earn enough to spend a lot. This can cause a problem if sudden car troubles or health issues surface. I can relate to this argument personally because I spend too much money myself, and I know that I do, but I am horrible at tracking how much money I have coming in and out. Overall, the first chapter was a decent read and feel that I have a better understanding of what it’s like to make ends meet for those on the line of poverty.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Shipler Reading Assignment Response #1 - Intro
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Ron Hillier
Professor Wetzl
College Writing I
14 September, 2009
The Working Poor: Reading Response #1
For our first reading assignment from David Shipler’s The Working Poor, we were required to read the novel’s preface and introduction. Shipler’s goal for including these two passages is to give the reader a general idea of what the book is about, the working-class of America that remains poor.
The preface gives a quick sample of the people Shipler writes about in his book. “I found them in black neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., and white towns in New Hampshire, in factories and job-training centers in Cleveland and Chicago, in housing projects in Akron and Los Angeles, in malnutrition clinics in Boston and Baltimore, in California sweatshops, and in North Carolina fields,“ he says in the second paragraph. This sentence is important to keep in mind because it tells the reader that poverty is neither a racial problem nor a demographic problem, but a problem that affects the U.S. as a whole.
The introduction section of The Working Poor is used to give the reader a greater understanding of the working poor class, first by giving some background of the people in the book, and then by giving actual facts that pertain to poverty. The first paragraph reads, “The man who washes cars does not own one. The clerk who files cancelled checks at the bank has $2.02 in her own account. The woman who copy-edits medical textbooks has not been to the dentist in a decade.” This is a perfect introduction paragraph because it lays out the idea that people who work hard for other people, to get done what needs to be done for the American way of life to work, are often left behind, without luxuries of their own. In the second paragraph, Shipler says, “Some are climbing out of welfare, drug addiction, or homelessness.” I believe he uses this sentence to bring about a sense of helplessness for his subjects and to give the reader a sense of sympathy for the working poor.
The preface and introduction of The Working Poor were put in place for the reader to gain a better understanding of the working poor class, but they were also very informational when it to came to what exactly the working poor and poverty is. I can honestly say that I have a much better understanding of the working poor after completing the assignment, but there were three facts that stuck out to me. The fact that caught my attention most was how the U.S. government defined poverty. On page 9, the second paragraph reads, “an annual income, for a family with one adult and three children, of less than $21,100 in the year 2007.” I could not believe it, I can’t imagine trying to raise three kids on my own, only making $21,000 a year. The second fact that caught my eye was also on page 9, in the third paragraph. It reads, “the Census Bureau still uses the basic formula designed in 1964 by the Social Security Administration, with four modest revisions in subsequent years.” In my opinion, that is ridiculous. How can you possibly calculate poverty in 2009, using almost the same formula that was used to calculate poverty in 1964? Maybe you can, but with inaccurate results. The third fact that I found meaningful was included on page 6, third paragraph down, about the gap between the rich and poor. It reads, “with a median net worth of $1,430,100 among the top 10 percent and just $1,700 for the bottom 25 percent.” To me, these numbers are unbelievable, and it only strengthens the idea that something needs to be resolved to bridge the gap between the rich and the working poor.
Ron Hillier
Professor Wetzl
College Writing I
14 September, 2009
The Working Poor: Reading Response #1
For our first reading assignment from David Shipler’s The Working Poor, we were required to read the novel’s preface and introduction. Shipler’s goal for including these two passages is to give the reader a general idea of what the book is about, the working-class of America that remains poor.
The preface gives a quick sample of the people Shipler writes about in his book. “I found them in black neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., and white towns in New Hampshire, in factories and job-training centers in Cleveland and Chicago, in housing projects in Akron and Los Angeles, in malnutrition clinics in Boston and Baltimore, in California sweatshops, and in North Carolina fields,“ he says in the second paragraph. This sentence is important to keep in mind because it tells the reader that poverty is neither a racial problem nor a demographic problem, but a problem that affects the U.S. as a whole.
The introduction section of The Working Poor is used to give the reader a greater understanding of the working poor class, first by giving some background of the people in the book, and then by giving actual facts that pertain to poverty. The first paragraph reads, “The man who washes cars does not own one. The clerk who files cancelled checks at the bank has $2.02 in her own account. The woman who copy-edits medical textbooks has not been to the dentist in a decade.” This is a perfect introduction paragraph because it lays out the idea that people who work hard for other people, to get done what needs to be done for the American way of life to work, are often left behind, without luxuries of their own. In the second paragraph, Shipler says, “Some are climbing out of welfare, drug addiction, or homelessness.” I believe he uses this sentence to bring about a sense of helplessness for his subjects and to give the reader a sense of sympathy for the working poor.
The preface and introduction of The Working Poor were put in place for the reader to gain a better understanding of the working poor class, but they were also very informational when it to came to what exactly the working poor and poverty is. I can honestly say that I have a much better understanding of the working poor after completing the assignment, but there were three facts that stuck out to me. The fact that caught my attention most was how the U.S. government defined poverty. On page 9, the second paragraph reads, “an annual income, for a family with one adult and three children, of less than $21,100 in the year 2007.” I could not believe it, I can’t imagine trying to raise three kids on my own, only making $21,000 a year. The second fact that caught my eye was also on page 9, in the third paragraph. It reads, “the Census Bureau still uses the basic formula designed in 1964 by the Social Security Administration, with four modest revisions in subsequent years.” In my opinion, that is ridiculous. How can you possibly calculate poverty in 2009, using almost the same formula that was used to calculate poverty in 1964? Maybe you can, but with inaccurate results. The third fact that I found meaningful was included on page 6, third paragraph down, about the gap between the rich and poor. It reads, “with a median net worth of $1,430,100 among the top 10 percent and just $1,700 for the bottom 25 percent.” To me, these numbers are unbelievable, and it only strengthens the idea that something needs to be resolved to bridge the gap between the rich and the working poor.
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