I
believe that Barbara Ehrenreich would agree that the American dream is still accessible
to the majority of Americans. If one wants to be successful in life then they
are going to have to work for it because nothing comes easy in this world and
nothing is entirely free. Barbara is living on her own and she is looking for a
new place to live in Florida but all of the real estate is well out of her
budget. This means she must work for what she wants, otherwise she will most
likely be living out on the streets. So she takes it upon herself with no help
from anyone to get a job and work to earn the money she needs to pay for
living. As she searches for a job she soon makes a list of all the jobs that
she would not enjoy doing and all of the jobs that she would enjoy doing. Barbara
chooses as her last resort to go back to waitressing. As a teen she waitressed
through high school and all she can remember is that it tires her out and she
did not enjoy herself like she would. Barbara needed money so she wasn’t passing
up on any offers. Barbara is showing that here in America you can choose the
occupation you want to fit your needs and desires in life. She will work for
her “car, house, rent, food, and other needs” to satisfy her desires. Once she
has all of these things that she wants she will soon realize how happy she will
be because she has worked for these things and nothing was given to her.
Instead of sitting on her but looking for a hand out she decides to take action
into her own hands and goes to work. Not everyone can go to work so she is an
example of how to live the American dream in order to be happy.
Here I am going to focus on the statement: "moving up the socio-economic ladder is too difficult in America" and how I believe Barbara Ehrenreich would agree with this idea. Throughout Ehrenreich's writing she notes multiple times that there are great differences in the lifestyle she has chosen to undertake and the one that she has left behind. Stating that the life she is about to enter is one of "poverty and toil" making it very clear that to live in a lower class has a feeling of "toil" of time wasted away with no way to get ahead. This idea expands later in the writing as she begins to discuss the living situations of her coworkers, many of which cannot afford to live on their own or provide themselves with basic health care. Something that is clearly an issue in a society where so many are in that very situation. She even clearly notes that often times these problems are compounded by the fact that "There are no secret economies that nourish the poor; on the contrary there are a host of special costs." Meaning that in America those who are poor have many obstacles working against their efforts to get a leg up, again furthering the idea that it is too difficult to move up in modern America.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Barbara Ehrenreich would agree with the statement “Inequality will always exist: Some people will always be rich, some people will always be poor.” Throughout Serving in Florida, Ehrenreich makes it a point to convey to the reader that while living in Key West, she could not afford to make ends meet. Due to the high price of living in Key West, Barbara soon realized that her day job was not going to cut it and she was going to have to get another job. She had to learn that she could not be picky about this job and she just needed something that was going to help her pay the rent, and have all of her necessities. She also learns that due to her skin color, she will be at advantage for certain jobs such as waitressing and working a business. This shows that race and ethnicity have a drastic effect on income inequality, because if one cannot speak good English in a tourist town, they are not likely to get a job that involves a lot of interaction with others. I think the idea of “People who are very poor are probably to blame for their poverty” is a false statement because throughout this essay, we are able to see that sometimes no matter how hard you try, inequality is inevitable and can be very hard to overcome no matter how hard you work.
ReplyDeleteI believe that Barbara Ehrenreich, author of "Serving in Florida" would most likely agree that a person's starting position and economic status in the world are very important. This idea is highlighted when Ehrenreich states, "In poverty, as in certain propositions in physics, starting conditions are everything," meaning that one's socio-economic start is a huge factor in the likely hood of one's wealth and success later on in life. After searching for a job for what seemed to be an eternity, the author finally settled with the low-wage job of a waitress at a restaurant. Throughout the reading, the author illustrates how she managed to survive on a server's salary and also described her fellow employees' problems and characteristics. Ehrenriech "sees past the veil" the restaurant business portays itself as and is constantly faced with adversity, side-work and difficult customers. She sees how one's race can affect where and how they are presented in a "corporation". In the author's words, "It helps to be white"; Barbara Ehrenreich shows that inequality is not only revenue based, but also on ethnicity and race. Although Ehrenreich went on to become a journalist and successful scholar, the struggles she faced in a hard-working job helped shape and mold her ideologies of social inequality and attaining the "American Dream".
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