Barbara Ehrenreich's Class Matters

In the article, “On Turning Poverty into on American Crime” by Barbara Ehrenreich, Barbara explains many issues of the struggle of low-wage issue including poverty. She had many problems with the disagreement that was wrong. Barbara explains that she wanted four years ago to reduce poverty making sure people won’t become poor/or homeless as well for employment that minimum wage will surely increase and for criminals to be treated as equally as other citizens should, she also mentioned police will arrested or assume that their violent just by their appearance. She wanted many citizens to have better wage and working condition (para ).

The novel, The American Way of Poverty: How the Other Half Still Lives by Sasha Abramsky is about how he traveled the United States meeting the poor. The stories he introduces in novel are articles among data-driven studies and critical investigations of government programs. Abramsky has composed an impressive book that both defines and advocates. He reaches across a varied range of concerns, involving education, housing and criminal justice, in a wide-ranging view of poverty 's sections. In considering results, it 's essential to understand how the different problems of poor families intermingle in mutual reinforcement. Sasha Abramsky brings the results of economic disparity out of the shadows and recommends ways for moving toward a

Thesis: Ehrenreich’s personal use of varied rhetorical strategies allowed her to divulge the working conditions and struggles of the poverty-stricken class to the readers in order to provoke them to realize that something has to be done about poverty..

A theory in the work is that political and economic structures failed to provide enough decent opportunities and support to the whole economy.

Throughout the text, “Changing the Face of Poverty,” Diana George is certainly precise when claiming that the common representations of poverty limit our understanding of it. She expresses that most of our knowledge of poverty becomes misinterpreted due to advertisements, media, and images. Consequently, the way that we look at poverty focuses around that in which is in third-world countries, but poverty can be anywhere, even in your backyard. American citizens are the audience for the text, because Americans typically portray as being wealthy, happy people who are oblivious to the poverty-stricken areas surrounding them. Diana George’s, “Changing the Face of Poverty” expresses to its readers that non-profit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity, utilize unauthentic pictures as a way to convince the public that there are people out there that need help.

All things considered I have chosen the essay written by Diana George tittled “changing the face of poverty.” First and foremost there is an restraint of the endless controversy of poverty. Sadly as Diana Geroge dispute in her essay, the organization with the primitive purpose of abolishing global poverty are possibly the ones endowing to the very problem they battle against (George 676) Her main example wa habitat for humanity, she disputes that the organization is not sending very affective message and that they often fail to which I agree with 100%. The world assumes that they are doing more than what is actually being practiced. Furthermore George disclosed her disagreement concerning these issues. Basically she felt that all photographs that is revealed to the population pesonofi one frame of reference of poverty. She describes it in the beginning of her paragraph where she sees a New Yorker ad for children, Inc and it says “you don’t have to leave your own country to find third-world poverty.” Underneath the copy, from a black and white photo, she illustrates that the young girl, was in torn ill-fitting clothes looking directly at the viewer (George 675).

Nearly 8.2% of all American children lived in unimaginable “deep poverty” in 2016, according to the University of California, Davis. The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls is a profound insight into these hidden lives. The Glass Castle is a autobiographical memoir detailing the nonconformist lifestyle of the Walls family. This somewhat dysfunctional family had a number of unconventional experiences. Rex abused alcohol. They leapt out of and fell back into poverty. They roamed. They rejected civilization. However, poverty always wound its way back into Jeannette's childhood. As the family’s financial situation worsened, the family gradually fell apart, and poverty always remained a blotch to their

In the book Nickel and Dimed, written by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author argues how challenging it is to live in a life of poverty. To prove to herself as well as others that this statement is accurate, she makes the decision to experience this lifestyle firsthand by taking low-wage jobs and recording the results. Ehrenreich took on jobs including a maid service, waitressing, and assisting the nursing home to make enough money for a place to sleep and food to eat. The work’s central argument is the fact that minimum and low wage workers face a myriad of difficulties in getting by in America; they receive very low pay, harsh treatments from their employers, and the inability to have an actual life. The author provides various amounts of evidence from her factual recordings, her personal insight as an effective technique, and rhetorical choices of ethos, logos, and pathos to support her position.

It is a true story of a struggle to survive. She defines her experiment as an attempt of “a person with every advantage that ethnicity and education, health and motivation can confer… to survive in the economy's lower depths” (2001, p. 12). Barbara Ehrenreich paints a grim picture of a low-income earners' existence. In her book, even the titles of the chapters cause the depressed feelings, “Serving in Florida, Scrubbing in Maine, and Selling in Minnesota”. She states, “From the first day on, I find that of all the things that I have left behind, such as home and identity, what I miss the most is competence” (2001, p. 16). She explains that even the unskilled and lowest-paying jobs require great mental and physical efforts. Furthermore, she comes to conclusion that a hard-working person with low income cannot achieve a decent standard of living. Barbara Ehrenreich’s work was so significant in 1990’s because it emphasized a striking income inequality and convincingly demonstrated its role in the people's daily lives. In support of her position, she gives the persuasive and eloquent examples. For instance, she describes her humiliating experience at a restaurant, “Employees are barred from using the front door, so I enter the first day through the kitchen” (p. 16). I think this study is still socially relevant because the situation has not significantly changed nowadays. Moreover, a social polarization has become even worse. Hard working people, who struggle everyday on the minimum wage, cannot afford dental care, full health insurance, and healthy food, while the people with well-paying jobs enjoy their lives. It should be kept in mind that we are talking about the people who prefer to work hard instead of living on welfare. They deserve to live a normal

“ We have fought war on poverty and poverty won”, is one of the most famously quotes of Ronald Regan. The meaning behind this quote is that America has been struggling to overcome poverty over years, but as years keeps increasing so do the number of people living poor. The percentage in poverty did decrease in 2000 but today it still affects 15 million people. According to Peter Edelman’s article “ Poverty In America: Why Cant We End It”, there are four reasons why America has not achieved to decrease the number of poverty: Low- wage jobs, households headed by single parent, welfare, and gender/ race. The plan that America has to improve this number of 15 million is by providing food stamps, enacting programs, and social security.

According to the PBS Frontline video “Poor Kids” 2012, more than 46 million Americans are living beneath the poverty line. The United States alone has one of the highest rates of child poverty in the industrialized world. It is stated that 1 out of 5 children are living in poverty. The video documented the lives of three families who are faced with extreme hardships and are battling to survive a life of being poor. All three families have more than one child and could barely afford to pay their bills and purchase food for their household.

Stereotypes are seen as overgeneralized ideas, images, or beliefs of a person based on a group of people. Stereotypes can either be taken or said in a negative or positive way but mostly seen in a negative way. Stereotypes are formed on a life experience, idea or a belief a person may have towards one person based on the person’s gender, race, religion or social class. The most common stereotypes are of the social classes which are the: upper, middle and lower class.

As a reader reads Barbara Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed on (Not) Getting by in America, they get an insight on what it is like to live a low income life. Ehrenreich proposes the argument in the introduction that poverty is a serious matter and just because one has a job does not mean they are not considered poor. She wants to persuade us to realize that American is not the land of opportunity as promised and portrayed and there are regular people who are struggling to live a comfortable life. Throughout her book she mentions her experiences with living on minimum wage, the hiring process, and how she felt being put in that position. After reading Ehrenreich’s book I am thoroughly persuaded.

“Poverty is like punishment for a crime you didn't commit” this quote was said by Mahatma Gandhi and it relates so well with this article “It is Expensive To Be Poor”, answer the question yourself, Is it expensive to be poor? This article is titled like that to get the audience's attention early and have them thinking ahead of reading. The author Barbara Ehrenreich is building a pre thought when she does this which helps support her claim. “It is Expensive To Be Poor” by Barbara Ehrenreich is an article posted on “The atlantic” “which is where you can find your current news and analysis on politics, business, culture, and technology”. Knowing what “The Atlantic” offers for readers this gives Ehrenreich a detailed look at who she is writing to. The article talks about poverty within america and the issues and resolutions connected to the economy. In “It is Expensive To Be Poor” Ehrenreich claim is that people in poverty are not in that situation because of self habits but because they simply do not have money at the moment. she explains that anyone

Despite the great wealth the United States possesses, it has for long struggled with poverty which is said to be inherited from one generation to another. The culture of poverty hinders those affected from economic betterment however much assistance they obtain from social programs put in place. The term Culture of poverty is believed to have been coined by Oscar Lewis, who suggested that children who grow up in poverty-stricken families are highly likely to adopt the norms and practices that encourage poverty. Thus, these children, he believed, would replicate the adapted values in their lives which would in turn generate a cycle of intergenerational poverty in the long run (Bell et al, 2013). Thus the culture of poverty is a topic which creates heated debates in both the public and political arenas.