Lepore's Essay 'Richer: Accounting For Inequality'

Throughout our history our society struggles with inequality. Sexism and racism still addresses like class, gender or other dominating classifications a structural problem in our United States culture. In Jean Baker Miller’s essay “Domination and Subordination” she discusses the temporary and permanent inequality. Miller states that the temporary inequality is a relationship between a dominated individual who explains and is a teacher to the subordinated individual. In contrast her explanation of the permanent inequality is the relationship of different individuals who always will be unequal. In her discussion about the permanent inequality, she mentioned the dominant groups. Inferior groups are a lower part in our society, thus are judged

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..

Poverty shares traits with the Shawshank State Penitentiary: a rare few find a way out but more often than not, those who begin the escape get caught and sent back to the same place they started. The path out exists, but it may require help from outside influences or having to digging away at a hole with a rock hammer for years. Unfortunately, not every impoverished American shares the triumphant tale of Andy Dufresne. The Other Wes Moore tells the story of two men of the same name and beginnings who have disparate futures. The author, Wes Moore, ended up on a path to success while the other Wes Moore remains in a jail cell for the rest of his life. The author’s rock hammer was access to a quality education and removal from a rough neighborhood.

During this week, we have covered numerous topics, none more prominent than the oppression of women. Everyone had different opinions, allowing me to take into account different views on the issue. In one of the texts we examined, “Oppression”, Marilyn Frye, a philosopher, debates the subjugation of women. She states the cultural customs that causes oppression of women. I do agree with her view that women are oppressed, but I do not agree that it is just women. I believe that men as a gender are also oppressed.

Florence Kelley conveys her message about child labor in her speech. Through the use of different rhetorical strategies, she shows us how each state’s child labor laws are different. Each state has their own law of how long the child should work and an age. The children are expected to be working while the adults are buying. The children will always be working there because without an education, they can’t really do anything else.

“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

In the 1980’s black women are faced with a lot pressure in society, Because women of color are both women and racial minorities, they face more pressure in which lower economic opportunities due to their race and their gender. This pressure is reflected both in the jobs available to them and in their lower pay. Also because they are women of color they are likely to be the giver of the house and also within the families. Through the use of anecdotes,rhetorical questions, anaphora, ethos and metaphors, "In The Uses of Anger: Women Responding to Racism, Audre Lorde argues that women of color need to respond to racism with anger spurred from their fear and that not a bad thing depends on how anger is portrayed.

Inequality between social classes has been a problem for humanity since social organization exists. The texts “I Am The People, The Mob” by Carl Sandburg and “The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats” by Nick Hanauer both address an issue about inequality, relevant for each’s author’s context. While “The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats” expresses a point of view for higher class people and about a modern-day problem, “I Am The People, The Mob” describes a problem in a context of a century before and for a less wealthy class. Text C, “I Am The People, The Mob” is a poem written in 1916, for an audience of people that were not part of the higher social classes but were oppressed by them. This text’s purpose is for the audience to relate to the image the author is describing, in order to create awareness about an issue of inequality. Text D, “The Pitchforks Are Coming… For Us Plutocrats” is a memo published in a magazine about politics in 2014. Its audience is rich people, entrepreneurs and capitalists. The text creates awareness about the rising inequality and persuades to solve this problem.

This made Dave’s situation significantly worse by not putting a stop to the “punishment”. Father trying to ignore what was happening when he was home caused Davids mental quality to degrade rapidly. There was a time when his father was his hope and hero, though now David had no one, leaving him to face his mother on his own.

This humanities passage is from a speech by Susan B. Anthony, a 19th-century women’s rights leader. Susan B. Anthony, the leader in the women’s rights movement, has voted at the last Presidential election, and was branded as a criminal who refuses to follow the U.S. Law. However, in this speech, she asserts that she has not committed crime, but only is simply aware of her and all United States citizens’ rights. Anthony, as one of the suffragettes, justifies her decision of voting and clarifies her firm favor of women’s suffrage. In this passage, she uses various types of argument in order to convince the audience via three strategies: appeals to authorities, stylistic choices, rhetorical question, and appeal to emotions.

“Imagine for a minute what kind of society it is in which some people can spend on a toy what it would cost to feed a family of six or seven”. The children are beginning to see the unfairness in the division of wealth. Poorer families do not have the luxury of wasting money on frivolous toys. “I could see me askin my mother for a $35 birthday clown. ‘You wanna who that costs what?’ she’d say, cocking her head to the side to get a better view of the hole in my head. Thirty-five dollars could buy new bunk beds for Junior and Gretchen’s boy”. Poor families living in destitution are resourceful, “‘my sailboat cost me about fifty cents’”. Even though they do not have the financial benefits, the children play with toys they make themselves. They value money because there is less of it so it goes to the important things in life. The impoverished value food and beds over toys. Rich families that are not burdened by insufficient funds value material possessions and luxury items. They still have the necessities; however, they are not burdened by the lack of food or beds. Those born rich are able to live life not realizing the struggles of the poor. Poor families see money and associate that with food. “‘You know, Miss Moore, I don’t think all of us here put together eat in a year what that sailboat costs’”. Even the children understand the hardships that a lack of money can cause. These people value money because they

In the essay, “Richer and Poorer” written by Jill Lepore, and published in The New Yorker on March 16, 2015, the author discusses the income inequality in the United States and uses the rhetorical stages logos, ethos, and pathos as methods for trying to inform the educated middle class about the economic inequality and the effects on the individuals.

Ehrenreich uses her experiences to expand and illustrate Mantsios’ thesis about economic inequality in America and the lasting effects of class distinctions. Ehrenreich shares her experiences working in low paying jobs and challenges the idea that low income citizens are not hard working people. It obvious that both of these authors want Americans to recognize that our society is unjust and corrupt. Though I do agree with their claims that achieving the American dream is not a simple task, I refuse to believe that hard work and perseverance are not enough to be successful in this country. There have been numerous examples of individuals who have overcame the obstacles placed by their race and social standings. For instance, we can look at Oprah

So Rich, So Poor: Why It's So Hard to End Poverty in America is a masterpiece of economic analysis by Peter Edelman. A former aide to the Senator Robert F. Kennedy, that the author focuses on how the nation that is considered to the greatest is at the center of the poverty as a subject of national discussion. While stopped working with Senator Kennedy he fought against all odds to highlight this serious state of the nation. In fact, against all the odds, Peter Edelman sets forth to give an intriguing analysis of what the United States has become; the new poverty frontier. With an explosive approach, he goes ahead to discuss how a country can be considered so rich, but yet have some of its citizens living below the poverty line.

Sociological controversies are often confronted through a selection of opinions formed by the passion of activists. With the evolving principled ideals of society, the idea of social constructionism is becoming more of a controversial issue facing a variety of different standpoints. Debates on the topic of social construction have been ongoing for centuries causing a dramatic divide between those who believe it and those who don’t. Social constructionism is a social theory of knowledge that scrutinizes the development of the way social occurrences are created, developed and practiced by humans. In this case, social constructivism is argued through the eyes of a feminist. Donna Haraway offers a fair critique of the feminist and minority involvement