Schwartz's Article 'Rethinking Work'

The fact that happiness is a state of well-being pursued by humans since the beginning of humanity is not new. Since the ancient Greek philosophers, happiness has always been a goal for people. However, the definition of happiness is still subjective and controversial as Mark Kingwell, an award-winning social critic, essayist, and professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, presents in his article “In pursuit of Happiness." The author begins to build his credibility by calling everyday facts and emotions, also by citing philosophers, researchers, and other authors. Using the sources effectively in a persuasive piece, Kingwell demonstrates, through examples and science researches, the difficulty in defining happiness, which can result in unhappiness.

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is based on a utopian society with unique social, psychological, political, and cultural features. The novel hinges on the idea of an all-powerful state that controls almost all aspects of life and makes citizens ignorant problems occurring in their society. Bernard Marx is an Alpha male who fails to fit in the structure created by the World Controllers of his society due to his inferior capabilities. His discontent in society leads him to hold unorthodox ideas about many aspects of life and shapes him as an individual. Through Bernard’s exposure to John the Savage and his heightened need for social acceptance, Bernard Marx is shaped from an admirable character who yearns for more out of life than given in his

In the past, there have been many influential economic figures in the industrial business industry. Andrew Carnegie is one of the most famous of these figures but not just in a business scheme, but also in an economic and national scheme. Andrew Carnegie is a business man that caused a major controversial issue to arise; the topic of being labeled a Robber Baron or a Captain of Industry by the public. A Robber Baron is someone who has become wealthy through heartless and unethical business actions that will only benefit the individual. On the other hand, a Captain of Industry is a business leader who has become rich by accomplishing activities that will, overall, benefit the people of the community such as expanding a market or providing more jobs. There have been many debates on which one

The author Andrew Curry thinks that workers today are unfulfilled because they would rather work a job they do not like and earn more money than work a job that they are passionate about and earn less. He also talks about how people seem to work more than relax in today's age like when he says “instead of working less, our hours have stayed steady or risen.” (Curry, Kirszner and Mandell 399) the evidence that he uses to connect his view is the amount of people who complain about their jobs. Nowadays everyone knows a person that constantly complains about his or her job but they still work that same job because of the financial gain. Many people today hate the job they work but that same job is the reason they have a car, house etc. furthermore

In “Cooling Down Our Brain,” Jason Peters talked about how researchers proved that self-control can be developed by specific mental exercises. He explained an experiment named “the marshmallow test” and how the result of the experiment showed that children who had self-control became more successful in their lives than those who did not have it. The author further stated that additional research showed that the human brain has “hot” and “cool” areas and everyone can train the “cool” part to control the impulses.

The essay “Small Change” by Malcolm Gladwell gives a brief explanation of a 1960’s boycott sit-in organized by a small group of African Americans who weren’t allowed to sit at the snack bar that was reserved for Caucasians. Gladwell used this example to further elaborate about how high-risk activism requires a strong hierarchical structure in order to thrive. “Tweet like an Egyptian” is about the Arabs that are located throughout Africa and the Middle East gaining access to social networking. Attaining the internet allowed Arabs to acquire a virtual life of freedom of speech and expression. The internet empowered these people with information to challenge their authorities in real life.

Topic: Should Andrew Carnegie be described as a “captain of industry” or a “robber baron”?

Andrew Carnegie was a “robber baron” as shown in the way he acted towards the people who helped him reach the top and the terrible working environment that he subjected his workers to. He did various things in an attempt to positively alter his public image by overshadowing the awful things he had done. At the start of Carnegie’s career in business, he worked under Thomas Scott where he learned how to be successful in business. Minimizing costs were the best way to make a business profitable and lowering those required cutting wages, demanding 13 hour days and utilizing spies as a way to thwart possible strikes. He would use many of these ideas and practices in his own business causing him to eventually become the undisputed king of steel.

In his essay, “Should Everybody Write?”, Dennis Baron focuses on the expansion of information due to the advancement of technology and the vast amount of unchecked writing available on the internet. Baron also goes into depth about the origins of writing and the impact it has had on readers, authors, and researchers. After he presents the origins and progression of writing, Baron answers the question of, should everybody write?

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, about 43.6 million of Americans live in poverty in the United States. There are many opportunities these days for Americans to get out of poverty including a job. Earning any job can help find a better job placement and learn job skills as oppose to unemployment.

From the facts and first hand accounts she presents on employees of Wal-Mart, I agree with her proposition that employees are underappreciated. Jennifer Mclaughlin’s story of her experiences working at Wal-Mart is said to be a common one for Wal-Mart employees; she is paid little- only $16,800 per year- but has extensive responsibilities in a given shift. After reading this, I realized that this is coming from a huge, high profit company and wondered at why they were not being paid adequately enough to afford the company’s health insurance. As Olsson puts it “Wal-Mart is no mere peddler of saucepans and boom boxes” (608). This means she contends that there is definitely money, it is just being budgeted in a way that is beneficial to corporate and not the employees. I completely agree with this, their $220

Most likely, one has heard about the story of Pocahontas and John Smith. However, John Smith was not as loving and kind as he was portrayed. In the letter Address to Captain Smith, the speaker, Chief Powhatan, Pocahontas’ father, takes a condescending tone and addresses to the English settlers, especially John Smith, how the chief’s generous hospitality has not been appreciated. Literary devices such as rhetorical questions, antithesis, and repetition, diction, and pathos and ethos are exercised by Chief Powhatan to address his purpose and produce it as impactful as fully possible.

However, these hard working nature in American institutions have caused some troubles to the lower class. Bruce Weinstein, the author from “The Ethics of Work-Life Balance”, and Courtney E. Martin, the author from “Time Off for the Overworked American”, claimed that the workers can not rest and must work hard to keep their jobs. These two authors explained that the workers are working way too hard to just keep their jobs. However, I believe there hard work will still benefit the whole company, which will help the whole society. There are costs for these kind of hard work ethics, but what is important is that these kinds of work ethics have helped America as a nation to grow as an advanced and better nation and

In “Tyranny of Choice,” Barry Schwartz brings to the table the topic of choice. The common believe is more choices, equals more freedom. Under that assumption we are living in the best times then. Everything in the world has multiple options to choose from. The choices range from what type of gum you want, to the best life insurance policy for your family. Schwartz uses the modern university for his example, he likens it to an intellectual shopping mall: “Individual customers are free to ‘purchase’ whatever bundles of knowledge they want”. Some universities let incoming freshmen sit in on classes briefly to test them out, the way one would try on clothes at a store. On the surface this seems amazing, how could anyone not be happy

According to Marx, in the capitalist mode of production, a worker slowly loses the power to decide upon his or her life and destiny, they lose their Gattungswesen (“species-essence”), and this is a consequence of living in a socially stratified society, where human beings become a mechanistic part of a social class. Even though human beings are self-conscious and autonomous, in a capitalist society they are nothing but an economic entity whose acts are dictated by the bourgeoisie, with the aim