American Workaholics

931 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Theories on women in the workforce

The effects on individuals has thus far revealed only part of the whole picture. When focus is shifted to workers with family situations, reports are revealing that time constraints are also connected to the shared working time between parents in households, with dual-earner based households and single parents meeting intensified challenges. Among these parents, women are even today continuing to take on the biggest share of family based responsibility and caretaking. This is thus making women workers, or single fathers, feel even more pressure than their workforce counterparts who have no children. The separation between workers who have no children and mothers or fathers with caretaking responsibilities has led to yet another growing divide that demands a change in policy that will address the specific conditions of workers and their families. When the U.S. is compared to the conditions of other workers in other countries the numbers come as quite a shock. According to the magazine Psychology Today, “The United States—one of the richest countries in the world--ranks 28th among advanced nations in the category of work-life balance, 9th from the bottom” (Cummins 1). This stressful imbalance of home life with excessive work hours has left us in desperate need of more time and is becoming a strong identifier of American culture in the world. As Cummins explains, “We log long hours at work with the fear of losing our jobs through downsizing hanging over our heads. Then we fight rush hour traffic to get home in time to be super-parents, putting dinner on the table, helping our kids with their homework, and checking in with friends and family members we feel we have neglected because we are so overwhelmed” (Cummins 1). This well pa... ... middle of paper ... ...he Betrayal of The American Dream, other factors that have placed tension and added stress on the middle class are explained. As the federal government and other corporations have enacted policies that, “Benefit the few at the expense of the many … steadily dismantling the foundation of America’s middle class” (Barlett 5) almost all economic prosperity has seemingly become only attainable by the richest in our society. From using policies that force people to work until the age of seventy before being able to access retirement benefits, to Washington and Wall street having slowly replaced high paying jobs with minimum wage ones that force more and more people to work under contracts that lower wages, the governments harsh treatment of the middle class has only aided in this increase in economic stress and it will continue to do so unless we take a stand (Barlett 5).

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Rip The Middle Class

    926 Words  | 2 Pages

    The essay “RIP the Middle Class: 1946-2013” was written by Edward McClelland. Edward McClelland is an American journalist. In this essay, McClelland is trying to prove a point that at some point there wouldn’t be the middle class and there would only be the rich and the poor, unless the government intervenes to balance out the economy.

    Read More

  • Millennial Generation Rhetorical Analysis

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    Previous generations have a strong belief of keeping work and home life separate; that work is for work and home is for play (Rampell, 2011, para 21). Today’s professionals do not seem to abide by similar beliefs, constantly crossing the borders of one into the other. While many recognize this as an issue that could result in employees being less productive, it has actually resulted in them accepting that their work may run late into the evening or even into the weekend. I agree with this completely in that I grew up being taught that business is business and personal is personal; you leave your home life at the door. But now times have changed, and my weekends are no longer dedicated to my home life, but for work, because I attend classes during the week. Also, in my line of work in the Allied Health industry, it is a requirement to work off hours. Long gone are the days of working nine to five, Monday through Friday; technology and the demand of wanting affairs done and done as soon as possible, has made it so the “work week” is now 24-7. “Jon Della Volpe, the director of polling at Harvard Institute of Politics, said, ‘Some experts also believe that today’s young people are better at quickly switching from one task to another, given their exposure to so many stimuli during their childhood and adolescence’” (Rampbell,

    Read More

  • Shrinking Middle class

    986 Words  | 2 Pages

    The most often cited cause of the decline of the middle class in the United States is stagnant wages. Between 1955 and 1970, real wages adjusted and inflation rose by an average of 2.5 percent per year. Between 1971 and 1994, the average growth of real wages was 0.3 percent a year. The stagnation of wages has been especially noticeable to middle-class people, who rely very much on the money they make at their jobs. Recessions seem to hit higher income households much harder, which sends them down to the middle class. Middle-income households may or may not be more likely than higher-income households to qualify for unemployment compensation when jobs are scarce. But those who do are more likely than high-income households to receive benefits that replace a greater share of their regular wages, which helps them maintai...

    Read More

  • Negative Essay On Donald Trump

    1415 Words  | 3 Pages

    As you can remember the middle class is the working class that elected Trump and Trumpism into office. Mr. Donald stated in his presidential campaign slogan that he is on his way to “Make America Great Again.” Donald Trump’s presidency uniquely characterizes an opportunity for the middle class to be built and strengthen through policies. In winning his voters hearts Trump used his slogan in gain the trust of his people. Trump appealed to the working-class Americans by promising many changes to the United States system that impose many new

    Read More

  • Persuasive Speech On Affordable Housing

    1064 Words  | 3 Pages

    While the the 1%, are secured, no one is addressing the rest of the people. As the economy flourishes, housing, higher education and health care, and child care increases with it to the point where 30 percent of a person’s income goes towards housing. People are finding it impossible to purchase a house with their middle class incomes. People begin to fall out of the once stable middle class because too much is needed to be sacrificed in order to live in a stable home. In the shrinking middle class, “40% or more of the residents live below the poverty

    Read More

  • Essay On Middle Class In America

    771 Words  | 2 Pages

    Middle class Americans represent more than half of the United States’ population. They are the backbone of U.S. economics, and have been since the very beginning of the country’s history. However, an unstable job market, created by outsourcing, combined with a minimum wage which has not been raised since 1989, is gradually shrinking this economic group. To avoid the extinction of this critical class, the next president of the United States will have to go to extraordinary measures. Without major reformation, the middle class will continue to be absorbed by the lower class, ultimately resulting in the complete loss of one of America’s most important socio-economic bodies.

    Read More

  • The Working Poor: Invisible in America by David K. Shipler

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...elp the working middle class from falling into poverty or to help the working poor rise out of poverty. Furthermore the working poor themselves lack the knowledge and power to demand reform. David Shipler says it best when he writes, “Relief will come, if at all, in an amalgam that recognizes both the society’s obligation through government and business, and the individual’s obligation through labor and family —and the commitment of both society and individual.” (Shipler 5786-5788) It is time for America to open its eyes and see the invisible working poor.

    Read More

  • The Negative Impacts Of Gender Inequality

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Men are likely to get hired if they have children and tend to get paid more. In contrast, women are less likely to get hired even though they have more quality and children. This is when the gender inequality come in. In this article “The Motherhood Penalty vs. the Fatherhood Bonus” the author presented the role and the impact between the roles of the genders. Michelle Budig, a sociology professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst put it this way, “The inequality of gender role reveals when men get paid high for having children and women pay the biggest price for the low income” (Qtd. in Miller). According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, 71 percent of mothers are with their children working at home and 40 percent are the primary bread winner (Pew Research Center). In this perspective of women working at home and men working in career shift the qualification between them. The inequality is that employer sees the father as a commit worker and a mother as a distraction in workplaces because women have extra hours of work to do at home with their children and house chores. Claire Miller states that, “one of the worst career moves a women can make is to have children” (Claire Miller). As for the women in the United States, there are a lot of negative impact for them if they decide to have babies. The quality for them shrink to the corner while men hold the advantage of having

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of The American Dream

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    The “American Dream” consists of all U.S citizens having the opportunity to obtain success and prosperity through hard work and determination, but, in a capitalistic economy such as the United States the “American Dream” is merely impossible. Low wages are masked as starting points, taught to eventually pay off in the form of small raises or promotions. Competition to obtain unequally shared resources, is used to define an individual’s extent of initiative. In reality, these are all concepts used by the wealthy to deter the poor working class from obtaining upward mobility. Middle class America, the key factor in helping the wealthy stay wealthy, have adapted to these beliefs and concepts, created to keep them far behind. Conflict theorist

    Read More

  • Does American Society Overvalue Work?

    1812 Words  | 4 Pages

        According to a study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Americans are working longer than ever before. The OECD’s results clearly showed that Americans aged fifteen to sixty-four worked fifty percent more than the French, Germans, and Italians (Prescott 2). This inequality in work hours has been around for decades and is only becoming more noticeable as time rolls on. Many questions and arguments exist debating what should be done to correct the issue. Because American society values a strong work ethic, many Americans overwork themselves to meet society’s expectations.

    Read More

  • Mothers in the Workforce

    1603 Words  | 4 Pages

    In a society with the muajority of mothers joining or returning to the workforce, there is a growing body of research documenting the demands placed on these women and what can be done to help their transition into this new role. According to the United States’ Department of Labor, in the year 2012, 70.5% of mothers with children under the age of 18 were a part of the workforce; of these women 73.7% were employed full-time, working over 35 hours a week, and 26.3% were employed part-time, working less than 35 hours a week (United States Department of Labor, 2012). Given this information, it is becoming more important to further research how this new role as an employee affects the role of parenting and what can be done to help this transition. The intent of this paper is to compare the experiences of a working mother to the current research on the topic of working mothers. Moreover, this paper addresses the demands placed on working mothers as well as the factors that ameliorate their transition into this new role.

    Read More

  • Men Oppress Women Essay

    2199 Words  | 5 Pages

    Women used to stay home and take care of children or work part-time jobs. However, economic times have made it almost impossible to survive off of solely one income. Therefore, more women have joined the workforce which greatly contributed to the shrink of the wage gap, but there is still a large difference in working hours between men and women. From what we have already seen through Sobering’s research, women still obtain large responsibilities outside of the home. Because of this, women are not able to work the same amount of hours as men. Mandel and Semyonov’s research concluded that, “..in all decades, more than 90 % of men work more than 40 weekly hours), whereas the variance among women is much larger (more than one-third of working women worked fewer than 40 hours)” (Mandel and Semyonov). Therefore, women have greatly increased their working hours in the past decade, but most women still work less hours than men.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Working

    1130 Words  | 3 Pages

    In “Americans Are Overworked, but Still Surprisingly Happy on the Job,” Suzanne Lucas claims that an appropriate amount of work can make workers feel satisfied, but

    Read More

  • Karl Marx And Social Conflict

    759 Words  | 2 Pages

    But as many societies modernized and grew much larger then working class became more educated, gaining specific job skills and achieving the kind of finical well-being jobs Marx would of never thought possible. As we see in today era in the year of 2016, workers are no longer getting exploited. Workers are now working under the protection of a union and a labor law. In a recent, New York Time article published on September 13, 2016, titled "Americans Inequality Problems: Real Income Gains Are Brief and Hard to Find". American 's income increasion was presented. A recent count by the Census Bureau provided good news for a beleaguered set of working class. A typical American working class income had increased by a heavy 5.2 percent in 2015. The first sky high jump since 2007, the year right before the economy had sank into a hard recession. The average income for the poorest population increased by a 6.6 percent after three back to back consecutive years of decline, the American economy has began to lift, the fellow ruse of the minimum wage across many states and municipalities. But what many American 's ask is what "why now why after so many years after the increase of labor income?" The answer to this question has many factors that can imply but one cause was mainly on distribution.Most agreed that the only way Americans were going to make it ahead would be through a paycheck. But the question still stands

    Read More

  • Seafood Marketing Plan

    1968 Words  | 4 Pages

    Change in work patterns more mothers are part of the working force making households where both parents are working

    Read More

More about American Workaholics

Open Document