Summary/Response: “Serving in Florida” In “Serving in Florida,” author Barbara Ehrenreich describes her month-long project: living in relative poverty as a minimum wage worker. Her thesis is that earning only minimum wage contributes to a life of struggle and finds that she cannot make ends meet. Ehrenreich describes her job hunting journey and how she tries to survive in a low-wage job, working as a diner waitress in Key West, Florida. Finding a job, Ehrenreich describes her trials working with non-sympathetic management and rude customers. An example she mentions is that “managers can sit—for hours at a time if they want—but it’s their job to see that no one else ever does, even when there’s nothing to do.” She also expresses in the article
The invisible workforce consists of the low-wage workers that face harsh working conditions, a few or no benefits, and long hours of labor that exceed the regular business week. Barbara Ehrenreich, narrates her experience of entering the service workforce, in the book Nickel and Dimed. She proves that getting by in America working a minimum wage job is impossible. Although, the book was written in the 1990’s, the conditions in which minimum wage workers lived still prevail today. Minimum wage no longer serves its original purpose of providing a living wage for the invisible workforce.
Economic inequality and injustice come in the same hand. Poor people are more likely to experience inequality and injustice. The negative assumptions of poor people are created by the media and politicians. Promoting economic justice by offering people living in poverty some form of social support. Barbara Ehrenreich found in her experiment the workforce for low-wage was difficult. Conley talks about the different types of social inequalities and how they have been unsuccessful.
Carol Berkin was a talented woman; she was born in Mobile, Alabama. She earned bachelor 's certificate at Barnard College. Also, at Columbia University, she got M.A and PhD; she achieved the Bancroft Dissertation Award. She was chosen with her book: Jonathan Sewall: Odyssey of An American Loyalist by Carol Berkin (1974). Right now, Baruch College is where she becomes Presidential Professor of History; she is a member of history staff at CUNY Graduate Center. In addition, she is the writer, good editor; she has written many textbooks. They are published like A brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution (2002) that was translated into Chinese and Polish, Women of America: A History (1979), Clio in the classroom: Guide for Teaching
In the Working Poor, David Shipler shows the different levels of poverty in the United States. Although many people work every day they still do not have enough money to live their lives comfortably or contently. In chapter 1, Money and Its Opposite, discuss the different people that worked hard their entire lives only to remain in or below the poverty line. For instance, in the book Shipler speaks of the disadvantages that the working poor are susceptible to. Often being taken advantage of from employers that do not give accesses that they are entitled to, the working poor are more likely to be audit than the wealthy, and become victims of cons that point toward money for a small payment, first. The many that live in poverty often overspend.
In the book Nickel and Dimed Barbara Ehrenreich disguised herself as a minimum wage worker, and also lived as one to determine what it is like to live that way. While working as a waitress she met Gail an unsuspecting coworker of Ehrenreich, who actually is living off a minimum wage salary. Even though living off minimum wage is difficult, Barbara Ehrenreich did not have it as difficult as Gail because Ehrenreich could have gone back to her luxurious life anytime she pleased while Gail would have to continue her way of living, and Ehrenreich also had multiple amenities such as the one thousand dollars she had been saving and her hotel room.
In understanding how my worldview was subconsciously constructed by my life experiences from the past nineteen years, I had to first think about my roots. I was born in Tampa, Florida to a Puerto Rican mother and white father. They divorced when I was too young to remember, and while I did have a relationship with my dad, I lived with my mother and was raised in a tight-knit Puerto Rican family, often times being cared for by my grandmother. I was an only child for ten years which I’m sure has impacted my personality, and at ten I got a baby sister whom I am very close to. Growing up in Florida was interesting because I was half white and half Hispanic, which mirror the main demographics of Florida well, but I never quite fit in with either group because while I look very white and this is what people perceive me as, I was not raised by the white side of my family but rather the Puerto Rican side. Still, I don’t quite fit into this group either because I don’t speak perfect Spanish at home and most Hispanic people treat me as an “outgroup” and not one of them.
Life is full of hardships, ups and downs, and everywhere in between. Barbara Ehrenreich took on this life experience of working a minimum wage job and only living off what she earned. All the work she did was the for her book Nickel and Dimed, or the excerpt from Serving in Florida. I have worked a minimum wage job and understand how hard it could be to try and live on what little you earn. In Ehrenreich’s Serving in Florida, she first expresses, “ Picture a fat person’s hell, and I don't mean a place with no food. Instead there is everything you might eat if eating had no bodily consequences- the cheese fries, the chicken-fried steaks, the fudge- laden desserts- only here every bite must be paid for, one way or another, in human discomfort” (394). At first all I could think
Showing how it’s not just a financial issue, but it can be brought down to a personal level to where they can become vulnerable and humiliated in public by others. “And most tipped workers are not fancy steakhouse servers: they are women working at places like IHOP, Applebee’s and Olive Garden.” (Saru Jayaraman) Making this a rising issue, so if they did have this minimum wage and had a vulgar customer, then they could give the customer poor service for how they’re treating the waiters/waitress. Instead of having to put up with terrible manners and unnecessary callings or actions from the
whatever it takes to keep them alive. That is not moral, that is legal. But
Him having this experience made him bring up a point saying, that every business with minimum wage employees has to respond to this one way or another and i quote, “ Those who say raising the minimum wage will have no effect on employment are dreaming.” For example, if the minimum wage is raised to $15, for most businesses like Brodsky’s, that will be the entry level pay which will cause them to cut certain things out whether its employees, supplies, etc. to stay in business. Thus, making it obvious that raising the minimum wage will cost jobs one way or another. But on the other hand, why have a business if they can’t keep up with the demands of the employees? Why should a person pursue a business if they can’t pay their workers the money they deserve, considering the majority make a living off of the job. Do people ever think about just simply making changes to the business, whether it’s adding a new feature or upgrading the overall quality of it. For example, something like a restaurant can add in special day of the week where they serve a particular dish just on that day, which will bring in more profit because of supply and demand. Another example, for business more like a store, the owner or employer can expand their range product sold in the store; if they sell hats, shoes, and clothes, maybe then they could range out and add in book bags for the school time or even accessories. There is always alternatives to bringing in more profit when needed, instead of just cutting
Carver's "Women in Florida" is regarding women’s rights issues. She notes that in the United States, Florida is one of the most populated; women are roughly equal the population to men. Yet, women are still seen as a minority group. Women are considered minorities, because they do not share the same power, privileges, rights, or opportunities as men. Most of the women in history had fewer rights and career opportunities than men. Carver believes that the south limited women to "traditional roles". Being a wife and mother were seen as women's professions. In the 20th century, women won the right to vote. However, southern states, like Florida resisted, due to their traditional values concerning women's roles.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 – May 14, 1998) was an American journalist, writer and environmentalist known for her staunch defense of the Florida Everglades against draining and development. Moving to Miami as a young woman to work for The Miami Herald, Douglas became a freelance writer, producing over a hundred short stories that were published in popular magazines. Her most influential work was the book The Everglades: River of Grass (1947), which redefined the popular conception of the Everglades as a treasured river instead of a worthless swamp. Published the same year as the formal opening of Everglades National Park, the book was a call to attention about the degrading quality of life in the Everglades and continues to remain an influential book on nature conservation as well as a reference for information on South Florida. Its impact has been compared to that of the influential 1962 book Silent Spring. Dougla’s books, stories, and journalism career brought her influence in Miami, which she used to advance her causes.
In “Scrubbing in Maine”by Barbara Ehrenreich. Ehrenreich decides to work at the Maids Franchise so she can observe how the system was made for the maids. During her time being a maid she became emotionally impacted by the way her and the women were treated. Ehrenreich experiences in the article”Scrubbing in Maine,’’are the ones I can relate to even though both jobs don’t seem the same, the fact is my time spent working at Jewel is remarkably and depressingly similar to the time spent by Ehrenreich as a maid. In both instances employees are not really human, but are parts of a bigger machine and only Blue collar workers are stereotypes as uneducated unthinking individuals. As Blue collar jobs emphasized the routines, dehumanization of the employee, and loss of control over a person’s time. Workers do not engage in cognitive skills, but physical
In the book, Ehrenreich documented her experiences working a series of minimum wage jobs as a waitress, a maid and a nursing home dietary assistant. Ehrenreich found that in order to make ends meet and afford a place to live and food to eat, she needed to work two jobs, which left her in a constant state of exhaustion and pain. She also observed of her fellow servers that, “everyone who lacks a working husband or boyfriend seems to have a second job” (2001, p. 48). Many of her co-workers shared the same challenge with affordable living arrangements, some living in a van, with their mother, sharing rooms with strangers or even living in a dry-docked boat (Ehrenreich, 2001). Not only did Ehrenreich find that the wages offered unskilled workers were not enough to meet the basic needs of food and shelter, but that there are a “host of special costs” (2001, p. 27) incurred by the working poor. For example, workers are required to invest their own funds in partial uniform and pay ...
“Give me a bowl of special noodle. Where were you at? I’m waiting you for a long time. Hurry up!” The man shouted at the waitress in the very crowded restaurant and didn’t even give her a look. She didn’t reply but went back to the kitchen. That was a case that I witnessed in the restaurant next to my house. Therefore, when I read the article “Can I Get You Some Manners with That?” written by Christie Scotty, I can understand why Scotty feels kind of angry when the way others treat her depend on her jobs. I agree with her in part, but I believe not all people treat other that way.