FastFoodNation post

I have read this book for leisure last year because all the buzz it was getting, but this time around I picked up on a few things. Last time I read it I had not implemented what Chapter 3 had to say into my own mind frame. For example, I was always naïve and thinking that the typical employees at fast food chains were not usually Caucasians; which is very hard for me to admit because it sounds terrible, but it is the truth. In addition I used to feel that these employees were just lower class citizens that were not applying themselves, but I was interested to see that in Colorado Springs, Colorado it made it seem that the majority of the people employed by the golden arches were none other then teenagers trying to have a part-time job while juggling getting an education. The shocking thing is how little amount of training you need to have such a job. My friends who have had part time jobs in high school always complained about how much training they had to go through first before they could be considered a true employee at clothing stores, shoe stores, etc. while these people are to make and serve food with no sense of adequate training. Preposterous! If I wasn’t sketched out enough by what some fast food chains consider ‘quality food’, it really made me nervous knowing that people who make the food and the restaurants hardly knew the ethics of business, and dealing with people, let alone the proper way to handle food. Nasty nasty nasty. After reading The Most Dangerous Jobs it made me remember the video I watched in my business ethics class on the meat packing industry. I am surprised after reading it that there is not more diseases going around from the way that handle gets packaged and pass the inspections. It is so gross to think that people live like that, going to work in such an environment, because they feel it is the best possible way to make pay and earn money for themselves or their family. Overall I enjoyed reading it once again!

Betsy's Response to the Speakers

So who else was ready to quit college after the first speakers? I already get guilted enough by my parents so my hefty tuition tag and now I get to hear that maybe it's not even worth it because I will be forever in debt. Maybe I misinterpreted the message but I came away with this: "Do what you love, but realize that unless you love business you will not be making any money and will have a hard time being financially stable." Parts were encouraging, the fact that one of the speakers was a single parent and did manage to pay off his loans certainly raised my spirits a bit. But am I the only one who reconsidered majoring or minoring in English when that women asked if it was worth and they basically replied that it wasn't?

The second speaker for "Coming of Age at Minimum Wage" was a bit more charismatic. She too read off a paper but in a more spontaneous and personable way. Perhaps it was that her topic was less daunting but I enjoyed this discussion much more than the first. Once again money was the major issue. Here were these kids that basically had to work full-time jobs while going to school and balance all of that with a social life. I was one of the few that raised their hand when asked who had worked in a fast food restaurant. I was lucky enough to work at an In'N'Out Burger for my first job. I wouldn't say that my experience was pleasant, but I certainly learned a lot. I am guessing, however, that my wage and conditions at In'N'Out were much better than the kids had at "Flips." I was struck by the quote "Poor kids grow up too fast." It's so true. If you are working the ridiculous hours these kids are working then you are going to become very mature very quickly. It isn't fair and it is certainly something to be admired. They place such a great value on education that they are willing to spend the extra hours at their jobs and maybe sacrifice their social life to stay in school. And yet, for most it is not enough.

It really makes you realize how lucky you are. That I can afford to be at Santa Clara and taking this english class. Maybe I'll stay in school, and keep my English minor, even if it won't make me any money.

fast food nation and nickel and dimed response

I'm going to begin with Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed and the move into Schlosser's Fast Food Nation.

In terms of Ehrenreich's peice, I wish I was more surprised by the conditions in which these people are forced to live under. I've never been waitstaff before, nor have a cleaned houses for money, however through friends I have come to understand the shortcomings of the industries. I have many friends who have now been waitstaff for a couple of years now, experiencing both rude and incredulous managers and entitled feeling customers. This seems to be how the organization works. I do not think that is right, but that is the reality of the situation at this point. Labor laws and legislation do not support fair compensation of waitstaff, thus forcing waitstaff to work themselves to the bone. Until there is a switch from the current norms, it is what it is. As for cleaning staff, I am appalled with the conditions in which Ehrenreich and these other women are forced to work. They really only serve the purpose of bringing their "pimp" money. For the past couple of years, a cleaning lady has come to clean my house once a week. However, I could never imagine not even offering her a glass of water. It just seems like common courtesy. There is a pride and resilience though, that I can only imagine of emulating. There is also a stubborness that drives these women; they are only satisfied when they can provide the service in the best possible form. There courage, as seen in Holly, seems to be only understood through the trials and tribulations that they experience.

On to Schlosser's Fast Food Nation. I am disgusted with the working conditions of these meat packing industries. Their lack of care for their employees not only mirrors their inhuman treatment of the animals being slaughtered, but also displays their need to make a huge profit in today's capitalistic driven society. They seem to me, to be more than a product of the institution of capitalism; they are inhuman, worthy of sitting infront of high courts for war crimes and genocide (as much as a stretch that might be). Schlosser also tries to unearth the problems with todays franchises and the bind they put on franchisees. Franchises rob the franchisees, who in many cases work to make sure that everyone is taken care of (i.e. Dave Feamster). Dave Feamster, the franchisee owner, provides a bright light for this growing cut-throat business.

FFN

Response to Fast Food Nation

I cannot say I am at all surprised by what I read in Fast Food Nation. For the most part my expectation has been realized. Any text that deals with a developing facet of culture usually addresses the subject matter with a critical lens. That is to say, books are hardly ever written about the greater benefit of something that is making a few people rich or lots of people unhealthy. This is of course generally speaking.

More specifically I wonder what people expect from a meat packing facility under a system such as ours where profitability is of top concern. Industry spokespeople may insist that safety is the top concern of American meat providers, but I think safety is only an issue inasmuch as it can cost a lot of money if meat born disease kills someone and lawsuits are brought up using words like “criminally negligent” and “profiteering.” One could easily graph the money needed to make meat completely safe (for the consumer and the worker) and how much lawsuits against a company would cost to come to a best-fit ratio of dollars-invested-in-safety to profitability. I gaurentee that is exactly how much money is invested in safe guarding employees and the more-important consumer. It is not feasible to deliver a product as voluminous as meat and do so cheaply and as safely as humanly possible.

This is sadly the reality of the world we live in, and unless one wishes to pay 25 dollars for a cheeseburger, the one we will have to live in.

Fast Food Nation Response
Amy Magill

I have heard about this book for quite sometime now, and now finally have the chance to read it and discover why it is such an interesting piece of literature. I was extremely shocked with many of the statistics and almost all of the information presented in chapter 3, Behind the Counter. When I think of fast food chains and restaurants I wrongly presume most of the workers are immigrant and uneducated people looking for any kind of work despite the low pay and tiring lifestyle. However, although there is a handful of this population around the country, it was interesting to read that in smaller, more migrant towns such as Colorado Springs, the majority of the workers employed in the fast food chains are in fact teenagers. And from this statistic immediately derives another, which is that most industry injuries happen to this crowd because of their lack of experience in the workplace. Although this is an unfortunate statistic, it is even more unfortunate that the industry has been researching methods to save money by training employees less and less. The fast food industry has basically been molded into a restaurant business run by robots with workers needing to know how to start and stop an oven and synchronize cooking times in every restaurant throughout the country. This disgusts me and the details of how meats and meals are prepared have solidified my intention to never dine at a food chain like the ones described again.
Reading the chapter entitled The Most Dangerous Jobs gave me the chills from page one. It is ridiculous how we almost turn a blind eye to the immigrant labor force pursuing these life threatening, physically over demanding and disgusting jobs in the meat packing industry. It is extremely sad that these workers remain employed in such a job because of their need to pay bills with the extremely low, and under the table pay check they will receive and going through each day hoping to remain safe and unharmed.
Another part of this chapter that really captured my attention was how the meat was prepared and handled during the day. The image of hundreds of workers crammed together side by side in a bloody and messy environment with the slaughtering of animals in the background will probably haunt me every time I think about eating meat. It isn’t often I think about what goes into processed food and the hardships low wage workers endure to remain employed and work for such an industry.

Ehrenreich reading response

The thing that caught my eye and interest during this reading was the passion she expressed through her writing. You can tell this had a very big impact on Barbara Ehrenreich. After reading those 119 pages, you can tell she just barely got bye when she held all those jobs. It was an eye opener for me that I have no rhyme or reason to complain at any point, because I am so fortunate compared to those minimum wage employees. Due to the time commitment of college athletics, club soccer when growing up, I have only had one job for about a month, but I still was being financially supported by my parents. I could not even imagine being in a situation like the one mentioned involving the maid agency. They charge their clients $25 per person an hour yet they only pay the maid $6.65 an hour. That is horrid. How do they expect them to live? I know I could never nor would I ever expect anyone that worked for me too.
This book had caused me to feel a whirlwind of emotions, from sadness/remorse, disbelief, etc. I was shocked to see people treat others more like animals then humans. The manual labor that went along with their poor wages made me picture sweatshops with maltreatment to the tenth degree of employees. Overall I liked the structure, strength, and passion within the text of the speech, but was rather perturbed by what I actually found out about.

I'm not sure if I'm alone is saying that I wasn't surprised by the statistics on Franchises and some of the crazy corporate control. Having worked at Coldstone Creamery and Culvers, I've seen most of the problems the author talked about first hand. I thought it was a nice twist to show the owner of a successful franchise who treats his employees well and isn't totally driven by profits. I feel like this book is so depressing to read, it sometimes makes me just want to lose faith in the human race. Therefore, I liked the story of a caring boss who was willing to bring his managers to a success seminar. The Christopher Reeves was also a good ending for the chapter because he was followed by the horrible "Who here has ever been on a diet?" sales pitch. I felt that that moment really helped to highlight the truth of Christopher Reeves' statement.
I think the most alarming part of FFN was by far reading about the injuries. There really needs to be some changes in the corporate ladder because it's too easy for the low-paid managers to want that extra bonus in return for low injury reports. However, I think it's really hard to control the meatpacking, and basically every other capitalistic industry, because they're just going for a money. They're not making an effort for employees to get hurt/killed, they're making an effort to make money... at all cost. Therefore I feel that the author is right in calling for much more OSHA involvement/penalties. Fining $480 for a human life and not changing anything is truly unacceptable.

A response to the reading

The reading from Fast Food Nation highlights an economic and trend of the western world, most visible in the Fast Food industry of the US. Technology and atomization is replacing labor at the cost of the lower class and at the benefit of the managerial and owning class. Much like what Prof Marc explained to us in class last week, interest is created through the labor of others. In the spirit of cutting costs, improving profits, and decreasing the skill needed to work at a fast food restaurant, the corporations who own these franchises demand everything from their workers and give nothing to them in return. Schlosser uses Colorado Springs as a basis for his claims, pointing to the restaurant technology “designed to cut labor costs and serve fast food even faster” (Schlosser, 66). He talks of robotic drink machines, pressure sensors in the drive through asphalt to measure traffic, automatic ketchup dispensers, and fry cookers. More and more the fast food corporations are taking away the need for any skill to work in a fast food chain for the purpose of creating a high turnover workforce which can be paid minimally. What’s more, the worker is manipulated as seen by the tactics fast food managers have used to compensate for the low pay their employees receive. The methods of creating ‘team spirit’ and ‘stroking’ the worker are two ways managers create a non-financial value to working in a fast food restaurant which benefits the corporation but not the worker.

To be short, I was appalled at the chapter on the workers in the slaughter houses. It flat out made me sick to think that these conditions and events happen more than we’d like to think. I began to wonder at what point do people loose sight of everything and only focus on the economics? Yes it is cheaper to treat workers like shit and waltz your way around the judicial system, but what do you gain ultimately? In short, nothing. I hope that the people responsible for the mistreatment of workers like those described in this chapter of the book come to realize what they have done.

Hypertext 1

I am going to write my paper on Nike and the poor treatment they have for their employees in their sweatshops. There have been reports of physical abuse, sexual abuse, salary below minimum wage and debilitating quota systems are confirmed by CBS News, the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, AP, Reuters as well as other non-profit and non-governmental organizations. The courage of two individuals from the Vietnam sweatshops, in 1996, is what helped spark a worldwide movement. These two individuals that we have to thank for this are Thuy & Lap. Although they helped make the problem known, Nike continues to treat its labor problem as matter public relations. Nike's factory wages are still the lowest among foreign-owned factories in Vietnam along with in other countries.

Nike now tries to portray their company as a responsible company; they have put out more Nike-funded “studies” to look sorry for their actions. Nike has used $10 Million to fund a Global Alliance and used it to publicize their company as one that supports the studies on Asian workers, yet behind public eye Nike continues its goal to sabotage any labor organization that stands in its way. They attempted to send a letter to a Vietnam organization to prevent them from being overpowered by Us boycotters against changing the way the country worked that way Nike would still be capable of getting away with their bad practices.

Just DONT do It

Dear Nike,

I resign from every aspect of your corporation. From your apparel, your ties to Gatorade, all the way to the way you maltreat your employees.

Lets starts with your apparel. Who honestly makes a slogan saying “Just do it.” Swoosh… does that really make sense to give a sound for the symbol that is on all your items. Seems utterly ridiculous if you ask me and I am sick of seeing your empire grow for slogans that are, what I like to call, less then creative.

Some people may call you smart business men for using Gatorade to promote your sponsored professional athletes, but I beg to differ. I find it astonishing that you would have to use another product to boost your own. You strictly do things to benefit yourself and I am appalled. You have not gotten your business to the place you are today, through your own efforts.

Your products have been made by people who are being poorly treated and THIS is why I emphatically resign from wearing your products. You force young women and children in foreign countries to work long hours, at horrible times of the day and even through the night. On top of it all the wages you end up giving these individuals is, need I say, way below minimum wage. You show no sympathy for your employees, they are human beings and you treat them like machines. If you are such an affluent company, then why don’t you just buy such machines to do all this manual labor? Where are your morals? How do you sleep at night? I could never be associated or promote such an inhumane company with such low character running the company.

With all this said, I resign completely from Nike and have put all my eggs in the adidas basket because THEY run a company that has morals.

Sincerely,
Courtney

Reading Diary of FFN

When reading this I felt disgusted and extremely sad at the state the United States work force is in right now. I have to say, when I use to see the old men and women working at fast food restaurants it use to make me smile. But before you guys call me a sadist, let me explain. I smiled because I was happy that at that at their age these old folks are still able to work. However this book has opened my eyes, they don't have a choice, they work to barely make rent and adequately feed themselves. And to work your whole lives and still have to work when you're 60 years old at a place that mistreats you and takes advantage of your ignorance is the true tragedy.

I was truly shocked by the statistic that "roughly four or five fast food workers are now murdered on the job every month" (Schlosser: 83). That such an amazingly high number that you would expect that they are doing something about it, but they're not. These corporations don't care, as long as it's not them that are put in such a dangerous position they don't care. Because why spend money protecting your employees when your employees are dispensable. I bet they're way of thinking is that it is cheaper to not improve anything and just have to constantly hire new people, to them their employees ARE DISPENSABLE, and this way of thinking is DESPICABLY.

I felt sick in my stomach when reading about the late night cleaning crew and the slaughter house workers. I was barely able to sit through that, surpressing the overwhelming urge to throw up.

Something has to be done, or soon no food will be safe to eat and ethics in the business world will cease to exist.

Alicia

Nick’s Reading Notes –Fast Food Nation

Infuriating is the best word I can use to describe the chapter I just read about Dave Feamster and his “franchise”. In one way, the chapter seems like a success story; a former NHL player left in the gutter manages to claw his way up to 2.5 million in annual revenues. At the same time however, what has he really managed to do? Feamster worked his ass off for years, managing to dig his way out of debt and become the kingpin of little caesar’s in the Pueblo area. During that time he has been working, he has probably made countless piles of cash for the franchise owners, the real winners in this equation. Although the chapter shows that Feamster is generous to his employees compared to the norm in America, the entire scene of a stadium full of people listening to speakers paid between $30,000 and $60,000 an hour to boost self-esteem and share “secrets” is downright depressing. What chance does anybody in that stadium actually have of leaving the place with anything more than a $90 ticket stub? To me, I see these speeches of hope as nothing more than a tool to keep the working-class exactly where they are; struggling to make it day by day with the hope of something more giving them motivation to work like hell for the people who are actually benefiting from it; the same people giving the speeches.

If working in fast food is terrible, meatpacking is somehow worse. I was absolutely horrified by the conditions described at these plants. I honestly can’t see how so many people are concerned for the cattle; at least the cattle die somewhat humanely as opposed to living in the danger and oppression the workers face each day. These people are exploited to no end, and it really doesn’t surprise me that supervisors would sell meth and elicit sex from workers. I think again, it is important to point out, that the supervisors are really not very high on the totem either compared to the people who probably own the plant and wouldn’t be caught dead spending any time inside it. The sanitation crew especially, seems to be a third-world condition of working hiding out inside the United States. After reading this, I am sure that it is only one of many.

Reyn's Fast Food Nation Response

I understand Debbie’s infuriation with the fast food restaurants and the way they treat their employers. However, I don’t think it’s the teens that deserve most of the sympathy, but rather the older employees who have no other choice than to work at such a place. The way I see it, being a former teenager, is that they are too young to be complaining about bad working conditions. If you don’t like your job, quit! It’s as simple as that. For teenagers who actually need the money, they can find another job. There are so many other jobs besides working at a fast food restaurant that will hire teenager just as easily. Many teenagers, however, are just too lazy to research and simply go for the stereotypical teenager job at the fast food restaurant. Teenagers have a home, they have food, they have everything needed to survive at the bear minimum. Older workers, on the other hand, who live on their own, independent of their parents, don’t really have a choice. They need a job to survive and can’t simply quit. Also, many of the older employees at fast food restaurants didn’t go to college and don’t have the qualifications for other higher paying jobs. Like I said before, there are many jobs which will hire teenagers just as easily as a fast food restaurant would. This, however, is not the same for older workers. Many of these “easy” jobs (i.e. clothing stores) look for young, energetic teenagers and wouldn’t higher the older workers. Thus, the only choice for these under qualified oldies is to work at a job which will higher them, for example fast food restaurants. With that said, I agree with Debbie that the working conditions of fast food restaurants should be improved, not only for the teenagers, but more for these older workers.

Unlike Debbie, I’m not too surprised that the fast food industry pays minimum wage to a higher portion of its workers than any other American industry. The fact that there is such a huge resource of employees for the fast food industry (i.e. teenagers), allows the fast food industry to pay minimum wage. They don’t have to attract workers with high pay, the workers willingly come to them expecting minimum pay. If a worker decides to quit, it’s no big deal, the industry simply hires the next unlucky person in line. Thus, there really is no need for them to raise their pay, as there is always going to be a constant supply of workers who are willing to work for minimum pay.

Something that I agree one hundred percent on with Debbie is her criticism of the slaughterhouse conditions. These conditions, compared to those in fast food restaurants, are truly unacceptable. Once the conditions become a threat to human life, action should, without question, be taken. I was shocked to read that even with work related illness, injuries, and death, the efforts to improve the safety of the workplace declined. According to Schlosser, “when the working conditions…became more dangerous…the federal government greatly reduced the enforcement of health and safety laws” (Schlosser 178-179). How in anyway does that make sense? I really don’t know. Obviously something needs to be done.

Fast Food Nation Debbie's Response

The way that fast food restaurants treat their employees is horrible. They are dispensable cheap labor, and most of them are teens. Theses teens do not learn the value of work at Taco Bell; in fact they learn the exact opposite. As Schlosser says, "it the job is boring, overly regimented, or meaningless, it can create a lifelong aversion to work" (Schlosser, 80). I think that teens should be the most important workers in the US society. They will decide the future of America. I am not saying they should get paid large amounts when they first start working, but they should be learning in safe environments. They should have internships that allow them to stretch their intellects. They should not be mindlessly flipping burgers.

I was also astounded that the fast food industry “pays the minimum wage to a higher proportion of its workers than any other American industry” (Schlosser, 73). I would expect that multibillion dollar corporations like fast food restaurants could afford to pay their employees more. Their employees are given no benefits and are paid by the hour, but almost none of them qualify for overtime. The fast food industry is squeezing every drop of money they can without giving anything back, except soggy burgers and heart attacks later in life.

I also was completely shocked about the danger fast food employees are in. They are in more danger than people who work at gas stations, and it seems as if it is caused by two main reasons. Unhappy former employees who are fired and corporations that don’t care enough about their employees to make it safer for them in the work place. I could not believe they would not back up a plan to make lighter parking lots so women would not be attacked after closing up and going to their cars. Schlosser stated, “Roughly four or five fast food workers are now murdered on the job every month” (Schlosser, 83). This is an outrage. Corporations should care about the safety of their employees, especially when this many of them are being murdered at work! Maybe if fast food corporations did not fire their employees every time they tried to unionize there would not be so many angry workers retaliating.

Although the first section on the employees was terrible, the second section about employees in slaughterhouses was horrendous. I could not believe how many people get injured working there. Though the most unjust was that, "injured workers are often given some of the most unpleasant tasks in the slaughterhouse. Their hourly wages are cut" (Schlosser, 179). Economically this makes sense because, "injured workers are a drag on profits" (Schlosser, 179), yet this should not be allowed. Workers should be compensated for their injuries, and safety should be the highest priority of the slaughterhouse.

The sanitation crews’ job sounds like sheer hell. Workers are not treated like human beings. One manager said to a man who just lost two fingers, “if one hand is no good... use the other" (Schlosser, 177). It was so disgusting that two men's death was worth a mere 480 dollars for each. This should not be tolerated!

The story that most shocked me was about Kenny. He had the same mentality of the maids in the merry maids business in Nickel and Dimmed. He was so loyal to his employer that he could not see that they were using him until his entire body was broken. Then to top it all off while he was recovering from his heart attack they fired him and did not even let him know. This is total injustice. Employees should never be treated in this way!

Nick's Reading Notes

I think the real value in Ehrenreich’s story comes from the lack of realism. I say lack of realism, referring to the advantages she has inherently from being white, having a car, having an education, speaking English, and most noticeably having the ability to stop “the experiment” at any point in time. To imagine being in such a predicament is hard, to be in it must be infinitely harder.

I felt a connection to Key West and areas like it, having been on the other side; a tourist walking by people seemingly in paradise. The truth is we stop to think about the reality and hopelessness of the situation for these people far too little, and when we do I know that it is easily shoved away to ease the dissonance we create in our minds by knowing that such atrocities take place, and not doing anything. It is far easier to simply forget about reality than to deal with it. Even Ehrenreich comes very close to forgetting about the issue, hoping that someone else will come forward and deal with it.

I cannot help but to comment on the point brought up by Jeff at the Friday afternoon presentation – the conditions portrayed in Nickel and Dimed really do parallel those of slavery and indentured servitude. Although Ehrenreich did an excellent job of taking multiple positions and living in conditions similar to those for the workers around her, she had a great advantage in being able to make rules about her safety and expectations that are part of a science experiment and have no place in reality. I am left feeling the reality of what workers put up with in America is even worse than Ehrenreich could portray with this experiment.

Shootings in School

In light of recent events, like the Virginia Tech shooting, shootings in schools in the US have become more common. Since the shooting at Columbine High School in April of 1999 school shootings have increased leaving more dead or injured. Before the Virginia Tech shooting on Monday, the Columbine shooting had been the biggest school shooting. In looking over the past 8 months (September 2006-April 2007) there have been 5 school shootings. This number is outrageous and need to stop. No matter how big or small a school shooting is this type of violence needs to end.

Violence or harm to others is not the key to solving our problems. Many of these school shootings have been to retaliate against the people the shooter(s) has felt did them wrong or to just inflict pain on other because the shooter(s) themselves are hurting. This is not how society should teach it young people to fix their problems, but instead show the young community that their problems can be fixed by using their words. If it seems like their words are not being heard, they should know that they can always go to their parents, teachers, counselors, or other school administrators for help.

The only way we can help reduce the number of school shooting is by staying more alert of our surroundings and the people around us. When we see someone hurting or disturbed, we should not make fun of them, but instead see what we can do to help them. We cannot force people to get help, but when another person shows interest in helping out that person, it might be the one thing that will keep that person for going off the deep end.

The major groups that are involved in school shooting are the administrators of schools, law enforcement, the victims, the victims’ families, the shooter, and the shooter own family. The victims of the shooting and their families may hate the shooter for what he or she did and want revenge/justice, but that does not help prevent more shooting from happening. Revenge just fuels the fire even more. With each shooting that has occurred, big or small, we as human and individuals need to learn from our mistakes. We need to be aware of why someone would want to shoot and kill people in their school and see what signs we missed so that we can prevent another shooting for happening. As for the shooter, we need to see what drove this person to such extreme measures to want to kill innocent school members. Also why do they shoot themselves? We also need to find ways to alert the authorities so that they can respond faster to these types of situations.

The killing of students and school administrators is tragic, especially the Virginia Tech Massacre. As a society we need to find a way to show our young people that violence is not the way to solve our problems, if we do not cut out or limit the violence acts that lead to school shootings our nations is due for more tragedy.

Nickel and Dimed Notes

When I began reading this book it reminded me of the documentary television series created by the guy who made SUPERSIZE ME! In it, he does basically the same thing with his wife, seeing how the two of them would be able to survive on minimum wage barely scraping by as a couple. The one thing that was missing from Ehrenreich's novel, and the thing that created possibly the most tension in the television series was the difficulty in maintining an intimiate relationship while struggling with the very real possibility of poverty.
Ehrenreich's life in this novel is potentially "doable" but she leaves no room for close personal connections. He life conisists of eating, sleeping, and working; with work far outweighing the first two. Even an event such as a church social is in itself an event for her. She has to take into account gasoline prices to drive there, and sacrfice the sleep she needs to enthusiastically complete her next day of work.
The thing that I found most troubling about her life is that while it can certainly exist, it does so for the sole purpose of survival. Beyond her fellow employees, she has no real interaction with people, and those relationships themselves are expendable. They will be over as soon as she gets a new job or someone gets fired. While she is mainting a standard of living, it is a standard of living that is by no means desired.
With all that aside, I enjoy this book because she doesn't necessarily preach to the audience, rather she lets facts like the $2.30 wage for tipped workers speak for themselves. Ehrenreich shows a style of life that is as shocking to the reader as it is to her.

Immigration

Growing up in San Diego, I was always aware that Mexico was just around the corner. Our church would send groups down on the weekends to bring food and help build houses. In high school, kids would come back to school on Monday with their crazy stories of the latest party in Tijuana. I had helped raise money for charities that benefited Mexico, but until my senior year in high school, I had never crossed the border.
For spring break in 2006 I went to sunny Cabo San Lucas with my best friend as our senior trip. But the true Mexico was only revealed on the long bus ride from the dusty airport to the oasis that was our hotel. The surroundings reeked of poverty, and yet here we were, sleeping in king size beds or sipping a cold drink by the pool. The end of that year would soon open my eyes to the true Mexico.
2006 was a big year for immigration, mostly in a negative way. New constraints were put on border patrol and Americans took it into their own hands to literally kill the illegal flow of people into our country. These new laws affected several diverse groups of people and I even found myself involved.
The first and probably most devastated group were the Mexican people, both legal and illegal. Families were ripped apart as relatives were sent back across the border. Children born in the US were “benevolently” allowed to stay while their parents were deported. The high school down the street from mine scheduled a walkout, as did many of the laborers in the county. This was to show how much of an impact these people have on our economy.
This leads to the second group of people, the business owners. Their workers are now being shipped away and jobs are being lost. Sure, you could argue all day that these workers were not receiving a fair wage and the moral issue there, but some wage is better than no wage when your child’s stomach is growling. Now we have a loss of revenue and our economy suffers.
Then there’s the selfish bigots in the country who would rather spend ridiculous amounts of money on gas to feed their Hummers than pay taxes for a hardworking Hispanic’s health care. This group rejoices in the fact that the illegal “alien” population is constantly decreasing and finally America is, if I may use the word, purging itself of the filth and crime they bring with them. First, how dare we call these people aliens. I remember growing up and not even thinking of them as human. Since when does citizenship define humanity? Second, these people are forgetting what it is that made America what it is today and that is the hard working immigrants that busted their butts so that they could make less than minimum wage to feed their families. It’s worked for us so far, why stop it?
Finally, there’s anyone who is 18 or older. This group holds the power to vote and thus is substantially invested in this issue. We need to educate ourselves on the issue so we can make changes for the better and hopefully redefine what it means to be an American.

Reading Journal

When reading Ehrenrich's book, I realized that I had read this is high school. We spent the entire quarter studying the disadvantages that she faced during this experimentation.

One of the first things she found was that, "trailer trash was now a demographic to aspire to." A person making $7 an hour will have several difficulties finding affordable housing; the main difficulty is that almost any rental requires the first month's rent and a security deposit in advance. Unless you're living in your car - which she found was the case for many of her coworkers - it's nearly impossible to save up that kind of cash on $7 an hour. Thus, the motels, which don't require as much money upfront, but end up costing the low-income worker two or three times as much as a small apartment might.

She found, in the course of her experiment, that many other things that a middle-class person takes for granted are completely out of reach for the 40% of the population who aren't making a living wage. She scrambles for housing, food, the money to launder her scant wardrobe, gas for her car. At one point, despite her resolution to make do without food stamps or other assistance, she has to go to a food bank, and finds the gift of food almost unusable, since her motel room lacks either cooking facilities or refrigeration. Even working two jobs, seven days a week, she still nearly has to resort to a shelter; had she become injured or ill, even the $19/night shelter would have been beyond her means.

Drug tests and psychological screening examinations, with statements such as "It's sometimes okay to come to work high," have become routine. Employers refuse employees the right to drink water while they work, coerce them into working uncompensated overtime, fire them when their work-related injuries render them unable to work, subject them to constant harangues and humiliations that most of us have never experienced and cannot imagine enduring.

Among the things she found were that no job is truly unskilled; even the lowliest occupation requires great mental and physical tenacity and endurance. She concludes that the working poor, "are, in fact, the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high."

I really believe in acting against low wage work so reading this truly interests me and helps me find some interest in actually reading a book!

Reading Diary

In the first couple of pages of Nickel and Dimed, Ehrenreich mentions that relative to many minimum wage workers, she is lucky. Being white, and speaking English give her an advantage over some others in actually getting a job.

Throughout the first 119 pages, it seems like she just scrapes by, even though she works multiple jobs. If it is hard for her to make ends meet, it doesn’t seem possible for, say, a single mother to support herself and her child/children. What about immigrants, or those who can’t speak English? They are limited even further than Ehrenreich in finding jobs. They couldn’t work as a server at a restaurant, like Ehrenreich did. This limitation would make it more difficult for them to find jobs, let alone multiple jobs.

It seems like Ehrenreich is what you would consider to be the most qualified minimum wage worker, and she only has to support herself. Therefore, out of all the minimum wage workers, relatively speaking, she should be the most “well off.” I just can’t see how the rest of the minimum wage workers in the nation can afford to live, when Ehrenreich struggles.

Amy's Topic Proposal

I plan to write about the Greek system throughout the United States and the problems it has encountered over the years due to controversial and political issues. I will take a close look at the Greek system here on Santa Clara’s campus and hopefully survey a few fraternity and sorority members anonymously to get a first hand account at some issues or feelings regarding Greek life and its pros and cons. I will also publish a section about my personal experiences, recounting all the good and bad aspects of my personal experience and opinion of my time spent being a part of the Greek community.
I will research the historical context of the Greek systems at the first Universities in the United States and how they have evolved and changed over the years with regards to their formal institutions, goals as a club and feelings toward fellow brothers and sisters. I feel there will be a wealth of information regarding both the pro and con side of this research project due to the many deadly and controversial hazing issues that have occurred throughout history and in very recent times as well as the many good and positive aspects that are involved with being apart of such an organization.

Amy's reading response

Reading Eienrich’s Nickel and Dimed was a definite eye opener and look into the sad state of our working middle to lower classes throughout the United States. Although you hear about certain hardships many Americans struggle through and are cycled into, it never seems real until a first hand account is experienced by yourself or someone close to you. As a result, one section hit extremely close to home for me, and I was able to relate closely to her chapter entitled “Scrubbing in Maine.”

Before transferring to Santa Clara University in the fall of 2004, I attend a small college in Lewiston Maine called Bates College. This school, although almost completely enrolled with socially upper class and prep school new England students was located in one of the most impoverished and blue collar cities in the state of Maine. Not only was the city known as Maine’s crack and child pornography capitol but it also had a recent influx of Islamic refugees infiltrating the city and looking for work after 9/11. We hardly ventured past the campus boundary, because it was considered unsafe for students, except for the occasional trip to Wal-Mart or a road trip to Portland or Freeport. However, I was enrolled in a class called “Gender Issues in Education” in which, much like our Arrupe program here at Santa Clara, we were assigned to student teach at public schools around the area. This experience gave me a first hand account to see how horrible many living and working conditions for the blue collar community in Maine really was. A handful of the 2nd grade students at Montello Elementary in my class were clearly beaten by their father if he had a bad day. One boy showed up to class with a black eye because his father had apparently just been fired from the gas station and got mad at him for playing video games. Another girl told me she had been living out of her car with her Aunt and brother for the past few months, which happened to fall in the middle of winter. Many of the students show up in negative ten degree weather without a coat or closed toed shoes. We took a field trip to a skating rink in which each student was asked to bring three dollars to rent ice skates and get a snack, but many couldn’t even afford to bring that seemingly small amount of money. These children were in the 2nd grade and about 85% of the class couldn’t read at the kindergarten level, write their name, or speak English.

The thing that struck me the most in my comparison of Eienrich’s experience versus mine was that the class I was teaching in only had 4 white kids out of the 25 enrolled. The others were African American and Islamic. Although Maine is the whitest state in the United States I believe that the sections Eienrich was actually looking into throughout the state wasn’t as diverse as some of the more impoverished and struggling cities such as Lewiston, Auburn and certain parts of Augusta.

Overall, this book made me look at my attitude regarding the state of our country, the importance of minimum wage and why we need to, as a country, look for a solution to help the lower to middle class population as working full time in a dead end, low wage job leaves no room for further education, and a possible rise in the ranks of pay in our society.

Reyn's Reflection of Ehrenreich pg 1-119

Reading this has allowed me to reflect upon myself. What I have found is that I am completely spoiled. I used to work at Jamba Juice where I got paid $7.50 starting pay. I complained every day and dreaded coming to work. I thought that 7 dollars and 50 cents was not worth what I was doing. I thought that I finally knew what it meant to actually earn a dollar. After reading Ehrenreich’s piece I realized I couldn’t have been more wrong. While I simply scooped fruit and yogurt into a blender, Ehrenreich cleaned bathrooms and beds. While I worked for 6 hours, she worked day and night. She had to work so hard for a fraction of what I made.

What really pulled me in was Ehrenreich’s use of description of the maids and their lifestyle rather than just plain facts and statistics. Take for example the pregnant maid who had sprained her ankle. Not even a baby and a crippling injury could prevent her from coming to work. A sore stomach would’ve been more than enough reason to skip work for me. However, this is how it is for people like this maid who cant afford to skip a day of work, whose lives depend on the measly 6 dollars/hour they get paid.

Ehrenreich’s piece was a real eye opener for me. I had always thought that low pay meant easy work which didn’t require too much skill. However, what I didn’t realize is that low pay actually meant harder work in terms of work time. For people like the ones described by Ehrenreich, work is their life, day and night. These people didn’t have the opportunity that I have now, and after reading this piece I my appreciation for my situation has grown a great amount.

Hypertext Essay Proposal

I plan on writing about professional sports, and the ridiculous amount that professional athletes get paid. Don’t get me wrong, I love sports, and I watch professional sports all the time, but it doesn’t make sense to me how they can be paid so much.

One of the viewpoints is from the athletes. Of course they don’t mind that they are making millions. Sometimes, they even feel like their salaries aren’t high enough. There have been strikes, where the athletes refuse to play, unless their salaries are increased.

Another viewpoint is from the owners of the teams. What they are trying to do is make a profit, and profit usually comes when their team wins. In order to put together a good team, they have to pour assets into putting together a good team, with a good coach, and having a nice facility to play in.

You could also look at it from the sports fan’s perspective. Of course we all know that the athletes are making bank, but we support this by tuning in on the TV, or actually going to the games.

I also think that young athletes are also affected by professional sports. Many young athletes look up to professional athletes as role models because of their money, lifestyle, and talents. I’m sure there are a lot of kids who aspire to one day become a professional athlete. Heck, I wanted to play in the NBA when I was little. Because professional athletes live such extravagant lives, I’m sure that there are people who work towards going to the pros. However, such a small percentage of athletes actually make it. What happens to the ones who don’t? What do they end up doing with their lives? By the time some of them realize that they don’t have a shot, it might be too late to explore other opportunities.

I plan on exploring this topic from all of the viewpoints mentioned above, mainly focusing on the effect that professional athletes have as role models on kids.

Carrie's Reading Journal

Nickel and Dimed was first introduced to me in high school. I read the book and spent almost a semester discussing the social issues that were relevant to Ehrenreich’s different jobs and struggles as she moves across the country. To reread these chapters of the book was completely different from the perspective of a college student. In a sense, though from a fortunate family, I work three jobs to pay for my expenses and realize how hard it can be to make rent each month. I also view these issues on the Staff Support Team at Santa Clara Community Action program because I am constantly engaged in issues such as these that are seen through each program in our organization. The most compelling insights are from speaking with our campus workers as they come in for tutoring in English. As much as I would like to believe that I understand what it’s like to truly experience the low-wage life, I could never scratch the surface.

Success, as for most students at Santa Clara, is an option that was given to me since I was young. My parents knew the right things to do, the right schools to put me in so that I would perform well. Ehrenreich is a well-educated woman who made a good living, but she decided to dedicate her life for some time to a research, to find out what it’s like for those who have not always had the formula for success. Her story is so powerful to me because of her perspective; she is able to see exactly what was wrong because she lived a stable life. The reader finds out what a different life is for someone who must SURVIVE off of $6.45 an hour, if it’s even that high for the particular state. This book causes me to want to look more into the ideas behind the excessive cost of housing and the reasons why we have no living wage in America.

Carrie's Hypertext Proposal

The social issue of sexual assault against women is a prominent for college-aged women; it is often an issue that is uncomfortable or perhaps even not understood. This issue is close to me because it connects a personal experience with the standpoints that others may have about sexual assault. Rape is often a difficult topic because even victims of rape do not understand that it has happened to them or perhaps they feel guilty or that they brought it on themselves. Because of this, sexual assault is the most underreported crime in the nation. This issue is socially induced by the ideas that men are “entitled” to sex and that women “ask” to be raped by their behavior. Victims that have spoken out, like myself, take the standpoint that a woman’s body is her own personal space and that no one has the right to invade that space without the proper consent. Other people with these views include women that haven’t been raped, but support this cause. These supporters are found in the Take Back the Night organization, the WYMCA, and Every Two Minutes groups found on college campuses.

Within this issue, there are two standpoints taken from a gender and ethics class that have followers and conflict with my own views on sexual assault. The first is the victim-blaming corollary in which people hold the idea that “it’s a woman’s fault” if she is raped. Women begin to believe that this is true about sexual assault and the result is underreporting. The second standpoint is referred to as the Potentially Lethal Lie. Here, the idea is that women are responsible for preventing rape and that their actions will either cause them to be raped or not raped. The idea that rape is avoidable if the right action is taken is a very common misconception, especially with young girls.

A conflict that occurs between a victim’s point of view and the assaulter’s point of view could take place in a judicial hearing on campus. Witnesses would be involved and there would be supporters of both present. These standpoints are in a sense similar because neither party wants to feel wrong, guilty, or at fault for what has taken place. The main reason for having the hearing is to justify the actions of both parties. Major conflict will come about with the questions: Who was at fault? What actually happened? Was either party intoxicated? Would this even matter? What does ‘no’ mean? Does silence mean ‘no’?

This paper will allow me to explore the several sides of sexual assault. These perspectives are perhaps the reason why it is so misunderstood among college-aged teens. The two general standpoints that have been introduced by gender and ethics studies are also major factors why women are not compelled to report these crimes. I would like to take my personal experience and translate it to a way for others to see how sexual assault affects woman and why so many stay silent.

Reyn's Hypertext Proposal: Fast Food

Fast food is an addiction of the American society which must be stopped. People know how unhealthy fast food is, yet they still eat it. People, including me, knowingly poison and ruin their bodies for five minutes of pleasure and I’m going to find out why.

I’ve read the book Fast Food Nation and it had a big influence on my decision concerning fast food. I used to eat fast food three times as much prior to reading Fast Food Nation, but I still eat fast food every now and then even though I know it is unhealthy. When I go to fast food restaurants I stay away from hamburgers because of what I read in Fast Food Nation, and I try to justify eating fast food by ordering a chicken sandwich, which is supposedly healthier. However, the plain and simple truth is that fast food period is not healthy. It doesn’t matter if it is chicken or beef, fast food should never be a replacement for a healthy meal. I, like many people, know this yet still give in to the cravings, and through this paper, I’m going to explore why different groups of people make this choice.
The first significant group is the group which I belong to. I’m talking about the people who try to break the addiction with fast food but just cant. We know all the unhealthy facts about fast food and we can go weeks without eating it. However, when we see a juicy burger or crispy fries on an advertisement, we get a craving which can’t be ignored and thus give in to temptation. We justify it by ordering a “healthy” meal from the menu because the advertisements say it is low fat. I also go to the gym, run, and stay in shape and so shouldn’t I be able to indulge once in a while? This is the view of the people in this group.

The second significant group is the group of people who just don’t have any time to do anything but work. Take for example a single mother of three holding two jobs. She has no time to cook a good meal, let alone sit down for one, and so she must rely on fast food because it is exactly that, fast food. In her life, fast food is a necessity rather than a desire as she just has no other choice.

The third group includes obese people. Many of these people have given up on their bodies and eat fast food on a daily basis. Many believe they have reached a point where it doesn’t matter what they eat and so might as well eat what tastes good. This is the reason they continue to consume fast food.

The last group is the suppliers of fast food. They are in this business for one reason only, profit. They don’t care about the health of their consumers. As long as they have consumers, they could care less.

I plan to explore many of issues mentioned above, such as the convenience of fast food, the efficiency of it, but mostly focusing on the health issue concerning fast food. Hopefully by doing so, I will be able to convince myself, along with other readers, to stop eating fast food completely and start eating healthy.

Early Child Development Programs

Early Child Development Programs

The topic for my hypertext essay will focus on the impact of child development programs on not just the child, but also the family unit itself. I will look at the difficulties faced by these families who submit to the advice of "experts" and study the impact of a family whose child does not become the prodigy that was expected. I will also analyze the various socio-economic classes that are most likely to participate in these programs, and find out which demographics are most likely to specialize their children in such categories as academics, the arts, sports, and even beauty pageants.
When writing the essay, I plan on taking a kind of chronological route in the overall organization. I will begin with pregnancy, and describe some of the expert advice sought by the parents to ensure a safe and mentally stimulated fetus. I will mention how the diet of a pregnant woman is as trendy as the clothing style of a teenage girl and each supposed expert has his or her own take on how to ensure a successful pregnancy.
Following the pregnancy, I will look at the various tools employed by new parents to create an atmosphere of intelligence for their child. I will mention the various toys that can be purchased for a costly price, and I will mention the classical music videos that have become a staple of early child development. As the child gets older, I will look at the kind of specialization that parents use to ensure their child is set apart and above its peers. I will analyze specific means of development such as summer business camps and traveling sports teams. I will look at the increased level of stress put upon the child both by the programs as well as their parents. The development of the child is still at this point largely up to the discretion of the parent.
Finally, the last part of the essay will describe the longterm effectiveness of these programs. Effectiveness will be categorized both in terms of the child's social skills and overall happiness, as well as his success in his particular area of specialization. With the information given, it will hopefully be clear as to whether or not this kind of super charged child rearing is truly effective to the successful development of the child.
The main point of this essay will be to bring to light the various methods of child development used by parents, and understand the growing desire of many to outdo each other in an increasingly competitive world. Hopefully this essay will answer the question of whether or not this kind of mentality is beneficial to the average child. The motives of the average parent will be critiqued and the question of what the child's best interests are will be answered.

Website

I don't know if we are supposed to post this either but here we it is.
http://itrs.scu.edu/faculty/mbousquet/spring07/english2/dcaswell_spr07/

Nickel and Dimed 1-119 Reflection

The thing that shocked me the most was that as a maid Ehrenreich was given almost no thanks by the home owners that she was cleaning for, and she was almost never offered water. We have a cleaning lady at our house and my mum and I always chat to her and offer her lunch when we are eating. She is working just like my mum and I are.

I also could not understand why the girls who worked as maids remained working as a maid under such horrible conditions and at such low pay. There are other jobs like working at the front desk of a hotel that have about the same low pay but do not require such harsh physical conditions. There boss was so cruel and they still almost worshipped him. I feel as if these people are so downtrodden their whole lives that they almost feed off of people who abuse them.

It is so sad when Ehrenreich describes one of the maids, who is pregnant and then sprains her ankle and refuses to stop working. The people that Ehrenreich interacted with are so desperate that they can’t even see that they are breaking their bodies slowly into pieces.

What also surprised me was that the hardest part initially for Ehrenreich seems to be finding living accommodations. Everything is so overpriced or too far. I could not believe that at the first restaurant that Ehrenreich worked at that there were people living in cars. Also, I thought it was ridiculous that hotels and restaurants put up help wanted ads when Ehrenreich was looking for work, even when they don’t have spaces to fill just so they can replace people easily. That should not be allowed because it wastes so much time for people who really need jobs and don’t have the time or money to spend time applying to jobs that aren’t even available.

I think it is also important to mention how Ehrenreich presents her experiences as a waitress and as a maid in a very colloquial way. She illustrates her point, that minimum wage jobs in America are not enough to support a decent life, without ever stating it. She makes the reader feel connected to all the experiences of the other waitresses and maids went through. Ehrenreich can then more easily inspire desire to change the situation for the people she worked with when the reader feels an emotional connection. I think this is a very interesting way to argue a point. Ehrenreich, warms her readers to the people she worked with in the book and then makes the reader feel all the pain and suffering that these people go through. For my essay I could interview teachers at Santa Clara, and try and find out about their experiences with sexism in science. That way, I could present theses cases to first emotionally connect the reader and then present my point.

Hypertxt Essay Proposal - Middle Class Divorce

Middle Class Divorce

What really pisses me off is middle class divorce. It’s something that people who haven’t experienced it first hand wouldn’t care much about. I however, am not one of those people. Divorce has made 2 days of every month hell. It’s me who’s in the middle of everything these days, paying for college, my mom, my dad, my brother, my sister, my grandparents….the list goes on. It’s a freaking huge wall that blocks communication from going any where except through me. With all I have on my plate it’s no fun, being a psychiatrist, a divorce counselor, accountant, financial planner, and a student all at once. I could go on about how life has changed, not just for me but for my mom, my dad, and my siblings. I’d plan on giving the perspective from the dad, mom, and the kids, focusing on the synonymous experience with college. For the dad, the experience is draining. He is in a position where he knows he can’t see himself spending the rest of his life unhappy, the only way out is a separation, Divorce. Divorce costs money, a lot of it, and he see’s his savings being used to pay his lawyer as well as his ex’s. He also has to worry about his kids, who’s taking them, what they will think of him, how he will pay for them to retain their standard of living. All of these things are issues he worries about. The wife is put into a position she has never been in before, to be unsupported and not have the means to continue living the way she had been up to the point of divorce. The rug so to speak has been pulled out from under her. She doesn’t know what to do or how she will manage. She wants to help her kids but doesn’t have the finances to. The kids are hit hard as well, psychologically. Blame is a huge issue. Whose fault was it? What’s more, when the kid is in college it becomes a huge issue. Who is paying for college? How is next quarter going to happen if they can’t get the money? I’d also look at the issue from the judicial system, both outside and in. What is the justification for some of the settlements given? Is it truly a fair system when the man can pay the huge legal fees to get his while the woman is left having to settle because of the mounting costs but isn't poor enough to take advantage of services offered to the impoverished? These questions and more will be answered. I hope this serves to give you an idea of what kind of hyper text essay I am planning to write.

My website

Hi everyone, I'm not sure if we are supposed to post our websites, but here's mine, pretty much completed. I might add on to the design as we go along, though. http://itrs.scu.edu/faculty/mbousquet/spring07/english2/cmallory_spr07/index.htm

Caitlin's Reading Journal, pages 1-119

When I first read Barbara’s proposal to go “undercover,” I figured she would have no problem finding a job, considering her competence and educational background. But what made her story so powerful is that even starting with so many advantages, she still struggled desperately to find a job, and found out that “unskilled” labor actually requires tons of physical labor, not to mention emotional stress. If it was that hard for Barbara, who knew she could go back to her “real” life, imagine how awful it must be for the millions of Americans who are completely stuck. What is really annoying to me is that the people in the lowest wage jobs are doing so much more than their employees, who get to make a lot of money by sitting around and barking orders, and treating people as if they’re scum— not promoting someone because they have an work related injury and can’t perform a certain task? That is really ridiculous. Also, I’m wondering what it takes to get a manager level job at a company like McDonalds. Do you have to work your way up through all the lower level jobs first, or can you just step right in having no personal experience with what it’s actually like to be a waitress or a food “assembler?”
Another thing that was really impacting about Barbara’s story is that it gives a really personal touch to the plight of the working poor. Instead of just giving a bunch of facts and statistics, Barbara’s account of daily life really hits the reader emotionally. How can people be so cruel to others? Why do the managers seem to think they are “above” their employees?
Also, I think this may reveal some of my own prejudices, but I thought that because Barbara was educated and upper class, she wouldn’t have a hard time in her low wage jobs; I was so wrong… I wonder now, why do people assume that low wage work is easy? I’ve heard a lot of people say that those who are poor are poor because they are incompetent or lazy— this makes me really mad, and I think Barbara does an excellent job of showing how ridiculous that notion is. If you can’t get a job without having a residence, and can’t get a residence without proof of employment, no wonder it is so hard for people who are homeless and jobless to change their life and get off the streets. One more note— why is the minimum wage so low?! I don’t understand the logic behind not increasing the minimum wage to a salary on which people can actually live. To have to work two full time jobs just to earn enough to pay for the essentials is ridiculous and cruel. The fact that restaurants can pay even less than minimum wage, having the tips make up the difference is also really bothersome; that seems really deceitful to me. I always thought that when I tipped, it would be additional money, not just enough to give them minimum wage. This entire system is really messed up!

Nick's Topic Idea - Birth Control

The moral debate over birth control is one that has no hope of ever being solved. Just because a topic will never see full resolution, does not make it pointless to debate. Even if as a society we cannot come to an agreement, we must always work to come up with the best possible solution that allows as many people as possible the freedom to follow their own beliefs.
At a Jesuit-university, my experiences with birth control have all been purely my own. I have not run across the free condom-dishes or sexual education programs so popular at public universities. Although the word of God serves to unite many people, it also has the potential to alienate and divide when the words must be interpreted and enforced.
It is a natural choice for a catholic-university to not condone birth-control. Even the largest proponent of birth control should be able to realize not handing out birth-control is a faith-based decision made by people largely trying to do what is best. According to this conservative belief-set, sex is not to take place anywhere except within marriage between a man and a woman with the intent of procreating. Birth-control can be seen as a mechanism of escaping individual responsibility to these core values set-down by the catholic church, and distributing birth-control is akin to aiding and abetting.
Although I have clearly presented a conservative faith-based view on birth-control, many more people sit in a camp that, for one reason or another, believes enforcement of the catholic doctrine towards birth-control is either inappropriate or unrealistic. This is standpoint can be taken both by those that believe in God but not the interpretation that God is against birth-control, and by those that believe although birth-control is morally wrong, imposing this view upon others is worse.
A final group of people at catholic universities find that issues of faith and sexual practices should be completely separated. Sometimes atheist, other times not, these people are not necessarily in agreement about the use of birth-control and its positive or negative effect on society, but they are united by their belief that faith should remain clear of the arguments both for and against.
I plan to explore the intercourse between elements of faith and issues of practicality between the forces at work in a Jesuit-university such as Santa Clara. I will be writing this exploration from a hopefully non-biased protestant-raised view, and attempting to analyze the strengths and follies of all sides while searching for a middle ground that might reconcile differences between the groups while making birth-control available for those that need it.

Topic Purposal for Hypertext #1 - "I Resign from eating Tuna"

I resign from eating tuna

I plan to do my essay on the dolphin-tuna controversy. This is an argument that has been going on for more than 30 years, and I feel would be a good topic to write about because of all the different opinions/standpoints to it.
Firstly there is the standpoint of the environmentalists, like Greenpeace, who are fighting to make all tuna fishing dolphin friendly. Their argument is that what fishermen are doing is inhuman. “Dolphins are killed because it is most profitable, at the moment, to find schools of dolphins surround them with nets and catch both dolphins and tuna” (Farrow). The fishermen have no use for the dolphins, thus they simple kill them, by chopping them up and throwing them back in the see or the fishermen throw them back into sea still tangled in the net, because it would take too much time to untangle them from the net. Sometimes the number of dolphins caught in a particular net is more than the number of tuna, due to the fact that most fisherman throw their nets down on an area that they see a school of dolphins, hoping that a school of tuna are swimming in the same area. Another brutal thing the fishermen do is that they actually hunt out dolphins when their tuna catch is low in order to eliminate their “competitor”, since dolphins eat tuna, thus the fisherman blame the dolphins for their low catch seasons.
A different standpoint is the standpoint of the fishermen. The fishermen have a hard and dangerous job, as the ocean is unforgiving and the weather is unpredictable at sea. They are risking their lives every time they leave land; therefore it is understandable that they would want the biggest return for that type of a risk. In their eyes, killing dolphins both saves them and increases the money they would earn because it would increase the amount of tuna they would catch.
In my hypertext essay, I will also take into account the standpoint of the consumers. How well informed are consumers on this issue? And once educated about the issue, does their pattern in buying tuna change?
I will additionally research on the standpoint of the tuna canning manufacturers, and what their stand is on the topic. I am aware that some tuna companies now place a “dolphin friendly” sticker on their cans, but how reliable is this sticker?
The last external standpoint I will take into account is the World Trade Organization’s. I will investigate the World Trade Organization’s standpoint in the debate. I know of a case of Mexico vs. the United States where the United States were refusing to purchase tuna from Mexico because they were not using dolphin friendly methods of catching the tuna. However Mexico brought its case to the WTO stating that the United States was in violation of its GATT obligation for imposing such a ban. Thus the United States had to lifts its ban although Mexico’s fishing activities result in incidental dolphin deaths.
I will end my essay by writing about my own view on this issue.

Reading Diary of Ehrenreich pp 1-119

First off I have to say, I love Barbara Ehrenreich’s writing style. The way she writes reminds me off when a friend is telling you an interesting about an experience she just had. Like when your friend has gone on a backpacking trip around Europe and has come home with all these amazing stories of how they live over there, what their lives are like, all the day to day aspects that you did not know and are fascinated by. I feel like that when I read her book.
I felt shock, amusement, disgust and sadness when I was reading this book. Sometimes I had to even take a moment and re-read what I had just read because I could not believe what I was reading. When I was reading the part about how Holly would hate Barbara forever because she had defined Holly’s authority as team leader, I (internally) jumped to Barbara’s defense, much like how I become defensive when one of mine are attacked.
I think one of the things that astounded me the most is the working conditions and the amount they are getting paid to work. Call me sheltered (because I probably am) but I did not realize that there were people out there that take advantage of a desperate person like that. At least not here in the so-called developed America. They are paying people barely enough for them to feed themselves and pay the rent, this is not even taking into account school fee and heaven forbid they fall sick and need to pay for medicine. I have heard of this sort of thing happening in places like China, where big corporations are now outsourcing to due to the low wages and the “flexible” working conditions requirements, but I never thought it would be happening here. For a person, like Holly, to be terrified of showing any human weaknesses, working through her broken ankle, reminds me of a machine. What these corporate heads are not taking into account is that these workers are humans, they are not machines, they break, and when they do you can not just get rid of them and replace them with the newest model. These are also human beings with their own lives to live, not like a machine in a factory whose “life” ends when the factory closes at night. The workers, after work, have to still go home, get dinner on the table, spend time with their kids, do the laundry and sleep.
What these managers and heads of who-knows-what are doing is inhuman. Like Barbara says they are employed to sit around in a cushy chair all day with the sole goal to ensure that no one else in that place sits eats or show any sign that they are human or have a mind of their own. They make their living of the misery of others, for example the maid agency charges the client $25/ person-hour but only pays the maids $6.65/hour, adding a generous $2/hour for cleaning supplies (which the maid are instructed to use scarcely) and gas, that amounts to under $10/hour as the cost. Even if we did bump it up that that company’s cost is $10/hour, the company is still making a generous profit of $15/hour per person! $15! How can this be possible? When their employees are earning barely enough to not enough money to feed themselves, when the employees cannot even scourge up $2 between a car load of them to buy something. This is just not right.

Alicia

Caitlin's Hyperessay 1 Proposal: Eating Disorders in Female Athletes

Over the past couple decades, the “ideal” female body in women’s figure skating and ice dance has changed drastically, going from healthy and “womanly,” to severely thin. I would argue that among the elite figure skaters competing today, at least half have some form of eating disorder, whether it’s anorexia, bulimia, disordered eating, the “female athlete triad” (when a female does not have a menstrual cycle, due to reduced calorie intake and excessive exercise), or a poor body image. All of these issues lead to obsessive and unhealthy behaviors and thoughts, and can have severe physical and psychological implications.
While weight issues are often discussed and researched in ballet and gymnastics, there seems to be a lack of any in depth reporting on eating disorders in ice-skating. Furthermore, among the competitive ice skater community, it is a well-known “fact” that many skaters have eating disorders, and that these behaviors are encouraged by many coaches. A few training centers are notorious for having entire training teams of anorexic females, and many coaches practice forms of abuse, such as telling girls to lose weight when they don’t need to, complementing girls on their extreme weight loss, and even weighing them publicly on scales. Besides pressures from coaches, skaters are sometimes told by judges that they would have a “more pleasing line” if they could lose weight. Recently, skaters weight has become a popular discussion topic on public skating forums, which, as I know from experience, are frequented by competitive skaters all the time. These forums are filled with insensitive discussions of who is too big or too small, and comments like “Skater X should really lose ten pounds.”
I also think that parents play a large role in skaters eating habits. Whether it’s because they want their skater to be successful at whatever cost, whether they don’t want to interfere with the coaches’ wishes, or whether they are truly in denial, most parents will deny there is anything wrong with their clearly anorexic daughter. In addition, skaters feel an enormous deal of pressure to be thin because most of their competitors and training mates are, and they feel that in order to “fit in,” have the “skater look,” or be competitive, they too must be unnaturally skinny. Also, at least in ice dance, I have witnessed male skaters making greatly insensitive comments about their own partners, as well as the female partners of their competitors.
I will expand my essay to look at the issue of eating disorders in ballet dance and gymnastics, and try to distinguish some of the causes as well as what is being done to address the problem. I also would like to show the problem of body issues in ice-skating into a number of other contexts. First, female ice skaters are usually of the age range that is most greatly affected by eating disorders in non-athletes (the high school and college years). Secondly, ice skaters are very competitive and often have perfectionist personalities, and problems arise from trying to achieve body “perfection.” Thirdly, ice-skating is an appearance based activity, and much like modeling and acting, the participants perform for the public, are judged on their looks, are shown on TV, and are photographed for magazines, commercials, and promotions. I think I can compare the issues involved with skating with those involved with the fashion industry and Hollywood. I also will take a look at what has been done lately in fashion shows to try to prevent underweight models, and see if this technique could apply to ice-skating competitions. Furthermore, the female body is emphasized excessively in today’s culture— the enormous increase in cosmetic surgery, the dozens of “women’s magazines” devoted to telling women how to lose weight, while selling us products to enhance our appearance, the tabloids that scrutinize actress’s every pound. To conclude my essay, I will look at how society encourages women to think about their appearance from a very young age, and also see how this ties in with other gender roles assigned to women.

Debbie's Topic Proposal

The first thing that struck me as an undergraduate in biology was how many females science majors there were. I have been told time and time again that females are discouraged and discriminated against in the field of science. As undergraduates I believe that women do as well as there male counterparts in science. At Santa Clara University from my perspective about half or more of the biology majors are female. According to other studies women are discouraged from science and math at an early age. Some believe this inequality is caused by sexual discrimination and culture that forces women to decide upon other majors such as the humanities. Others believe that the reason women don’t do as well in science as men, is because of actual genetic differences. This was said recently by Lawrence Summer, president of Harvard University. Still others believe that women are not as successful in science as men because between the ages of 25-35 when men are building a successful career many women are having children. Many also argue that women are discriminated against and discouraged in the workforce from tenure positions because of pure sexism.

For women like me, who are striving for success in the field of science the possibility of discrimination is an important concern. If women are truly genetically disadvantaged in science does that mean that women should concentrate on subjects more focused in the humanities? Yet at the same time if women are not at a genetic disadvantage, and outperform men in universities in science then why are women less successful after university when it comes to obtaining tenured positions and getting grants for research? One genetic difference that definitely might hold many women back from the ages of 25 to 35 is that many of them are pressured to or want to have children. Though, it seems like women are punished in the scientific field, as if it is a weakness that they want children.

Most parties share a common interest in the drive to find out the reason why women are not as successful in science. The issue of women in science is very important today, because there are so many women in science, who are relatively successful, and do not want to face discrimination after university, or find that they are just not innately capable of the work required for positions of tenure and grants for research.

This essay would explore the many different perspectives on women in science, and why women are at a disadvantage in science starting from a young age all the way up to their entrance into the workforce. I could interview some of the female biology teachers at Santa Clara University to explore if they have felt any discrimination throughout their careers. I might also try to discover the ratio of male to female students at Santa Clara University in the sciences. This essay will also demonstrate that at the university level from my perspective women are just as successful and face very little discrimination in science at least at Santa Clara University. It is my belief that it is the culture after university in the academic world, and the pressure on women to have babies that is the biggest issue.

I resign from cell phone buyers

Dear Cell Phone Companies,

Damn you cell phone companies and your constant, unnecessary improvements. You improve your phones by adding new features that appeal simply to the entertainment-hungry side of your customers, serving no purpose to the efficiency or convenience of your phones. Nonetheless, people are persuaded to buy your phones because of this, and pay more money for these improvements which really have no purpose aside from entertainment. I’m letting you know right now that I resign from being your customer, and will no longer be persuaded to buy a cell phone just because it has a 3.2 mega pixel camera built in to it, or because it has friggin internet access. I work hard for my money and I refuse to waste it on useless crap. The cell phone was made for one reason, which was to be a portable phone through which one individual could talk to another.

Now tell me, how does a built in camera increase the efficiency of a portable phone? Is it really necessary to have such a powerful camera in something that isn’t even supposed to be a camera? This camera, in case you haven’t noticed, does more damage than good. For example, it allows perverts to sneak under-skirt shots of girls’ underwear. It also offers a distraction for students who are trying so hard to concentrate in class, yet can’t turn down the temptation to take a picture of the hilarious picture they drew in their notebook. Cameras serve no purpose in a cell phone. If you want to take pictures, buy a damn camera. Cameras aside, there is a whole bunch of unnecessary features in modern cell phones which serve no real purpose in terms of a portable phone.

Take for example, the feature that allows users to watch cable television or connect to the internet. Now common, what in all seriousness were you guys thinking? Our society is already brainwashed by the media. Why do you find it necessary to further add to this? You damn well know you guys are wrong here. You are using our addiction to the media to pull us in to paying more and I’m telling you now I won’t be manipulated any more! This is ridiculous; the cell phone is no longer a phone, but rather an entertainment device with the option of talking to another person.

Another feature which is addicting, yet totally pointless, is text messaging. But texting is a way of communication you say? Well let me tell you something, so is talking! Talking, if you actually think about it, is a lot more efficient and a lot easier than typing a text message and then sending it. Even at that, texting in itself is complicated, with the word prediction software predicting wrong words. Then, you send this message with the wrong words and it means something totally different than you intended it to. Then you have to wait for a reply, and sometimes the receiver doesn’t actually receive the message. Even with all these complications, people pay extra to text. You have plans like a thousand text messages for one cent each and people go nuts over this. I mean since when did it become a good thing to pay more for working harder?

Let’s talk about the decrease in size for a moment. This, if anything, I understand has some practical purpose, as it is easier to carry a smaller phone. However, is it really necessary to make it smaller than my damn credit card, or thinner than a pack of gum? It is obvious that you do this so people lose their phones and thus have to buy new ones. Still, many people cannot see this, and are manipulated into thinking that smaller is better. Well not me. I see through your sneaky tactics and I will be made a fool of no more!

I wish we could’ve talked about this in person, but I understand talking isn’t really your thing. Have a great day.

~Reyn