Short Essay #3: “Questioning the Concept of a Meritocracy: Poverty, Low-Wage Labor, and Income Inequality in the U.S.”
50 points
600-750 words, double-spaced
GENERAL FRAME:
One of the central tenets of the American Dream is that if a person works hard and is basically honest, s/he will succeed. In fact, the majority of Americans cling to this view. However, as Robert Reich argues in Inequality for All and as Barbara Ehrenreich illustrates in her book Nickel and Dimed, often hard work is simply not enough to even pay rent, let alone earn a modest living—and certainly not enough to “get ahead.”
Through her undercover investigation and her research, Ehrenreich provides us with a glimpse of the “working poor” in the United States, of what it means to be a low-wage worker. The picture she paints is a gloomy one, in which fully employed workers must share cramped living quarters, must go without sufficient food and medical care, and are worn down by monotonous, physically exhausting jobs. Similarly, in his documentary, Robert Reich focuses on a faltering middle-class, in which decreasing wages and job security, along with the increasing costs of housing, education, and child care are de-stabilizing our economy and potentially threatening our democracy. When taken together, Ehrenreich and Reich paint a bleak picture for America’s working poor and middle-class.
SPECIFIC QUESTIONS (respond to both):
Q1: Since reading Nickel and Dimed and viewing Inequality for All, how have your ideas about poverty, privilege. power, and socioeconomic class changed, transformed, or been reinforced (or some mixture of the these)? In other words, what do you now think/believe about these matters? Use course concepts, course texts, personal experiences/observations, to support and clarify your response.
Q2: As far as re-balancing income inequality is concerned, what is one economic policy that you are in support of? Briefly explain to me 1) What this policy purports to do (Any outside references used to describe the policy do not count toward textual support)? and 2) How you believe it would help to re-balance income inequality and/or protect low-wage workers and/or the middle class. Use course concepts, course texts, personal experiences/ observations, to support and clarify your response
If you would like a list of potential policies to help, go to https://www.epi.org/policy/Links to an external site. and select from any of the following proposed policies:
Worker Power, Good Jobs, Full Employment, Race and Gender Equity, Immigration, Tax Reform, Fair Globalization and Balanced Trade, Social Insurance and Health Care, Public Investments, Education and Child Care, Safeguards Against Corporate Abuse of Power.
**EPI (Economic Policy Institute) is a non-profit and non-partisan think tank.
A “A” paper will contain:
1. INTERSECTIONAL ANALYSIS:
Your response/ analysis should be intersectional rather than general—that is, your response must explicitly consider issues of race, class, gender, sexuality, region, nationality, etc (not all of these necessarily, but at least 2). In other words, it is intellectually lazy to act as if all of American is a single, homogenous group. Yes, the majority of Americans are struggling in their own way, but be specific about how different people are facing different struggles in different ways; link these different struggles to the various identity groups we have learned about.
**You should apply an intersectional lens toward your response to Q1 or Q2 (or both).
2. SUPPORT FOR ARGUMENTS: Support your responses to Q1 and Q2 with concrete examples or “proof” Such examples/proof could be:
• detailed examples from your own life (YOU CAN MAKE IT UP)
• media examples
• textual support from either course texts or external sources
3. TEXTUAL SUPPORT: Include at least 3 pieces of textual support in the essay
• At least 2 pieces of textual support must come from our Nickel and Dimed text, Inequality for All documentary and/or course lecture notes from this current course unit on socioeconomic class.
• Textual support should always include a page number reference. If you are citing the documentary, you can include which third of the documentary the content was referenced in.
• The purpose of incorporating textual support is to display to your reader that you have read and understand the course texts, and that you are in conversation with the textbook.
• You may use outside sources for this essay—or other course texts from previous units–but they must be cited.
– Turnitin.com will flag any similar or copied internet content.
– If borrowing from or paraphrasing someone else’s work, you must always reference the author, and paraphrase or use direct quotes.
– Include a works cited page listing any outside sources/ non-course texts.
4. THOROUGH PROOFREADING: This short writing assignments must be thoroughly proof-read and have a logical flow to it. If you submit something that makes no coherent sense or is filled with spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors—to the extent that it is obvious to me that you did not proofread it or wrote it in a hurried manner—I will return it to you without a grade, ask you to re-write and resubmit it, and score it with a 25% penalty (this means an A paper would receive no higher than a C, a B paper no higher than a D, etc).
College students are expected to have a basic command of punctuation, grammar, and spelling. If you struggle in any of these areas, then you need to be proactive about addressing them. Everyone should always proofread their assignments by reading them slowly, and out loud. Ask a friend or family member to read over your writing and see if your ideas make sense, and to see that you didn’t miss obvious errors when proofreading.
*****IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE*****
I will put my account here in the attachments for you to access the book.HERE IS THE LINK: https://www.vitalsource.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwoIqhBhAGEiwArXT7K2KUhcs-Pl5HnSVQqGM1LjSNa6TvG6H_HL3s3veaBNXdu6FrlPdYZxoCnMgQAvD_BwE .PLEASE SEND A PDF PLAGIARISM CHECK AFTER YOU ARE DONE WITH THE ESSAY, MY PROFESSOR USES TURNITIN.COM WHICH SHOWS PLAGIARISM. IT CAN’T BE ABOVE 20%. Also, I will some of my lecture notes here for more information about the book. Thank you for helping me.