Pennies an hour

Once I started to read this paper i began to get very upset with the big companys that go to other countrys to get lower cost of labor. We the american people should some how get together to with the labors force in china to get either them a little higher pay or allow americans to work in the factorys. There are plently of people that need jobs in the U.S. In some of the reading that we have been doin talk about all poor people and what we should do with them, if somehow the goverment would get involved to get more jobs to people who need them.

Fortress Los Angeles

This particular reading upset me for a couple of reasons. When I read the part about the bathrooms inside of office buildings, restaurants, art galleries, e.t.c and how they would be built only for the use of tourists and white collared workers but not for the homeless or poor. That, to me, was just wrong. You cannot deny anyone access to a public place. Regardless of how they may appear, they still have the right to be treated with their dignity and respect. It is not right that they will sit there and say that tourists, whom they know nothing about or where they came from, can use their facilities, but a homeless man/woman cannot. That is just morally wrong. All throughout this reading, they just complain of the amount of poor people and how they are in all these different places of Los Angeles. I know that is a problem for them but unless they decide to find funding for shelters or programs that may ultimately get these people off of the streets and stop complaining, then they just need to shut their mouths and move on. Honestly, poverty and homelessness is everywhere. It's not going anywhere.

Goths in Tomorrowland

I think that this essay is a perfect way of dicribing how adults see teenagers. These goths just wanted a place that they could feel safe in because the restof society rejected them. Even though they are sometimes intimidating to approach these kids are people just like the rest of us and i find them to be very nice and accepting people. I think that it is just another form of racism and that is not write. to judge a book by its cover i think sums up this essay, you do not know a person until you talk to them and it is clear that these people are judging them.

Fortress Los Angeles

I feel really bad for these poor people pf los angeles. All they are trying to do is survive in a city that wants to eliminate every possible chance for them to do so. If they maybe were trying to get them off the streets they could go about it in a better way maybe by providing them shelters to go to. Instead i think that they enjoy being evil enough and trying every possible way that they can think of to keep them away from the rest of the city.

Fortress Los Angeles

After reading this essay, I became even more aggravated because this very well relates to the essay, Goths in Tomorrowland. All they are doing in this essay is pointing the finger and disrcimating against someone they know nothing about. Yea, they might be homeless and have nowhere to go, but that is no reason to take things away and occupy space that could be used for their stability. These people are just trying to survive and if you know nothing about them, then there is no reason to rebel against them. I feel bad for the homeless people and think it is totally wrong to do what they did. And if they were to do something so harsh and cruel, they could at least give them a place to reside or help them become part of the work force. You really think just kicking them out is going to improve a society? If you think that your crazy! All they are going to do is migrate to a different area and "bring down society" as the LAPD would say. If they really want these people off the streets the least they can do is help them out a little bit. I mean, come on, if they really expect things to be better just because these bums are out of one specific area, they have something else to think about. Give them a helping hand and help them succeed and live a better life. Doing that is something that sounds like improving a society wouldnt you say? Its logical and wouldn't hurt to be generous and hospitable once in a while.

Goths in Tomorrowland

After reading this essay "Goths in Tomorrowland," I have come to conclude that no matter how stereotypical a person can be, everybody should be looked at and treated equally. I became somewhat angered at the way these teenagers are portrayed in this essay. I understand that people can be categorized as things such as preps, goths, scenesters, emo, druggies, hippies, etc. but this doesnt cause the need to rationalize and discriminate. Every person is unique in their own way and shouldnt be looked at differently for their apparel. People do physically express themselves by the way they dress, or getting piercings, or tattoos, but this doesnt cause the need for them to be judged. This doesnt only apply to people that are being categorized, but people of different race as well. I dont think anything aggravates me more than hearing someone discriminate an individual for their race. I feel as if everybody should be treated equally and not looked at in a derogatory sense.

"They try to feed you all these races, they try to feed you all these sexes, and these creeds dont mean a thing, because we all are one under that great sun. And you must understand that my hand is the same as the next, and your neighbor right next to you should feel the same in their chest."

I could admit that I fall in to one of these "cliches" but dont think about it stereotypically. Yea, I have my lip pierced, and dress to a particular style and I would probably give most people the impression of me being "emo" or "scence." It aggravates me when people stick with the first thought that comes to mind. Because I give this first impression due to my apparel, people would judge me and maybe despise me as a contributing individual to society. I'd just like to say that i'm not "emo" and i'm not "scene" and people who go with their instinct and judge people by apparel really need to take the time to open up their minds and be open to particular styles. But, this world will never compromise and stereotypes will never die off. People are continuously going to judge and discrimnate not matter what the case is and sadly there is nothing you can do about it. I just feel as if these people need to stop judging and discriminating and make peace.

Fortress Los Angeles

After reading this paper, i begin to think how would i feel if that was me being the one who is homeless. I dont understand how people could think that by makeing streets into a place they cant sleep will just make everything better right away. They will have to go somewhere its not like there are just going to disapear. I feel that by doing something along these lines, the crime rate would only raise. I realize that the homeless can scare you when you look at them but that doesnt mean you can just throw them by the way side. If anything was to happen to the poor i believe that we should make better living places for them say somewhere in the desert around L.A.

goths in tomorrowlands

After reading this essay, story, or whatever these mass collections of works may be called, I felt a certain feeling that I lived through this, but of course all of us have. everyone has, and it's ominant no matter what walks of life we have gracefully come from, or stumbled aimlessyly through, we have all seen these "groups" in the hallways of our ourlives. everyone knows of the punks, skaters, stoners, alcoholics, partiers, preps, ganstas', etc. But when you think about it, its all the same stereotypical nonsense that we have grown to NOT realize in our everyday lives. let's put this to a scenario, say you see a gothic looking person in the grocery store, subconciously your brain begins processin what your seeing, and yourfirst instinctis to feel awkard maybe, and you may laugh, or say something to yourself that may degrade them. honeslty, ill admit to doin this myself, until, i met one of my exgirl friends, now one of my best friends, Patience. who of which is a cyber-goth. Now the goth scene itself has its own groups as well, but thats a whole new essay for me to write. All the things we think about are wrong, its just we have negative thoughts about them because of sublimidle crap that gets force fed into us, anyways..... where im goin with this primarily is that we all have judged people based on nonsense, its what our society is based on, and what happens naturally i guess, buthey what can we do. even i, ian marcheskie judge people, its like i said, natural. we can't help it, it just happens, yes it's immoral but whatever.

i, myself, i guess you could call me a hardcore kid, in older years, a skater or punk, yes they are all the same, well not really, hardcore kids, i really dont want to get into this, I as many of u know am different, i am myself, if others would like to call me hardcore, ill except that. yes i listen to hardocre, metal, speed metal, hardcore punk, screamo, post hardcore, emo, what ever you want genresize the music i listen to as, i listen to heavy scream inhanced music lets say, i myself a screamer in an experimental metalcore sythn band, anyways.... but i am not a scenester, oh no no.... i am not, i hate them.

Its society we judge, we stereotype, we jump on those fast moving bandwagons, and go for quite a ride, shooting down or raising others up in our wake. even i just now, classified myself, its sad.

what im saying is that it happens, and theres not much we can do about it, and now that i haqve made you read all of this, u may say, huh did he even relate this to the work he read, yes i related in to the context, which i belive to be sterotyping. context which is the unit we're working on now, i think? and even after this i leave you with this, stereotyping is like eating an oreo, you can eat it many ways but you always twist off the top and lick off the cream, and if u see your friends eating one, and they dont do that, you might say "hey why r u eatin an oreo like that, r u dumb or something?" haha a little moral and life event might help i don't know

------sry for all the spelling and gramatical errors, give me a break its 5 in the morning and i couldnt sleep, so i wrote this, and hell, its 5 in the morning, its expected. i still probably wrote enoughn this for like two weeks worth of blogging.

god i love ranting!!!

"Yes, Language is an art! Where words are my paint, and viewing eyes, or listening ears are my canvas."
if u like to know whose quote that is just ask, ill glady share with you who it is....

peace

goin' postal...

Mike Davis's "Fortress Los Angeles" was quite difficult to follow at first. I'm not sure if it is just me but he seemed to use a lot of intense vocabulary and in some parts it got really confusing. After deciphering, there were a lot of sentences that I highlighted. I think it's horrible that the government and police officers in Los Angeles would treat the poor like that. They created a place along Fifth Street, called Skid Row, that was a outdoor poorhouse. It said "Skid Row transformed into the most dangerous ten blocks in the world." Also, he talked about how the government made the new barrel-shaped bus bench that was very uncomfortable and offered not near enough space for someone to sleep on. He also talked about how the city opened up Skid Row Park which had outdoor sprinklers that would go off randomly in the night in order to keep bums from sleeping in the park. How ridiculous is that? They spend more time and money trying to keep poor people out of the land than they do in trying to help them. It just goes to show how messed up our society really is. I liked the last line of his selection, "For public-housing tenants and inhabitants of narcotic-enforcement zones, the loss of freedom is the price of 'security'."

Thomas Hine's "Goths In Tomorrowland" was good. It talked about how there are all sorts of groups of teenagers and that most adults are threatened by them. In the beginning, there was a line that said, "The presence of sullen clusters of costumed teens showed, some argued, that Disney had given up its commitment to family values. It was no longer possible to feel safe in Disneyland." This is a little ridiculous. Just because there were kids dressed in black clothes with make up on their face, the park is unsafe? I knew lots of kids in highschool that dressed like that, and were the most softspoken, well-mannered individuals. I also liked a line on page 70, "The typical suburban high school is occupied by groups of teens who express themselves through music, dress, tattoos and piercing, obessive hobbies, consumption patterns, extracurricular activities, drub habits, and sex practices." Well put. haha...Towards the end of the selection, he refers to "tribes" of teenagers and says, "Tribes are about a yearning to belong to a group---or perhaps to escape into a disguise.

"Fortress Los Angeles" and "Goths in Tomorrowland"

The syllabus doesn't say to post about these readings but I might as well do it now cuz I have soo much work to do. I really did not like "Fortress Los Angeles", it was kind of hard to comprehend the point of the essay. So I'll talk about "Goths in Tomorrowland" by Davis. I enjoyed reading this one... it talked about the different groups of teenagers like the "preps", "skaters", "goths", "sluts", etc. I liked how it brought up the point of how there is "alienation of teenagers from adult society." I agree because I feel that adults are afraid of our generation and judge us on our appearance. For example: our dress, tattoos, and piercings. I really don't think all that should matter.
Also on the syllabus it says that we have a rough draft due and I wanna know what for? If anyone knows anything about this please tell me!!!!!!!!

"Nickel-and-Dimed" and "Pennies an Hour"

After reading these two essays, i understand how bad some people have it coming from lower class societies. The essay "nickel-and-dimed" talked about how she living as an idividual was making a certain amount of money and living off it, while other people making the same amount had children and were able to support them. It was kind of confusing when she said that because they contradict. I dont understand how one person supporting only themself has the same opportunities of those making the same amount but to support their children. It reminded me of my boss at big boulder ski resort and how he was only living off of an $8 an hour job, but could support three children with only making that. I was making the same amount as him and gave me a better outlook on my future and how I never want to be in that position.

The essay "Pennies an Hour" was about how much people working in sweatshops get paid. It was surprising how little these people get paid and how they survive off of it. I had never worked at a sweatshop before and this was surprising to read about what they live off. People all around the world get different wages depending on what part of the world they live in. What she said about a person in bangledash and how they only get paid 1.6 cents for a hat with a logo on it, and then it sells for almost $17 or more is astonishing. It makes me curious to know if these people only getting paid 1.6 cents know that it sells for a much higher price. Reading things like these are amazing and can give an individual a different perspective on their future in the work force.

Nickel and Dimed / Pennies an hour

Nickel and Dime reminds me of that saying that the money doesn't give you happiness. It shows it in tv shows and in books and in other entertainment forms that even the richest people in the world are never truely happy while the poor or middle class are truely happy. You don't need a lot of material possessions to keep yourself happy its family and friends that do that for you. When she decided to live life on a low wage and see what it was like it was almost like she was becoming a detective. You discover how hard it is to live life on that low wage and it would me you appreciate what you have rather than always wanting more. Our society is spoiled these days. Everybody always wants more.

Pennies an hour really shocked me. I couldnt believe that they only pay those people 12 cents an hour to sew while we sit here lounging around and getting paid to do so. I thought working at Giant was bad and that I was geting paid too litle and i'm getting 7.30 an hour. It took me 2 and a half years to get there but to me it still doesnt seem like a lot. Then again America isnt a third world country or anything. Everything in america is expensive so in order to be able to buy and give money to the government they have to give us enough money while working in order to give some back. It was really unbelievable to think that anyone could support a family with kids and all for only 34 cents an hour. I think America could and should do something to help. I've always wondered where the extra money goes. It costs about 12 cents to make a shirt yet it costs 20 bucks to buy it in america... where does all that money go if its not helping pay those who worked so hard to make that flimsy shirt. I personally dont buy or support places like holister A&F and american eagle because they sell shirts for like 40 bucks when you could get just as good of a shirt at a place like tj maxx. I once got a long sleeve shirt for 6 dollars! thats what I call a deal!

Nickel and dime

This essays did not surprise me at all. Many people go trough a lot of bad things in order to survive in this country as well as in other countries. I taught it was a very good idea what Barbara Ehrenreich did. She left everything she own for an entire month. Her whole middle wage life for a low wage paying job. But I think that what she got from doing all this is just a small piece of how the low paying job life is really like, because for a month a person cant find out how it really is.

Pennies an Hour and No Way Up

I knew that the people that work in sweatshops made nothing for what they did. I just never realized that it was as low at 1.6 cents. I don't understand why ban imports made with inmate and indentured labor, but don't ban sweatshop product. Its almost like we encourage it to happen. We ban sweatshops in our country but allow the products to flow in from another. In a way I can kind or see where the people that say it is helping them get on their feet are coming from. I mean you have to take into consideration that they are still working. So that means there probably is not anything better then the sweatshops. That still doesn't make it right to have people working in sweatshops.

Nickel-and-Dimed

This essay reminded me a lot of my old job at a Giant. I remembered looked around at some of the people that worked there. Many of them were much older then me and had kids. I remember thinking about how I made more money then they did. I have no idea how they could afford to work at a Giant. The other thing was a lot of them had drug problems. I was told so many stories about how much they would spend. Seeing people like that made me never want to end up working at Giant forever. I wish she would have talked about how she felt about where she was living. I really don't think she found much out about how it is to live on $7 an hour. All she basically told us is that it sucks and that its almost impossible. Everyone already knows that. When she mentioned there possibly being some trick to live of that much money I interested, but she never did find out what the trick is.

As I am reading these two essays it comes to my attention of how lucky we are as Americans. I mean these people work their balls off for us, and all we do is recieve the goods and use them. I think that we should challenge other countries to up there pay for the workers are supplying their major consumers of their product. Even the minimum wage workers here live so much better than other people in other countries. Though I am a firm believer that one must help their own first, I think that we should do something about other countries. Sooner or later their poverty might affect us.

My Post

"Pennies an Hour and No Way Up"
After reading "Pennies and Hour and No Way Up", I was shocked and surprised at the conditions in which these people were forced to live in due to very low work wages. It hurt me to hear that they had to live in cellars with raw sewage and stuff like that. Something else that shocked me was that the young girls who work over in Bangladesh were only being paid like 1.6 cents for every hat that they sewed. I just don't understand how they can live off of these wages especially if they have families to care for.

"Nickel-and-Dimed: On (Not)Getting By in America"
After reading this story, I can't say that I feel exactly what they are going through because I have never been there but I hurt for the many who do live in these conditions. I do not understand how they survive off of how much money that they make a month. It was sad to read the story and see that these people have to live paycheck to paycheck and are not financially stable/comfortable.

"Nickel-and-Dimed" was an interesting essay. Most people assume they understand how bad some people have it, but reading something like this really shows you how difficult it is to live in society today as a lower class citizen. I liked the fact that Barbara Ehrenreich reffered back to the fact that she was only a single person living off of the amount she was being payed, while most women on welfare or women working the same job as her and getting paid the same amount, have on average about two children to support. I couldn't believe that, "According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, for example, in 1998 it took, on average nationwide, an hourly wage of $8.89 to afford a one-bedroom apartment, and the Preamble Center for Public Poilicy estimates that the odds against a typical welfare recipitent's landing a job at such a "living wage" are about 97 to 1." Those odds are incredible.

"Pennies an Hour" also showed some horrific statistics. I couldn't believe how little the workers in sweatshops get paid. I had never seen the actual amounts, and like the people I talked about above who assume they understand how bad some people have it, I also assumed I knew. I had no idea that a young femal worker in Bangladesh gets paid only 1.6 cents for a baseball hat with a logo on it that sells for now, probably more then $17. The fact that women in Bangladesh think they could care for their children if their wages rose to 34 cents an hour is amazing. It opens your eyes to read things like this, and look at how different people live across the world.

"nickel-and-dimed..." and "pennies an hour and no way up"

I actually was interested in reading these two essays. Because today's economy allows the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. I found it was great to see the struggle that low-wage workers must go through. They basically survive paycheck to paycheck. In "nickel-and-dimed" Barbara Ehrenreich conducted an experiment in which she had to live at the poverty level and go in search of a job. She had difficulties surviving off of $6-7 dollars an hour. In her essay she brought up a good point of how people don't even get to go above the low-wage level and are just stuck there just getting by. "Pennies an hour and no way up" by Hayden and Kernaghan made me feel sick to my stomach because of how little people earn in other countries. We believe that people have trouble living off our poverty level when in reality it is nothing compared to the 12 cents an hour earned by people working in sweatshops in China. In other countries companies make so much of a profit because they are able to employ cheap labor in return for making more money off of an item.

Postage...

Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel-and-Dimed" was a great read. She created a solo "experiment" where she dropped everything she was doing to experience poverty firsthand. As another classmate stated in his post, other journalists write about poverty but have never been in that situation themselves. Everything that she talks about in her essay is so true. I worked at a restaurant when I was younger and there is a whole workforce of people from young to old, all qualified skill-wise far greater than what they are doing. There is a line that a highlighted on page 380 from the last paragraph, "...the camaraderie of people who are, in almost all cases, far too smart and funny and caring for the work they do and the wages they're paid."

Tom Hayden and Charles Kernaghan's quick selection was jaw-dropping. I never knew that people were making so little in sweatshops to produce petty goods here in the United States. 1.6 cents for each baseball cap, are you serious?! That's ridiculous. And to think that people in the U.S. complain about making minimum wage.