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Income inequality in the us essay
Income inequality in america thesis statement
Positive effects of minimum wage
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The rhetor of the article, For many restaurant workers, fair conditions not on menu, uses several rhetorical elements to construct her argument and build upon her ethos. She uses logos to expand her credibility and ethos, as well as to make her pathos statements more rational. She appeals to the reader’s sense of American patriotism and freedom to try to sway the opinions of the reader. The article’s main argument is that workers in the restaurant industry are being unfairly treated with their minimum wage. The editorial discusses minimum wage disparities in the restaurant industry. It starts by discussing what a “minimum wage worker’s” day might look like, giving an example of a dishwasher, who has scars on his arms. The author uses this imagery …show more content…
She establishes her ethos in several distinct ways. Firstly, the article is written for the Boston Globe, a renowned newspaper that has established itself as a major source for both news and editorials. This shows that the article had prominence from the moment it was published. The author can also use her credentials (refer to paragraph 3) to build on the ethos of the article. In detailing statistics from credible sources (including MIT and UC Berkeley), the rhetor grows her already present credibility to establish a sense of trust with the reader. This allows the rhetor to speak gallantly without being questioned about misinformation or unreliable …show more content…
Firstly, the rhetor appeals to the reader’s sense of patriotism by discussing a system (in the restaurant industry) that disallows the pursuit of the American Dream. The rhetor writes about how people are forced to live with low wages and being in poverty when they shouldn’t. They put in a very large amount of work in their jobs and get little reward for what they do. This changes the way society works and allows for an enlargement of the amount of people below the poverty line. People (in America) feel entitled to certain rights including economic freedom. The author appeals to the emotions of the American people by subtly suggesting an infringement of freedom. In a larger picture, this problem of income disparity is addressed nationwide, people look to politicians to fix the “evergrowing” income gap between the upper and lower income levels. This becomes highly important when looking at what defines an American, whether it be income or freedom, both are being jeopardized by this
In the book, Ehrenreich documented her experiences working a series of minimum wage jobs as a waitress, a maid and a nursing home dietary assistant. Ehrenreich found that in order to make ends meet and afford a place to live and food to eat, she needed to work two jobs, which left her in a constant state of exhaustion and pain. She also observed of her fellow servers that, “everyone who lacks a working husband or boyfriend seems to have a second job” (2001, p. 48). Many of her co-workers shared the same challenge with affordable living arrangements, some living in a van, with their mother, sharing rooms with strangers or even living in a dry-docked boat (Ehrenreich, 2001). Not only did Ehrenreich find that the wages offered unskilled workers were not enough to meet the basic needs of food and shelter, but that there are a “host of special costs” (2001, p. 27) incurred by the working poor. For example, workers are required to invest their own funds in partial uniform and pay ...
In the book Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser talks about the working conditions of fast food meat slaughterhouses. In the chapter “The Most Dangerous Job,” one of the workers, who despised his job, gave Schlosser an opportunity to walk through a slaughterhouse. As the author was progressed backwards through the slaughterhouse, he noticed how all the workers were sitting very close to each other with steel protective vests and knives. The workers were mainly young Latina women, who worked swiftly, accurately, while trying not to fall behind. Eric Schlosser explains how working in the slaughterhouses is the most dangerous profession – these poor working conditions and horrible treatment of employees in the plants are beyond comprehension to what we see in modern everyday jobs, a lifestyle most of us take for granted.
People slave for a number of hours of work and find themselves with minimum wage salaries and working with people they don’t want to be around with. In her article Serving in Florida, Barbara Ehrenreich goes undercover as a low-wage worker for various jobs to expose the working conditions of working class Americans. Throughout her essay, she discusses how the employees are fearful of losing their jobs even though they are forced to work in inhumane conditions such as long hours, with no breaks between shifts. While undercover, Ehrenreich attempts to make an argument on how the upper and middle class can find it difficult to survive under minimum wage jobs and allow readers to figure out what can be done to change the restaurant business.
In today’s society you either have to work hard to live a good life, or just inherit a lump sum of cash, which is probably never going to happen. So instead a person has to work a usual nine to five just to put food on the table for their families, and in many cases that is not even enough. In the article, “Why We Work” by Andrew Curry, Curry examines the complexities of work and touches on the reasons why many workers feel unsatisfied with their jobs. Barbara Ehrenreich writes an essay called, “Serving in Florida” which is about the overlooked life of being a server and the struggles of working off low minimum wages. Curry’s standpoint on jobs is that workers are not satisfied, the job takes control of their whole life, and workers spend
“Out of every $1.50 spent on a large order of fries at fast food restaurant, perhaps 2 cents goes to the farmer that grew the potatoes,” (Schlosser 117). Investigative journalist Eric Schlosser brings to light these realities in his bestselling book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal. Schlosser, a Princeton and Oxford graduate, is known for his inspective pieces for Atlantic Monthly. While working on article, for Rolling Stone Magazine, about immigrant workers in a strawberry field he acquired his inspiration for the aforementioned book, Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal, a work examining the country’s fast food industry (Gale).
In her inspiring nonfiction novel, Nickel and Dimed, Barbara Ehrenreich captivates readers as she researches whether or not if single parents, who depend exclusively on what they can make at minimum-wage income, can endure financially in the United States. She chooses to go as an “undercover” journalist to discover, first-hand, if one can survive in some of the most prominent, urban areas in America. In the first city, Key West, Ehrenreich works at two separate restaurants and as a house manager in a lodge. She soon finds that being a waitress is a tedious job, filled with aching pains and low amounts of sleep. Next, Ehrenreich moves to Maine, the state of the practically all-white low-wage workforce. Ehrenreich discovers that, even though Maine has more jobs available, the wages paid are similar to those of Key West. The last place Ehrenreich stays is Minnesota, where she finds the most trouble finding housing accommodations. In Minnesota, Ehrenreich uncovers the toiling process of job application that she had not taken into consideration. Lastly, Ehrenreich evaluates her overall experience among the minimum-wage worker’s class. She concludes that the minimum-wage lifestyle is unfair and difficult to deal with. Ehrenreich notes that the government is also a factor to be considered when it comes to low-income workers, being that the government decides the minimum wage. She also indicates that the markets are getting increasingly expensive, being that low-income housing and jobs are continually disappearing.
Fink explained that the title of her book “describes the painful and extended process by which women and ethnic minorities inserted themselves into the meatpacking workforce and redefined the struggle for recognition of workers’ rights”, (Fink, p. 3). Fink detailed that because the majority of the early meatpacking industry was centered mainly in the Midwestern cities which grew in part from receiving government help and contracts, the government then had some influence over labor in these packinghouse plants. Government regulations has strengthened the unions, improved the workers’ compensation, and “improved the conditions on their production floors”, (Fink, p.193). Furthermore, Fink also described that the entrance of Iowa Beef Packers in the 1960’s has resulted in the shift of the packinghouses from urban to rural areas which later on resulted to the government pulling away from “labor and toward business” (Fink, p. 193) which eventually weakened the union. Moreover, when the power of the union degraded, so did the incomes and the conditions of the workers on the production floor. In addition, Fink also explored how the union’s ability to represent the wage workers in the packinghouse has eroded with the admission of women in the workforce during and after the World War II. Although the union added women in the workforce, they were treated not as men’s equals and were paid cheaply less than men. Furthermore, Fink added that “Women’s position in post-World War II packinghouse continued to erode until the situation came a head with a passage of the Civil Rights of 1964” (Fink, p. 194) which was supposed to stop gender bias in employment but did not. Similarly, Fink mentioned that “contempt for women facilitated the meatpackers’ use
Poverty and low wages have been a problem ever since money became the only thing that people began to care about. In Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, she presents the question, “How does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” This question is what started her experiment of living like a low wage worker in America. Ehrenreich ends up going to Key West, Portland, and Minneapolis to see how low wage work was dealt with in different states. With this experiment she developed her main argument which was that people working at low wages can’t live life in comfort because of how little they make monthly and that the economic system is to blame.
Strength of Argument: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos. Bell Hooks’s essay, "Keeping Close to Home", uses three important components of argument (ethos, pathos, and logos) to support her claim. Hooks develops her essay by establishing credibility with her audience, appealing to the reader’s logic, and stirring their emotions. She questions the role a university should play in the life of a nation, claiming that higher education should not tear a student away from his roots, but help him to build an education upon his background. Bell Hooks gains the trust and credibility of readers through knowledge of the topic at hand, establishing common ground with the audience, and demonstrating fairness.
He expresses about his mother working at the restaurant is what made him and this article credible. He got to witness and experience his mom and her “waiting brilliance” up close and personal (Rose, 273). He also states, “I’ve since studied the working habits of blue-collar workers and have come to understand how much my mother’s kind of work demands of both the body and the brain” (274). In this statement he establishes his own credibility as a source of authority on this issue. Rose, the author, wants to open social minds by showing “mental activity” (279) required in blue-collar work is still under-recognized and undervalued by society. The blue-collar workers are not as valued as they deserve but the capability they have is not less than other high-level workers, even sometimes it’s more than
“Workers Make Appeal to Taxpayers,” also follows Andrew Olson, a McDonald 's worker who makes $8.60 an hour, and his fiance who makes minimum wage in their experience under the poverty line. “Their salaries are so meager [...] that they rely on food stamps and Medicaid to get by,” says Kelly about Olson’s current living status, a lifestyle most Americans involuntarily live. Aside from the benefits wreaked by business owners and taxpayers, the workers living on poor salaries prove as the most positively and heavily affected; the three point nine percent of working citizens treated unfairly by big businesses. “Workers Make Appeal to Taxpayers” concludes with a quote from Olson, “Just because I work in fast food, does that mean I should have to just scrape by in
Logos are an extremely effective way to convey to the ready the severity of the situation at hand. Schlosser uses this often with death tolls, injury rates, and pay. “Many slaughterhouse workers make a cut every two or three seconds, in which adds up to about 10,000 cuts during an eight-hour shift. If the knife has become dull, additional pressure is placed on the worker's tendons, joints, and nerves." (P. 173) This is extremely dangerous for the employees. The author describes the fast food industry as a business which has “infiltrated every nook and cranny" in America, and a result “in 2000 they (Americans) spent more than $110 billion." (P. 3) "The average American ate three hamburgers a week... children between the ages of seven and thirteen ate more hamburgers than anyone else." (P. 198) These statistics show just how
Many people do not realize that the jobs in the fast food industry are very dangerous. These are the jobs that no one realizes what it’s like behind the scenes. The workers face high rates of injury in the factories and in fast food restaurants, so we feel like we shouldn’t support the fast food industries. In chapters three and eight of “Fast Food Nation,” Eric Schlosser uses pathos to highlight the fact that fast food jobs are difficult as well as dangerous. The jobs involved with fast food are so dangerous that more regulations should be reinforced more firmly, as well as more laws should be put into place.
From the start of the Civil War until the 1920's Chicago was home to the countries largest meat packing facilities; Philip Armour, Gustavus Swift, and Nelson Morris. As much as 85 percent of consumer meat in the US came from Chicago's vast packing plants. Behind the companies were around 25,000 employees, making up almost half of the entire US meatpacking work force. Most of the employees were underpaid immigrants who spoke little to no english and made a meager one cent an hour. The highest an employee could aspire to was being a "butcher" who were considered the most skilled workers and made up to fifty cent an hour. Workers slaved away in gruesome, unsafe conditions for ten to twelve hours a day, six days a week. Laboring through the ear deafening shrieks of animals a slaughter, treading over slick blood soaked floors, suffering in unventilated rooms and constantly breathing in the vile, putrid smell of every that was the slaughter house. In 1904 the meatpacker union in Chicago went on strike and demanded better wages and working conditions, but the strike didn't even slow down p...
In the book, Schlosser explains how slaughterhouses and the meatpacking industries are immensely unsanitary, unsafe, and employees are underpaid and underappreciated. The workforce consists mostly of illegal immigrants who lack proper training and are paid extremely low wages for long hours in dangerous working conditions. In an article by Timothy Gardner he state...