Chapter 13: Balancing Work and Family Life

Summary:

This chapter discusses the issue of balancing work and family life. The first primary discussion focuses on work in the contemporary United States. One aspect of this work in the contemporary United States is deindustrialization, globalization, and offshoring:

· Deindustrialization è A process of social and economic change resulting from the reduction of industrial activity. The primary method of this is manufacturing.

· Globalization è The growth and spread of investment, production, communication, trade, and new technology around the world.

· Offshoring è The sending of work or jobs to another country to cut a company’s costs at home.

Another aspect of this work in the contemporary United States is social class, wealth, and income:

· Social class.

· Wealth è The money and economic assets that a person or family owns.

o Includes bonds, property, stocks, and retirement/savings accounts.

· Income è Amount of money a person receives, usually through wages/salaries, rents, interest on savings accounts, dividends on stocks, and proceeds from a business.

Additionally, the rich are getting richer, which is a dramatic change to the United States society, which seems to continue to be an issue as well as change. Along with this, the middle class continues to struggle, as the average wage of individuals in this category has decreased, or rather more individuals are earning less money than before. In addition to this, the working class is having more and more trouble managing to survive on the amount they are earning.

The book then discusses how the economy affects families. Low wage jobs and nonstandard work hours are playing a role in influencing how families function. About 26 percent of workers fall into the category of the working poor, which are people who spend at least 27 weeks a year in the labor force but whose family or personal incomes fall below the official poverty level. Nonstandard work hours are influencing the family dynamic, and are expected to increase in the future. This shift in work affects families because parents are able to spend less time with their children. Part time works is another issue affecting families, as 32 percent of these workers are involuntary workers who simply could not find better work elsewhere. Unemployment is another issue affecting families in today’s society. Unemployment causes the following:

· Discouraged Workers è These workers would like a job, and have looked for work, but have given up hope of finding a job do to difficulty in the work force.

· Underemployed Workers è These workers have part time jobs and want full time jobs, or they are workers who are working below their job/experience/etc. level.

Poverty is another level effecting families. Two forms of poverty are as follows:

· Absolute Poverty è Not having enough money to afford the most basic necessities of life.

· Relative Poverty è Not having enough money to maintain an average standard of living.

The poverty line is the minimum level of income that is considered necessary for a basic form of living, or basic subsistence. The poverty line in 2008 was 21834 dollars. Most children living in poverty are white, but a disproportionate number of minority children are poor within their given ethnic background. In regards to women, feminization of poverty is used to describe the likelihood that female heads of households will be poor. A disproportionate number of minorities are poor.

New/Interesting/Unusual Items Learned:

One of the most interesting things I discovered was how low the poverty line was. 21834 dollars seems like a ridiculously low amount of money to live on, and I really can’t see how anyone could possibly survive on that amount of money.

Discussion:

Many parents can’t afford child care due to the larger portion of the population being poor, yet without child care, many parent’s cannot receive job training, do certain jobs, etc. How do you explain this paradox and are there any solutions present to parents who are faced with this grim situation?

Karl Wahlen