Chapter 13 Blog

Chapter 13 begins by pointing out that the economy plays a big part in a family’s well being and that related social policies often harm rather than aid families. The book notes interesting statistics including that 60 of mothers who have children younger than age 3 were employed in 2007, which was less than the percentage in 1998. Another interesting fact is that the US is the only of the 22 industrialized nations that doesn’t have paid sick leave for employees recieiving a 50-day cancer treatment. Work is obviously something that is central to financial stability. There are 3 contemporary parts of work that the book points out. These are deindustrialization, globalization, and offshoring. The book defines wealth as the money and economic assets that a person or family owns. Income is defined as the amount of money a person receives, usually through wages or salaries. The chapter goes on to point out the inequality in U.S. wealth and income, that the middle class is experiencing a squeeze, and that the working class is barely surviving. The chapter goes on to describe how the economy effects families. There are low wage jobs that may include nonstandard work hours, part time work and unemployment. The book defines two different types of poverty. These include absolute poverty, which is not having enough money to afford the most basic necessities of life. Relative poverty is not having enough money to maintain an average standard of living. The poverty line is the minimum level of income that the government considers necessary for basic survival. In 2008, the poverty line was $21,834 for a family of four. There are two general opinions about why people are poor. Some people blame the poor people themselves while others emphasize societal factors. Another concept discussed is that of women and work. The book notes that men’s participation in the labor force has increased, while women’s participation in the labor force has decrease. All in all, education encourages women’s participation in the work force. An interesting concept discussed in this chapter is that of the trailing spouse. A trailing spouse is a spouse who gives up their work to search for work where the other spouse already has a job. Men make up 10-15% of all trailing spouses. The book points out that there is still a gender pay gap. Some attribute this to the motherhood penalty, where being a mother, who is the one who can biologically have children, causes a disparity in wages. The book also notes some family and work policies which include bringing babies to work, flextime and telecommuting. The chapter concludes with a discussion of family and medical leave policies.

Something Interesting

There was one section that I found particularly interesting and relevant to the occupy wall street movement. On page 353 there was a list of bullets that described theoretically some functions of poverty. One of these is that the poor people do that work that no one else is willing to do (dishwashing etc.) Many of the critiques of the occupy wall street movement is that the poor people should take initiative, go to college, and get a better paying job. The problem with this philosophy is that, if that happened, then we would not have people to work fast food or working in janitorial positions. These jobs are jobs that society relies on and expects to get done. So, it would be ultimately detrimental to have no one to fills these jobs. One of the ways to help stem this problem would be to pay a livable wages for the jobs that no one wants to do. That way we will still have people to fill the jobs, but those people won’t be living in poor conditions.

Discussion Point

I thought the discussion on commuter marriages to be very interesting. These are marriages in which the married people live and work in different geographic areas from each other. To me, this seems like an odd form of marriage that seems a little not like a marriage at all to me. Do you think this is a valid and healthy form of marriage?

-Ali Mosser