Chapter 13 blog

David Komorowski
Chapter 13 blog

Summary: In this chapter we look at what it is to either balance family life with work life or to be unemployed. We start off defining what work is as well as take a look at work in the contemporary U.S... Within this section we look at the concepts of deindustrialization, globalization, and off shoring. After this we look at things that divide between social classes which are wealth and income—the big picture being the rich getting richer and the middle class either becoming poorer or disappearing. With that being said we then look how another external factor has an impact on the family which is the economy. Within this we then examine how the economy forces people to work low-wage jobs and nonstandard work hours due to the lack of jobs as well as money. Other options if one is luck are part-time/full time work but for the unlucky there is unemployment. Forms of the unemployed are described as discouraged or underemployed workers. With unemployment usually comes poverty in which we look at the forms of absolute and relative poverty as well as the determining factor of being in poverty which is where one stands financially on the poverty line—included in this group of people are children, women, racial-ethnic minorities. We then take a look at what it means to be at the point where one has little to nothing—homeless—as well as why people are homeless and characteristics that it holds. After this we look at women in the work force as well as why they work, changes in their employment, and whether or not more women are leaving the workplace. A shift then takes place and we view the dynamics a family can have pertaining to the work place—two-person single career, stay-at-home dads, two income families, trialing spouses, commuter marriages, etc. Inequality in the work place is also looked at as well as why there is a gender pay gap and inequality of women and the racially diverse. Then a different approach is taken to understand working/having a family and we see the policies of bringing children to work, the pregnancy penalty, family/medical leave policies, and care for dependents.
What I learned: I have to say I have known about the poverty line/that it determines where one stands economically either well off or not. Yet I was unaware of how they decided the poverty line in which, “The Department of Agriculture (DOA) estimates the annual cost of food that meets the nutritional guidelines and then multiples that figure by three to meet the minimum costs of clothing, housing, and other necessities.” Along with this another thing that I was a little unaware of was how many different perceptions people have of their actual situation and where they stand on the poverty line, “in one national survey 21 percent of respondents with annual household incomes of less than $20,000 described themselves as “haves” whereas 6 percent of those making more than $75,000 a year saw themselves as “have-nots”. I believe that this is a little crazy seeing as how people seem to be so dishonest either with themselves or just with surveys. I can see this being the case because nobody who makes as little as 20k wants to say, “Yea we’re poor” but I am a little surprised that those with 75k think they are have-nots. Yet I think maybe this could be due to the fact that they have a little bit but want a little more.
What could’ve been better? To be honest I thought most of this chapter was pretty accurate with everything it described. I enjoyed how almost every section had a graph or statistics to go with along with a pretty elaborate explanation. Yet there was one thing I believe maybe the chapter either forgot to mention or thought it had little to nothing to do with the inequality of pay as far as minorities go in the workforce. I believe that the chapter is accurate in the sense that minorities do make different amounts than their female counter parts and make a different amount between each ethnicity. I just believe that when speaking about minorities in the workforce/how much they make, you cannot ignore affirmative action and how it either levels the playing field or gives them advantage in obtaining jobs. I’m not for/against affirmative action I just believe it at least needs to be mentioned when speaking on the topic.