War on Poverty

When I looked up the phrase “War on Poverty,” all but maybe a very few things that came up were involved with Lyndon B. Johnson’s State of the Union address. He declared “War on poverty” because of the large percentage of poverty in the United States during his presidential term in the 60’s. He wanted to help prevent and eliminate it. In the bill, many programs were formed to help people in poverty such as, Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps, which are still used today. Yes, LBJ’s war on poverty succeeded in created many programs still used today that have spent billions of dollars aiding lower income Americans, but poverty is still at a high. Poverty has only gone down from 19 to 15 percent since it was declared. Some believe that the government programs allow people to rely on them too much so the poverty rate doesn’t go anywhere. That it wasted billions of dollars on people who don’t deserve it. Of course there are going to be people who disagree, but whether people think it was a failure or not, the war on poverty was declared to help people in poverty, and it is still trying to do so. The war has not been won, but it has not been lost. I think that the war on poverty will continue to go on for a long time. Changes in poverty rates have been little, but at least there has been some. For example, “In the decade following the program's introduction, poverty rates in the U.S. dropped to their lowest level since comprehensive records began in 1958, from 17.3% in 1964 to 11.1% in 1973.” Even though poverty still exists, it is a huge factor in our country’s society and economy and it will hopefully continue to go down slowly but surely.

The NEW American Dream

The American Dream is absolutely still possible. However, the modern American Dream has transformed and evolved into something that is completely different than when the phrase was originally derived. It is not longer having a white picket fence around your home, a stable job and beautiful and educated children. It is being stable in the middle class, having a good education and being out of debt. Achieving the American Dream is extremely difficult and has been since the idea started. To achieve the American Dream you have to work very hard, put in long hours and sacrifice your time. Once you achieve the American Dream, you cant become complacent.

It is hard to achieve the new American Dream when the middle class is almost impossible to stay in. In the article “From Nickeled to Dimed”, Barbara Ehrenreich is a struggling maid trying to get work to stay in the middle class. Throughout the article, we see her day to day struggles in her work. She works tirelessly to maintain an income but sometimes she works all day and there is nothing to show for it. She does keep a good attitude about her situation and she does so by enjoying the things she was able to pay for.

In the article, “RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013”, Edward McClelland tells different stories of families that have struggled in the middle class from 1946-2013. He goes in detail about the situations Americans are put in with little to no government help. McClelland believes that the government should take more responsibility for the problems with the middle class. He says “American dream as ‘not being in debt.’ They’re not trying to get ahead, They’re just trying to get to zero.” This is quotation is important to the central idea that the new American Dream is possible, the middle class just needs some government support.

Dream Chasing

The American dream is still accessible today in many different ways, first of all the American Dream doesn’t not guarantee success; your work and effort do because nobody becomes successful over night. Secondly the American dream does not mean to be rich, it simply means being what you want to be and achieving the goals you want to achieve.

            While reading “RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013” I noticed that Edward McClelland was in favor of government regulation such as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s “New Deal.” Although this was appealing to many to get out of the Great Depression, McClelland wants more than just a regulation on jobs. McClelland states on page 558, “… we need a Newer Deal that will raise the minimum wage, reduce obstacles to union organizing, levy higher taxes on passive wealth such as investments and inheritances… perhaps lowering Medicaid eligibility…” Government regulation is one thing when it comes to jobs but regulating peoples every day lives is not okay simply because you are not living in the “land of the free” you are living in the land of the free with restrictions. The American dream should be the choice of the people not the choice of the government because if we continue down this road of regulation there will soon be a new style of economy known as socialism or even worse fascism and the American dream will just be something old people talk about.

            The American dream is said to becoming what you want to become and everyone likes to say it is to become super wealthy when in fact it is just to become the person you want to be. The middle class makes up the majority of our country whether it is lower or upper and although they need money to survive they do not need boatloads of cash, just enough to support those that they love. I am against much government regulation but a raise in minimum wage would be okay simply because $7.25 an hour can barely take care of one person who needs a home, transportation, groceries and necessary household items. McClelland uses an interesting quote from a steel worker Mike stout where he says, “You can’t grow an economy, grow a middle class, without making things, producing stuff” (556). Life is hard but the American dream can still be achieved no matter the obstacles, money can’t buy happiness nor can you pay God with it.

            As long as you are happy and loving the life you live then you truly are living the American dream in the land of the free.

FROM NICKEL AND DIMED

 This essay is about how maids have struggled to stay afloat through long days at work and all the obstacles they overcome through strict dress codes to not being able to smoke less than fifteen minutes before work. Barbara Ehrenreich the author then over hears her boss learning that the company in which she works for takes the majority of the cash that she makes as if they are pimps. The essay then goes on and on about the hardships of her duties but the more time she spends on her work the more seems to take pride in what she is doing which then leads to the end of the essay where she goes home. To end her day she goes on a sunset walk on the beach and passes by Peruvian musicians that inspire her to be happy and appreciate the life she lives.

The American Dream is Gone

Is the American Dream still accessible to the majority of Americans?

            The American Dream is the belief that every US citizen has an equal opportunity to achieve success through determination and hard work. Some believe that being successful means that you have a lot of money, and can afford whatever you may need, but others view success as sustaining a certain amount of income and being able to meet basic human needs with that income. In today’s world I do not believe that the American Dream is achievable. Most people are no longer able to get ahead financially because the middle class is slowly diminishing. In “RIP, the Middle Class: 1946-2013”, Edward McClelland discuses how people that used to live in the middle class have steadily been moving towards living in the lower class because of the decrease in middle class jobs. During the 1970s, he explains how people could graduate high school, and 2 years later be making more money than their childhood teachers. This is because back then there were a lot of manufacturing jobs, and now those jobs have disappeared overseas because of the government. The governments path towards deregulation has allowed companies to be more successful overseas, which results in less middle class jobs for Americans. It is no longer possible to just graduate high school and then live the American Dream, if you want to achieve such a thing you have to go to college and get at least a bachelor’s degree to be able to live comfortably. Even then, there is no guarantee that you will be able to find a well paying job in your degree, and if you cannot find a job, you still have to pay back your thousands of dollars’ worth of student loans. Barbara Ehrenreich, the author of “From Nickel and Dimed”, also shows how the American Dream is not achievable even for the most hard working people. Her story illustrates a first person point of view of a maid who works relatively hard at her job, yet still makes little pay. She describes what she had to do her first week as a maid, and also explains how poorly most of her co-workers live. Every person that she works with puts a lot of effort into their job, yet they get exploited by their company because while the company receives $25 per person per hour, they are making less than half of that money – only $6.65 per hour. The American Dream is not accessible to these maids either because although they showcase hard work and determination, their employers do not make it possible for them to even find better jobs for themselves because they are working so much during the week. If they quit, then that would mean that they would be making $0 instead of $6.65 per hour, and most of them can’t afford that because they can’t even afford food to eat on their lunch breaks with the pay they are making. Americans are allowing the government and these big corporations to completely wipe out the once existing middle class, and if we do not do anything about it then the inequality gap between the rich and the poor will continue to increase.