Reading Journal #9

(Note: This is, in fact, the ninth reading journal-- it just addresses chapter 8, which was due last week. The order is screwed up because I am absent minded.)

"Many people haven't had raises in years but haven seen the cost of living...rise steadily."

"The average American corporate chief executive now makes more in a single day than the average American worker makes in a typical year."

These two quotes sum up, to me, what are two of the greatest discrepancies in US economics and the workplace. These two inequalities pervade even the gender and race line, though those two facets play a huge part in determining how much one makes over the course of his or her career. The fact that a boss of a business could make more money in one day than someone who works five days a week for that boss could make in a year is more than wrong or immoral or injust--it is disturbing. Though it doesn't make it right, I could understand this happening in a less developed country where people often have to survive on a dollar a day. But in the United States, where wealth and prosperity and opportunity are so abundant, it just doens't make sense that there is such a huge pay difference. If this statisic is correct (and I shudder to think it is), then the average corporate executive probably only works a total of one month for the enitre year and still reaps hundreds of millions of dollars. The statistic itself didn't particularly resoate with me; it seems a bit exaggereated, but it illustrates the ocean of difference between those who work and those who have people work for them.

It is such a statistic that elaborates on the huge gap and issue of poverty. In a country where there is plenty for everyone, it seems almost a crime that so many live at or below the poverty line or are sleeping in the streets. I found the example on page 277, in which one insidious circumstance of poverty insinuates another, particularly striking. If one need is not met, then, in all likelihood, others will not be met and this proves a problem for those already in trouble. Though poverty and homelessness are an issue for anyone who is forced in such a situation, it become excruciatingly difficult to climb out of the hole when children are involved, and this seems to be the greatest demographic of people who are winding up on the streets. There is no reason whatsoever that justifies a child living in a cardboard box in an alley. Though there is only a short segment in the text that illustrates the issue, it strikes a blow right at the heart. Who can bear to see their children picking through the garbage in order to survive? The saddest part is that this trend only seems to be growing, as emergency shelter services increased 13% in 2000. In addition, the problem may only reach terrible proprotions if the cost in living continues to increase and if jobs keep handing out their minimal wages to those who are most in need. Also adding to this discrepancy of poverty and employment is the fact that jobs are becoming scarcer and scarcer. Jut as it it disturbs me that bosses make more in one day than their employees do in one year, it disturbs me that eight million citizens are without jobs. Why all these incredible differences in the quality of life between people in the United States? The wealthiest nation on the planet should not have such an issue in providing services to its people. I do not know what the solution to such an issue might be, but I feel that those in power, particularly those who make vast quantities more than others, should discuss a way to better the situation for those who work for them. If there were no workers, these executives and bosses and presidents of prestigious companies probably would not rake in millions a year.