Blog 6: PrIvIlEgE & PoVeRtY

For years, upon years, upon years, we have seen so many lay-offs, so many businesses dying, and for what?  The new advancement in technology, the placement of super corporations that create machines to do work for people?  The less quality of our products?  Yes, I know I sound pretty synical and negative, but look around you.  We now have to have Affordable Healthcare for people.  We have had to forget about the quality of work and worry about the quantity of a product.  When was the last time you have seen a “Made in America” sticker on any product we currently sell or own at this point?  Privilege…, Privilege is having the money that other people don’t have.  Privilege is having that cool new swimming pool that poor little Billy doesn’t have.  Privilege is the route of envy, jealousy, and judgment towards someone who has more than I do. Every day we see commercials of the wealthy, rich, and the popular and no one says, “I have had enough of this garbage, or I am sick and tired of caring about what someone else looks like or what they have and what I don’t have”.  We will always live in an imperfect world, but we have the power to change the way we look at it and what is really happening.  “Money is the route of all evil”.

Poverty, the way I look at it, look at the starving kids in Africa, India, or anywhere like those places, that to me is the essence of poverty.  Yes, they don’t live in America and yes, they are not free, so look there really is no contest for those who are far worse living than us here in the U.S.  Now our poverty is the Lower and part of the Working Class.  The minimum wage was never intended for people to live off of to begin with.  Minimum wage was a small wage that could eventually grow due to raises and promotions.  The problem is that not many companies or employers are giving out those promotions or dollar raises anymore due to business and the economy and cost efficiency.  Now we need Assiociate degrees, Bachelor Degrees to be able to make over $15/hr.  Now those jobs are now getting limited, due to the amount of people getting degrees.  Then if you get a Masters or Doctorate you get paid a pretty big salary and an abundance of perks like insurances’, paid vacation days, 401K’s, etc, but those jobs are rarely hiring, or a tough to get.  There is so much to be fixed, but no one is really making that big of an effort to do it.  Even if they are, they won’t sacrifice their own status or power/money to do it.