David Brooks Dignity And Sadness In The Working Class

Improved Essays
Brooks’ Article causes Political Comments
David Brooks’ “Dignity and Sadness in the Working Class” clarifies a portion of the unfairness that the working class is subjected to in today’s society. David Brooks’ essay was published on September 20th, 2016 in The New York Times in the Opinion section. The New York Times is a highly-respected newspaper site which delivers “high quality news and information” (“Standards and Ethics”). Brooks starts off his essay by including an anecdote about a working class man from Kentucky who has spent most of his life working, yet, felt isolated because of his social status. Then, Brooks transitions into explaining his perspective on the working class. Brooks discussed how the working class is constantly exposed to bias and are usually underestimated by employers (1). In
…show more content…
Commenters usually had something negative to say about Trump, especially regarding his hypocrisy towards the working class. For example, after writing a long paragraph with questions about the hypocritical things that Trump has said and done, one commenter claimed “Trump's entire business, personal and moral history is a travesty of lies and deceit, and contempt for all that is good in America” (Cowboy Bob). This specific quote stood out because most of the people who commented about Donald Trump took a similar approach as commenter, Cowboy Bob. They stated how Trump being president will not benefit the working class and they also brought up derogatory names, such as him being racist and a liar. Commenter (RMC) also had something similar to say about Trump. She commented that Trump is a “Notorious crook” that has been taking advantage of small businesses and the working class, although he claims that he honors them. RMC used ad hominem as a way of supporting her opinions on Donald Trump. These two commenters stated similar opinions to most comments regarding Donald

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    With a culture preoccupied by the belief that material gain constitutes fulfillment within life, it is becoming increasingly common to view the act of living as the need to obtain wealth. This inane form of existence is a result of the capitalistic system in which our Western world is governed. An essay that effectively expounds the circumstances leading up to the current economic disparity among the classes is Edward McClelland’s, RIP, The Middle Class: 1946-2013. In the U.S. today, the need for a stable and remunerative job is one of the greatest concerns of an adult.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    American Dream In Crisis

    • 1902 Words
    • 8 Pages

    AP Government Book Assignment By Tristan P. Myers “Our Kids, The American Dream In Crisis” By Robert D. Putnam “Our Kids, The American Dream in Crisis,” is an interesting piece of text that compares past and present day life stories of multiple teenage children along with their families’ outlooks of the American Dream. Using both quantitative and qualitative data, author Robert D. Putnam provides an analysis that we could all relate to. Robert D. Putnam immediately informs the reader the prime reason for writing this book. Putnam writes, “...in modern America one barrier would loom much larger than it did back then: class origins.…

    • 1902 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Author, Stuart Ewen, in his essay “Chosen People” talks about how the middle class has fooled America. The middle class is presented as an imaginary structure in American society. The middle class is an illusion to Americans; it has changed the meaning of the American dream. Ewen throughout his essay shows how the middle class was created in the United States. Ewen then moves the industrial revolution created, such as the perceptions.…

    • 1617 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The readings on socioeconomic class talk about the inequality within institutions. To be specific, Duffy and Mandell’s reading talks about the cycle of poverty, with the different perspectives of welfare and whose “worthy” to receive it without the title of laziness or irresponsible attached to it, plus the physical and emotional strain it has on individuals and those around them. Duffy and Mandell also expand on the role of women and the inequality within the workplace. Mooney goes into depth about the myths and realities of welfare and the perspectives individuals hold towards those who are in lower and higher classes. Mooney also talks about the discreteness in the topic of class because majority of Canadians are in the middle class,…

    • 1038 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1990s Welfare Reforms

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Jack Golden Ms. Cintorino English 11R September 11, 2016 During the welfare reforms of the 1990s was the most discussed topic since many people of the American population believe people were cheating the system by having more kids many acts came into play to balance out welfare the reasoning to see if low wage mothers could survive. What you don’t necessarily realize when you start selling your time by the hour is what you’re really selling is your life” (Ehrenreich) when you work a low paying job for little or no money you working for life. “When someone works for less pay than she can live on then she has made a great sacrifice for you she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities her health and her life. The working poor…

    • 852 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On pages fifteen and sixteen of Mollie’s Job, William M. Adler makes a statement that sets the tone for Part I: Embedded in that core fact, and in the story of the intersecting lives and fates of Mollie and Balbina, is a larger story about fundamental changes in the economy–a story about the demise of unions and the middle class and the concurrent rise of plutocracy; about the disposability of workers and the probability of work; about how government and Wall Street reward U.S.-based companies for closing domestic plants and scouring the globe for the lowest wages in places where human rights and labor rights are ignored; and about the ways in which “free trade” harms democracy, undermines stable businesses and communities, exploits workers…

    • 793 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Bad times are inevitable in everybody’s lives, but some question: what good can come from the bad? First published on April 7, 2014, the article “What Suffering Does,” by New York Times columnist and PBS News Hour commentator, David Brooks, digs into this idea through claims that suffering plays a major role in people’s lives because it helps them grow as people (Behrens). Brooks states that happiness is just one piece of “the human drama” and suffering is the other (Behrens). Brooks’ topic of discussion is relevant in everyone’s lives because it is a topic everyone experiences first-hand, and he logically argues through examples that support his claims throughout the article. Brooks’ biggest points are that suffering provides opportunities to get an outsider’s point of view, better understand what others are experiencing, and help people learn more about themselves (567).…

    • 817 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Class in America - 2012,” by Gregory Mantsios, explores class in the Modern Day United States and its effects on individual accomplishments. Mr. Mantsios believes that the classes of America can be divided into three categories: The ultra wealthy, the working class, and the poor. However, this is simply not the case. On the upper end of the spectrum, there is a capitalist class of people in between the ultra wealthy and the working class. On the lower end of the spectrum, there is a class of people wedged between the ultra poor and the middle class.…

    • 974 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The book Labor’s Love Lost by Cherlin brings to light how the disappearance of the working-class family, along with other cultural shifts, has changed and damaged this American icon. A once thriving and growing social class, with endless possibilities has since hit a brick wall of sorts fracturing their livelihood and the fact that nothing stable has replaced the declining male-breadwinner family has pushed this social class into crisis and has hastened the fall of the working-class family (Cherlin 2014: 5). This book would be a wonderful addition for historians, sociologists, policy-makers, concerned citizens, as well as anyone interested in becoming better advocates for those who have been most effected by the collapse of the working-class…

    • 1009 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Social class in America is an uncomfortable subject for many Americans; most believe that America is an essentially middle-class nation, however, author Gregory Mantsios argues otherwise. In this article, I will break apart “Class in America-2012” and explain how it creates a persuasive effect on readers. Mantsios accomplishes this effect by debunking popular myths through statistical evidence and providing real-life examples. This analysis will only provide the author’s opinions, and not my own, as to remain objective and fair throughout. Is the social class divide in America as large as most Americans think?…

    • 843 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Some have the experience and childhood where things were given to them with a silver spoon, but there are also others who have to fight for everything they have and in most cases it’s their life. It is clear to understand that nature of class privileges, and society. According to the article, Gregory defined the phrase “social class” on how it represents people in the world. He states, “workers are most likely to identity with their to identity with their employer, industry, or occupational group than with other workers, or with the working class” (Mantsios, 26). Gregory makes us to understand that employees mostly identify themselves under certain classes that describes where they fall under that class society.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Different social class are serious problems, income, races cultures and gender are all reasons to produce it. “Looking For Work” written by Gary Soto. This is an article that described his child-hood experience. Little boys watching the TV show that opened a new door to a better life. He wants to become a middle-class person.…

    • 1262 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Jobless Ghettos Analysis

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages

    It is more difficult for Black people to find employment simply based on society’s negative perception of Blacks. In the essay, Jobless Ghettos: The Social Implications of the Disappearance of Work in Segregated Neighborhoods, sociologist William J. Wilson writes that “many black inner-city applicants are never given the chance to prove their qualifications on an individual level because they are systematically screened out by the selective recruitment process”, this is contributed to the fact that “Employers make assumptions about the inner-city black workers in general” (Ore 334). This discrimination against Blacks does not take place only in inner cities, it is happening all across the low-wage labor market, as discovered in the experiment done by sociologist Devah Pager, Bruce Western and Bart Bonkiowski. Pager, Western and Bonkiowski found that “firms are reluctant to hire young minority men—especially blacks—because they are seen as unreliable, dishonest or lacking in social and cognitive skills” (Ore 344). Through their experiment, a clear racial hierarchy emerged with whites being the most desirable, then Latinos and then finally blacks.…

    • 1156 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Analysis Of White Trash

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages

    White trash has become a massive history in America dating back from the colonial period in Jamestown to the present day. Isenberg, in her book about the ‘white trash’ and as ‘the face of a white trash’, explains the unpleasant fine points of our national identity, tying to the America’s social hierarchy and how America has never offered an equal opportunity to all white comers. She gives us a very powerful insight about how the imagery of the class system and the consistency of prejudice is evolving over the years. She also traces on the white stereotype from its root of the British belief that the working class was indeed a separate race from the middle and the upper class who were considered as lazy and stupid. The two major points that Isenberg makes a really convincing claim to us an audience is on the very true face of the class system and the ‘White Trash’ which sheds a light on the history of political demography beginning…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Feminism and Capitalism—two that has been subjects of debates persistently with numerous perspectives throughout history. Both is common with the terms that it has presented the famous theories by idyllic figures as well as caused the rise of violence. However, neither this political philosophy nor the feminist theory examines the affects of capitalism on individuals such as women. So, is capitalism a valuable ideal as an actual existing economic social system, good for women?…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays