Barbara Ehrenreich

“Don’t bring negativity to my door.” –Maya Angelou. This quote tastefully disagrees with Barbara Ehrenreich’s argument in her essay “The Menace of Negative People.” In this essay I don’t agree with the fact that negativity is a positive personality. I believe you can be a positive realistic person, without being naïve. Being realistic to me does not mean that your perception to every situation is going to be negative. Yet, my perception is to be aware and conscientious to what is happening in…

making people aware of the issue going on around them. Almost ninety percent of the country is facing this issue. The middle class makes up the majority of our population and many of these people are getting stuck working minimum wage labor like Barbara Ehrenreich did in…

Evidence to support this argument can also be found in American literature, for instance Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. Her assertion in her novel is that wage slaves in America can face major problems surviving in the country due to their low wages and high expenditures. These slaves earn on the hourly bases and thus can’t even imagine of saving up for the future. In her book, Ehrenreich provided statistics that said 30% of the workforce had a job of under $8 her hour, however the…

Between the last few months from September to the present day I believe I have made many spiritual connections within my life. Until recently I have been analyzing what these connections are and what they mean to me. A few of the books we have read this semester actually triggered the journey I am writing of for me. The books were She Who Is, The Female Face of God in Auschwitz, and Living with a Wild God. As well the movie Of Gods and Men and the readings of Descartes in philosophy. My…

In the seventeen years between 2000 and 2017, the homelessness rate in the US has declined from 10.5% to 8.5%. In this essay, the following three of the ten sociological ideas are used to interpret this decline in the US homelessness rate: (1) social and structural influences, (2) social and cultural capitals, and (3) consensus and conflict perspectives. Firstly, the decline of US homelessness rate is the result of individual, social and structural influences. The nature theory in Sociology…

married, have children, and stay home to take care of the family. Just because some of the women in my family became mothers at a young age, I did not want to become a mother, at least not yet. On (Not) Getting By in America by Barbara Ehrenreich, she wrote “Happily, though, my fears turn out to be entirely unwarranted: during a month of poverty and toil, no one recognizes my face or my name, which goes unnoticed and for the most part unuttered. In this parallel universe where…

In The Menace of Negative People, Barbara Ehrenreich states, “That negative people do suck. They suck the energy out of positive people like you and me. They suck the energy and life out of a good company” (Ehrenreich). I couldn’t imagine what the world would be like with no negative people, but what I could tell you is that, if you stay away from negative people you will stay positive throughout your days. Barbra Ehrenreich writes, “A Kansas City pastor put the growing ban on…

ways in which she has an unspoken advantage as a white person reflecting that “[i]f I should need to move, I can be pretty sure of renting or purchasing housing in any area which I can afford and in which I would want to live” (p.177). Activist Barbara Ehrenreich and phycologist John Ehreneich (2011) supplement this notion when they show that minorities across all classes lost more homes and jobs in 2007 and 2008 than did whites (p. 344). The cage is not complete without the lock of…

When thinking about higher education, intimidating, motivational, or even fun thoughts may come to mind. Many say college is not needed to be successful this day in age; however college education is a vital piece to the puzzle of success for many. Receiving a college education will lead the student down the path towards a career, form resourceful connections that can last a lifetime and bring an overall sense of achievement in one 's life. Beginning in the third grade, when end of year…

My background as a child shaped my views of poverty. I grew up in the west, in a middle class family of Irish descent. As a child I attended Catholic schools. My parents were very involved in the church and my mother was a great fan of Dorothy Day. My earliest memories were of helping with relief efforts through the church. My view of poverty was shaped and forged by my Catholic upbringing. The Church teaches a preferential option for the poor, that we should help the poor.…