Sunday, March 24, 2013

Waging a Living (Argument+hyperlink)

To me this movie was quite depressing. To see that families are struggling everyday just to put food on their table for their children is sad. Many people all over the nation are not earning decent wages or getting basic benefits for their family. Jean Reynolds is one of the of the four people this documentary consists. It begins by the fact that she got in trouble because she said " God is not paying us enough" and she beings to explain that earning $11 per hour after 14 years is a sin and God knows that. She is ashamed that she earns such a low wage even though she has worked at her job for 13 years. She works two jobs and make a little over $600 every two weeks. She pays $1,200 for rent and supports 3 of her children and eventually ends up supporting all 4 of her grandchildren. Her oldest daughter has cancer and does not have health care. That is eight people in total in a small house. How can anybody expect to survive with such little money and so many people to support. What seems to scare Jean the most is that because her oldest daughter has cancer she will have to support all those kids by herself. That is just cruel and unusual punishment. No mother should have to worry about that. It hurts to see this because people are faced with these circumstances everyday and have to learn to live with the little that they make.

Jerry Langoria lives in the cheapest hotel in San Francisco and pays $530 for rent. He is a security guard and makes $12 per hour. He mentions he only has $10 in his bank account and maybe $30 in his pocket. He can afford to buy clothes when Good Will is having sales. He mentions that he could probably find a cheaper place to live but is afraid to lose his job. One of his fears is to end up homeless because he has been in that situation already. He is fighting to get benefits from his job like many other security guards too. Jerry works for one of the most wealthiest buildings in San Francisco and only makes $12 an hour, and on top of that still has to fight to receive some basic benefits. That is just not right. We want to live right, not work just to barely survive.

Barbara works and makes $8.25 per hour and has many different government assistance. She went to community college to get her associate degree because one can earn 30 percent more than someone with just a High School diploma. She believes education is key. Throughout her story though, we see that she does get her associate degree and gets a better paying job. However, because she is earning more money now her help to pay her home has decreased. Now that she is not getting enough money she believes that she needs to back to school and get her bachelors degree. The problem in this situation is that you gain in some places and lose in others and it seems to be the same problem all over again. From this I can tell that even though she started earning more money it was still not good enough because some of her aid was taken away because she was making more money. I am pretty sure that if her aid did not change and she had enough time to save up some money she would no longer need the aid. But because her aid was reduced she felt the need to back to school (which is always a good thing) and work part time instead of full time. It seems that someway of somehow people always have to lose in some things to be able survive in other ways.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3krg4oCSVk8

This link talks about how we can help. We the people and we the workers have to keep both ends of the deal. We the workers have to understand and except our situation and we the people need to understand that workers deserve a decent wage and basic benefits for their families. This link is in relation to the movie because it specifically mentions the three folks that I mentioned above.



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