Final Essay

Max Serna

Ms. Williams

English 1A

22 December 2013

Below The Poverty Line

Picture a world where you have to be rich in order to buy food, own an apartment or car, and everyone else is slowly falling into this pit of darkness. This darkness is poverty, people don't find a way out of it, and they sink deeper even if they try their best to get out. In the book The Rich and the Rest of Us, real life situations of people around the U.S. are mentioned in which that pit is not simply an imagination, but a reality. Each year more people are being left out of jobs and are forced to struggle in keeping up with modern day wages, which causes less people to make anything of themselves because of how bad in debt they are or how little money they have from losing their jobs.

Money, no matter where in the world, is the motivation for all families or individuals. In the U.S. everyone tries to reach the “American Dream”, in other words they want to have money to have nice cars a decent sized home and occasional vacations every year, but for all of that to be possible they need money. Of course everyone would love a life like that, so money is the main focus, in those situations greed takes place. The wealthy are the ones that show greed the most, they manipulate those who have power to make changes in the system that benefit them, like cutting their taxes. When the wealthy get their taxes cut, the middle class and everyone below it are forced to pay more, “...everyday people of all colors have grown weary of the unmitigated greed of the mega-wealthy minority who have steered the economy, not into a ditch, but over a cliff.” (T. Smiley, C. West. pg. 9), Its like those who are wealthy already do not want anyone else to succeed and live the lifestyle that they live, only they get to enjoy the luxuries while everyone else pays the dues that they should pay. Of course people are losing jobs and can't keep up with the cost of living if they are doing what the rich aren't, paying taxes! The situations is not simply greed but greatly unfair to those who live on a budget, while some of the wealthy like the Koch brothers are off on a million dollar vacation.

Although people themselves are a major reason that there is such a small opportunity for people to keep a well paying job and keep up with the economy, there is something much more advanced that ties in to the reason people lose their jobs and its right in our pockets. Technology has greatly advanced more than we would ever imagine. So exactly how is technology responsible for the loss of jobs? A machine made to put together a car can easily replace all the workers that would normally do the job, since it is faster, and less money for a company to pay leaving people without a job. Sadly it is happening much sooner than later, ‘ “You basically don't want workers. You hire less, and you try to find capital equipment to replace them.” ’ (pg. 131). The competition is extremely difficult for workers to beat, since the only thing needed for the machine is maintenance, and since companies only care about making money they rid of what they don't need. Unless one of the workers who was replaced by a machine knows how to do technical work with machines and is hired for maintenance then they are all left with nothing. They will probably not find any better jobs and are forced to join those who can't afford to keep up with the standard of living. Its pretty scary to see how quick technology advances, we never know what's next, pretty soon teachers will be replaced by a robot who can teach any subject, or robo-nurses who treat patients at the clinic, although we can be sure that the wealthy will be unaffected and stay wealthy like they've always been.

The way things have turned out over time it almost seems like things are not going to change for us middle class or lower middle class, but there are propositions that could help reduce the greediness of people mainly the wealthy, and give more opportunity for everyone. One of the simplest solutions is nothing but a minor action, its something we were taught when we were all children therefore it is not some sort of sorcery that cannot be accessed. This solution was proposed by Russell Brand in a Mind Shift interview, he said people just need to “be nice”. It sounds rather childish to think that being nice will make things better but its actually a great solution. The wealthy are being greedy with their money, they don't want anyone to have their wealth, so there are problems in the economy, people can't pay taxes, they can't keep jobs, etc. Now if they rich were “nice” and paid their share there would be much more money cycling in the economy, perhaps less taxes to be paid overall and higher pay rate to make it possible to keep up with the living wages. The only difficulty in this is getting the rich to cooperate with the idea and take part, since they want to stay up top it may be less of a possibility, but still worth a try.

Our situation is pretty damaged, there is no more land of the free its more of a land of the rich, we are all just living in their world slowly falling apart into nothing. Jobs are being lost, people are suffering and the rich are just living the american dream. The corruption of the economic system is not improving at all, we do not have enough money cycling around to improve it, the rich are just sitting there allowing it to happen rather than taking a big step into saving the economy. There are solutions for out there in order to make them come to their senses and be a part of the rehabilitation of our economy but whether they participate is not in our control. Even if they did we still have the advancement of technology and the way things look it does not seem like it is going to stop moving forward anytime soon, who knows what the future will hold for us at the rate that technology is replacing workers.