Current Events Analytical

In America, labor has become a part of everyday life. As accustomed as it has become to everyone around us though, there a still flaws in the system. Even today there is no perfect labor union system, and unemployment has spiked recently. There are also debates on whether minimum wage is helping or hurting American citizens. These issues are very though to fix and affect many more things than may be originally perceived. Unemployment is one of the most crucial topics in regard to labor. It not only affects the person without work, but because that person does not spend as much money, it affects businesses as well. Last year’s recession has left America’s unemployment rate fairly high, which has yet to decrease. This shows that even though our economy feels better than last year, there is still a large portion of people who have no income at all. When people lose their income, they do not lose all of their expenses. This may allow loans to build up, which especially in the case of credit card loans can ruin lives. Unemployment is a very difficult thing to fix though. That have been many different government plans to try and lower our current rates, but none of them seem to be working. One solution of our government’s to help the American is to increase minimum wage. This would give many people who are already under the poverty level more money to live more comfortable lives. This would also give people more spending money to help the economy. Raising minimum wage has a down side though. It may increase costs of a large company so much that they would need to fire some of their workers. This would possibly hurt our economy more than giving the people who kept their jobs more spending money. The U.S. government believes that the increase is the right choice though, as there is plans to raise minimum wage by 25 cents this July. Our work force today is also missing a unity that it has had in the past. That amount of workers that are in a union has dropped and the AFL-CIO has recently split apart, destroying most of the unions overlying organization. Although work conditions have improved enough that unions are not as necessary as they used to be, they are still necessary for the U.S.’s labor system to progress forward. Unions are the only way to allow employees to take on large corporations. People, now more than ever, can recognize when they should be paid more, and the organization provided by unions is the way to achieve what they deserve. The labor system in America is currently not at its highest point. Though, there are many ways to reverse this such as figuring out what is the best option for minimum wage, finding a way to get more Americans employed, and reestablishing the presence of unions in the work force. With these solutions, the labor system and the economy will be well on the way to recovery.

Background Analytical

Consistently throughout history, labor has dominated the lives of the average American. It is come knowledge that is thought to us when we are children that everyone has to grow up and work. The whole reason behind being educated is to have a successful job at an older age. Most of an American’s adult life is spent in the work place, regardless of their profession. Because of this, there has been a constant struggle for rights and benefits in the work place since the foundation of our country. Although labor unions were present throughout the 1800’s, they were not very organized until 1886 when Samuel Gompers formed the American Federation of Labor. This Federation was able to organize how unions worked. This allowed all unions to have the same set of standards for the work place, and even though individual unions did not have to numbers to get these standards, the AFL made that a possibility. The AFL helped make laws that are not even realized today, laws that are taken for granted. Without the AFL we would have no child labor laws, or no minimum wage. Those are concepts that are just fact of our current labor system, but they were not always there. There are even specific cases that the AFL were involved in to give workers rights. One such example of this was in 1894 in Pullman, Illinois. The Pullman Palace Car Company had monopolized the entire town. This meant that everyone living in the town was an employee of the Pullman Palace Car Company and everything people in Pullman bought was from the Pullman Palace Car Company. This problem with this was that the people were not getting paid enough to afford the prices of the same company. When the town’s people went on strike and the AFL got involved, the company was taken to court. The president of the Pullman Palace Car Company was eventually sent to jail for this due to a law against monopolizing. The AFL is mainly only helping people who have jobs, so being unemployed is still a large problem in America. Unemployment is almost an issue in the nation, but there were times that it was more specifically an issue than not. This was during the Great Depression. During this time in the early 1900’s, unemployment was at 25%, while with our most recent recession, it never reached 11%. Our country got into a circle where the businesses needed to let many workers go because they could not afford to keep them, because of this, people couldn’t spend as much as they could when they were employed, so business would suffer even more. It was Franklin D. Roosevelt who was able to get us out of this depression. FDR created a new deal plan where there were enough jobs created so that everyone was able to have a source of income. Because labor is directly tied to our economy, once the unemployment problem was fixed, the nation made a full recovery soon after. Labor will continue to be a major part of our economy for the rest of the country’s future. It is a system that works to benefit everyone and continues to get better over the years.

Bartleby, Analytical View

Bartleby was hired to the firm as a scrivener, someone who records everything that happens in trials. Due to Bartleby's Depression though, he was not doing any work for the law firm at all. Bartleby is a perfect example of how depression can ruin someone's life. Depression did not allow Bartleby to work, and because of this, he had nothing to live for and died. In Bartleby's case though, his depression was able to kill him before his lack of work. When someone lacks work, many luxuries as well as this that are taken for granted suddenly disappear. Being evolved in some kind of labor provides income, which in the current lifestyles of the country, is an absolute necessity. It was shown late in the story that the source of Bartleby’s depression may have come from losing his former job at a dead letter office. This was a place that received all of the letters that the post office were unable to deliver or return to their sender. It was implied in the story that a dead letter office is a symbol of failure. Bartleby was working in a place that was created due to mistakes. This must have made him misrable, which is another connection between his depression and his work life. The theme of labor goes past just Bartleby and his depression in this story. This story shows how a business needs to find the right people to work for it. When Bartleby was hired to the firm, there were already two other scriveners working their, Nippers and Turkey. Both of these scriveners had problerms though, and could not work for most of the day. Nippers suffered from indigestion and Turkey was a drunk. This caused many problems for the firm because at times neither were able to provide suitable work. Labor is a realtion between the employer and the employee that needs to remain balanced inorder for both parties to benefit. Both Nippers and Turkey did not keep this balance, so the firm was not benefiting from having them as employees. Bartleby was hired to coreect this balance. This short story may have not been intentionally focused around labor, but it still shows many themes directly related to it.

Bartleby, the Scrivener

The short short story that I read about labor was entitled Bartleby, the Scrivener. The story took place in the mid to late 1800's and is told through the perspective of a retired lawyer from a Manhattan law firm. This lawyer was looking back at his life to tell the story of the "strangest man he[I] has[have] ever known", Bartleby. Bartleby was hired at the law firm that the narrator worked at as a scrivener, someone who is to recodrd what happenes durining the trials. The firm already have two scriveners, but neither of them were capable so a third was needed. Bartleby started as a very good employee, and gave the firm great work, but over time, he started to lose interest. Bartleby, over time, started to "prefer not" to do things that were asked of him. This led to him not doing anything at all, reguarding work or otherwise. When the law firm moved locations, Bartleby prefered not to move with it, so he stayed in an empty building. When he was kicked out of the building he needed to be arrested because he prefered not to move. Bartleby then ended up dying in jail due him prefering not to eat any food. At the very end of the storey, the narrator begins to see life the way Bartleby must have. The narrator closes the story with the line "Ah, Bartleby! Ah, humanity!". I believe that in this story, Bartleby was depressed. He had no motivation in the work place that eventually led into his entire life. Depression in the workplace can be very harmful to the rest of one's life. Had the narrator not displayed so much generosity, Bartleby most likely would have lost his job, which if possible would have made him more depressed.

Raising the Minimum Wage Will Reduce Poverty

My last post talked about how minimum wage would not reduce poverity levels. I have come acrosse a different article that directly opposes that satement. Jason Furman wrote an article entitled "Raising the Minimum Wage Will Reduce Poverty". This article goes in depth on how by causeing people to be paided above the poverty line will reduce poverty in general. There are points stressed that by giving a family the little extra money they need to not be in poverty wil help raise their children better. By rasing children better, it provides a better oppeertunity for them to get a higher education and get a job that will keep them out of poverty. There is also the point that is made that if minimum wage was raised, people would have more spending money. This would allow people to spend more money, which would allow the bussinesses that are paying the higher minimum wage to make more money. So rasing the minimum wage would be a win-win situation for both the employee and the employer. I currently make minimum wage and I know the extra money that would come from raising minimum wage would be very nice. I also known that I work with people who are trying to support a family with their job, and they actually need the extra money. I honastly believe that no one i work with will lose their job if minimum wage was increased, but bit would help them so much. I am on the side of raising minmum wage rather than not.

Parrot, Jason Furman and Sharon. "Raising the Minimum Wage Will Reduce Poverty." Opposing Viewpoints: Poverty. Ed. Viqi Wagner. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 11 Feb. 2010 .

Raising the Minimum Wage Will Not Reduce Poverty

A large part of labor is to prevent poverty. This is why our government has set up a minimum wage, to make sure all employees are getting paid at least a certain amount. People who get paid minimum wage are still below the poverty line though. This is why some people argue that the minimum wage needs to be raised. David Henderson does not believe that this is true though. He wrote an article on how raising minimum wage would not reduce poverty. In this article he talks about how increasing minimum wage would greatly increase the costs of major companies who have many minimum wage workers. The costs of the company may even increase enough to the point that employees would get fired. He does not believe that it is a fair trade to give some people more money at the expense of giving others none. He also argues that most people receiving minimum wage jobs are teenagers and young adults who have no overheads, so they do not need the extra money. I receive minimum wage for my job, and even though i would like more money for my job I will admit that it is not exactly necessary. Henderson's third main argument is that the cost to pay for the minimum wage increase would be taken out of employee benefits. The slightly higher pay would not be worth all of the benefits that workers would lose. Although I don't completely agree with his statement, his ideas do make sense, so raising minimum wage may not resolve all the poverty in the U.S.




Henderson, David R. "Raising the Minimum Wage Will Not Reduce Poverty." Opposing Viewpoints: Poverty. Ed. Viqi Wagner. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2007. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Gale. Deerfield High School. 10 Feb. 2010 http://find.galegroup.com/ovrc/infomark.do?&contentSet=GSRC&type=retrieve&tabID=T010&prodId=OVRC&docId=EJ3010159283&source=gale&srcprod=OVRC&userGroupName=deer63488&version=1.0.

Vanishing Jobs

Unemployment is probably the largest issue today regarding labor. Our economy has been suffering recently and this increased the unemployment rates that the country has not seen in a long time. Our unemployment as of January 2010 was 9.7% in the U.S., however in 2007 it was as low as 4.7%. This means that in three years, the amount of unemployed people in the U.S. has over doubled. In order for the economy to turn around, then unemployment rate needs to go back down to what it was before the recession. In previous posts I have talked about how labor is directly related to the economy, if one fails so does the other. Businesses are not able to pay their employees if their products aren't selling and people cant buy the products if they do not have jobs to get money. I currently have a job which means that I am not a part of the unemployment rate percent. I did not search very hard for my job though, I got hired to the first place I applied to. I think that this shows that there are still many jobs out there. Because there are job available



Katel, Peter. "Vanishing Jobs." CQ Researcher 19.10 (2009): 225-248. CQ Researcher. Web. 8 Feb. 2010. .

Labor Unions' Future

In one of my previous posts I talked about how the American Federation of Labor, or AFL for short, was protecting many Americans in the labor force by providing organization for the different unions that are necessary for employees. Fairly recently though, at the AFL-CIO (1955 the American Federation of Labor combined with the Congress of Industrial Organizations to form the AFL-CIO) 50th anniversary convention Split in half as seven unions formed the competitor organization Change to Win. This was not a good change for employees everywhere. The reason why the AFL-CIO was such a successful organization is because it was every union organized together. There was no need for a rival organization, in fact, I think that forming Change to Win not only weakened the AFL-CIO but it did not even set itself up for success. Two organization will never be as good as one because it will always lack the organization over all of the unions. It is the consistencies with the union practices that made them stronger, now for many unions that consistency is gone. I do not believe that this change was good, but I do not believe that any inteded change can bo horrible. I think that this new system will work, just not as good as it used to.

Prah, Pamela M. "Labor Unions' Future." CQ Researcher 15.30 (2005): 709-732. CQ Researcher. Web. 8 Feb. 2010. .

The fireside chat on the "New Deal"

Durring his presidency, FDR had many national radio broadcasts in order to boost the moral of the country. These broadcasts were called fireside chats. I was able to find a transcript of one of his most famous fireside chats, where he introduced his New Deal plan. This plan gave America the economic boost it needed to get out of the great depression. I had never actualy seen how this plan was given to the American people though at the time of the depression, I had only learned about varrious parts of it before. FDR seemed very direct with his speech, or chat. He knew that America was not in a good place, so he was very direct with his tone. He knew that these changes needed to be made, so he was honest with the citizens of America.

"Franklin D. Roosevelt: Fireside Chat on the New Deal (1933)." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 3 Feb. 2010. http://www.americanhistory.abc-clio.com.

American Federation of Labor

The American Federation of Labor, or AFL for short, was the organization of various labor unions that represented skilled workers. The worker's trades differed by their union, but the AFL grouped all of these workers together. The AFL was formed in 1886, but it was the dominant organization representing skilled laborers by the end of the 19th century. Almost all major strikes and negotiations by laborers were controled and organized by the AFL. Even though the AFL was not directly set of by the government, I believe that the U.S.'s labor system would not be the same without it. The AFL is what gave works rights, which many of us take for granted today. I have a job, and because of this, I am in a union. Although neither my co-workers nor I plan on going on strike, it is comforting to know that I have some organization behind me. If something does come up, where my rights at work are taken away, I know that the AFL will represent me untill I get back thoes rights. The AFL's pressence may not be seen as much today, but that is because of the effort the orrganization gave in the past. Many laws were created because of the AFL, all of which help skilled labor. The AFL's presence in America has help our labor system advance to what it is today.

"American Federation of Labor." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 1 Feb. 2010. .

Pullman strike

The events that took place on May 11, 1894 led to the first and most famous strike in our nations history. The Pullman Palace Car Company owned all of the housing and stores in the town of Pullman. The company also supplied the entire town with jobs. Because of this, all of the money that company spent on its employees, they would make right back when the employees bought food for their families. The company profited off the employees as well. Water was bought from Chicago for four cents per 1,000 gallons and sold it to the residents of Pullman for 10 cents per 1,000 gallons. The entire town of Pullman, Illinois was a business to the Pullman Palace Car Company. In 1893, the company cut the wages of all of the employees by one fourth, however the prices of everything else in the town remained the same. This was the cause of the famous strike. This strike was very important and needed to happen. One company should not be able to force so many Americans into horrible living conditions. Not only did this strike help the citizens of Pullman, but it also sent a message to many other capitals in the U.S. This proved that an organized strike against a company can improve the conditions of the employees, or in this case, send the employer to jail. Workers stopped allowing their employers to control them though fear of their pay. Strikes are an important option and resource in our labor system. They should not be overused, but when necessary, they can be successful. While being a worker in America, it is important to remember that with the organization of a union, there is no need to fear the company that employs you.


"Pullman strike." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 1 Feb. 2010. .

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Out of all of the presidents that the U.S. has had, Franklin D. Roosevelt may be the most important in regard to labor. FDR's term took place during the worst economic situation of our country's history. Nobody had money to spend, so companies were not profiting as much. Because of this, companies needed to cut costs by firing employees. This led the employees to not have a source of income, so they started spending less and companies suffered even more. Our country was in the middle of a vicious circle where almost every American did not have a steady source of income. FDR was able to get our country out of this with his "New Deal" plan. This plan set of jobs for almost everyone in American who needed one. The jobs were easy to get, and provided enough pay to get citizens to start spending again. This plan put our country in massive debt, but it was worth it because it saved the lives of many individuals. FDR saved America with his New Deal, and he did this by saving labor in America.

"Franklin D. Roosevelt." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 1 Feb. 2010. .