Bookses

[rebeccmeister]

Well, I finished Nickel and Dimed on Sunday, while watching ants, so I wanted to give ya'll my final opinions on the book. Although I'm still tired of investigative journalism (try saying that ten times fast!), Barbara Ehrenreich does make some good points. The sections about her work in Portland, ME, were particularly interesting--she works in a nursing home and for a housekeeping service. Her pointed remarks about the disrespect that members of the middle- and upper-classes show towards those they perceive as lower-class are worth noting; Ehrenreich observes that she sees the same distribution of intelligence levels among those working in the service industry as she sees in her other life as a middle/upper-class journalist, and yet employers and customers alike often treat service workers with so much disrespect. Higher-income Americans have achieved an unprecedented level of material well-being because they rely on underpaid laborers who produce the material goods and services.

My mother has been involved in a group at her church that's exploring the idea of social justice in everyday life. Namely, they are considering how their day-to-day decisions and behaviors affect the well-being of other people and the planet. The social justice aspect of the Catholic church is one of its most valuable aspects, in my mind. I don't often hear people discussing similar subjects outside of the context of the church, and this saddens me greatly (actually, boolean263, discussions with you have been an exception to this (: ). Sure, people will speak of wanting to save the environment, but what are you really saving it for, anyway?

I think that everybody should spend at least some time working in the service industry, because such jobs can reinforce the need to always have respect for others, and to be patient so you don't end up on gfrancie's hit list (although I really enjoy reading about the ridiculous people you meet). I was lucky enough to work for 4 years at a small-business dry cleaner's, where we could pass along the disgruntled customers to the owner, who would deal with them appropriately. She had no qualms about firing bad customers and telling them to never come back. It was an empowering workplace in that respect, but I also learned a lot from the regular customers who were courteous and pleasant, and from my boss, who spent every day performing hundreds of small kindnesses that her customers only rarely noticed, and only more rarely acknolwedged and appreciated.

Since finishing that book, I've picked up The Tapir's Morning Bath, a book about Barro Colorado Island, which is a research station run by the Smithsonian Institute that's located in the middle of the Panama Canal. I visited BCI last summer after finishing the tropical field biology course in Costa Rica, and reading the book is making me miss the tropics all over again. Meanwhile, my housemate T, who's in Costa Rica right now, can't wait to get back to the U.S. and a comfy bed and good food.

Well, I think I've been lounging around in my pajamas for long enough for today. I hope you all have splendid days!

Comments

[boolean263.livejournal.com]

It's a sad but true fact that the upper class still tends to look down on lowly peons, centuries after that should have gone out of style. I believe one common phenomenon that may contribute to it is the age-old story of human nature, where negative occurrences tend to stay with one longer than positive occurrences. The genuinely smiling barista at Fourbucks may brighten your whole day, but you'll be telling your friends about the crappy service you got the next day for weeks. And it works both ways, too; peons look down upon the hoity-toity upper class whom they perceive got their power from money, because they sure as heck don't exhibit any smarts. There are geniuses and morons in any walk of life; one just tends to retain the morons in memory more often.

I agree that everyone should spend some time working in the service industry, so that they can get a broader view of life's various walks. I can probably be considered hoity-toity and privileged, but work in the grocery store as a teen, not to mention tech support work nowadays, have grounded and balanced the way I look at life.

Having worked briefly in a car seat assembly factory, I also think that people should have to work in such a factory before they can buy their car. It would help them appreciate them for what they are, and what goes into making them, rather than taking for granted the prepackaged vehicles they see on the lot.

As an aside, I think it's great that you worked at such a no-nonsense place. I think it did the world (inside and outside the shop) a lot of good to be reminded that workers have just as much right to fair treatment as do customers. The service industry needs more employers that are willing to stand up for their workers, rather than roll over to make a sale.

I enjoy our talks about social justice and the like. It is indeed sad that there aren't more people who take an interest in such an important aspect of our very social race. We're all connected to each other, after all, whether we like it or not. And we're connected to the world around us, too -- but sadly, our acknowledgement of that and work towards improving that connection have been as half-assed as our connections to our fellow humans. I don't know whether to be amused or depressed when I'm riding on a bus crammed with sixty-odd people, so close to each other that they're touching, and yet no two people will dare make eye contact.

Yes, I am quite often this optimistic. (:

Disclaimer: For those readers unfamiliar with my sense of dry ironic humour, when I use identifiers like 'peon', 'hoity-toity' and the like, I'm saying it with a heavy dose of wry sarcasm, intended to insult the notional user of the phrases, not the targets of said phrases.