The American dream: Survival is not an aspiration
Equal opportunity and upward mobility is a long-lost American Dream.
Last Modified: 22 Jul 2013 14:08
Sarah Kendzior
Sarah Kendzior
Young Americans seeking full-time employment tend to find their options limited to two paths: one of low-status, low-paying temp jobs emblematic of poverty; another of high-status, low-paying temp jobs emblematic of wealth. America is not only a nation of temporary employees - the Walmart worker on a fixed-day contract, the immigrant struggling for a day's pay in a makeshift "temp town" - but of temporary jobs: intern , adjunct , fellow.
On July 20, 2013, the journalist Helen Thomas died at age 92. Thomas was a seminal Washington reporter who covered every president since John F. Kennedy, but she came from humble means. Her father, an immigrant from Lebanon, was illiterate, but he encouraged her to get an education. She earned a BA in English from Wayne State University in her native Detroit. She moved to Washington DC and worked as a waitress - one could once afford to live in DC on a waitress's salary - and then got a clerical job at the Washington Daily News, which led to a job with United Press Service.
Helen Thomas worked her way up from the bottom. She did not buy her opportunities, because exorbitant journalism schools and unpaid internships did not exist. Her time in the service industry was not perceived as indicative of her abilities or her future path.
アメリカは、労働者、研修生から、助教授まで嘱託で低賃金で働かされており、社会の底辺から頑張ってのし上がることが不可能な社会になっている、と。
アメリカンドリームはもう失われているわけですね。
Managed expectations in the post-employment economy
In a post-employment economy, many are working simply to earn the prospect of making money.
Last Modified: 12 Mar 2013 07:36
The Atlantic is far from the only publication to withhold wages, nor is journalism the only field. In academia, adjunct professors live in poverty doing the same work as the average professor paid $73,207 per year. In many industries - including policy, entertainment, and business - interns do the same jobs as salaried employees and are paid nothing or next to nothing. "We need to hire a 22-22-22," said one new media manager quoted in the New York Times, meaning a 22-year-old willing to work 22-hour days for $22,000 a year.
マクドナルドの低賃金について批判した記事を出した出版社さえ、執筆者に原稿料を払えない、と。
アメリカ型雇用制度はモデルにならないようですね。
日本も似たようなもんなのか、あるいは過酷な状況が似てくるのがよくわかりませんけど、日本人にせよ、アメリカ人によせ、アメリカを過度に美化しないほうがいいですね。
アメリカは悪い国ではないが、日本においては、過度な幻想を抱いている人も多い。
そして、有道ブログの読者におかれて、そもそも日本語の記事も読めないのだから、せめて、、英語の記事には目を通そうよね。
