Week 13: Is Wal-Mart Good for America?

This question is tough because I think, after watching the Frontline piece, that Wal-Mart is good and bad for America. It’s basically an unanswerable question. If I were one of those exuberant participants at that large shareholder meeting, I might say that of course Wal-Mart is good for America – it’s good for me! If I were one of the workers who had lost their jobs at US manufacturing plants because Wal-Mart decided to go with a Chinese supplier instead, I’d say, heck no, Wal-Mart is hurting America.

It really depends on what side you’re on. America is a big country, full of many different people. I would like to believe that those factory workers could get a job at Wal-Mart and be fine and move on with their lives. You could argue that when you step back and look at this situation from a global, macro scale, China should make the goods and we should purchase them, and that’s just how it’s going to parse out. Maybe Americans just weren’t meant to be manufacturing anything. Maybe we’re supposed to be the sellers, the consumers, the idea-generators, the educators, and the bankers, but assembly-line production of goods is not what we’re good at as a people.

This could be a normal progression of how things are eventually going to shake out globally. The Wal-Mart executives don’t think they’re doing anything wrong and, on the contrary, they think they’re doing everything RIGHT. I do believe in “buying American” and I do believe in supporting your local businesses, but I have to admit, when I need a pair of socks, I’m off to Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is good for my wallet. I know its trading policies with China and its shrewd way of pitting suppliers against one another to get to the lowest price, just so that they can have a higher markup, is rough to see. But that’s the way businesses work. They’re innovating and they’re leading the way to a new standard of practice for retailers.

There’s nothing we can do but try to do what the small manufacturer in Ohio did – go to Congress and try to get China to change their prices. Our government needs to take a stronger stance against China and their low wages and terrible working conditions. Make them pay more to their employees and treat them better, which would drive up the prices of the goods they churn out. If their prices were brought up a little higher, there may be some American manufacturers that could start competing again.

Week 12: The Second Shift Checklist

This topic is actually very much top-of-mind in my family right now. I decided to take this sociology course and other prerequisites as a step toward maybe going back to work one day soon. Since I’m a stay-at-home mom (SAHM), it really doesn’t bother me that the majority of the checkmarks on the sheet were in my own column. However, my husband and I talk about this all the time: How do we shift those checkmarks into his column once I do start working? Actually, now that I’m taking two courses this semester and performing all these duties, I’m really starting to feel what it might be like when I actually do take that step. Sometimes, when it’s Sunday afternoon and I have two papers to write before midnight (ahem) and the house is a disaster and I have no idea what I’m making for dinner, I think I’m making the wrong decision to go back to work. Sometimes my kids tell me they want me to stop working on my papers or reading my textbooks and “pay attention” to them. My oldest has even flat-out told me that she doesn’t want me to go back to work.

As far as the checklist goes, my husband does unload the dishwasher occasionally, and he can somewhat be counted on to mow the lawn. He and I share a lot of things, like shoveling snow and mowing the lawn. He gets the kids up but I get them dressed. He makes the oldest ones breakfast and takes them to school and I make the youngest one breakfast and take him to school. I pay the bills, but he worries about them. He likes me to drive when we go on family outings or vacations because he just doesn’t like to drive. And he’s completely inept when it comes to home repairs or electronics, so those are in my column too. So, there were not a lot of checkmarks in his column at all, but again, I’m home for a reason - so I can be here 100% for my kids and husband, so I shouldn’t complain too much (but I do!).

My husband actually works long hours at a bank and comes home tired and stressed out. I, on the other hand, go to the gym, read my textbooks, write papers, take tests, get coffee with friends, drive my kids to their activities, make dinner, and put everyone to bed. Is it unfair? Well, yes, most days I can’t believe that I graduated from college and worked for many years at a high-paying job, only to be relegated to dishwasher-loader and pajama-folder. I have many friends who are in the same situation as me, and we all kind of feel like we’re missing out on something. Yet we all admit that we are very fortunate to have the ability to stay home. We all believe we are doing what is best for our children. When I told my other SAHM friends that I wanted to go back to school and become a nurse, they all told me it was going to be a challenge and that they don’t see how they could ever attempt such an endeavor (“But good for you!”).

 

So, for now, I'm okay having a "second shift" because it allows me time during the day with my kids - volunteering at their schools, being there for them when they are sick, etc. And at night, that's when the laundry and homework gets done. My husband provides the paycheck so we can go on nice vacations and live in a nice neighborhood. The checklist is going to have to change when I start working again and that is my major source of concern. Because of his job, I will be the one picking the kids up from school when they are sick and I will be the one taking a day off from work to attend the parent teacher conference and Thanksgiving parents program. How that is all going to work is still very much a mystery to me.

Week 11: Is Society Secularizing?

I do not think that our society and/or the world is currently secularizing. As our textbook stated, more and more people are being drawn to religion because of uncertainties in their own lives. People need something to hold onto to give them hope in these troubling times. It may seem that, in many ways, religion is taking a back seat to other institutions in our society, such as education and technology, but more and more, people are looking for meaning through spirituality.

I, personally, have always considered myself removed completely from religion. I have a Catholic mother and Methodist father who decided to raise their children, as I like to call it, “Commercial Christians.” In other words, we worshipped the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus, but never stepped foot in a church. But here’s the funny thing: my brother, sister, and I all married Catholics and all three of us send our children to Catholic schools. So, I, in a sense, embody the idea that we are not secularizing, but instead are becoming more religious. Will I convert and become a Catholic? Maybe. My children hate the idea of me someday burning in Hell while they sit up in Heaven.

My problem with embracing religion of any kind is that, as an adult, it’s so hard to suddenly decide to believe that there are one or many all-powerful beings that created the universe and are shaping your life in any way. It seems kind of silly to me. I truly believe that if I had been brought up as a child to believe in Jesus, I would not have a problem. But at this point, I really can’t see it happening any time soon. 

I have discussed this topic with a few of my friends who live in the South and are extremely religious and I’ve explained to them how I feel. What they all agree is that I probably just haven’t had a reason yet to grasp onto religion. Each of my devoutly Christian friends has said that there has been some sort of traumatic event in their lives that has driven them to find meaning or a purpose in life. They’ve turned to religion when they needed something to hold onto. I, on the other hand, have never had a close relative die, I’ve never been in a near-death situation, and I’ve lived a pretty nice life so far, not really wanting for anything. I don’t feel the need to have religion at this point.

But, going back to the purpose of this blog entry, I do believe there are many people right now fighting poverty, economic distress, and different crises in their lives that almost certainly are looking for something to give it all meaning. And that’s why I believe religion is continuing to grow throughout the world and we are not secularizing.

Week 10: Reflections on the Densho Website

I spent quite a bit of time exploring the Densho website. I was interested because the information was almost all new to me. I cannot remember, as a child in the 80s and 90s, ever learning about these camps throughout my elementary, middle, or high school years. I remember having in-depth units on the Holocaust and other aspects of World War II, but never do I remember hearing about this aspect of the War.

I also found this topic interesting because I actually lived in San Francisco for 5 years (1999-2004), so I have visual imagery in my head as I think about where the Chinese immigrants and Japanese immigrants lived. In San Francisco, there is Japantown, which is west of the financial district, and Chinatown, which is just north and adjacent to the financial district. I used to take the #19 bus everyday to work and it went straight through Chinatown. There is a definite distinction between Chinatown and the rest of the city - it is even marked with golden lions and a gate at the entrance of the neighborhood.

I always thought Japantown was just kind of symbolic though. There is a little archway that tells you it is there, and a couple shops, but no real housing that seems segregated, the way it is in Chinatown. This may be indicative of the fact that the Japanese were forced out of their homes and put in the internment camps and were just never able to reclaim that neighborhood when they got out.

I liked reading that Ronald Reagan was the one who finally made the formal apology and reparations to the Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans who were put in those camps. At least there was closure, and the Densho website is doing an amazing job of keeping the story alive so we can all remember what can happen during times of war hysteria.

Week 9: The Social Construction of Gender

The first few pages of the assigned chapter on gender inequality explains how to distinguish between a person's "sex" and a person's "gender." While a person is born with certain physical characteristics that determine his or her sex, gender is a label society puts on each one of us. The idea is that the two genders are not as different biologically as we may have been led to believe. While reading the whole biological versus sociological debate, I was immediately reminded of an article I had read earlier this year.

The article (http://www.parenting.com/blogs/show-and-tell/christina-parentingcom/gender-neutral-parenting) talks about a couple who were able to keep their child's gender a secret for 5 years. They finally had to reveal the child's gender when they enrolled "it" in school. The school would not let them leave the gender box blank on the admissions forms.

While I was searching for the exact article that I remember reading, I actually came across a couple of other recent cases just like this one. It seems like there are some parents out there willing to take the risk and see what the outcome of such an "experiment" would be.

I say, why not? No harm done, right? I mean, if or until that child is bullied in school, I think it's a really cool idea and I applaud those daring parents. I don't know if I'm progressive enough to try it, though!

Week 8: Why Should We Care about Global Inequality?

The podcast we were asked to listen to outlined a few reasons why we should care about global inequality. One of them was that the price of goods we buy here in America is affected by global events and economies.

I have an example of how the prices of goods from around the world have affected me personally. When I was a kid in the '70s and '80s, my mother used to sew my siblings and me clothes. Every Halloween, while the other children got to go to the store to buy masks and plastic-y costumes, my mom insisted on hand-sewing each one of her children a costume. When I became a mom, I decided I would do the same thing. Before my daughter's first Halloween, I headed out to the fabric store, picked out a little devil costume pattern, and bought the materials for the costume. I had to purchase a couple yards of red felt, Velcro, thread, needles, bobbins, stuffing, ribbon, and elastic. I brought the goodies home and got to work at my sewing machine. Nearly 3 labor-intensive weeks and $40 later, I had an adorable little red devil. Shortly after I finished my masterpeice (pictured below) I happened to be in a store and spot a nearly identical costume (I'm sure there were differences in quality) for only $15! I couldn't believe it. I've never made another Halloween costume to this day.

My personal experiences as a consumer in America is that things have changed drastically since I was a kid and it is mostly based on the global economy. Goods can be made cheaper in China and other developing nations. It's that simple. There are obviously positives and negatives to this fact. When my daughter was about 3 years old, there were reports that many toys that were manufactured in China had been painted with lead-based paint. I immediately went online and found a lead-testing kit and sat down one night and tested each and every one of my daughters' toys. Luckily, we weren't affected, but I do know parents who, to this day, will only buy toys made solely in the USA.

Week 7: How Much Does Class Matter?

I think class matters a lot in the U.S. today. We all probably have stories similar to the ones posted on the “People Like Us” website. I particularly identified with the girl who was an “Army Brat” and moved all around, only to end up in an affluent area where her Dad was not as elite as he was in her other neighborhoods.

But I’ve got a great example of how class can have an impact on your life – it’s actually my husband’s story. My husband grew up on Staten Island in New York City. He did not live on Todt Hill (as the fiancée in the clip on the “People Like Us” website), but he lived in a single-family home in a nice neighborhood. His father was an elementary school principal in Chinatown in Manhattan. His mother was a high school Spanish teacher. You could call his upbringing middle-middle-class. When my husband was in 8^th grade, his parents had him take a test and apply to a high school in Manhattan called Regis. Regis is an all-boys Catholic high school that is free to those who are accepted, based on their test scores. My husband got in and started taking the ferry and subway to school every day. During his senior year, he applied to some colleges and, while he was disappointed that he didn’t get into his first choice, Princeton, as many of his friends did, he ended up deciding to go to his safety school – another Ivy League college. After college, he moved around a bit, attended business school, and after many years of working in large banks around the country, he was finally named CEO of a bank.

What does this story tell us about class? Well, my husband will be the first to tell you that education is everything. And I’m not talking about the quality of the education. I’m talking LOCATION. Believe it or not, when interviewing for jobs recently, my husband was often asked about the high school he attended. The high school, people. Because the high school he attended had a good reputation, he was able to attend an Ivy League college where he met and befriended people from all over the world, from all income levels. He has maintained those friendships and, in this day and age, networking for jobs could not be more important. Having connections in high places has had a huge impact on his (and my!) life.

A couple years ago, I was talking with a former employer of mine and he told me proudly that his daughter had aced her SATs and had been accepted to the University of Maryland on a full scholarship and also to Brown (no scholarship). When I told my husband that my boss’s daughter had chosen a full ride at Maryland over paying for Brown, he couldn’t believe it. He didn’t see why anyone would value saving a buck now over the experience of attending the country’s most elite college. He just didn’t get it. His “pedigree,” if you will, has gotten him pretty far. You see, in his eyes, if you attend Brown, you get to build relationships with all sorts of amazing, smart, rich, powerful, and creative people. Throughout the rest of your life, you’ll have a connection with these people who could potentially one day help you in any number of situations.

I went to a regular, non-Ivy-League college, so I don’t have the perspective that my husband has. I think I did alright without it. But this is just one example of a guy who was born into a middle working class family and, through luck or intelligence or who-knows-what was able to rise up to the next level.