Headline: “Fight over minimum wage illustrates
web of Industry ties.”
The
debate over minimum wage is related to the issue of income inequality in the
United States. Some people believe that raising the minimum wage would help
reduce income inequality and help people out of poverty. According to an Oxfam
report, approximately 20% of all Americans live in poverty. This is a huge
percentage. The modern minimum wage is lower than is needed for a living wage.
A person working for minimum wage cannot support themselves and their families.
Raising the minimum wage would allow them to do so. Other people argue that
raising the minimum wage argue would be bad for the economy. They say that
businesses would not be able to afford paying their workers more and would have
to fire them. However, I believe that big businesses with enormous profits can
afford to pay their workers a few dollars more. In addition, raising the minimum
wage would help the economy by allowing the workers to be a consumer with
purchasing power. I would be very interested in reading this article and seeing
what the article’s take is on the issue of minimum wage. The title seems to
suggest that people who do not want to raise the minimum wage are being
influenced by big business.
debate over minimum wage is related to the issue of income inequality in the
United States. Some people believe that raising the minimum wage would help
reduce income inequality and help people out of poverty. According to an Oxfam
report, approximately 20% of all Americans live in poverty. This is a huge
percentage. The modern minimum wage is lower than is needed for a living wage.
A person working for minimum wage cannot support themselves and their families.
Raising the minimum wage would allow them to do so. Other people argue that
raising the minimum wage argue would be bad for the economy. They say that
businesses would not be able to afford paying their workers more and would have
to fire them. However, I believe that big businesses with enormous profits can
afford to pay their workers a few dollars more. In addition, raising the minimum
wage would help the economy by allowing the workers to be a consumer with
purchasing power. I would be very interested in reading this article and seeing
what the article’s take is on the issue of minimum wage. The title seems to
suggest that people who do not want to raise the minimum wage are being
influenced by big business.
Last week I watched the LEGO Movie in theatres on opening
day. I have been a fan of legos for a long time. I love being able to create
landscapes, robots, vehicles and almost anything else out of those little
plastic blocks. I think that legos are a great toy for creative people, they
are easy to work with and if a person knows what their doing, they can create
great art out of it. However, I am also aware that lego is an enormous company
that is trying to market the toys to kids and make as much money as possible. I
was afraid that the lego movie would be nothing but a feature long commercial
for legos. I feared that it would destroy the creative aspect of legos that
make them so unique and enjoyable. Of course, being a fan, I went anyway. When I
saw the movie I was amazed. The entire movie was enhanced stop motion
animation. The visuals were dazzling. They created deserts, cities in the
clouds and oceans. I was also impressed by the storyline. The message boiled
down to; The creative process it importance. Legos are meant to be played with,
torn apart and rebuilt as something new, not to be constructed exacly as the
instructions say and displayed as ornaments. That really touched me. I was so
happy that The LEGO Movie brought out the best of my favorite toy. It was great
to see a great movie with witty humor, a good storyline and millions of lego
bricks.
We
were shown five different pictures of places around the world at the beginning
of class today. There were pictures of Egypt, the Balkans and the Costa Rican jungle.
We were asked to choose one of the places in the pictures that we would like to
go to and explain why we would like to go there. I chose the picture of the Costa
Rica. The place I would most enjoy visiting is the jungle. The picture of the
jungle showed tall waterfalls, a canopy of green tropical trees and long rope
bridges over steep canyons.
I would love to visit this place because it is so beautiful. It is a unique place that is unlike any place I have ever been with exotic birds, animals and trees. I have always imagined visiting or living in the jungle. I can see myself living in this unique place, bursting with life in every corner. I think that the jungle is peaceful because there are less people and more natural beauty.
Interestingly enough, I recently read an article in a magazine called Ahora. The article said that Costa Rica is the “happiest country on earth”. The article said that reasons for this were the high quality of life, its people’s happiness and a high respect for the natural ecology. I remember thinking when I read that Article how much I would like to go there and was so surprised and happy when I saw it as one of the options.
I would love to visit this place because it is so beautiful. It is a unique place that is unlike any place I have ever been with exotic birds, animals and trees. I have always imagined visiting or living in the jungle. I can see myself living in this unique place, bursting with life in every corner. I think that the jungle is peaceful because there are less people and more natural beauty.
Interestingly enough, I recently read an article in a magazine called Ahora. The article said that Costa Rica is the “happiest country on earth”. The article said that reasons for this were the high quality of life, its people’s happiness and a high respect for the natural ecology. I remember thinking when I read that Article how much I would like to go there and was so surprised and happy when I saw it as one of the options.
I
love to go to Balboa Park. I have been going there ever since I was a toddler.
Balboa Park was built in San Diego in 1920 for the world fair. It is a huge
park with enormous buildings with beautiful architecture and great landscaping.
I enjoy this place so much because there are so many fun things to do there. I
have spent a lot of time at this park because I used to go every Saturday to
play Taiko drums at the World Beat Center. One of my favorite things to do is
bike around the park. I like to cross the tall, old bridge that takes you to Balboa
Park and ride the many dirt trails at the west end of it. Another fun thing to
do is watch the street preformers. There are magicians, musicians, artists,
etc. Big crowds of people gather around to watch and listen as they preform on
the central street running through the park. One of my favorite places to visit
is the huge fountain located just outside the Science Museum. At the center of
the fountain the water shoots up, very high, into the air and falls back down
into the large pool of water. I enjoy walking around the pool, listening to the
water fall and touching the pool. Finally I love going to the museums. The
entire ark is full of museums. Two of my favorites are the Natural History
Museum and the Science Center. The Natural History Museum is a huge, five story
building with many different exhibits including the current one on pirates. Everything
about Balboa Park enriches my life and those of thousands of other people.
“Never doubt that a
small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it
is the only thing that ever has.”
Margaret Meade
I think that this is an
interesting quote because it reveals Meade’s philosophy of social change. I see
a strong relationship between this quote and Julia Alvarez’s theme of change in
her novel, “In the Time of the Butterflies”. Both Meade and Alvarez focus on
the power of a small group of individuals who have been politicized for some
reason and who are determined to stand up and challenge an unjust system. In
the novel the Mirabal sisters are the “small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens” who try to change their world by becoming part of the resistance to
the Trujillo regime. I believe, like Mead and Alvarez, that it is true that
many changes in the world have been started and given strength as a result of a
core group of committed people determined to overcome their perceived
injustices. At the same time, I believe that there are limits to how much a
small group can accomplish if they are not joined by others. Meade’s philosophy
applies to a certain extent. I agree that many good changes have come from a
few people who are very committed. For example the founding fathers were a
small group of men who created the founding principles of America. However,
those principles had to be accepted by the rest of the people living in America
at the time in order for their ideas to have any value. In addition, a few,
radical people in the abolitionist movement in the 1860’s did make the evils of
slavery a large issue. However, It took many people coming together to end
slavery and many generations of people to overcome the system of discrimination
and prejudice. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the Washington monument,
he was calling upon millions of Americans to join the cause of civil rights. He
knew that if civil rights was to succeed, it would have to go beyond a small
group of committed individuals until the entire country accepted all people
equally. Small groups of “politicized” individuals are not the only groups that
have caused change over the centuries. Some of the world’s most famous
movements for change have been fought by millions of people banding together, such
as the United States civil rights movement. Millions of people fed up with discrimination
joined their very dedicated leaders. But it was the people who brought about
the change itself.