Wal-Martian Invasion
After reading this article, I went online and researched the author's name on Google. Through the website posted above, I found that she is very interested in social inequalities and left her comfortable lifestyle to experience what life is like for a, "divorced single mother working in Wal-Mart." This applies to her article because it shows that she went to work for Wal-Mart with an ulterior motive. She doesn't understand what it's like to be a real "divorced single mother" because she isn't one, and at the end of the day she could go home to her family and comfortable lifestyle. She joined the lower-class American workforce in an effort to find examples in our world of social inequality, and she just happened to pick Wal-Mart as her victim. This point is proven by examples from her article; she mentions that while working at Wal-Mart she met a woman that couldn't afford to buy a $7 polo shirt. I find that this information is not directly related because she fails to recognize other reasons why this woman may not have been able to buy a shirt, but rather just jumps to the fact that Wal-Mart exhibits a great deal of social inequality to their workers. At one point she even refers to Wal-Mart as a sweatshop! Although Wal-Mart may not offer as many benefits or as competitive a wage as other employers, they still offer people who may otherwise not be able to get a job, the ability to have some kind of income. Usually the people who greet you at the door are elderly or disabled and would have a difficult time finding a job somewhere else if Wal-Mart did not provide one for them. Yes, I understand that their wages are unbelievably low, but for many people, it gives them a chance to learn and then move on to a place of higher standing and opportunity.
Thursday, February 5, 2009
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5 comments:
The sad truth about this article is that many face economic pressure similar to this women. The majority of Americans still live under the poverty line! Something must be done.
I like your logic of how this author jumps to hasty conclusions about Wal-Mart and its employees that are not necessarily correct. It would be interesting to examine for what other logical fallacies this author uses.
I like how you pointed out that even though she wrote like she had to work hard for her money, at the end of the day she went home to her comfortable lifestyle. That is important to know when reading an article by someone.
I think it is a good point that she isn't "actually" a single mom working for these destitute wages. However, I think it is noble of her to even go out and do this. How many authors have tried to gain a first hand experience with what they are writing about? I think this experience allows her to connect more with what she is writing.
I think that sometimes when we write we jump to conclusions based on the feelings of one or two people. I have a friend that works at Wal-Mart and she loves it. Regarding jumping to conclusions, I think I did this a couple of times in my O.E. due to the fact that I haven't had any experiences dealing with frats, therefore I just made some of my own conclusions. If I had not done this I think my paper would have been a lot better.
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