Unpacking the Reading Chapter 8 "What he was winning, as I'm sure you know, aws the 'right' to be called into military service" (Newman 268)

"The controversy over forced versus voluntary military service in wartime represents, in microcosm, the economic inequalities that exist in society today..." (Newman 270)


Newman makes a great connection between something concrete, such as methods of enlisting people in the war effort, to something much broader in meaning when he made the comment above. Many people in a lower socio-economic class often join the war for its benefits. This isn't to say that the people who enlist are not doing so because they aren't truly wanting to fight for their country, but it does make clear the fact that many people who are from higher socio-economic classes, as the book notes, often children in the families who are politically involved in policy decision making about the war efforts, are able to opt out of enlisting because the parent's have the "economic wherewithal to keep their children out of harm's way." If we look at this in a larger scope as Newman has in his statement, what this really boils down to is the haves and the have-not's of our country and who can afford to and have the chances of "living a more comfortable life." (270)

I found the section on poverty's border really interesting. I have always thought of poverty as people who can't make the ends meet and are relying on government assistance, but I have not thought about the people who are referred to as "near poor" or the "working poor." These people are just above the poverty line, but struggling to make ends meet, often working many jobs and faced with a psychological humiliation of falling into this "hovering on the margins of poverty."(280) Think of the growing poverty rate we have already, now think about the people who dont fall directly at that number, but close and are facing the same challenges and struggles that the others are...but are not recieving subsidies. This is eye-opening and a little overwhelming to think about. We all know how expensive it is to just live...let alone do anything for fun. "We will never live in a society with perfectly equal distribution of income and wealth....As disparities in income and wealth expand, so too does the gap in quality of life and access to opportunity between those at the top of society and those at the bottom." (274) This makes me feel hopeless and helpless...what can we do so there is more light at the end of the tunnel? (I found myself asking over and over in my head). No things will not be utopian, but lets try to aim for as close as we can. Call me a pure optimist, I guess I am one and nothing is wrong with that. If we think of poverty as a scale with crisis on one side and hope on the other, there needs to be a balance of the two in order for significant change to take place, and an intervention to occur. I wish the chapter talked about the poverty issue a little more balanced in it's views of change.

I was rather offended at the suggestion in the book made by some recent politicians and economists that the reason why there is a wage gap between genders is "men on the whole have more work experience, more training, and higher education than women." (285) This may have been the case decades ago, but now, come on give me a break! I think this is one big rationalization of a deeply engrained institutionalized disadvantage that women face against men. This comes out as glass ceilings in the career world, the idea of the lessened chances a female has to gain an advanced postion at work over a male coworker is just one way this results. The separate spheres ideology was interesting. Basically affirming the "natural" roles for men and women. But, lets face it, we aren't in the '50's any longer. Call it less experience, or one less degree...those are all excuses, the fact of the matter is that women today are just as smart, educated and eligable as any man. Yes, there will be an unqualified woman with less schooling, but I guarantee for that one woman, there is a man out there who is just as underqualified.

Newman leaves us with an overload of information from the chapter. But he poses the question, why aren't we as a society, if we know these inequalities exist on so many levels with various groups, why aren't we more bothered by it? He goes on to say something that is truly sobering in its genuine honesty "just becasue inequalities exist does not necessarily mean that people will percieve them as unfair." (305) The biggest underlying point I got out of this lengthy chapter exploring differences in race, gender, class or sexual orientation was that nothing will change unless people start seeing others as deserving...there needs to be more people out there challenging the status quo of "its just the way things are." We need people to truly see and view it as unfair.