Essay 3 Step 2 Blog #6

I choose Fred Ringley, Second Chances. Fred is middle class and lives in the suburbs of Chicago with his family living the “American Dream”? He has a home, two cars and belongs to a country club. He realizes that when he doubles his salary, he is smoking and drinking more. He and wife used to sit up until three in morning thinking there has got to be a better way, they had everything they wanted and yet they felt poor. So they sell everything and move to Arkansas. In Arkansas they buy a farm and a dairy bar. He and his wife share the responsibility at the bar as well as the farm. On Mondays they close the dairy bar send the kids off to school and go fishing on the lake in their boat six minutes from there home.
Jesusita Novarno, Just a Housewife. Jususita is a housewife on welfare. She struggles with what people think of her, being on welfare she believes that everyone looks down on her and when she ends in a hospital she is not treated well. She states that she works hard taking care of her home and her five children. She helps others by working in a settlement house part time. She aspires to be a social worker, so she can help people “get over the bump”.
The connection I see is in They Say, I Say: Paul Krugman, in Confronting Inequality. He talks about middle class families buying houses they really can’t afford. The lack of clear economic progress for the lower and middle income families is in itself an important reason to seek a more equal distribution of income.
As for myself I see in my own work experience how difficult it is to be a housewife as well as having the two cars, house and country club. This American Dream is not what you really think it is. I believe it is about doing what you love for a living and enjoying your family like Fred and his wife end up doing.