Segregation Through Classism

College is becoming one of the renowned goals to achieve for students in America. Higher education is not only becoming the standard for jobs in society today, but they are also becoming increasingly difficult to gain acceptance due to an individuals economic status. Student loans becomes one of the only options available for theses students today, and student debt is becoming the 2nd highest in the nation, just below house mortgages. Now it is imperative to identify how a nation encourages that all americans gain an education because it will lead to better jobs and opportunities to become financially stable and continue a solid career. This is no longer becoming the dream for americans anymore, citizens do not want to be a by stander and watch others with less education profit more than the criteria those people have spent years studying in for a specific field. One important category to look at is the infrustructure of the colleges themselves. Ivy league colleges and other high priority universities are becoming their own little cities, the average college graduate will have left the campus within 6 years, keeping this in mind those infrastructures are improving themselves year round with unnecessary designs that cost millions to create. Thus every year the tuition is gaining higher than the previous year causing a domino effect that sinks students into more debt. Just like quick sand, graduation and acceptance to a college becomes inevitable for debt to increase to those individuals with a economic status inferior to the 1%.

"Education is 'the guardian genius of our democracy.' Nothing really means more to our future, not our military defenses, not our missiles or our bombers, not our production economy, not even our democratic system of government. For all of these are worthless if we lack the brain power to support and sustain them." (Lyndon B. Johnson)
If college is to remain access for those who are already wealthy than those less fortunate and those who seek higher education to gain wealth. Our country which derives off knowledge, will eventually see a epidemic decrease in graduation rates and drop outs and perhaps lives ruin, all due to the economic status of individuals who are not fortunate to pay for college. Student debt will soon catch up to Americas debt in the near future. In proposal it would benefit our nation to make education free.



Punk Views On Class

       Class discrimination and Punk music have always been joined at the hip. Punk was born from an extreme teen angst in New York and London in the late seventies. These teenagers were mostly children of working class men and women who struggled to put food on the table. These kids took to the streets and found a way to to express their frustration through clothes, hair and really angry music. This music has always had it's roots in politics. Particularly politics involving class. This is the very discrimination that was causing their angst.
       Bands like The Dead Kennedys, Minor Threat and Bad Religion changed punk from a fairly sloppy, drunken rage and turned it into what could only be called a political movement in the eighties. These bands gave a voice to the thousands of kids who felt voiceless. No one in America cared about poor white kids. They now had a voice and they wanted everyone to know who we were. If you turned away from a punk they would get in front of you to give you the middle finger. These kids who were ignored for so long were now going to force reality on your eyeballs and eardrums whether you liked it or not.
        What ends up happening is these kids get together and sweat and bleed together, then talk about politics and how fucked up shit was. This leads to reading about politics in books by Noam Chomsky and philosophy by Nietzsche. The political views of punks were turning from "drink more beer, anarchy!" into a clear direction of socialism, or social anarchy as some preferred to call it. The thought process of the average Punk was evolving. Changing in to a thoughtful , articulate, and well read monster. These kids were no longer just scary to look at, but were scary to debate as well.
        Drawing from the experiences of growing up poor and often neglected punk kids were developing radical ideologies. The idea of socialist government was enticing when you believe and witness that rich capitalists want to "kill the poor". As the kids grow up and realize they cannot change the world with just a middle finger; they turned to the voting booth. Well, some of them did. In the early to mid two-thousands these kids were now adults. A campaign was started called Punkvoter. The idea was to get punk rock icons like Al Jourgensen, Jello Biafra and Fat Mike to get more of the former anarchists in to the booths to effect change the old fashioned way.
       Convincing a group of people who have railed against the system their entire lives to now be a part of it was not a simple feat. One thing that helped was something all punks could agree on. George W. Bush sucked. Voters came out from under every little rock in this country. Change was in the air. Whether that change was positive is a little less clear. One thing that was clear was that the average punk kid from the poor neighborhoods all around the country had come around full circle. From the circle pit to the voting booth. Conformists? That debate is for another blog.

Works cited

Jones, Kristin V. "WHO LET THE PUNKS OUT? (Cover Story)." Nation 278.22 (2004): 11-16.                 Academic Search Complete. Web.2015.

Women Underpaid in the U.S.

Since women have gained the right to to vote in the 1920, the women suffrage movement persisted on continuous alteration in society as it brought new awarenesses, the the women of america are capable of conducting rational thinking for themselves and what is also best for their country. As World War II was declared, America was sending more and more soldiers into battle, in so this created a huge shortage in man power in the homeland. War is said to be a cataclysm for shifting time faster for a nation, it brings new technology advances, new medical discoveries, and new rights brought to those who are "one nation under god." In the process of this speedy shift, women have gained the right to work in those places that men originally were doing before the war occurred. The famousWW II propaganda poster of Rosie the riveter was the icon to this answer. "We Can Do It" this slogan had increased women in the workforce by a nice margin from 27% to 37%. Because of this, women were now excelling at those jobs and becoming more efficient at being apart of the american dream, gaining that extra money for themselves to bring home, while supporting a cause that brought the country together as a workforce. However the pay was not the same, by the year 1959 women were only making 77 cents to the dollar of what males would make. For a nation who brought a workforce together in hopes of fair wages or more opportunity for women to find jobs, there isn't true equality. As of 2013 the pay just increased by a humiliation of one penny. Now at 78 cents to the dollar of what men make. For over 50 years it took the pay rate to go to one penny. Considering what has evolved through the events that women are now cable of doing due to World War II, they have come a long way to deserve the same amount a man should make. "It will take 144 years before Wyoming women working full time and year-round make the same as their male counterparts on average" ("heres how long it will take to close the gender gap in each state".Huff Post.HuffingtonPost.com, Jillian Berman. 31 Mar. 2015. Web. 2 April 2015.) If the rate of the value of cents to dollar consist, the year 2159 will expose true equality for every state in the United States Of America. Let that sink in for a moment.  Though it is a incredible to see a overwhelming gap for women to know that the pay equity would take more than 100 years, most states are working effectively to resolve this. The highest paying state from the cent to the dollar is Washington D.C. At a rate of 91cents this state is most profitable for women to move to work to see a better equity.  Louisiana on the other side is the lowest paying state. This state pays 66 cents to the dollar.  No matter what occupation women have, from doctors to engineers, scientist, and teachers this trend will persist to every women, which could cause a bigger migration for those to head over to a new state just to earn enough to make ends meet equally. So how can women close the gap on this inequality of pay. Sad to say theres not many options but for time to play its toll on the economic field. One major option that CEO's amongst many companies encourage is for women to negotiate a higher salary during interview or annual pay raise. Doing this and showing how the competition is changing and how important a women is to the company can help stimulate this. Another is simply to bring the original Women Suffrage Movement back to the door of congress, since the paycheck fairness act has not been updated since 1963, it seems it is time for women to re negotiate to the nation and get what they deserve in the 21st century, because it should not take 144 years to have equality or even worse another World War to change the time once again.

Military in the Inner City

         The birth of our nation was spawned from the revolutionary war. It was not fought just by the famous faces we are accustomed to seeing like Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Mason. It was primarily fought, like most American wars, by the poor and destitute. It was on the backs of these men that "the men of marble" rode to victory. However, long forgotten are their sacrifices. Nash's The Unknown American Revolution asks us to view the American Revolution
         ...through the eyes of those not in positions of power and privilege, though the iconic founding            fathers are assuredly part of the story. In reality , those in the nether strata of of colonial                      society and those outside 'respectable' society were most of the people of revolutionary                        America. Without their ideas, dreams, and blood sacrifices, the American Revolution would                never have occurred.
         In today's world, we can still see are a fairly large disparity in the economic class of enlisted recruits. It's not to say that young men and women from wealthy families don't join the military. However, their motivation can be very different. For many poor youth the options of a better  and wealthier life are few and far between. Without a scholarship the prospect of getting out of the ghetto is slim. The military provides an opportunity for a middle class wage and job security. the question is, is this a symbiotic relationship, or a suckers bet? Being in the military is inherently dangerous. This is why most of the affluent members of society aren't rushing out  the door to sign up. This is also why it isn't the easiest decision for the poor kids to make.
         All branches of the military require a fairly constant stream of new recruits. This is particularly true during war time, which seems to be a constant in this day and age. There appears to be a heavier presence of recruiters in low income areas. Frequent visits from these recruiters to high schools in these areas are the norm as well. The promise of a better life is a powerful weapon for recruiters, and a glimmer of hope of a better life for some poor youths.
          To say that this isn't a symbiotic relationship seems foolish, but it's hard to find stories of heroes who come from poor neighborhoods to fought overseas in our wars. Why? The media glorifies affluent heroes like Pat Tillman, who quits a million dollar paying job to do the same as tens of thousands of poor kids. Again, why? It seems that there is a sense of denial that we have poverty in our country. Maybe our society just chooses to ignore it.
         Let's quit only looking at "the men of marble". As soon as we, as a society, can face the reality of poverty and look these men and women in the eye, the sooner we can give them their proper due.

Warfare Without Guns

           Over the last twenty-five years or so, the U.S. has been in a nearly constant state of war. Desert Storm in the nineties, Kosovo in ninety-nine, which is relevant because I was in the Navy at the time, then we all know about 9/11 and the constant war on terror we have been in since. As a society we have grown accustomed to war. There  is another type of war that we have grown accustomed to as well. A war that is fought without guns. This war really isn't fought with words either. It's a war that is fought with money. This new era of war is contended by corporations and monopolized companies who set the standards of what the foundation of the nation is to move forward unto. Those who accumulate an abundance of control over money are the so called the victors in this era. Money is power in todays standards weather most who do not believe it to be true, it is. Whomever controls this power has the ability to continue becoming wealthy by investment into projects or by buying out franchises and spreading more jobs amongst the general population who struggle with finding a job. Wall street is a crucial example of what protestors tend to stop or change wealthy entrepreneurs from sharing the nations wealth only to themselves. A movement called Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is a crucial point in 2011 when tax payers bailed out the banks from a depression, only in return to financially gain in the uprising thus leaving that wealth only for the rich. "We Are the 99%, The Richest 1% of people in the U.S. control an ever increasing share of the nations wealth while the rest of the country has found it increasingly difficult to make ends meet."(“Occupy Wall Street.” Issues & Controversies. Infobase Learning, 21 Nov. 2011. Web. 26 Feb. 2015.)

This is just the pinnacle of what the new era of warfare looks like, its not men and women armed with guns, it the injustice distribution of financial gains. This new era for the U.S. in the early 21st century, the 99% population is in a battle that does not intend to be supported by fairly economic wealth distribution amongst the nation but consumed by the greed of the 1% Entrepreneurs.

Stuck in the Mud

 Ferguson, Mo. has been a hotbed of debate over racial issues in the past few months, but it also brings up other discriminatory debates as well. The issue of class discrimination and gentrification are being closely examined in the area as well. The heavy police presence that we have all gotten to know recently brings up the debate of why such a heavy and aggressive force is necessary. Is there a bigger picture that needs to be examined? The police force will say that they are merely doing their jobs and putting bad guys in jail. That may be so, but a larger issue is at hand. A heavy police presence means more police stops. As Peter Coy puts it in his article Race, Class, And the Future of Ferguson, "...middle class drivers stopped by police routinely hire lawyers who knock speeding tickets down to non-moving violations; poorer drivers, mostly black, who can't afford lawyers, often find themselves caught in a downward spiral." Now, with a ticket that can't be paid, they face jail time and possibly losing their job. They are labeled as "chronic offenders". Thus the downward spiral begins. 

            The gentrification of these low income neighborhoods is getting some attention as well. “…as blacks move into a town, whites move out. The tax base shrinks, and blacks feel cheated that the amenities they came for quickly disappear” (Coy 2). As surrounding neighborhoods grow, it pulls business away from less fortunate ones. This causes a situation a lot like being stuck in the mud and unable to get out. Not only do property values drop, but the ability to get a good education becomes next to impossible. The mud gets heavier and heavier. 

American citizens live in a capitalist society where success is possible for anyone. Unfortunately it is a little more possible for some. When a society has rich, it will inevitably have poor. However, how the poor are treated can be something to strive for. Ferguson, has not only put social issues in our face, but slapped across them as well. “It says something good about the U.S. that the travails of one small suburb have riveted the nation’s attention. But change is hard” (Coy 3). Indeed it is. Maybe society can start with a helping hand as opposed to a foot on the head.

Works Cited

Coy, Peter; Collins, Keith; Ingold, David; Campbell, Elizabeth. Bloomberg Businessweek. 8/25/2014, Issue 4391, p12-14.              3p. , Database: Business Source Complete