I've been tasked with writing a journal for this Human Development class I'm taking this summer. This class, HD403 is entitled, Families in Poverty. It's very depressing, but somewhat educational. Most importantly, the class meets two graduation requirements, so in the name of Maximillion Eduardo Fischency, I elected to complete the course. That's Max E. Fficiency if you didn't catch that the first time around. Think about it...yeah, that's right. Clever, huh?
Journal 1
This class is going to be much more interesting than I originally assumed. When I registered for this class, I was under the impression that I was making the best use of my time by enrolling in a class which qualifies as both a tier 3 and global learning credits. The topic of the class was of no concern to me, as I was only interested in maximizing efficiency. After sitting in the first lecture for about a half hour, I realized that I was sitting in a class intended for human development majors. This class is much different from what I’ve grown accustomed to over the past few years of quantitative academics and a welcome change for a business major, indeed.
My opinion on poverty is skewed to say the least. I’ve been exposed to poverty by both American and Filipino standards. My parents emigrated from the Philippines in the early 80s while I was still an infant. Coincidentally, our first stop in the United States of America was in Portland, OR. I’m told that we purchased a station wagon (a Dodge Aries, beige with wood paneling on the side) and made our way to Athens, GA where my mom landed a job as a registered nurse at Saint Mary’s Hospital. My dad owned an Asian grocery store before he landed a job as a materials handler at St. Mary’s. Both of my parents earned baccalaureate degrees in the Philippines before immigrating.
I grew up in the beautiful city of Athens, Georgia which lies approximately 52 miles northeast of Atlanta. Athens is a college town that lies north of the Fall Line and east of the Appalachians. I grew up in a small house in a less affluent side of town. At the age of eleven, my family moved into the suburbs of Watkinsville. To make a long story short, I grew up poor, but as my folks furthered their education by earning master’s degrees, they ascended the corporate ladder in the healthcare industry. At the age of 15, we took a 3 week “vacation” to the Philippines. Needless to say, the third world culture shocked the silver spoon in my mouth. I’m still feeling aftereffects to this day.
To symbolize the opening act of my rebellious stage, I moved out of the home my parents bought in the affluent part of Camas, WA at the tender age of 18. I learned how to support myself, and my unmotivated girlfriend at the time on a $10/hr part time job. Instead of taking advantage of state assistance, I found income whoring myself out as a computer technician and aspiring graphic designer. By exploiting market inefficiencies, I was able to make ends meet.
Around this time, I read “Nickel and Dimed” by Ehrenreich. It wasn’t long before I found a full time, $10/hr job to go along with my part time job and part time school. I graduated from Clark College with an associate’s degree in 2004. After realizing all of the graphic design classes I took weren’t enough to find a job as a graphic designer, I decided to go back to school in 2007 in pursuit of a business degree. While in pursuit, I worked as a contractor at Hewlett Packard. I used my leverage as a hardware tester to land a job as a quality assurance tester. Through references and on the job experience, I ended my career at HP as a Linux Software Technician. Unfortunately, my ~40k/yr job was shipped to Bangalore, India where three Indian engineers now perform my job 50% as efficiently.
Journal 2
My first journal entry conveniently leads me into my second. Of the four views on poverty as illustrated by the Seccombe text, I most identify with individualism. My parents grew up in a third world country where the Federal Poverty Line in the US would translate to lower middle class. For sake of illustration, a room at the Four Seasons in downtown Iloilo City cost 600 pesos in 1998. Even if you were to calculate for inflation, the price difference is still astonishing. Back in 98, the USD was worth about 40 pesos. The current exchange rate, as per finance.yahoo.com is 46 PHP to 1 USD. Cost of living is radically different in the Philippines, so I’m essentially comparing apples to oranges. My point is that poverty in the US is much different from poverty in the Philippines. I suppose that if you take the definition of impoverished as, “not having enough money to subsist within the confines of a given city” then being poor in the Philippines is the same as being poor in the US. However, I bet it’s much easier to live off the land on a tropical island than in the foothills of the Appalachian Trail.
That said, my parents were afforded the same opportunities as any US national upon immigrating. Having an educational background from a foreign country is definitely better than having a high school diploma or GED (or less for that matter) from the US, but in some cases, it’s just as irrelevant. I was fortunate that my mom had a job secured as a nurse before we immigrated, but I’m a firm believer that my folks would have found prosperity in the US whether St. Mary’s was willing to employ them or not. By saying that my parents are a “rags to riches” success story is cheating them of the hard work they’ve put in over the years. They improved their economic viability by making sacrifices so that they could both finish their respective master’s degrees and further their careers while my brother and I were still young.
I believe that everyone is responsible for their own actions, and America is, in fact, still the land of opportunity. The past few years have reduced the amount of opportunities available, but the supply is still ample. The Obama administration has made it abundantly clear that the supply will remain ample for the time being, and I am thankful for it. Because of the Trade Adjustment Act, I am able to claim unemployment benefits while finishing my bachelor’s degree. I also believe that the culturist view has valid points as well. The poor have an affinity to remain poor just like the rich are inclined to stay rich, assuming they don’t self destruct by way of various forms of addiction.
No comments:
Post a Comment