Blog # 11 Localizing Low Pay with Global High Tech

When it comes to fast food restaurants, they allow many people to work for them. The typical types of workers usually are teenagers, immigrants, low class women, and people who do not have a higher education. However, even though these industries rake in billions and billions of dollars, people across the whole country still only earn minimum wage or just above it.  There is no doubt that there are also college students who also work at fast food industries. However, they are also getting paid at least $15 an hour like the rest of the employees. According to Goldstein, “if one-tenth of these workers “have the education and connectivity” to compete in the upper-level job market, “that is still 150 million people, roughly the size of the entire U.S. workforce”.

This has become a big issue in recent years and is definitely an issue of race, gender, and class. The Fight for Fifteen is a campaign started by low wage workers who are employed by companies such as McDonalds, Jack in the Box, and many other low income fast food restaurants. These workers have gone on strike to increase the minimum wage to 15 dollars. It is no wonder that these people are trying to increase their pay. They want more money so they can get out of their low social status. These jobs really don’t require any education or experience and it seems as if these workers are just trying to keep their same jobs with an increase in pay. Instead of working harder and trying to find something better, they are choosing to just stay in the job that they have which really doesn’t require much work. These types of jobs should be going to people in high school or college so that they can get a start in the workforce and probably don’t need much pay to begin with. However, I also can understand why cashiers are fighting for their jobs because there is a chance that they could soon be replaced with automatic kiosks that can take people’s orders .People will be losing their jobs because of technology replacing them, even though it is cheaper to train somebody to take orders. If they were replaced with kiosks, it could end up being more expensive to have somebody repair the equipment should anything happen to it.

Since I’m about to graduate from college, there is no doubt that looking for a job will be difficult. However, from what I learned from this is that if the employees are looking for more money, they should just look for a job that pays more instead of arguing about it. Also, if they aren’t able to look for other jobs, they have to understand that getting a minimum wage is better than getting no wage at all. They shouldn’t blame the industries for the minimum wages they receive. After all, when employing to places like McDonalds, they agree that the wage that they will receive will not be as high as they think it will be. Also, if the minimum wage goes up, wouldn’t all of the prices have to increase as well? Overall, we shouldn’t pay more just because they want higher wages. This is a problem that they have to deal with on their own. As will I as I look for jobs out there.

Blog # 10 Making Stuff Cheap

My personal assumption of “Made in China” I found it to be. I have to be honest, I usually don’t pay attention to where stuff is made. The only time I would pay attention to that kind of information is when I’m in a class that requires me to know about it. Other than that, I knew that most of the toys when I was little had the “Made in China” text on it.  From an economic point of view, I know that every country has a different economic scale and an individual’s payment is different. However, if they are okay with receiving their amount in their workplace, I don’t see a problem. However, I do find it sad that there are people in countries like China that have to work away from home and live in an environment while working. Especially not knowing when they can go home and see their family. I wouldn’t be able to do that or I would go crazy. In my opinion, it would be different compared to being at college.

Globalization is companies expanding all over the world. According to Goldstein “capitalist globalization was primarily driven by the search for trade and markets” (50). From what I can tell, Globalization is driven by trade and markets because the companies make more money from it. It also impacts the manufacture because by going global, it means that they can make more profit and pay the workers less. This explains how sweatshops could come into play because in the United States workers are paid anyway from $ 5 to $15 dollars an hour. In other countries like China, the workers there only get paid 10 cents an hour, which is less money that is coming out of the companies pocket to make products.

Some major companies are expanding globally because of the resources that are located in different countries. With new technology being developed every day, companies are able to do more things because of it. According to Goldstein “The new technology opened up to the capitalist class the ability to reorganize and relocate production processes around the globe, using both new and old methods”( Goldstein 55). It is because of technology that we are able to move and sell items overseas.

From the readings and the videos we saw in class, the working conditions in foreign factories that produce items for the U.S. do not look good. They aren’t able to live in their homes with their families. From “Made in China” film, we saw that the workers there had to move away from their houses and move in to a house that their workplace provides for them. The employees work for about fourteen hours straight with little breaks. They are not allowed to talk to others while working. Also, they do not get much sleep. Women are not allowed to go hang out in males’ rooms and vice versa. They have to meet in a public place like at the basketball courts outside.

The reason why these workers are able to live under these conditions is because the really need the money to help support their families. There are people who are unable to attend school because they are trying to make money in order to support their families. If money became a huge issue for our families, it is my opinion that we would also work even in poor conditions in order to help support our families.

 

Blog # 8 Gentrification in Silicon Valley

This picture above is a picture of the protesters blockading the Google Bus.

For this week’s blog, we looked at the issue of Google buses being funded in San Francisco and how this affects their residents. To be honest, I had no clue what this topic consisted of, but after doing the readings on the topic I feel I understand the general idea of it. This topic was very interesting to me because I never would have thought Google would have a need for such a thing as a Google bus. The Google Bus in the San Francisco Bay Area has become a recent target for accusations of gentrification, eviction and displacement. The definition of gentrification is a shift in an urban community towards wealthier residents and/or businesses and increasing property values. In the process of gentrification, the residents of cities are paying the price for these changes. The Google Bus, which serves as the private transportation system for wealthy Google workers that brings them from their San Francisco homes to their Silicon Valley jobs, has become a symbol of inequality within the area. According to Goldman’s “When companies break the law and people pay: The scary lesson of the Google Bus” article, it has revealed that rents near the shuttle stops are rising faster than those farther away from it. It also shows that Google buses have allowed their riders (Silicon Valley employees) to rise above the rules and restrictions of “normal” transit riding citizens. An example is how single car drivers may be ticketed for blocking up spaces such as public bus stops because it interferes with the public transit system. However, while this could happen to the single car drivers, the Google buses and shuttles don’t seem to be facing that kind of issue at all. According to the same article “Google, Facebook and Apple aren’t facing millions in unpaid parking fines, however, because the MTA hasn’t been writing the tickets.  Since the shuttles began using public bus stops, they’ve simply flouted the law without consequences.”

It is my opinion that the situation with the Google busses in San Francisco can be related to the issue of digital divide. It is the poor communities that are suffering at the expense of wealthier communities at the cost of their homes. The way that this is happening is the busses are creating more traffic and creating a denser population of people in the areas that the busses travel to. This in turn increases the cost of the city and increases real estate rates. As a result it causes the lower income people to become displaced since they are not able to afford the increased living of cost prior to the prevalence of the Google busses. This situation also raises issues of race because as in most cities the poorest residents are minority or first generation residents so when poor residents are displaced they are most likely low income residents.  This is the reason why most of the protesters of the Google busses in San Francisco Bay area are the low- income communities of color. These protestors set up demonstrations so large that they can attract the attention of the social media. By doing this, they are giving themselves a chance to be heard. By doing this, they are showing people just how much they believe in their cause against Google busses.

Blog 6/7: Free Labor in the Digital Economy & The Deadly Labor Behind our Tech

In “How the Internet Enables Intimacy”, Stefana Broadbent talks about the concept of the democratization of intimacy. She explained that technology is not quite the distraction from the real world as people are making it out to be. It is true that people are spending more time on their phones and computers but at the same time they are building relationships with other people. She claims that the relationships that people build online/ through technology are more safe and intimate. With technology it is able to pull people away from the real world when they are glued to the computer, but it can also open up the door to new relationships that we can make online.  For example, soldiers who are out fighting in another country can talk/ Skype to their family members back home. Another example is the baker who works at 4am pulls away from his work in order to give a call to his wife at the start of her day. It is because of technology that we have been able to make these connections that we were never able to make before.

Broadbent also brings to our attention that those in power are trying to limit us from communicating freely with others. Like at businesses, they try to keep their employees focused on the work they need to complete. While at schools, they try to keep their students focused on the lecture that they are receiving. Broadbent also mentions how students tend to answer texts in class by doing it underneath their desks. Today, at least 50% of anybody who has access to email at work is actually doing private email. Broadbent’s studies also revealed that 75% of people admit to doing private email at work, while 100% of them admit to texting. In some cases, I believe that the rule to not use a cellphone or other communication device is important. If you're being paid to complete a certain task at a desk job, and you are completing those tasks efficiently, I believe that it is perfectly acceptable to make a call or answer a text once in a while, just as long as it doesn't interfere with the work you are required to finish/ work on. If however, making personal calls or answering texts causes you to fall behind at work, then it needs to stop.

 (texting while at work (on left) texting in class (below))

 

 

A connection can be made here between this and the labor force in Foxconn.  Foxconn is a company that will work anyone willing to the bone paying them the most minimal wages. They over work them and don’t pay them for the overtime while giving them poor living and working conditions. In one of its factories located in China, the workers there are living in factory dorms with roommates who are working different shifts in the day. The differences that the workers have with the different shift times and the different dialects of Chinese they speak prevents the workers from being able to make close connections with each other. This type of workplace refers to the isolated expectation of the work sphere that was in place before the democratization of intimacy explained by Broadbent.