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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: May 24 2004
Latest Update: May 24, 2004
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu

The Working Poor

The following letter to the editor on Saturday, May 22, 2004 in the L.A. Times was written in response to Though Far From Poor, a Family Struggles Daily By Geoffrey Mohan. "Two incomes put the Basurto clan well above the poverty line. Yet despite frugal living, they're middle class in name only." Los Angelse Times, p. A1, Tuesday, May 18, 2004. Backup. Letter to Editor.

Saturday, May 22, 2004
Opportunity Knocks, if You're Willing to Listen

Re "Though Far From Poor, a Family Struggles Daily," May 18: My husband makes $20 an hour in construction, we have two small children and I don't work outside the home. I guess we're poor — similar to the Basurto family. Instead of sitting around waiting for society to hand me a house, new car and healthcare on a silver platter, I go to school at night with hopes of becoming a nurse and my husband is studying for his contractor's license exam in June. Opportunities are out there for those who are willing to go get them.

Discussion Questions

1. What are the comparative ages of these two families?

   Consider that Mr. Basurto is 48 years old. He has three teenage children. Mrs. Basurto, when her children were old enough, put together two clerical jobs that give them the health care they need for the children. The couple that wrote the letter to the editor have two young children. So there seems to be an age difference. I would estimate at least a cohort difference. $20 an hour in construction doesn't tell us whether the husband has steady employment with health care benefits. Probably not. But when Mrs. Basurto had her young children, she also stayed home and they got by on less, for the $20 is in 2004 dollars, not the dollars of fifteen years ago.

   Each of these families sees the value of parental care. So consider the costs of social capital and when and how they occur. For example, could Mrs. Basurto go to school now in the evenings, or would there be an intolerable cost to her family?

2. Consider the educational opportunities and experiences of the two families.

   Mr. Basurto got "an associate's degree from Los Angeles Trade-Technical College," some years back, given that he's now 48. A contractor's license today isn't always worth as much twenty years later when conditions change. We can prepare generally for the future, but when the job market shifts as drastically as it has been shiftin in recent decades, nothing is guaranteed.

3. The family must always try to balance resources to prepare the older members of the family to continue to grow and stay abreast of the job market, as well as invest in the future of its young. How do the Basurto's and the other family differ in their constraints on this issue?

   Consider a couple of things here: Consider the quality of education. That's one value. Then consider whether the payoff for the family will be greater if the parents take the educational resources or if they are reserved or saved for the children? For all the children equally? Get's messy, doesn't it.

4. Focus on that last sentence in the letter to the editor: "Opportunities are out there for those who are willing to go get them." Where does that line fit into dominant discourse?

   Consider denial of the state of the infrastructure and the distribution of wealth. If one believes that opportunities are there, then maybe the system isn't so bad. And if you are currently in the midst of enjoying some of those opportunities (free or at least manageable loans for education) then it's not so pleasant to look around you and see that others don't have those same opportunities. Often today, my students suggest that those who are complaining should stop "whining."

   I didn't hear "whining" in the Basurto article. I heard a determination to keep working hard and move ahead, a belief that the daughter who wants to go on will be able to, a belief that somewhere, somehow the older son will find work. I think the callousness of saying "stop whining," is a cover for denial that makes it easier for me to take mine and bask in my having gotten it, while someone else remains without. How did the Protestant Ethic of working hard turn into this? My heart goes out to both these families. I see pitfalls ahead that are bound to make their lives more difficult than they should be in a nation like this. I imagine the young contractor paying to become licensed while the civil engineer got his training nearly free, or at least with considerable state subsidy. Now that free and subsidized education is evaporating, faster than wages are growing to cover it.

   Think on these things as we explore women and work and poverty.