Essay needs to answer theses questions pasted below. There are articles linked at the bottom that need to read utilized to help answer the questions for the essay.
How did the expectations about economic mobility portrayed by Horatio Alger compare with the realities of worker’s lives in the late nineteenth century and today? How did industrialization transform the nature of work and expectations about work? Finally, can you relate to the world of early industrial/blue collar laborers? How similar is the nature of white collar work today with the industrial workers of the late nineteenth/early twentieth centuries? Do the articles regarding declining wages for college graduates and the rise of the “super-rich” point to any disturbing similarities with industrial/blue collar work? Is the “American Dream” still possible despite the growing evidence of income and wealth disparities in our nation today? In light of this, what would you say to the authors of the articles, Equal Opportunity, Our National Myth and A Belief in Meritocracy Is Not Only False: It’s Bad for You?
Furthermore, do we still need labor unions today? Are they important even though only 8% of the American workforce today is in a union? Do the news articles from the Los Angeles Times (Governor Tries to Defuse Union Wrath and Do Unions Have Too Much Influence in Sacramento?) and the New York Times (How an Area’s Union Membership Can Predict Children’s Advancement, We Have A Question for Jeff Bezos and Other Billionaires and the obituary for baseball union leader and founder Marvin Miller) indicate either the promise or peril of unions? To answer these questions in depth, you should also read the sections in chapters 16, 18 and 19 dealing with the industrial economy and organized labor and the additional web readings.
Here are links to the articles to be analyzed and used to the essay.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2021/01/11/955128562/for-health-care-workers-the-pandemic-is-fueling-renewed-interest-in-unions
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4935/
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/08/514105689/black-latino-two-parent-families-have-half-the-wealth-of-white-single-parents
http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2117662_2117682_2117680,00.html
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4997/
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4936/