High Class to Low Class: Argument Analysis of "Servingt in Florida"

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Jennifer High Class to Low Class: Argument Analysis of “Serving in Florida” Barbara Ehrenreich in “Serving in Florida” embarks on a month long journey of living in “poverty and toil” (762). She gives herself an initial start up bank of $1,300.00 which gives her enough money for deposit on an “efficiency,” some groceries in the fridge and a small cushion of cash. The town she is doing her research in is a small town just outside of where she lives in Key West, where she is nervous that someone she knows might recognize her and then she would have to tell them about her experiment. In the low wage job market, she finds that it seems that the job posting are always running with no actual job openings, due to the high turnover rate. (761-74) This article seems to be building empathy for people who work jobs that pay there employees next to nothing and treat them as they are disposable. Ehrenreich conveys that the companies control the employees through fear and instilling a sense of unimportance. Management from the corporate level treats the employees as if they are second class citizens, treating them as if they are not as important as the upper management of the corporation. I feel a good example of Ehrenreich using ethos in her writing was when she was explaining the way she felt management was treating the employees at the restaurant as if they were children being “lined up in the corridor, threatened with locker searches, peppered with carelessly aimed accusations. (770)” Companies treat their low end employees like this knowing that they won’t leave because they have bills to pay or children to support. Knowing this, the company gives them little pay, almost no breaks, and if they’re not satisfied with something, they’re ready to take away anything. In a way of the manger trying to prove his power he says “the break room is not a right”

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