The Effects of Unemployment - Free Essay Example

Unemployment refers to the condition of being jobless or the proportion of unemployed individuals to the civilian workforce. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, every individual out of employment is not jobless. To be factored in the unemployment rate one does not necessarily be without employment but also they must have actively searched for employment in the last one month. Suppose one is temporarily removed and are waiting to be rehired, they are still legible.However, if one gives up, they are not considered I the unemployment rate. The actual jobless rate is higher if one considers the demoralized individuals. In this paper, I will discuss the effect of unemployment on various aspects of American Society. Unemployment, to be specific sustained unemployment has subtle and obvious influences at the national, communal and individual levels, with families and individuals enduring the burden of psychological, emotional, physical and spiritual effects. Unemployment numbers, so distant and dry to those working, can cause traumatic tallies on the unemployed. Those same numbers drive political and business resolutions that result in a brutal sequence of individual-fulfilling prophecies, employment losses resulting in economic cut downs which in turn result in more employment cutbacks. Unemployment has a direct impact on the economy. It affects both the stability and growth of a nationrs economy. However, the employment rate acts as a lagging factor meaning that it assess the impact of economic activity, like a recession. The rate does not increase until a recession commences. It also indicates that the unemployment rate continues rising despite the recovery of an economy. Employers, therefore, become unwilling to sack employees when economic conditions worsen. In the case of major corporations, it takes longer to execute a layoff strategy. Corporations resist employing individuals until the economy takes a direction towards the development sphere of the economic sequence. For instance, During the 2008 financial crisis, the recession actually started in the first quarter of 2008 when GDP fell 1.8 percent. The unemployment rate didnt reach 5.5 percent until May 2008. It reached its peak of 10.2 percent in October 2009, after the recession had ended. (Griep et al., 2 016) Unemployment also has a direct impact on the unemployed individual. In an article form The New York Times on The Enduring Consequences of Unemployment, Mr. Applebaum an economist elaborates that the repercussions of an unemployed person are both long-lasting and grave (Verick, 2009). For instance, individuals who got employed during the extreme early 1980 recession were earning roughly twenty percent lesser than the average twenty years later. Long-lasting repercussions spread to the kith and kin of unemployed individuals also. A research conducted in the US showed that the sons of unemployed guardians earn nine percent less than those of employed guardians with similar and equal skills and knowledge. Someone who is laid off when the unemployment rate is less than 6 percent will lose an average of a year and a halfs worth of earnings, (Verick, 2009). Additionally, the more one becomes unemployed the harder it gets for an individual to find a job once again mainly because the employe rs are cautious of the long period of unemployment and also due to the loss of skill and expertise over time of no practice. In addition to the lack of income, unemployed individuals tend to lose self-respect as well as friends. The social and personal results of unemployment include poverty and hardship, debt, housing stress and homelessness, family breakdowns and tensions, alienation, boredom, stigma and shame, crime, elevated social isolation, erosion of self-esteem and confidence, ill health and the depreciating of work skills. Majority of these costs increase as the unemployment period increases. Unemployed individuals report that being jobless is the worst tragedy that ever happened to them. Basing from a health perspective, unemployment influences the mental, psychological and physical health of the unemployed. Despite the insufficient scientific conclusions on the Great depression, informal facts show that individuals in the early 1930s, when the unemployment toll was at thirty percent, suffered from similar maladies encountered by the currently unemployed people. Anxiety, depression, and sleeplessness are persistent characteristics for many unemployed individuals, especially males (McGee Thompson, 2015). Self-esteem depreciates, especially in men with no or little family assistance. Medical visits increase, drug use increases and ailments are higher in the unemployed. After being unemployed for 18 months, a persons chance of developing a serious ailment like diabetes or heart trouble increases twofold (Vancea Utzet, 2016). Children suffer depression since they consume parental negativity and gloom. School absences increase resulting in poor grades. Majority of child renrs self-esteem and self-awareness are interconnected to their guardianrs feelings of individual worth. When it comes to family, the loss of a breadwinner results into enormous stress, not only on financial grounds but it also causes ancillary reactions such as quarreling among spouses which consequently has grave effects on children. School dropout levels are high in homes with high unemployment rates. Young ones assume mental and emotional and physical characteristics of their stressed guardians (McGee Thompson, 2015). The weakening of family bonds cannot be relinquished by work-related activities as they do not exist. Resentment, among family members, becomes a long-term issue for the families of unemployed, and ill-treatment especially physical harassment of unemployed males towards their wives and children increases. Social breakdowns, via overloaded social schedules and increasing crime rates, eventually occur, even though the information conflicts among crime levels. The Great Depression Period crime analysis, significantly less detailed than modern analyses, shows that crime increased rapidly among low-income citizens, implying that current relations between crime and poverty possess deeper sociological sources. Apart from financial problems of being unable to provide basic needs, unemployed individuals have to overcome additional frustrations when attempting to fill for employment positions, Medicaid, food stamps and tarmacking in search of jobs (Verick, 2009). Drug abuse increases among the unemployed and their families. Unemployment also bears a significant effect on youth. This is evident in the Great Depression period. The 19th century saw the young adultrs unemployment level hit thirty percent exceeding the countryrs average. Many children could not afford high school education. By 2013, the rate for youth aged sixteen to twenty-four was roughly twice the nationrs average (Verick, 2009). Youthful unemployed individuals do not only experience lost income, but they also miss out on opportunities to grow their set of skills which suppresses their earning capabilities over a period of time. Unemployment among young adults and the youth also creates a breeding environment for gang annexation. In conclusion, it is evident that unemployment does not only affect the unemployed individual, it also affects his family, the community and the nation at large. The effects of unemployment range from ill health, poor financial conditions, and social interaction problems to crime. Work Cited Griep, Y., Kinnunen, U., N? ¤tti, J., De Cuyper, N., Mauno, S., M? ¤kikangas, A., De Witte, H. (2016). The effects of unemployment and perceived job insecurity: a comparison of their association with psychological and somatic complaints, self-rated health and life satisfaction. International archives of occupational and environmental health, 89(1), 147-162. McGee, R. E., Thompson, N. J. (2015, March 19). Unemployment and Depression Among Emerging Adults in 12 States, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, 2010. Preventing Chronic Disease, 12. Vancea, M., Utzet, M. (2016). How unemployment and precarious employment affect the health of young people: A scoping study on social determinants. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health, 45(1), 73-84. Verick, S. (2009). Who is hit hardest during a financial crisis? The vulnerability of young men and women to unemployment in an economic downturn.

Marxism and The Lesson - Literature Essay Samples

As wealth inequality reached its zenith at the beginning of the 20th century, Marxist concepts such as social injustice and economic inequality became a major subject of discussion in western literature. With the death of Karl Marx in 1883 and the spread of Communism to Russia in 1914, literature became an important front for socialist writers looking to spread their ideas. This is especially true in the United States, where centuries of black oppression had created extreme wealth inequality between white and black Americans. In Toni Cade Bambaras â€Å"The Lesson,† the character of Ms. Moore reveals to a group of black children the level of disparity between their lives and those of the white upper classes. As the story develops, a group of children undergo a process socialist awakening as they are made class consciousness by the vulgar extravagances of the upper classes. â€Å"The Lesson† serves as a metaphor for the awakening of the ignorant worker class into the soc ialist revolutionary movement, as they are confronted with the harsh reality of their suffering created by the oppressive bourgeois class. Before being able to understand the revolutionary and classist undertones in â€Å"The Lesson,† we must have a solid understanding of Marxist ideas as promoted in Karl Marxs The Communist Manifesto. According to Marx, the main motivation behind all historical development is the exploitation of one class by another as the result of competition over resources (K. Marx and F. Engels). Class distinctions are defined by who creates the means of production of society and who provides labor. The upper classes are made up of the bourgeois, who are the wealthy capitalists who own the means of production. The lower classes are made up of the proletariat, the working class who provide labor for the bourgeois class. In order to accumulate wealth the Bourgeois must extract more than their fair share of the labor of the proletariat (K. Marx and F. Engels). Once the lower classes become aware of the extravagant living of the upper classes, a revolution begins to foment. This process is calle d the awakening of class consciousness (K. Marx and F. Engels). Bambara uses this concept of awakening class consciousness in her short story to depict the oppression of black Americans at the hand of the white bourgeois. Ms. Moores trip to FAO Schwarz is meant by Bambara to be metaphorical for the class consciousness experienced by those in the working class when confronted by the opulence of the bourgeoisie. The children in the story have all grown up poor, and have little idea of the excesses that exist in the world. When confronted with the fact that they are poor and live in the slums, Sylvia responds, â€Å"I dont feature† (Bambara). They simply do not know or understand anything else. Ms. Moore then takes the children on a field trip to have them witness firsthand the injustice of their living situation. Along the way, the children take part in underclass behavior such as stealing tips from a cab driver. This action is meant to show how an non-unified underclass undermines itself when it doesnt work together to promote common interests; after all, Sylvia explains, â€Å"he dont need it bad as I do.† The children are indifferent to their living situation, but this indifference chan ges as soon as they arrive at the wealthy upper-class division of New York City. At this point in the story, Bambara begins to introduce the concept of class consciousness. The children become aware that these white people do not lead lives similar to theirs. Sylvia comments, â€Å"Everybody dressed up in stockings. One lady in a fur coat, hot as it is. White folks crazy.† It is here that the children are awakened to the class inequality that they suffer from. At FAO Schwarz, toy sail boats are sold for $1,000, and in a department store paper weights cost $480. Sugar realizes that the cost of one toy costs as much as it does to feed a family of 6 or 7 for an entire year, prompting her to say, That this is not much of a democracy if you ask me. Equal chance to pursue happiness means an equal crack at the dough, dont it? The children then begin to realize that they are poor. Sylvia herself becomes uneasy with these discoveries and tries to push the thoughts away, feeling a â€Å"funny shame† (Bambara). As the story reaches its climax, Sylvia becomes aware of the vast wealth inequalities present in Harlem and becomes an image of the revolutionary socialist. As Sugar begins to run her finger over the expensive sailboat, Sylvia begins to be filled with rage at the economic oppression perpetrated by the upper classes. She thinks to herself, â€Å"Im jealous (at Sugar) and want to hit her. Maybe not her, but I sure want to punch somebody in the mouth.† For the first time she realizes that she is a part of the underclass, and she becomes fully awakened to class conscious for the first time. After they leave the department store, Ms. Moore lectures the children on how they must â€Å"demand their share of the pie,† a metaphorical call for revolution. In her anger, Sylvia grabs Sugar and runs off to spend the money she kept from the taxi mans tip, thinking, â€Å"But ain’t nobody gonna beat me at nuthin† (Bambara). At the conclusion of the story she is finally c lass conscious, and is filled with the righteous indignation of a socialist revolutionary. Toni Cade Bambaras short story â€Å"The Lesson† is a beautifully written exploration of the development of class consciousness and the awakening of the socialist revolutionary. The children represent the ignorant proletariat class members who fight between themselves for scraps because they do not know the source of their own suffering. It is not until they are exposed to the vulgar opulence of the bourgeois class that they become aware of their plight. The realization that a single toy sailboat sold in a toy store costs enough to feed a family of seven for an entire year opens Sylvias eyes to the extreme wealth inequality she suffers under. Once this realization is made, Sylvia becomes the proto-revolutionary socialist. Shes full of righteous indignation and promises to never be taken down by the system. When understood through the lens of Marx, Bambaras work is indeed a revolutionary piece of literature. Works Cited Bambara, Toni Cade. The Lesson. New York: Vintage, 1992. Print. K. Marx and F. Engels. German Ideology, with an introduction by R. Pascal, New York, International Publishers, Inc., 1939.