Blog 12

One of the things we talked about in class this past week was technology and how it affects the inequality gap among people today.  Technology can either widen or narrow the inequality gap.  We talked how technology that helps grow more food at a cheaper rate can narrow the inequality gap by allowing people with less money get the foods that they need due to the cost of growing and make the food being cheaper.  But then we talked how technology widens the gap also by making things more expensive and not allowing the poorer people to get the things that others may have due to lack of money. 
Below I posted an article talking about how technology is affecting the inequality gap among us today.  It takes how globalization and technology is widen the gap between the rich and the poor.  The article is a very interesting and brings up some good points that we talked about in class and some points that I would have never thought of.  Hopefully you will get a chance to read the article because it is very interesting and relates directly to what we talked about in class.




http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052748703922804576301154008155570

Blogg 11

This week in class we talked about modernization.  Modernization is a term used to describe under privileged cultures also know as third world countries and cultures up to modern current times.  Modernization can be used almost anything to describe something changing from old times to the new current times.  The movie we watched in class was a good example of modernization and related to modernization very well.  The women in the movie were underprivileged and weren't allowed to do much.  As they learned how to put their technology together they changed their lives greatly.  Women from those third world countries receiving duties and privileges like  that of the US women is one example of modernization. 


Below I have posted a link to a Chicago tribune web page.  On this web page it has links of articles that have to do with modernization over the past years.  I think this is a good link to visit because you can see all the ways that modernization can happen.  There isn't just one form of modernization but hundreds of different forms of modernization.  I believe that visiting this web page will help you better understand modernization and see what it is.


http://articles.chicagotribune.com/keyword/modernization

Blog 10

This week during class we discussed power and authority and the difference between the two.  Many people think that power and authority are the same thing but they are different.  We learned that authority is the ability of having power of someone and telling them what to do.  Power is the domination over something.  We see here that when you have authority you also have the power that comes with it.

One of the biggest places we see authority and power is in law enforcement.  Law enforcement or more commonly police have a lot of authority and power that comes along with their job.  They have the authority over anyone doing this wrong and have the power to arrest them or write them a citation.  This power that comes along with this authority can be very controlling and tempting.  When this authority and power is used correctly it can be very rewarding and beneficial but we are seeing more and more police officers these days using the power they get to benefit themselves or using it in ways it is not intended to be use.  The authority that comes along with a police officer is suppose to be special and not be abused.  Below i have posted an article talking about police "power" and how it is growing these days.  The article brings up the points of how police "power" is taking away the citizens rights given to them by the constitution.  The article is very interesting and if you get a chance to read it please leave some feedback on what you think is the right thing here.     


http://www.davekopel.org/CJ/LawRev/EvolvingPolicePower.htm 

Blog 9

One of the things we covered in class this week was cultural transmission.  Cultural transmission is the process of passing on culture and cultural norms from one generation to the next.  One of the areas we see cultural transmission is in social skills.  With the use of technology  these days our generation is loosing important social skills.  In the generations before ours no one had cell phones with texting or computers to communicate.  If you wanted to talk to someone you either saw them some place, wrote them letters, or called them on a land line.  People in these generations had good communication skills and knew how to talk to people in person.  They had good "people skills".  Now days everyone is behind a screen when they talk to people.  People in this present day generation rarely call people.  Everyone texts, snap chats, or messages on Facebook.  Through these types of communication people are loosing their ability to actually talk to people and when they see people in person their communication skills suck.  This is one example to where cultural transmission is not happening.  Cultural transmission is being affected by technology in many ways.  Another way cultural transmission isn't happening due to technology is with reading materials.  Generations before ours didn't have technology to use to look things up they had to actually get a hard copy and read it.  Older generations had to obtain books and hard materials to read if they wanted to learn about something.  Now days people just go a device and Google everything to find stuff out.  Hard copies of News Papers are starting to become less and less available because no body is reading the hard copies.  Everyone uses electronic versions to read stuff.  I myself can't remember the last time I actually read a hard copy because it is just more convenient to look on line.  Cultural transmission is starting to become a statement of the pass.  The more technology involves the fewer things are going to be transferred from generations to generations. 

Below I have attached a link of an article that is describing exactly what I stated above.  The article is about how the wildly spread of technology use is decreasing peoples social skills.  I encourage you to read it as I found it very interesting.

http://thebottomline.as.ucsb.edu/2012/01/technology-is-destroying-the-quality-of-human-interaction

Blog 8

This week on Monday we got to play a game in class.  The game was called Sociopoly  which is a Sociology game made out of a the game Monopoly.  For this game each person started with a different amount of money and property.  There were five groups I believe and each started with a different amount of money and the top two groups even started the game owning property.  The game also had different rules in that the farther up you were in class ( or the more money you started with) the more money you would get each time you passed go.  For this game I was on the fifth team, the team that started with the least amount of money and the team that got screwed if you want to say on all the other benefits that the upper groups got.  We were not in the game long as we rolled I think twice before landing on property that an upper group owned and took all our money.  This game related very well to our class discussion and readings of that week.  It showed the inequality between the classes and how for some reason the rich always get richer.  The game on a small version showed how the real world is and how hard it is to make it in life when you don't have much to start with or no one to help.  This game was frustrating especially being on the poor end of the game and getting out and watching everyone else keep playing and this was only a game we were playing in class.  Now think of this in real life and think how frustrating it has to be for the people who start out with little to nothing and they have to sit there and watch all the upper class people live their good life with all their riches and possessions.  I couldn't imagine living real life like this like some people have too.  I didn't really realize what it was like until this game even though it was a game and on a much smaller scale I still got to sit there and for a few seconds be in their shoes.  One thing this game taught me was that life isn't fair and it is a cruel and rough world out there for a lot more for others than some. 

Below I have posted an article basically confirming what I said above on how the rich are getting rich and the poor are getting poorer.  You may not believe it but once you read this article you will see first hand that it is true and that something needs to be done about this.  This should not be happing this way as the poor or working class should not be getting poorer when they are the ones doing all the work.  Something needs to be done where the workers get paid for the work that they do not get screwed. 
http://fusion.net/american_dream/story/us-rich-richer-poor-poorer-11703

Blog 7

This week in class we covered segregation inside education.  We looked at ways to solve the problem that is going on with segregation inside education and what would be the best way to go about doing that.  We started discussing this by presenting that not all schools are made up of same race, nor class.  The main factor of what class and race makes up a school is its location.  Races and class in schools is directly based of the race and class that surround the area where the school is located.  A school located in a rich white neighborhood is likely to have low class minorities in that school and vise versa a school located in the projects is not going to have rich white kids attending that school.  This plays a huge role in the education part.  The class, race, and location of the school usually determines the quality of the education that is provided at the school.  In a better part of the city the education is likely to be better than a school in the projects.  This happens due to the amount of resources school like that have.  The race and class of a school also plays a large part in the education by who attends that school.  Numbers show that in schools with a lower class and more minorities attending have lower test scores.

Below I have posted an article from the Washington Post explaining some of the reasons I talked about above.  It also states ways and steps that may be taken to help strive for a more all around equal education and a way to help fix segregation in education.  I hope you read it and find some of the ways interesting as I did and see if you can see the ways projected in the article will actually help.

http://schottfoundation.org/drupal/media-center/why-education-inequality-persists-and-how-to-fix-it

Blog 6

The past week in class we talked about minimum wage and jobs worth there wages.  During class we watch a film about janitors and their jobs at universities.  This film was very interesting and gave an overall good point of view.  The movie looked at different janitors at different colleges.  The film showed each janitor at their job and also presented us with information about what happened in their lives before they became janitors at the colleges.  The most important view that I believe was presented from this film was the fact that each one of these janitors loved their jobs.  They didn't care that they had to clean up after students because they felt that the positive part of the job which differed from each person was way more rewarding than any of the stuff they had to do during the job.  Some people in todays society look down on people in positions like janitors but this film showed that these people didn't care what others thought as long as they loved what they were doing.  I believe that this is the most important thing that matters when considering a career.  I don't believe in going into a career or job just because your are told to by people like your parents or because the pay is good but rather because you want to do that job and like that job.  I believe that if more people looked at careers this way people wouldn't be looking down on each other like they are now and minimum wage would increase.  People doing their jobs would be happier and just make the overall job force happier and not have people hate their jobs.  This would also help people to not look down on others when doing their jobs because they would know that they are doing that job because they want to.

Below I have posted a article from Forbes about careers and workers at Wal-Mart.  This article can me argued either way.  The article presents information that relates to workers wanting to work their that's the reason why there are so many applicants and people trying to apply there.  But then farther down in the article it provides information that people are applying there because they pay more than other jobs of the same work.  So here's the article and ill let you decide what really happening. 
 http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/11/27/why-do-1-4-million-americans-work-at-walmart-with-many-more-trying-to/