“2016 Elections”
Warren recounts, “Ballers was terrific. The 2016 election, not so much. The first sign of trouble was how quickly several Senate races were called for Republicans. Indiana. Florida. Suddenly candidates we thought would win were struggling-Russ in Wisconsin and Katie in Pennsylvania. And then it looked like Hillary was in trouble too. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion. One car hurtled off the tracks, then another crumple, then fires and explosions and bodies flying everywhere."
Warren's expectations about the election outcomes do not actualize. The senate and presidential outcomes are ironic because the parties who had been projected to win do not emerge victorious. The ironic outcomes accentuate the changeableness of the gamble of politics; results would differ from forecasts and expectations.
“Hardest Working people”
Warren writes, “A woman up on the North Shore told me she sleeps in her car in the parking lot in the hours between when one job ends and the other begin. She said she’s so tired that when she drives to her mother’s house to pick up her baby daughter, she falls asleep on the couch. The minute she gets there. Low-wage workers-in Massachusetts and in all the other states too-are among the hardest working people in America.”
Individuals who toil relentlessly are expected to get the highest wages in America. Evidently, handwork is not a surety of financial affluence in America. People can still work hard and remain poor. The American dream depends on other factors other than hard work, most of which are beyond the control of low-income workers.
“Working Full-Time”
Warren insists, “I’m pretty hard-core about this issue. The way I see it, no one in this country should work full-time and still live in poverty-period. But at $ 7.25 an hour, a mom working a forty-hour-a-week minimum –wage job cannot keep herself and her baby above the poverty line. This is wrong-and this was something the U.S Congress could make better if we’d just raise minimum wage. We could fix this now.”
Working full-time would be projected to reduce poverty levels in America. However, full-time workers dwell in poverty. Low wages are hindering workers from moving out of poverty. Their wages are immaterial; hence, only useful for survival and not ending poverty in their lives. Full-time work is not a guarantee for prosperity in America.
"Warren’s mother’s yelling”
Warren recounts, “On this one night, it all spun out of control. She had been yelling at me. Why was I so special that I had to go to college? Did I think I was better than everyone else in the family. Where would the money come from? I did the usual: I stared at the floor in silence and when I’d had enough, I retreated to my bedroom.” Warren’s mother is working class; hence, she would be expected to understand the likely impact of college education on her daughter’s life. She would be expected to support her dream. However, Warren’s mother’s financial stress hinders her from endorsing her daughter’s college dreams. Their fight is due to the scarcity of funds and the stress of being unable to get sufficient incomes to sustain the household.
The Irony of Minimum Wages
Warren confirms, “In the years since my mother went to work at Sears, America has gotten richer. In fact, the country’s total wealth is at an all-time high…Adjusted for inflation, the minimum wage today is lower than it was in 1965-about 24 percent lower. That job at Sears allowed my mother to eke out a living for a family of three; today, a mother working full-time and getting paid the minimum wage cannot afford the rent on the average two-bedroom apartment anywhere in America.”
During the 1960’s Warren’s mother’s minimum wages sustained three individuals. However, in the modern American, the minimum wages are absolutely low to sustain families. America’s current richness would make life better and affordable for the low-wage income earners. Inflation and inequalities in wealth distribution have reduced the power of minimum wages in modern America.
