|
Gymnasium ULRICIANUM Schriftliche Abiturprüfung 2003 Vorschlag B |
Prüfungsgruppe: EN1 |
2.1 TEXT
The Corruption of the American Dream
“Should America be measured by three women CEOs in the Fortune 500 … or by 13 million women in deep poverty?
With all due respect to their career achievements and personal sacrifices, even one hundred women advancing in power would be insignificant compared to millions of American women now being shoved backward into deeper poverty. Increasingly, America’s growing Hunger Class are women and their children. […]
1) Why the poor are getting poorer.
A year ago, we explained why more people are going hungry in the world’s richest economy: US income inequalities are by far the widest in the industrialized world – and getting worse.
The number of Americans living below the poverty line has steadily climbed since 1977. The working poor are harder-pressed than two decades ago.
(Source: US Census Bureau 1997)
[…]
But why are the poor getting poorer? Who are the poorest?
Simply, they are women taking care of children […] almost all are family refugees.
2) Mothers fleeing brutal violence.
Refugees the world over leave home to escape two things: brutal violence and economic collapse. By this definition, the growing ranks of poor women in America are family refugees.
Half of women on public assistance – more than half of homeless women and children – are escaping domestic violence.
With meager earnings from minimum wage jobs, they must seek public aid (food stamps, housing credits, income supplements) to care for their children. Yet today, shamefully, even this minimal relief is being eliminated by politicians bankrolled by the wealthy.
3) Families trapped by economic collapse.
Millions of […] poor mothers face economic collapse when partners leave children unsupported. […]
75 % of women on welfare have two children at most, about the US average for all mothers.
(Source: Top Heavy: The Increasing Inequality of Wealth in America, by Edward Wolff, New Press, New York, 1996)
And mothers on welfare work as many hours as the average mother not on welfare: 960 hours a year.
Minimum wage work barely keeps one adult out of poverty, let alone a mother with one or two children.
4) Available jobs can’t support a family.
The impact of violence and non-support on lower-income mothers and children is being exacerbated by two official „impoverishment policies“ put in place in the 1990s:
- „Free trade“ policies pursued by recent Administrations make American workers compete against workers in lower-wage nations. Overseas mills and assembly plants have replaced skilled and semi-skilled US factory jobs that once beat the minimum wage.
- Meanwhile, welfare „reforms“ that compel abandoned mothers and women […] to seek full-time work are independently depressing US wages at the low end by 10 %. Even with record-high employment rates, life is definitely getting worse for millions of working poor in America – men and women, single or in couples.
5) How poverty benefits the wealthiest.
Lower wages devastate the working poor, but lower labor costs mean higher profits for the well-off. Their investments in firms catering to high-spending Americans grow in value … and inflation stays low. The wealthy get wealthier, in part, because the poor get poorer.
Those who bankroll US political campaigns tend to be better-off, so Washington is not even considering using budget surpluses to aid poor working families.
[…]
Should US women’s progress be measured by the fact women now hold 4% of top jobs in Fortune 500 firms (a pitiful figure in itself), or by the headline news that a half-dozen women candidates can now run for the most costly offices? Or should America be judged by the less celebrated fact that millions of women are being forced backward?
6) A human rights strategy. Can it work?
As the U.S. income gap has widened, public debate has narrowed. A country that once prided itself on human rights now preaches to the rest of the world while abandoning its own ideals of fairness and compassion.
Housing, food, and a living wage are, in fact, universal human rights recognized by the United Nations and endorsed by the vast majority of governments.
(From an advertisement by Food First: www.foodfirst.org/media/ads/nation-10-99.html)
text 664 words
|
Gymnasium ULRICIANUM Schriftliche Abiturprüfung 2003 Vorschlag B |
Prüfungsgruppe: EN1 |
1.0 ASSIGNMENTS
CONTENT
1. Text:
Strictly keeping to the information in the text shortly describe
the American society in 1999 in your own words.
2. Charts:
Point out the information the inserted charts contribute to this
advertisement.
3. Explain why this text has been given the headline: ‘The Corruption
of the American Dream’.
ANALYSIS
4. Find out elements of the text to prove that the authors are
partial. What may be the intended effect?
COMMENT
5. Depict what kind of society the authors might favour and give
your personal view.
J good luck! J
