We had to watch a 6 minute video on Youtube called "Shift Happnes: Globalization and the Information Age", and give our opinions.
Here is the link, I suggest everyone who sees this, watches it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q
My Thoughts on the video:
This little 6-minute video blew my mind. I had heard that we as a nation were falling
behind some of the other countries, but this was just amazing.
I think the world is becoming way too over-populated. Especially in America. Teens having children, people in severe poverty having child after child. I think a lot of this could be curbed if the governmentwould stop handing these people assistance. Yes, times would be tough, but people would not be having child after child just to keep this assitance. If you cannot afford to take care of your children, then you should not have more! Simple as that.
Alot of people in this country complain about China, and other countries. I think we could learn a few things from them. I saw that in these other countries that we Americans complain about, that they have more children with very high IQ's, than we have children, period, in our entire country. I think Americans have becoming increasingly lazy. The "No child Left Behind Act", that basically pushes our children through like cattle in school, graduating them just for basically showing up is pathetic. People are more worried about their child's "feelings" and being their childs' friend, instead of preparing them for their future. This needs to change. All we are going to have is a bunch of soft, lazy, overweight children with no skills, other than playing video games and eating french fries, playing on their I-Phones.
I was amazed, alone, at not just how much things have changed since 1900, but just in the past 5 years since this video was made. Myspace is practically nonexistent, and Facebook is a giant. Computers are doing more and more by the second, nevermind by the day.
I think technology is taking from our lives daily. You do not see as many people at the gym, or running down the street; now, people stay inside on Facebook all day long, or if they want to exercise? They have a video game for that, so you don't have to leave your house! Gone are the days of sending mail with a stamp on it, destroying millions of jobs at the United States Postal Service. That personalization is gone, and hello e-mail and "wall-posts". How many of us buy a newspaper anymore? Even the Sunday paper coupons can be found and used staight from your Smartphone these days.
Yes we are advancing everyday, and that has its good points, to try and catch up with the other countries. But we are becoming so sheltered and inpersonal, that it seems we are going down a slippery slope..I am almost afraid to see what the world will be like in another 50 years, seeing how things have changed in the past 10 alone.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Pros and cons of Urban vs Rural Life: Carbon Footprints
I have personally lived in some large cities, smaller suburbs and now a very rural area: for our family, we prefer the rural life: no traffic, you can see the stars at night, very low (practically nonexistent compared to the city) crime, very quiet. Our dream locale of living by the water. Of course, it is not for everyone. There are people who would go for lack of better words, "stir-crazy" if they "had to" live out here. Everything is a driving distance from our area: it takes 10-15 minutes to find a gas station, 15+ minutes to get to the grocery. The nearest major city is approximately 3 hours away, depending on traffic. There is a mall, but it is almost an hour away.
There are definitely a lot of good points to living here, but if you are thinking about our carbon footprint, is it better on the environment to live in an area such as ours? I believe it is. Yes, we have to drive to get anywhere. We do not have sidewalks (I do not think Marion has a single sidewalk!), even to get to a playground is a good 15 minutes drive, not just a walk down the street like when I grew up in the city. There are hybrid vehicles which help, although they are expensive. More people in the country tend to recycle and compost more, as we do not have local trash pickup but are reponsible for these things ourselves. But I still believe we are better off here than the carbon footprint caused by the cities.
Urban areas have their ups and downs as well. The up side? Many things are within walking distance, or there is the option of public transit, in the form of bus or train, even ferry service in some areas, so many people do not even need a vehicle. There are more things to do in the city, so people are not bored. Many jobs are available in the city as well and there is not a long commute for many.
The bad? There are many factories though which produce literally tons of harmful toxins in the air. There are less trees in the city, so less natural oxygen to breathe in. Studies show that people that live in the city are more stressed than those who live in the rural areas; no big surprise there, that stress is harmful to one's health as well.
There are many things that we can do to lessen our carbon footprint in the world, and it is not hard to do; you do not have to go completely vegetarian, or stop using gas powered vehicles all together. Try this free calculator out(http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/index.htm/) ; you put your information in (no personal information) about the way you live your day to day life, and look at the numbers of how much your carbon footprint is, and see many simple tips on how you can live a greener life, and make this planet a better place to live, whether you are a big city dweller or are a large family on a rural farm.
There are definitely a lot of good points to living here, but if you are thinking about our carbon footprint, is it better on the environment to live in an area such as ours? I believe it is. Yes, we have to drive to get anywhere. We do not have sidewalks (I do not think Marion has a single sidewalk!), even to get to a playground is a good 15 minutes drive, not just a walk down the street like when I grew up in the city. There are hybrid vehicles which help, although they are expensive. More people in the country tend to recycle and compost more, as we do not have local trash pickup but are reponsible for these things ourselves. But I still believe we are better off here than the carbon footprint caused by the cities.
Urban areas have their ups and downs as well. The up side? Many things are within walking distance, or there is the option of public transit, in the form of bus or train, even ferry service in some areas, so many people do not even need a vehicle. There are more things to do in the city, so people are not bored. Many jobs are available in the city as well and there is not a long commute for many.
The bad? There are many factories though which produce literally tons of harmful toxins in the air. There are less trees in the city, so less natural oxygen to breathe in. Studies show that people that live in the city are more stressed than those who live in the rural areas; no big surprise there, that stress is harmful to one's health as well.
There are many things that we can do to lessen our carbon footprint in the world, and it is not hard to do; you do not have to go completely vegetarian, or stop using gas powered vehicles all together. Try this free calculator out(http://www.nature.org/greenliving/carboncalculator/index.htm/) ; you put your information in (no personal information) about the way you live your day to day life, and look at the numbers of how much your carbon footprint is, and see many simple tips on how you can live a greener life, and make this planet a better place to live, whether you are a big city dweller or are a large family on a rural farm.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Is Wal-Mart good for America?
Is Wal-Mart good for America?
Many people will say no. I watched a documentary this week on this very subject on Frontline (on PBS. org).
The naysayers to this argument complain it takes away from work here in the USA; it puts the local community out of a job. Small businesses are closing
because they can't afford to keep up with the "Low Everyday Prices" from the retail giant.
According to the site, in 2006 Wal-Marts sales topped 350 Billion dollars. How many people could that help in this country?
To be fair, Wal-Mart gives a lot of money back to the communities, although it cannot give back the lives to many of these people.
Some of the locals that live by a Wal-Mart were making more than $10/hour. Now that the local Wal-Mart has gone up, They can get a job, but that would mean taking a pay cut in some, if not most cases.
As much as I agree, in my opinion I think Walmart IS good for America. Sure the pay is not great, the employees are not always
friendly and some do not provide good customer service; but for the most part, as much as people complain, they will still go to Wal-Mart. WHY?
Because the prices ARE cheap. In many single parent homes, or people that are considered low income or even middle income, know they can do all their shopping, and STILL
have money left over from their paychecks at the end of the week, to save, or pay bills, or put gas in their cars to get to work.
The products made in China that are sold at Walmart...people complain. If those products were made at a factory in the USA, do you REALLY think
the prices would be the same? Of course not! Costs of living are much different in China. I can not say with a straight face that ANYONE
in this country would be willing to work 50-60 hours a week and only make $100 a month. A MONTH! You cannot even get two tanks of gasoline for $100.
This is the reason why their prices are so low. If they were having all these products made in the USA, you could see the prices
go up by as much as 10%.
People complain about their practices, by not buying products local, and wages in which they pay, but at the end of the day, they are
a business. As much as people dislike the way they do things, they will continue to shop at Wal-Mart, because when all is said and done,
you get the most for your dollar there; and unless you are a millionaire, you need to watch your spending, as an American citizen.
Many people will say no. I watched a documentary this week on this very subject on Frontline (on PBS. org).
The naysayers to this argument complain it takes away from work here in the USA; it puts the local community out of a job. Small businesses are closing
because they can't afford to keep up with the "Low Everyday Prices" from the retail giant.
According to the site, in 2006 Wal-Marts sales topped 350 Billion dollars. How many people could that help in this country?
To be fair, Wal-Mart gives a lot of money back to the communities, although it cannot give back the lives to many of these people.
Some of the locals that live by a Wal-Mart were making more than $10/hour. Now that the local Wal-Mart has gone up, They can get a job, but that would mean taking a pay cut in some, if not most cases.
As much as I agree, in my opinion I think Walmart IS good for America. Sure the pay is not great, the employees are not always
friendly and some do not provide good customer service; but for the most part, as much as people complain, they will still go to Wal-Mart. WHY?
Because the prices ARE cheap. In many single parent homes, or people that are considered low income or even middle income, know they can do all their shopping, and STILL
have money left over from their paychecks at the end of the week, to save, or pay bills, or put gas in their cars to get to work.
The products made in China that are sold at Walmart...people complain. If those products were made at a factory in the USA, do you REALLY think
the prices would be the same? Of course not! Costs of living are much different in China. I can not say with a straight face that ANYONE
in this country would be willing to work 50-60 hours a week and only make $100 a month. A MONTH! You cannot even get two tanks of gasoline for $100.
This is the reason why their prices are so low. If they were having all these products made in the USA, you could see the prices
go up by as much as 10%.
People complain about their practices, by not buying products local, and wages in which they pay, but at the end of the day, they are
a business. As much as people dislike the way they do things, they will continue to shop at Wal-Mart, because when all is said and done,
you get the most for your dollar there; and unless you are a millionaire, you need to watch your spending, as an American citizen.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
Domestic Division of Labor
We learned about a chapter on Domestic Division of labor, and I was asked to post my thoughts on what I learned out of this, and/or how I feel in general.
Back when our grandparents were kids being raised by our great-grandparents, things, understandably, were very different. Can you imagine what life must have been like around 1900? I can imagine the domestic division of labor was very much different than what it is now: women were expected to take care of everything in the house: the cooking, cleaning, having the children, taking care of the children, doing all the laundry, peobably even some farm chores, if they lived on a farm. The husband was to work outside the home, and/or do the "man" work in their farm or yard- mowing the grass, building and mending fences, barns, etc.
Nowdays things are much different: men and women are sharing the labor- more and more women are going to work and school, there are many stay at home dads; depending on what shift they work, depends on how much the other parent has to do; not to mention if you are a single parent, you have to fulfill both those roles- taking care of the children, housework, and outdoor work if you own your home. Many women will roll up their sleeves and do the "man" work these days; and men are cooking and doing laundry (well mine does, anyway).
Being a nursing student, we have been lucky enough to hire a nanny to care for the kids, and my husband does most, if not all, the cooking and cleaning. The only thing I seem to be required to do, is get through nursing school. I am very blessed when it comes to the division of labor, although I feel guilty at times, like I am not doing enough.
There are still families out there who live like it is 1900 still: they live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, the man goes to work and the woman stays home and takes care of the kids and hosuework. It is nice to see the American family evolving more though, that way things are equal, fair, and both feel like they are productive members of society.
Back when our grandparents were kids being raised by our great-grandparents, things, understandably, were very different. Can you imagine what life must have been like around 1900? I can imagine the domestic division of labor was very much different than what it is now: women were expected to take care of everything in the house: the cooking, cleaning, having the children, taking care of the children, doing all the laundry, peobably even some farm chores, if they lived on a farm. The husband was to work outside the home, and/or do the "man" work in their farm or yard- mowing the grass, building and mending fences, barns, etc.
Nowdays things are much different: men and women are sharing the labor- more and more women are going to work and school, there are many stay at home dads; depending on what shift they work, depends on how much the other parent has to do; not to mention if you are a single parent, you have to fulfill both those roles- taking care of the children, housework, and outdoor work if you own your home. Many women will roll up their sleeves and do the "man" work these days; and men are cooking and doing laundry (well mine does, anyway).
Being a nursing student, we have been lucky enough to hire a nanny to care for the kids, and my husband does most, if not all, the cooking and cleaning. The only thing I seem to be required to do, is get through nursing school. I am very blessed when it comes to the division of labor, although I feel guilty at times, like I am not doing enough.
There are still families out there who live like it is 1900 still: they live on a farm in the middle of nowhere, the man goes to work and the woman stays home and takes care of the kids and hosuework. It is nice to see the American family evolving more though, that way things are equal, fair, and both feel like they are productive members of society.
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