11/18/12 We’re reading Backwards Culture in Ms. McMillan’s class, and I can’t say I care for it very much. The author has a lot to say about business taking advantage of the environment and the workforce, but what about those who don’t? If all work were that terrible, there wouldn’t be so many people would say they love their jobs. I doubt they’d even be working. I also don’t like the way the author talks about hard labor like it’s a bad thing. My grandpa worked construction for years and loved it. My dad never has to tell me to mow the lawn, either. It’s kind of looking down on people to assume they don’t like their jobs when you don’t know them, I guess. The book is interesting and mostly well-written. I will say it has opened my eyes to (better and worse) working conditions in other countries—and even other states. But I also think he ignores a lot of facts to support his own claims. There is one argument I can kind of get behind: raising minimum wage. My dad owns a small store and sometimes complains that we’d have trouble making ends meet if they raised it by more than a buck or two, but I really have trouble seeing how an extra forty or fifty bucks a day is going to cause that much trouble. As it is, my mom is always on him to lower the insurance plan now because he spends too much on them. There’s always a compromise when it comes to stuff like that, but right now I think the advantage definitely falls with the employers, just like the author says. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the author’s belief that employers who do only pay minimum wage are somehow exploiting the workforce. Like I said above, my dad is a small business owner. He’s been in the same place, doing the same thing, because he’s always taken good care of his employees. Two people have worked there since before I was born and are making enough to support their own families. Yeah, if he were still paying people whatever the minimum was 15 years later, that would be shady. To say starting employees out at the minimum until both sides can get to know each other, though, that’s totally crazy. Ms. McMillan says she assigns controversial books like these because she wants us to understand the valid points people we don’t agree with make. I really appreciate that. At times, this book has made me so mad I gritted my teeth, but usually he at least backs up his claims with numbers or quotes or something (even if he does tend to twist them a bit). I’m thinking about joining debate club this year. This book gives me something to sharpen my skills on, anyway, regardless of whatever else I may think of it. I’d probably recommend this so far, but we are almost three-quarters through and I find myself disagreeing with more and more. I guess it all comes down to perspective!