POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

STA. MESA, MANILA

REFLECTION
PAPER
poverty at work:
office employment and
the crack alternative
by philippe bourgois
Submitted By: Rona Mhae Catacutan
ABM 12-25
Submitted To: Sir John Daniel Gonzales
A work or a job is paid position of employment. A worker needs to work for a business entity to
have a wage or payment in contrary. This helps an individual to make a living and support a family.
Basically, a work or a job have specified qualifications in order to be achieved by the applicant.
Some require an educational attainment and work experiences. But not all applicants have the
ability to have the educational attainment because of financial issues and the need to find a job
immediately in order to make a living. Theses applicants find their job mostly from manufacturing
plants or other settings requiring a manual labor. These manufacturing plants hire applicants that
they think can do the manual labor needed for their business. These factories or manufacturing
plants helped thousands of workers that do not have the ability to achieve educational attainment.
Despite the working-class identity, these jobs gave the workers a dignity and a place in society.
But over time, manufacturing jobs have often disappeared, leaving thousands of poorly educated
people without equivalent work. This phenomena does not only happened in one country but may
occur in all countries all over the world. I believe that one reason for this problem is the
improvement and development of technologies. An example is that a factory will rather have a
machinery that can do the manual labor than hiring laborers for their company. They see the
advantages of machinery for their company that will only acquire an investment to purchase this
machinery instead of paying for the wages of the workers monthly. Some manufacturing plants
and factories also acquire more machinery and will only hire some laborers to operate their
machinery. This helps a business entity to decrease their salary expense for the workers and have
better advantages in investing for a machinery that can last for years.

The article focuses on New York City’s Spanish Harlem where the Puerto Rican’s are the main
focus as a subject. Based on the article, manufacturing jobs once provided dignifies and stable
employment for Puerto Rican men and women but as factories closed continuously, the
unemployed could find work only in service industries which gave them only minimum wages.
The article also discussed that in order for them to achieve a higher status and income they will
choose to be a drug dealer which results in addiction, murder, and prison.

After I have read this article, I can notice some discourses happening in their society. The
discourses that I have noticed are poverty, lack of education, migration, racism, discrimination,
drug use and dealing and zero option. First is poverty. Poverty is well noticeable in their society.
Because of poverty, Puerto Ricans can’t afford to have a high education because they choose to
find jobs earlier to help their family. Because of the lack of education, they can only be hired for
the jobs that require unskilled labor which gives them minimum wages. It is also nice that they
believe that hard work is greater than education because some become successful because of hard
work but not all who work hard become successful easily. Because of these situations, they tend
to migrate from their home to other places to find nice job opportunities that they believe they can
only find successful places or countries. But once they stepped on the place that they believe to
make their lives more descent, they realized that life is much easier with their original place. When
they find a job, even if it is not as much, they experience racism and discrimination. Some wealthy
people look down on them because they are poorly educated and unskilled. The dignity of the
discriminated workers will eventually decrease and will make their self-esteem to disappear. But
it is amazing that some of the discrimination they get will reflect them as a motivation to do more
and improve their selves. To have a higher income, they choose to be a drug dealer which gives
them easier access to earning money. They have no choice but to do this illegal job. This illegal
jobs has been normalized with their community and I think that is dangerous to the children in
their society. They should not be exposed to this act because they will think that it is good.

These discourses are not only present in the Spanish Harlem but all over the world. In the
Philippines, these discourses can also be seen. Some go to the urban places from rural places to
find job opportunities and end up doing illegal things to earn money. We students must be thankful
for the opportunity that we have. We are able to study for us to ensure that we can and we are able
to have a nice future. But it is also important to know the difference between the good and bad
decisions that we may encounter as we grow older. We should be smart in choosing between
circumstances and we should remember not just ourselves but also for the good of others and no
one will get hurt. For the article, I am grateful for the information that the author has shared for
his readers in order to know the real situation in some parts of the world. But we should also
remember not to degrade someone, from any country or culture, because of his or her educational
attainment nor his culture. No one deserves to be discriminated against because not everyone is
fortunate to afford the things that wealthier people have. We have different preferences,
experiences and own problems, that’s why we should respect and understand everyone’s situation.