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Do All Families Matter?

Since the end World War II, the United States has emerged as an economic
superpower and continues to grow nearly every year. Though there have been
setbacks, few could argue that American economy and position as a world trade
leader have grown significantly. Americans have built great cities, developed
remarkable technologies, helped advance medicine, and expanded the economic
reach far across the oceans, but at what cost on the home front? Many Americans
once viewed the capitalist system as being superior, however it appears to have
been distorted over the years. As Robert Marks, a historian and author of The
Origins of the Modern World, states about post 1950 Americans: Americans came
to equate consumer purchases with freedom, and to condemn the Soviet Union
for its absence. (Marks, Robert B. 175). This has led to an imbalance in which a
growing number of Americans have been marginalized by the income gap focused
on increasing profits for the corporations which run the economic machine. At some
point consumerism and financial growth began to displace basic values and outpace
the earnings of the American worker. Work is a necessity for all those not privileged
with wealth from birth, but how much does it actually cost the American family?
Perhaps not for all, but a growing number on the lower wage spectrum, families
have suffered due to the need to survive financially. The Family has been displaced
as the number one priority for these Americans.
As a side effect of the pursuit of profits, there has been a significant
escalation of expenses requiring millions, who cannot obtain higher paying
employment, to work more to cover costs. It appears there has been a ratcheting
effect of the economy and consumption cycle which has undermined a significant
part of American culture. With some exceptions, Americans find themselves focused
more on finances than family. Millions are finding themselves working not for a
better quality of life for themselves and their families, but struggling for economic
survival. Family time is becoming less valuable than working time because without
the income, people are finding it more difficult for the individual to survive paycheck
to paycheck. With this problem for the lower earners, their family also suffers and
often both spouses must work. This situation is ironic as it is often said how
important the values and the family is in American culture.
It has been stated by many sources that the 1970s were the beginning of a
new era for the American worker. Since then, a growing majority of families find
themselves working longer hours or multiple jobs simply cover the daily expenses.
The result is more frustration, less personal time and less family time. Occupations,
such as retail sales, once were considered lower paying, but one could provide a
modest living for their family. Today, many are barely able to scrape by. Often this
idea is met by skeptics criticizing the ingenuity and drive of the lower earners, but
perhaps there is more to the situation. Per an Opt-Ed article by Holly Sklar with
Business for a Fair Minimum Wage, it is stated As the wage floor has sunk below
poverty levels, millions of workers find themselves with paychecks above the

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minimum, but still earning poverty wages. (Sklar, Holly). People in the lower
income brackets have found financial situations becoming more discouraging and
desperate in recent years. The threshold of poverty is becoming higher due to
expenses and that great paying job does not seem as great any more. The result is
longer hours at work, and in certain cases, a second job. This often leaves little time
for anything but work and sleep. Though they may reside under the same roof,
millions of adult may be seeing less of each other and their children because of this.
In the United States, there are those who claim how well off the poor are from
those in other parts of the world. That may be true in comparison to nations like
Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which have been ravaged by war
over resources and ideology for decades, but what about the places where many of
the founders of this country can trace their ancestry to? In the past decade, as the
dollar had been slipping, Europe has been noted to have some of the best standards
and education systems even for the poor. For example, an article published by the
Economic Opportunity Institute, a non-profit organization, suggests the Western
European countries have similar if not higher living standards when comparing
poverty level percentages (Hill, Steven). This equates to less desperate situations
for the poor and suggests that there is less stress on the individual and therefore
less stress on the family as a whole. In times where the middle class can barely
afford to put their children through college, perhaps there are more considerations
needed for those less fortunate, or perhaps a paradigm shift in the American
educational and government regulations intended to protect those who work at the
lower end of the wage spectrum.
It is not uncommon for families to live together until the children are
employed and starting their own families. Families are often more closely bonded
and younger generations tend to be more prepared for life when they leave home.
Perhaps this has some value in comparing the international community with the
domestic. The UN expert paper Leaving Home: Independence, togetherness and
income in Europe, linked income and available resources with the ages at which
young people left home and concluded that children stayed at home until it was
economically feasible (Iacovou, Maria) . As compared with American society, young
people are expected leave home as a natural progression on reaching adulthood or
graduating from and educational institute.
The trend of leaving home at an early age has changed in recent years due to
economic downturn where the situation is that young people have nowhere they
can afford to go. Per the Pew Research Center article, A Rising Share of Young
Adults Live in Their Parentss Home, suggests that in recent years more American
adults have also been following this trend because of financial necessity, not
necessarily the family bond (Fry, Richard).
These issues in the United States differ from that of other places in the world.
The excuse of times or society changing become invalid as the argument is put into
context of historical changes within society based on technology. Within Asian

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cultures, including Chinese, family has been and still is the number one priority. As
the state run international paper boasts Throughout history, family has been
considered to be the base of Chinese society. And although Western lifestyles have
been adopted, the traditional family structure and values still hold a prominent
position. (Zhihua, Liu). Perhaps this is a hollow boast by a state run media
program, but an outsider from the United States would likely not find such claim on
many government or private media sites. By performing a simple google search,
aside from organized religious sites, this message appears to be lacking other than
negative headlines.
Though the structure and role of the spouses in Chinese families tends to be
more traditional than modern western families, there are many parallels. One
argument is that the old world concepts do not agree with a global leader in modern
trade and technology growth. Put into context of history it seems that technology
has advanced, but in comparison it does not show the same cause and effect
relationship as in the United State. Having growing industry, in the case of China,
does not validate the suggestion that having a national competitive focus on
technology is exclusive to the family structure or tradition. Few people know that
China had historically been world trade leader. Between the approximate years
1405, and 1830, China had the largest gross domestic product in the world. It was
not until the British industrial revolution and the social decay brought upon them by
the East India Companys illegal opium and the two Opium Wars, that China lost this
position (Marks, Robert B. 127). Today China has close family structures as
consistent with traditions despite an overwhelming growth since the 1980s. This
growth has been consistently at two to three times or more than the United States
(World Bank, GDP groth). This is something that perhaps the European and
American models of family structure began departing from years ago.
The percentage of dual income households in America has been increasing
over the past decades. Notably since the 1960s women have entered the workforce
in numbers not seen since World War II. With both parents sharing the income
responsibilities, there is less time spent taking care of the responsibilities at home
and with other family members. The burdens of household responsibility do not
necessarily have a gender bias, they are simply responsibilities. If these task are not
tended to, then the quality time at home and time together, can be diminished. A
recent presentation done by the nonprofit Tax Foundation, Middle Class Isnt What
It Used To Be, depicts that the percentage of dual income households have
increased from 47 percent in 1965 to 67 percent in 2009 (Borean, Richard and
Colby, Pastre). This number is down slightly since 2006, but this may be a function
of the job markets during the lending, then housing crisis between 2006 and 2008.
Regardless, many would agree that more time at work equates to less time together
and less free time to enjoy.
The roles of the job versus the employee have changed to the extent that the
job no longer serves for both employee and companys well-being, but the

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employee is expected to serve the company. An article from Bloomberg Business
from 2012 points out one example of how little consideration companies like
McDonalds have for their employees financial wellbeing. McDonalds apparently
would rather pay for litigation and lobbying against wage increases rather than give
back a small amount to those who make the company profitable. The author states:
McDonalds, for example, spent $6 billion on share repurchases and
dividends last year, the equivalent of $14,286 per restaurant worker
employed by the company. At the same time, restaurant companies have
formed an industrywide effort to freeze the minimum wage, whose
purchasing power is 20 percent less than in 1968, according to the Economic
Policy Institute, a think tank that advocates for low- and middle-income
workers. (Patton, Leslie).
This displacement in values is unhealthy if one considers that the reason they work
is to support themselves and the family. From young adulthood on through later live,
Americans at the bottom of the income level are finding themselves at a distinct
disadvantage. The offset in wages has put them away at work with time normally
reserved for family. At minimum income or even slightly higher wages are often not
enough, so millions have decided to take on second full or part time jobs to
supplement their income.
It is not only the young who are finding themselves in low paying or minimum
wage jobs. Larger numbers of Middle aged Americans with families have been
recently faced with tough decisions after the recession. This has compounded the
existing issue in the United States of more time being spent at work versus at home
with one another. Over the past forty years, the shrinking income levels adjusted for
inflation, inequality of earnings, and rising costs of living have placed the average
American on the losing side of the economic race. The justification at one time was
to outdo the Soviet Union, however the USSR has been long gone. Yet, the situation
exists where corporations are squeezing more out of the average person than ever
before. This now appears as the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting
poorer. Where have those values of family and community gone? Are profits so
important that so many must be forced to be more productive so they have no time
for themselves or loved ones? This may be viewed simply as financial inequality,
however this also has the effect of displacing the priorities of the family. Economic
survival has displaced the American family as the number one priority not only
within the household, but within the society. Without family and the value the
members of the family unit bring to each other, where does this leave the values of
the United States? The hope is that these issues will be passing and a new era will
replace it where values and the quality of life for all will be restored.

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Works Cited
Borean, Richard and Colby, Pastre. The Middle Class Isnt What It Used To Be. Tax
Foundation.
6 November, 2013. Web. 12 March 2015.
http://taxfoundation.org/article/middle-class-

isn-t-what-it-used-be

Fry, Richard. A Rising Share of Young Adults Live in Their Parents Home. Pew
Research Center.
1 August 2013. Web. 12 March 2015.
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2013/08/01/arising-share-ofyoung-adults-live-in-their-parents-home/
GDP growth (annual %) live charts. The World Bank. 2015. Web. 12 March 2015.
http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG/countries/1W?
display=default
Hill, Steven. Myth 6: Europe has a lower standard of living than the United States.
Economic
Opportunity Institute. 15 March 2010. Web. 12 March
2015. http://www.eoionline.org
/blog/myth-6-europe-has-a-lower-standard-of-living-than-the-united-states/
Iacovou, Maria, Leaving Home: Independence, togetherness and income in Europe.
New York:
United
Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2012.
Web/Print
Marks, Robert B. The Origins of the Modern World, A Global and Ecological Narrative
from the
Fifteenth to the Twenty-First Century. Lanham: Rowan &
Littlefield, 2007. Print
Patton, Leslie. McDonalds $8.75 Man and $8.75 Million CEO Shows Pay Gap.
Bloomberg
Business. 11 Dec 2012. Web 27 March 2015.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/201212-12/mcdonald-s-8-25-manand-8-75-million-ceo-shows-pay-gap
Sklar, Holly. McClatchy-Tribune: Holly Sklar, Minimum Wage Back to 1950 Level on
75th Anniversary.
McClatch-Tribune News Service. 22 October 2013. Print.
Business for a
Fair Minimum Wage.
Web. 25 March 2015.
http://www.businessforafairminimumwage.org/news/00375/mcclatchytribune-holly-sklar-minimum-wage-back-1950-level-75th-anniversary
Zhihua, Liu. Chinese family structure and values hard to shake. Peoples Daily
Online. 29
January 2013. Web. 12 March 2015.
http://en.people.cn/90782/8112762.html