Juliet B Schor

A detailed Summary of Juliet B Schor

It is truly amazing that the US economy has showed considerable gains in productivity almost every year since 1948. Primarily because Americans are working longer hours, today's productivity is double that of 1948 levels. In "The Overworked American" author Juliet B. Schor explains the implications of Americans working these longer hours. Schor asks the question of why we Americans choose to have less leisure time while working longer hours. She believes that this is because Americans are too caught up in their materialistic wants. Her premise is that our society always has to have the biggest and best of something to feel like our lives mean something. This article would be an excellent choice for a sociology professor to use in his class. The author espouses many different and important topics in the dialogue that could be useful discussion points in a college level sociology class.

Statistics are one important aspect of a discussion. Schor uses many statistics in her article to help support the argument that Americans are working longer hours and consequently, forfeiting leisure time. Statistics are great for discussion because they allow the reader to employ numbers in support of or against an argument. Schor states

that "In 1990, the average American not only owns and consumes more than twice as much as he or she did in 1948, but also has less free time." This is a firm statistic that one could use in an argument that a price needs to be paid for increased productivity. This article would be good to discuss in a sociology class due to the sophisticated use of statistical analysis. The author uses statistics as evidence for the support of the argument that Americans are paying a high price for working long hours. When I am in a discussion, I like to use statistics because they rarely can be found to be false. This article would be good to use in a sociology class because of the type of support it uses in it. In a discussion, statistics can be used as evidence for the support of the argument that Americans are working too much.

One characteristic of a good discussion used well in Schors article is her personal opinion. Your personal opinion on a topic is a very good thing to use in a discussion. Your opinion allows you to see where you stand on the subject compared to the rest of your peers. Discussion is a great way to do this. In Schors article, she incorporates her personal opinion in her writing. She states "In its starkest terms, my argument is this: Key incentive structures of capitalist economies contain biases toward long working hours." By Schor actually saying what she believes, you are able t

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Approximate Word count = 952
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English