Project 4

Project 2 revision

On October 25, 1938, the United States Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established the first mandated minimum wage. The first wage was set at $0.25 per hour, which equates to $4.55 in 2020 with inflation (2009). In 2020, the federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour. While states have manipulated this wage to fit cost of living, $7.25 is the federal law (2020).

            Since 1938 the minimum wage has been increasing not only with inflation but to accommodate peoples wants for higher pay for work. In 2020, the mainstreamed new standard for minimum wage, which was set by the political left, is $15 per hour. The left proclaims that this is a “living wage” and allows people to not have to work as much to provide for themselves and their family. The political right is split between abolishing the minimum wage or keeping it the same. They claim that an increase in wages would consequently cause a rise in unemployment. This causes heated discussion on which proposal is more efficient, weighing consequences and benefits.

            The artifacts that will be analyzed use rhetorical appeals to appeal to readers and attempt to persuade them to succumb to their views and proposals regarding the minimum wage. The first article is a published article by an Austrian economist, arguing for no minimum wage, and the second artifact is a book urging for a $15 minimum living wage. Both artifacts use different appeals to engage with their audience.

Outlawing Jobs: The Minimum Wage

            The first artifact is an article titled “Outlawing Jobs: The Minimum Wage”, from a book titled "The Free Market" written by Murray N. Rothbard. Rothbard is an American economist of the Austrian school of Economics. Rothbard is considered the theoretician of anarcho-capitalism and was a central figure in the 20^th century libertarian movement. He has written over twenty books on economics, revisionist history, politics, and more. Rothbard was a leading figure in the Austrian School of Economists and was a strong advocate for no state (government) and no minimum wage laws. He believed that the free market alone left untouched would provide a fair wage determined by the mutual agreement between employer and employee.

            Rothbard begins his writing by expressing that minimum wage laws can only be regarded in one way, “it is compulsory unemployment, period.”. (Rothbard, 2019) He demonstrates his point using authoritative language. He states, “The law says: it is illegal, and therefore criminal, for anyone to hire anyone else below the level of X dollars an hour”. (Rothbard, 2019) Rothbard uses this language to demonstrate that government mandated laws are evil and only provide evil and tyranny. This is an attempt to use pathos with his readers to view not only the minimum wage laws as evil, but the government evil as well. This is his second purpose in his writing, which is to make his case that all forms of government are evil, but that is not the subject here. Rothbard also provides examples from his previous knowledge based on experience to demonstrate his point. He states “If the minimum wage is, in short, raised from $3.35 to $4.55 an hour, the consequence is to disemploy, permanently, those who would have been hired at rates in between these two rates. Since the demand curve for any sort of labor (as for any factor of production) is set by the perceived marginal productivity of that labor, this means that the people who will be disemployed and devastated by this prohibition will be precisely the "marginal" (lowest wage) workers, e.g. blacks and teenagers, the very workers whom the advocates of the minimum wage are claiming to foster and protect.” (Rothbard, 2019). This is a statistical attack on the minimum wage argument, which is extremely effective in most cases of political argumentation and also financial argumentation. He also appeals to minorities and teenagers by stating that these laws would hurt them and not help them. This is an attempt to grab a specific audience and drag them to his opinion.

The Fight for Fifteen: The Right Wage for a Working America

            The second artifact is a book written by David Rolf, titled “The fight for fifteen: The right wage for a working America”. David Rolf is an internationally known labor leader and is a leading architect to get a living wage in SeaTec and Seattle, WA. He serves as an International Vice President of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the President of SEIU 775. Rolf has been advocating for a living wage of $15 for most of his career, and has been published in The American Prospect, The Nation, Aspen Journal of Ideas, Social Policy, and Spotlight on Poverty. (Rolf, 2020). Rolf writes his book to persuade his readers to advocate for a $15 federal minimum wage.

            The cover of the book depicts a revolution or protest in the top of the frame. The color has been filled red to fill in the outlines of the people, and below to create a solid red background. The title of the book is written in medium to medium-small sized white text, apart from the word large $15 in the center of the cover. This is much larger than the other textual components and is meant to be the center of attention. This is demonstrated by it being the only black filled text on the cover and its abnormally large size. There is also the word “Fight” which has been emphasized by enlarging the text slightly, putting it in the top center of the cover above the $15, and underlining the word. (Artifact 2)

            This publication was in 2016, which is a presidential candidate race. The date is an important factor in persuasion of political opinion, as the closer to a political election you can persuade someone, the more likely they are to vote on your behalf and are less likely to change their mind. The top of the cover being a depiction of a protest or riot demonstrates the word “Fight” in the title. Also, red is a physiological color for anger, or revolution. This is an example of pathos used by the author in moving the audience to feel enraged by the current system and is trying to persuade them that a revolt must take place to get their living wage. The large, black colored $15 stands out significantly. This is to attract the readers attention and to demonstrate that this is the main subject of the book. The size of it was used by the author to emphasize the importance of it. The more important something is on his cover, the larger it is, and therefore “fight” and “$15” are the two biggest texts on the cover. This is also used as almost an angering image. The bigger the object and issue, the more emotion that will be involved within the dicussion. The author is using an emotional appeal with these image to make them feel emotional about this topic. This can be expressed in sympathy for the people who are working for little pay, and then anger or intensity in fighting for more pay. 

Genre Analysis

            The article written by Rothbard is a publication from a book titled The Free Market. Rothbard targets a large audience that ranges from economic students, to anyone interested in a point of view on the political topic. His target and main audience is Austrian economic students who align with his political views. It could also be targeting those who are on the political right. These are considered "fiscally conservative" people, who advocate for lower taxes, and keeping the minimum wage the same as they believe that businesses cannot afford this. He also targets those who want a $15 minimum wage because he demonstrates that many of them will not get the new wages promised, but instead will get fired and become unemployed because of these policies. He uses several rhetoric appeals to appeal to his targeted audience to create happiness and to entice those who do not agree with him. He uses rhetoric appeals to emphasize the evil that minimum wage presents and draws in his audience with his vocabulary.

            The second artifact is a published book that advocates for a $15 minimum wage. This does not have a specific argument, but instead attempts to address every audience group because of his motive. His motive is to persuade as many people as he can and is attempting to persuade people to vote a certain way, almost revolutionary. His target audience is the political left, and minimum wage workers. These are people who will find interest in his work and his proposed policies. It will benefit the minimum wage workers and he is trying to appeal to them. This is demonstrated by his rhetoric appeals, specifically his use of color schemes, and font sizes and emphasis. If he were to target a specific audience, it would be the political left. This political spectrum is very conducive to the $15 minimum wage and are considered the founders of the idea. This helps his case as they would advocate for this policy the most. His rhetoric appeals attempt to start a revolution within the United States and advocate for a $15 federal minimum wage.

Conclusion

            Both artifacts presented use rhetoric appeals to address their targeted audiences. Even though they were advocating on the same topic, they had different rhetoric appeals to demonstrate their point. One was advocating for a raise to the minimum wage and the other advocated for the abolishing of it. Neither advocated for the stagnation of the wage. They both used pathos, but that was the only common factor. Overall, both artifacts provided use rhetoric appeals to attempt to use persuasion to advocate for their personal beliefs on a politic and economic subject.

Artifacts:

Major Writing Reflection:

My major of choice is Finance in the FSU Business school. I have always excelled in math and numbers and they have interested me all my life. While I like math and numbers, when letters get involved my mind goes to mush. I did not enjoy pre-calculus or Algebra 2 because there were more equations with letters than equations with just purely numbers. While I am aware that this is an important concept to understand for moving forward, I did not enjoy it.

            I was unsure of which major to choose. I applied to FSU as an Actuarial Science major and then later realized that the job of an Actuary does not fit the lifestyle I want to live in the future. Actuaries are similar to the characters in movie shows, as they sit in a cubicle for an 8-hour job and do not have much of a life. This is not to put down actuaries, but this is just my perception of the occupation and does not appeal to me.

            Money has also enticed me for my lifetime. As a child, I always wanted more money, and I always wanted to spend money. As young as 12 years old I have had a job, with the definition a job being stretched to either chores or mowing lawns. Basically, I had side jobs or hustles as young as 12. I always wanted to have an income to make my life better and buy things that I wanted. Finance appeals to this because it revolves around one aspect, money. I am good at math, good with numbers, and like the idea of computing ways to create formulas around money. I also like the idea of economics as well, but finance incorporates economics within itself. Economics helps form finances and plans around finance.

            Finance seems to be the best fit for a major for me as of right now. Over time my opinion may change, but as of now my perception of this major will fit my life the best. It incorporates math and money which is something that has great appeal to me.

 

Paragraph 4 from Project 1

Accounting is a job that you can have with a finance degree, but if you are set out to be an accountant, the actuarial science or accountant majors may provide the same or better outcomes. There are also some suggestions that students should begin to take both courses at the same time. They could enroll in one major but also take classes from other majors, such as accounting, so that they are better prepared for the future. Let’s Combine the Accounting and Finance Majors. Financial Executive, suggests that only focusing on the aspects of one major may be detrimental to your future because of tunnel vision. To quote directly, Bloom states “majoring in any single discipline in college today — whether accounting, communications, economics or other areas — is ill advised. Given the complexity of the world and the importance of learning, pursuing one subject area creates a sense of “tunnel vision” as opposed to a broad-based outlook.” (2013, Bloom, pg16) This suggests that the world around us is too complicated for an individual to only have one skill set, and in the modern world they require several skills to succeed. It could improve the chances of you getting the job that you desire as well. If you are not sure which job that you would like but know that you want it to be related to finance, this may be a great route for that individual. Finance jobs are always going to be necessary because of the current system of economics that we currently have. With everything revolving around prices and costs, finance majors are needed to maintain things that ordinary people cannot. This includes economics, finance, and decision making based on these characteristics. Tunnel vision will be the death of an individual in the field of finance.

Reflective Essay

Throughout the course of the summer semester and taking ENC2135, I feel that I am more experienced in not only writing, but in specific parts of writing I had never thought of before. I now have understood the writing style of my major better than I did before taking this class. This will help me in the future in writing papers for my major. The three main things that I have learned throughout this course. First are different genres, second is how to compose papers efficiently and structure them more efficiently, and lastly rhetorical strategies that are used to strengthen an argument and persuade an opinion. 

                Project 1 was the most challenging project in my opinion. Not only did I have to do deep research into my major, but I also had to analyze the text I chose. To find 6 professional publishing about the financial field, I used the Florida State University online library. This was a significant help in finding articles, books, and publishing regarding the Finance major. I also had the challenge of finding out how to conduct an interview. I had to choose which question were the right to ask, and what I was trying to achieve with them. I felt as though I was a journalist trying to get a story, and then publishing the writings in a way that would be professional yet not boring that the reader would shy away. This project helped me understand my future in the major, the difficulties that I my face within the major, and helped me understand how to write an investigative essay as well. This project was not my favorite to write, but possibly the most important.

Project 2 included artifacts and rhetoric strategies. These were new concepts to me, so I had to pay close attention not to misinterpret. This was one of my favorite projects however, because I got to analyze one of my favorite authors, Murray Rothbard, and describe his use of genre and his rhetorical strategies to get his point across. I also then had to look at the opposite point of view and analyze their artifact and rhetoric appeals. The topic was the $15 minimum wage, so I had the for and against perspectives. Both shared similar rhetoric appeals, but also had some that had different effects.

Project 3 was somewhat difficult, as I had to create 3 genres to use for a topic in my field. I chose the 15 minimum wage law, as I had prior experience and knowledge with this law. This was a political, economic, and financial issue that addressed multiple fields along with my own. I had to use different rhetoric appeals that I had learned from Project 2 to display my talking points. The different appeals help different target audience understand and interact with the genre more efficiently.

                To conclude, ENC2135 has helped me understand where I stand with my writing, but also helped me understand my future within my major and helped me understand the writing format that my major uses (APA). I have written in MLA throughout high school, so this was incredibly beneficial. I have learned new concepts, such as genres and rhetoric appeals, and grew upon concepts that I had previously learned, such as composition and structure of writing. This class will help me throughout my college journey, and I am incredibly thankful for the help that Mrs. Wilson has provided to me.