Lanza 1
Take a Risk, What do You Have to Lose?
Being a college student, currently striving for a better education to hopefully obtain my
dream job and make a living for myself, these articles about the lacking job opportunities make
me less than optimistic. They make me question myself, the time, and the money I’m putting
myself through to MAYBE get a job when I graduate. All three of these articles show the
changes occurring in the work force leaving people hopeless and unemployed, while also
explaining how people can find openings if they learn to look in the right places. It all comes
down to a person’s ability to expand past what they know and have become comfortable with and
explore other fields of work that are in higher demands for employers.
Throughout Adam Davidson’s short essay, “Making it in America”, he informs the reader
how American manufacturing is rising greatly, yet people are becoming less prevalent in the
work industry. Machines are beginning to replace factory workers minimizing unskilled job
availability. The main concern derives from current workers worried about the security of their
job. Fuel injectors are one of few things still made here in America. These injectors require a
precise style of building leaving no room for error which entails skilled workers to handle the
machines. The new technology advances are replacing workers on floor by creating more precise
machinery which requires a skilful worker to operate. Tony Scalzitti, manager of a factory,
explains the reason why older more simple machines didn’t require a skilled worker and how the
new machines stress skillful workers to manage the complexity. Productivity is at a high;
technological breakthroughs make prices and manufactured objects cheaper due to not having to
pay for the manual labor. Around a decade ago the unskilled workers made about the same salary
as the skilled employees. As time and technology progressed, the pay check of the skilled is
significantly higher than those of the unskilled. A broken educational system, teen pregnancy,
Lanza 2
drugs, racial discrimination and a fractured political culture are all factors limiting people’s
ability to succeed. Americans are seen to have lost motivation to try and make a better life for
themselves because of the limiting work opportunities.
Reading this leaves me a lot of doubt about the future of American factory workers and
their job security. It’s unfortunate how jobs are being minimized in factories due to improved
technology. I can see the benefits machines have in the long run for the product and the factory
owners being that one machine would be more efficient and potentially cheaper than multiple
people. What the article didn’t mention was how expensive these machines are to keep updated
and properly working and then compare it to the cost of factory workers. It also didn’t talk about
the efficiency of the new machines in contrast to humans. Adding those would not only be
interesting but could support the idea of taking away jobs if it showed a significant increase in
