Profile - Chris Swartz
The blue skies overhead hold sparse clouds, showing the sun in all its glory. Heat from the sun bakes the desert beneath it. The bed shakes from the weight of all the belongings inside of it. A passing truck has all the windows down, letting cool air flow through freely. An air freshener sways from the wind, twirling and dancing like a ballerina on a wire. The radio plays chill summer tunes and fills the cab with a relaxing atmosphere. The three in the car all sit side-by-side, relishing in each others company. A little baby boy reaches for the air freshener, giggling when it barely grazes his fingertips. His mother looks down at him, then up to her husband and laughs. In return, her husband grabs and squeezes her hand; firm and warm. They share a look of excited nervousness before turning their attention on the wide stretch of sand before them. They still had a long way to go.
“During that time I felt confident I would find something, but being newly married of three years and coming out of my comfort zone from where I was familiar to a strange place was a little unnerving, to say the least. It was a...I felt lost, because I was not in control at that time. I was at everyone else’s mercy, so-to-speak, for employment.” Is what my dad relayed to me at the first of the interview. While a job was eventually secured by my dad, roughly 5.8% of families’ homes house an unemployed person. (BoLS) Reasons vary for each individual case, but a lot of times the work just isn’t out there that is within the unemployed person’s skill set, such as my dad was.
After being employed in the same business for approximately eight years, he set out to become self-employed. The Merriam-Webster dictionary states self-employment as:
Being self-employed is like riding a bike but it’s on fire, the road’s on fire, the tires have melted off, oh wait this is living hell isn’t it? The expectations one may have set over them while being self-employed is like a double-edged sword. On one side, you have the ability to pick and choose projects for yourself. On the other hand, you are at the mercy of the owner of the job. My dad goes over this particular topic briefly. “[Being self-employed] was more frightening because I would be the sole proprietor. Instead of picking up a paycheck, I had to actively bid on projects, meet with contractors, sell the jobs, get the job, perform in the job, and collect form the job which was and is very time consuming.”
Later in our interview, he told me “I was nervous, but with the help of a confident and wonderful wife, she guided and supported me through it in conjunction with her working as well, we were able to succeed. Since then, I have been self employed since 2005. It does have challenges in the construction industry. We would give it the term “Feast or Famine.” During the feast time, you put away for the famine, and if you didn't then there would be hell to pay.”
Construction work is like clockwork. It slows down just before thanksgiving and will pick up again, on and off, until about the end of January, early February. With holidays, family gatherings, and drastic weather, the progress is hampered and the schedules for completion are askew for most projects. Many a time it is hard to even receive work, seeing as many employers are out for the season and so are the employees. A business can’t run without either, so it’s as if time stills for those few months before picking back up again.
While we were speaking, I couldn’t help but ask for some more information about my dad’s past experiences with unemployment, something that could help those around my age in the same predicament.
“In my adolescence, when my mother and father first divorced back in ‘84, there was a brief time where dad moved out, we sold the house, and I was unemployed and lived with my mom. Having to rely on others when you are fully capable of holding a job and being responsible in that aspect, is truly unnerving. You feel worthless for a brief time. Being employed, there is a sense of duty to self, as well as family, in providing. When you contribute to society as an employed person, you are more successful than those who are taking instead of giving. Also growing up, when my father was unemployed due to an auto accident, we were on welfare. We got the taste of how it really feels to be dependent on others. As soon as my father was able to go back to work, he immediately quit welfare before his first check. “It was designed to help those temporarily.” There are others who are unemployed now because they don’t have that pride to work and be constructive people on society. Rather be destructive, and leach off the system. That’s not what it was designed for.”
With this last statement, I was curious to how employment and welfare were related and how they affect each other. After searching the Merriam-Webster dictionary, I found that welfare means many things. For example:
Unemployment on the other hand is described as:
A belief that is commonly shared among those in the workforce, especially in the blue-collar jobs, is that those on welfare need to get off as soon as they are able. There are plenty of those who take advantage of the unemployment benefits and services provided even when they have the ability to work and think they can get away with having no employment. Another value that was taught to me was when I brought this information up with my dad. “Being unemployed teaches you about humility and vulnerability in the system itself. I feel very blessed to be able to work and have the ability to do so and provide for my family. It gives me a great feeling of accomplishment when I am working and knowing that I am making a difference for my family. Not only am I providing monetarily, but I am teaching them a moral effort of a work ethic. Which, is rarely taught these days.”
“During that time I felt confident I would find something, but being newly married of three years and coming out of my comfort zone from where I was familiar to a strange place was a little unnerving, to say the least. It was a...I felt lost, because I was not in control at that time. I was at everyone else’s mercy, so-to-speak, for employment.” Is what my dad relayed to me at the first of the interview. While a job was eventually secured by my dad, roughly 5.8% of families’ homes house an unemployed person. (BoLS) Reasons vary for each individual case, but a lot of times the work just isn’t out there that is within the unemployed person’s skill set, such as my dad was.
After being employed in the same business for approximately eight years, he set out to become self-employed. The Merriam-Webster dictionary states self-employment as:
- Earning income directly from one's own business, trade, or profession rather than as a specified salary or wages from an employer
Being self-employed is like riding a bike but it’s on fire, the road’s on fire, the tires have melted off, oh wait this is living hell isn’t it? The expectations one may have set over them while being self-employed is like a double-edged sword. On one side, you have the ability to pick and choose projects for yourself. On the other hand, you are at the mercy of the owner of the job. My dad goes over this particular topic briefly. “[Being self-employed] was more frightening because I would be the sole proprietor. Instead of picking up a paycheck, I had to actively bid on projects, meet with contractors, sell the jobs, get the job, perform in the job, and collect form the job which was and is very time consuming.”
Later in our interview, he told me “I was nervous, but with the help of a confident and wonderful wife, she guided and supported me through it in conjunction with her working as well, we were able to succeed. Since then, I have been self employed since 2005. It does have challenges in the construction industry. We would give it the term “Feast or Famine.” During the feast time, you put away for the famine, and if you didn't then there would be hell to pay.”
Construction work is like clockwork. It slows down just before thanksgiving and will pick up again, on and off, until about the end of January, early February. With holidays, family gatherings, and drastic weather, the progress is hampered and the schedules for completion are askew for most projects. Many a time it is hard to even receive work, seeing as many employers are out for the season and so are the employees. A business can’t run without either, so it’s as if time stills for those few months before picking back up again.
While we were speaking, I couldn’t help but ask for some more information about my dad’s past experiences with unemployment, something that could help those around my age in the same predicament.
“In my adolescence, when my mother and father first divorced back in ‘84, there was a brief time where dad moved out, we sold the house, and I was unemployed and lived with my mom. Having to rely on others when you are fully capable of holding a job and being responsible in that aspect, is truly unnerving. You feel worthless for a brief time. Being employed, there is a sense of duty to self, as well as family, in providing. When you contribute to society as an employed person, you are more successful than those who are taking instead of giving. Also growing up, when my father was unemployed due to an auto accident, we were on welfare. We got the taste of how it really feels to be dependent on others. As soon as my father was able to go back to work, he immediately quit welfare before his first check. “It was designed to help those temporarily.” There are others who are unemployed now because they don’t have that pride to work and be constructive people on society. Rather be destructive, and leach off the system. That’s not what it was designed for.”
With this last statement, I was curious to how employment and welfare were related and how they affect each other. After searching the Merriam-Webster dictionary, I found that welfare means many things. For example:
- Aid in the form of money or necessities for those in need
- An agency or program through which such aid is distributed
- Of, relating to, or concerned with welfare and especially with improvement of the welfare of disadvantaged social groups welfare legislation
- Receiving public welfare benefits
Unemployment on the other hand is described as:
- not being used
- not engaged in a gainful occupation
- not invested
A belief that is commonly shared among those in the workforce, especially in the blue-collar jobs, is that those on welfare need to get off as soon as they are able. There are plenty of those who take advantage of the unemployment benefits and services provided even when they have the ability to work and think they can get away with having no employment. Another value that was taught to me was when I brought this information up with my dad. “Being unemployed teaches you about humility and vulnerability in the system itself. I feel very blessed to be able to work and have the ability to do so and provide for my family. It gives me a great feeling of accomplishment when I am working and knowing that I am making a difference for my family. Not only am I providing monetarily, but I am teaching them a moral effort of a work ethic. Which, is rarely taught these days.”
Information Effect - Political Comic Edition
References:
[SLCC]
[OTHER}
[SLCC]
- “Jobs in Rural Utah.” Utah Business, vol. 31, no. 9, Sept. 2017, p. 29. EBSCOhost, libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=125473897&site=eds-live.
- “U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Data for November Shows Fall in Unemployment Rate.” ThomasNet News, Jan. 2019, p. N.PAG. EBSCOhost, libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=134053535&site=eds-live.
- Gochnour, Natalie. “Proceed with Caution: Utah’s Three-Percent Economy Won’t Last Forever.” Utah Business, vol. 31, no. 4, Apr. 2017, p. 36. EBSCOhost, libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bwh&AN=123110005&site=eds-live.
[OTHER}
- “Utah Unemployment.” Department of Numbers, www.deptofnumbers.com/unemployment/utah/
- “Occupational Data.” Utah Economic Data Viewer, jobs.utah.gov/wi/data/library/occupation/index.html.
- “Employment Characteristics of Families Summary.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 19 Apr. 2018, www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm.
- “Living Wage Calculation for Salt Lake County, Utah.” Living Wage Calculator, livingwage.mit.edu/counties/49035.
- “Rediscover the World as You've Never Seen It Before.” Worldmapper, worldmapper.org/.
Letter of Goals and Choices
Choosing to do political comics in a writing class seems like a pretty difficult move. On one hand you could have a very wordy comic that covers the the writing portion, but then you would very easily lose the interest of your audience. On the other hand, you have a long comics filled with images that take a long time to create. So, to compromise, I went with short and sweet political comics. The style resonates with all audiences because politics are something that all people are familiar with, especially now-a-days. On a plus side, drawing is something I really enjoy, so this project was fun to to.
While political comics may be quite one-sided at times, there is still a truth there, though some times it is altered for the benefit of the creator. However, this blunt truth is what catches the eye of the readers and helps the message stick with them for a long time.
On the downside, this did take me way longer to get over with than expected with the passing of Mrs. Szetela. True, a portion of it was slothfulness on my part but the other half was dealing with grief of losing a beloved teacher.
Choosing to do political comics in a writing class seems like a pretty difficult move. On one hand you could have a very wordy comic that covers the the writing portion, but then you would very easily lose the interest of your audience. On the other hand, you have a long comics filled with images that take a long time to create. So, to compromise, I went with short and sweet political comics. The style resonates with all audiences because politics are something that all people are familiar with, especially now-a-days. On a plus side, drawing is something I really enjoy, so this project was fun to to.
While political comics may be quite one-sided at times, there is still a truth there, though some times it is altered for the benefit of the creator. However, this blunt truth is what catches the eye of the readers and helps the message stick with them for a long time.
On the downside, this did take me way longer to get over with than expected with the passing of Mrs. Szetela. True, a portion of it was slothfulness on my part but the other half was dealing with grief of losing a beloved teacher.