Extra Credit: NYT Ch. 10

This chapter on the lives on “relos”, or someone who relocates to a new community often because of a change in jobs, was rather eye-opening because it illustrated that life at the top is not necessarily perfect as most people imagine it to be. The relos, who can earn enough income to be categorized in the upper-middle classes, can achieve the American Dream of owning a big home, having kids, and living in a benevolent community, but like real dreams they only last momentarily before the relos have to move to a new location and recreate another temporary American Dream elsewhere.

Although it may sound cold-hearted, honestly, I had difficulty in finding sympathy for the lives of “relos”. Children of such families can take a toll on their social life from these relocations; they never stay in one school for a long period of time, and thus it may be difficult to develop long-term relationships. Parents, in raising the children, have to look for qualified schools in the area, extracurricular activities that do not create too long of a commute, and new relationships with the community, such as through churches and parent-teacher associations. The move to a new location places a strain on every member of the relo family.

Part of my lack of understanding probably stems from the fact that my family was never granted these opportunities of better jobs in new locations. To me, I felt that the Link family was following a path that was paved by financial gain; they were following the money. Although Jim Link played a crucial role in his job at Wachovia as a sales manager, the Links made, in my opinion, too many sacrifices in order to maintain the stability of their socio-economic status. I believe that more attention should have been shifted toward the children who were constantly switching schools, different extracurricular activities, and pools of new friends. However, the way the Links raised their family cannot be attributed to individual factors alone but it is related to the way American society has become. This chapter reminded me on the effects of materialism from the Wilkinson and Pickett article. A consumerist nation has resulted in the erosion of social values, creating Americans that are “‘increasingly atomized, selfish, and irresponsible’” (2009:4). The Links did not necessarily possess these qualities, but I felt that they began to shed family values in order to feed their greed for money. This attraction to a wealthy life, the American Dream, thus can cloud Americans from focusing on other important aspects of their lives, such as the family.