A series of cut tags.

[sarea]

I finished 'Nickel and Dimed' by Barbara Ehrenreich.

I thought the book was an extremely interesting read, even though I didn't think much of her 'experiment.' I had often wondered how minimum wage workers -- those who actually did it for a living rather than as a summer job or whatever -- got by. It was really eye opening to understand that they don't. That the comforts I take for granted are considered luxuries by some people, people, more specifically, whom I wouldn't have thought would consider those things luxuries. I can't fathom not getting a can of Coke at lunch because I literally could not afford the $0.89. Or having to live in a motel room and pay through the nose on a daily basis because I could not afford to save up the money for a first month's rent.

While it was interesting that Ehrenreich maintained a few of these jobs to experience it for herself, I can't help but feel that the reasons she cites for doing it is kind of bullshit. Oh sure, she has plenty of disclaimers in the beginning about it, but I think that's partly because she realized, at the end, that she kind of half-assed it. Not the work part; I was impressed with the fact that she did hold down these jobs and did her best to find the right kind of work ... but at the same time, why go half way? Why do that, but give yourself unrealistic benefits like a) always having a car; b) always needing to live alone to maintain a level of privacy that the people she was reporting on didn't necessarily have; c) marijuana? If the point was to see if one could live as a typical minimum-wage worker lived, and see if it was doable, then it was completely ridiculous that she was unwilling to make the compromises that those people have to make, every day. Prime example is her last position at the end, refusing to live in a dorm-type place where she'd have to share a room. How can she call it a 'failure,' i.e., she ran out of money, when she did NOT do every thing possible to stretch her funds? In real life, people would have to make those compromises. What would REALLY be a valuable experiment would be if someone were to truly make a go of it (I don't know if she felt that she couldn't, because she wasn't exactly a spring chicken when she did it), be as frugal as possible, live in this 'emergency state' for awhile, and see if it would be possible to BUILD UP to something more financially reasonable/desirable. But her experiment was flawed from the beginning to achieve any kind of knowledge in this regard, because she was only going to stay for a month in each place.

As for the marijuana incident, I can't help but feel that that was just completely irresponsible and STUPID. I mean, I don't care one way or another what she does recreationally. But she was in the midst of a project! A project that required her to get and maintain a job! What would she have done if they'd turned her away? Mark it as a failure? God, that was the fucking stupidest thing I'd ever heard. A "chemical indiscretion" indeed. I don't know WTF she was thinking.

But possibly the thing that made me really step back the most and look on my own life with amazement is not the money stuff. It's the manager stuff. I have to admit, when I first was out there in the job market, I was completely daunted by the idea of holding down a job. What I knew about bosses was what I'd seen on TV/movies or read about in books -- they were intimidating and often ruthless. They didn't care about the workers, they cared about the company (or whatever). They were The Boss, someone to be feared/awed/respected. I have had a total of three jobs in my life (one in college doing part-time, minimum-wage work; two as an adult), plus one internship, and I have to say that I have NEVER had that sort of experience with any of my bosses. And with my adult work especially, I would say that I've worked at places that, if you thought any place would have the kind of managers you read about, they would be it -- and yet still, I have only had good experiences. Now, it's quite possible that I've just been incredibly lucky. My managers have always been more like coworkers than managers ... I've had personal rapport with them ... we treat each other like people, not as drone/manager-of-drone. I suppose, of the four work experiences I've had, the closest one that comes to the kind of boss that Barbara faced all the time in N&D was my part-time, minimum-wage job. So there might be something to that.

I often think about how lucky I am. I don't think I take what I have for granted -- mostly (though how would I know if I were, right?), and I often reflect on how things could have turned out very differently, that half of what happens to a person in life is due purely to chance. That doesn't mean that I don't complain (obviously), or wish that my lot were different -- but that's just human nature. Things can always be better, right? But when I get too far into those moods, I'll usually pull myself back and go, "You know, you're lucky you even have a job." And that helps put things into perspective. The danger is crossing the line into complacency, which isn't good either. And that, too, can happen on all levels, as Ehrenreich points out.

Anyway, I'd recommend the book to anyone, just because it provides some food for thought. I thought her ultimate experiment was kind of lame, but that doesn't mean there weren't some good points. What would be even more interesting/beneficial would be to actually talk with other people about it, people who have been in that position, or who are, to hear their take on things. Of course, that would be hard to find through LJ, given that if you're online, you likely have the means and intelligence and know how that the people we're talking about don't have.

Warsong Gulch: If wishes were bullets, that Orc Hunter would be dead. DEAD!

I played three WSG games last night. The first was with Jade, and once again we beat the Alliance 3-0. The second game, Jade didn't get in. :( We had three priests and no mages (first time I've ever even seen other priests aside from me); I was very concerned about our chances. We won, 3-0. (I know, I don't even know why Alliance bothers anymore.) Then Jade got in, and apparently it was a terrible group, with in fighting and what not. She finally couldn't take it anymore and left; I got in immediately (obviously, I was next in line to go in). The score was 2-0, Alliance. In the five minutes that I played, I grabbed the flag and made it to our tunnel, at which point I died, because the players were truly idiots. Alliance scored their last flag soon thereafter. Am I somewhat bitter at Jade for making me take her place in a game just so I could lose five minutes later? Maaaaaybe.

But my final game of the night was better -- even if I wanted to commit homicide. We scored the first flag early (that's something I've noticed about the Horde/Alliance playing styles; we go on offensive right from the get go, whereas the Alliance is far more cautious. They play a lot of D, and those of us who D for the Horde side don't see much action early on). Me and Vemmious (lvl 50 rogue) had been on D, but after the flag score, Whitedevil (lvl 48 or so hunter) looked like he was going to stick around. So I went to go play offense. The whole time our offense was dying on the field and trying to get the flag, etc., Whitedevil was holding this totally unrelated conversation with someone else in the raid, ON THE RAID CHANNEL. It was so friggin' annoying!! It's like, fucking pay attention to the fucking game, asshole. We'd warn them about incoming enemies and what not, and their conversation would continue as if we hadn't said a word. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

So. I get the Alliance flag. I SOMEHOW evade all the enemies after me, including Irishmickey, this lvl 50 gnome rogue who's probably the best player on the Alliance side, and whom we all hate (of course). While going into our tunnel, all these enemies are after me, and my shield's gone and I'm losing life quick. I enter our flag room, and Whitedevil rushes past me ... but apparently NOT to take out any of the enemies on my tail. I miraculously get to the flag stand, with our flag still there, hoping that I will be able to plant it before dying. I'm standing there, no one is after the enemies on me, and DIE. Yes, I FUCKING DIE, holding the flag, while on top of our flag. And after that, does one of my teammates grab the flag again so they can plant it? NO!! It gets returned to Alliance base!! OMG. I was incandescent. The only thing that stopped me from asking on raid what the FUCK they were doing was because I didn't want to be one of Those People. But WHAT THE FUCK WERE THEY DOING?!?! How could they let the flag carrier die like that?! And it really pisses me off how long I have to stand there before it registers that I have the flag. When other players have the flag, it doesn't seem to take that long; for me, I feel like I have to stand there forever. I don't know if I'm supposed to be clicking something or what.

Someone else finally scores the second flag, and the final flag, I scored. Whoo! I had good defenders that time (Whitedevil not being one of them). So we still won, 3-0, which made up a bit for the lameassness of earlier in the game.

Oh! Oh! And there was this idiot on D who kept taking the speed boots, out of boredom!!! DON'T TAKE THE FUCKING BOOTS UNLESS YOU'RE CARRYING THE FLAG, MKAY? OR TO STOP ALLIANCE FROM GETTING IT. Jesus.


You are Smoke and Mirrors! You are idealistic,
unpredictable, and hypnotic. People might think
youre a show-off and have a need to be
surprising, but really youre just talkative and
get carried away with some subjects. You might
easily get jealous or feel lonely if something
is going wrong in your life. You probably like
fantasy, fiction and things that can
temporarily take you away from the world. You
have a great sense of humor and are enthralling
to be around.


*~Which Neil Gaiman book are you?~*
brought to you by Quizilla

What can I say? I am enthralling to be around. HAHAHAHHAA!

Made at http://elouai.com/doll-makers/candybar-doll-maker.php:



This is more the me I'd like to be, than the me I am. <g> Check out my Louis Vuitton bag! And my sports car! And Talis's floaty bed! Bwahahhaa.

Comments

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

What would be even more interesting/beneficial would be to actually talk with other people about it, people who have been in that position, or who are, to hear their take on things.

*raises hand* Well, I didn't indulge in pot, but in my teens and early twenties there were many, many times when food for the entire week had to be bought with maybe a total of $20. On that kind of budget, cola at all is impossible, let alone cans that cost 89 cents. There's still some weeks when I literally cannot afford to spend a dollar on a soda, because I don't have a dollar to spend.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

You know, you're so smart with numbers (like mortgages and crap, which I can barely make heads or tails of); do you put that to practical use? Maybe it seems like a stupid question, maybe it's one of those things where, you save up xxx amount, and then the next month something happens where you have to spend it all, so then you end up not being able to save anything at all, but after reading the book, one thing was very clear to me: Savings is ultra important. It's the biggest obstacle to people being able to realize their potential. So like, even if there was a week you had the dollar to spend, on soda or whatever, but you didn't, and instead let it accumulate in some kind of savings ... it seems that that would make a big difference. Maybe that's far easier said than done.

One thing I noticed about myself is that I definitely adjust my lifestyle to fit whatever money I'm making. When I was working in D.C. for peanuts (slightly higher than minimum wage is my definition of 'peanuts'), I lived just fine. I paid my rent, I never went hungry, I had funds for entertainment (to a certain extent). But I was very frugal; I never spent more than I had to; I took public transportation; I never passed up the chance to go to a meeting where there was free food involved (or went to a bar for happy hour, where I nursed a beer and pigged out on their happy hour free food). And yet I'd say that I probably saved more in that time period than I do now. I often wonder how that could be. How can I be making more but saving less? And certainly, part of that is the financial responsibility I have now that I didn't have then (house payments, car payments, etc.), but partly also it's just my mindset. I was very conscious of the fact that I was "poor" and didn't have the luxury of buying anything I wanted. Subsequently, I was very smart about the purchases I made. Now I can be more lax about that sort of thing, and it shows.

Boy did that get way off track. My actual point/question was, do you ever save your money, when you find that there's anything to save? Or do you find that it's an impossibility? Thing is, you're so smart and capable that I imagine if it could be done, you'd be doing it. So it's probably a dumb question, but I am genuinely interested.

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

I set aside money last semester, and have avoided having any life or death emergencies since then because I had that to fall back on. I ended up putting it at my mom's house, though because 1) if it's around, I'll use it, and 2) If I go above a certain amount of verifiable assets, then they take away the government money I get each month for Milo. I doubt I'd get prosecuted, as the girl at Social Security is the one who told me to never have assets in my name and not report child support, but there's still a fine line there to walk. Until I don't need the government check, I can't do anything to endanger it, which is part of why I don't even try to get a part-time job. Until I can afford to make at least $600 a month profit over and above the expenses that the job entails, I can't work. It doesn't sound like much, except when you factor in that my only available work times are when Milo is in school. In theory, I could make it all work, but in practice I'd rather work on my degree so that when I do go into the world of work, I can afford todo without the government money altogether.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

That totally makes a lot of sense. Plus, yes, the going to school thing is *ultra* important. I was so very excited when you took those reins. It's going to be awesome for you.

I think it helped for me that I'm a hoarded. One of the things that can make me go into a meltdown is not having stability/security in my life (hence why I could never quit my steady job to pursue any of my true interests, like writing or what have you), so having the money be there but not spend it is not that difficult to me. I enjoy watching it grow bit by little bit, even if it's by tiny increments. I even enjoy it when it's not real, as evidenced by how frugal I am about my WoW money. :))

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

See, growing up saving was impossible. Whether it was food or cash, anything that didn't get used right away would be taken away. Thus, I can stretch a dollar nine ways to Sunday, but saving is an uphill battle.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Taken away by whom??? I can see how your "must spend" mentality developed, if that's the case. I certainly would, too.

Whereas, of course, my mom was forever insisting that we put our birthday money and everything else we had into our savings accounts at the bank, and hooking us on the feeling of seeing how our money made $5 since the last time we saw it -- $5 that wasn't there before! How exciting! :))

[mynuet.livejournal.com]

In the case of food, one of the other three children would eat it. In the case of cash, it'd either be taken by Mom or we'd be guilted into spending it to feed the younger two kids. I love my mom, but she was very fucked up for a very long time.

[noelleleithe.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on Nickeled and Dimed. It was interesting, but between her "rules" and safety net, it wasn't much of an experiment. Plus, I got really, really annoyed with her "oh, I'm better than these people" attitude. She didn't SAY that -- in fact, she went out of her way to say the opposite -- but the way she was so amazed that hey, these Wal-Mart workers are really nice people! gave her away.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

LOL that is so true. She always talked about how she would one day go back to her "real life," and never once does she mention how she can reconcile the person she is in "real life" to the person she had to become in her experiment -- or the people she met. So does she tip better now? Or, now that she's back in her privileged place in society, has she reverted to being the kind of person she hated when she was a member of the working class? Has she changed anything about her lifestyle at all, or was this book and her experiment simply her way of making herself a name? And really, 'experiment' should be in quotes, because it was barely worthwhile. I wish it had been undertaken by someone who really wanted to give it their all.

Thanks.

[(Anonymous)]

Hi. My name is Julia, and I found your livejournal while looking for your D/G fic. I was pleased to see your complaints about "Nickel and Dimed", which matched *exactly* with my own. (And her second book has even bigger failings.) Anyway, did you see that show about living on minimum wage that the guy who made "Supersize Me" made? It was the first episode of his show "Thirty Days", and it was filmed in Columbus, OH. He made more concessions to the reality of being poor than Ehrenreich did (i.e., they took the bus, and nobody smoked any pot right before a job interview) but there was still a scene where they went to the movies at a dollar theater... and then bought soda, candy, and popcorn. Then you have to listen to them go on and on about the cost of entertainment! I'm sorry, but no one who makes less than sixty thousand per year can afford movie food.

Annnnyway, I'm officially writing to thank you for your recommendation of "Hot Gimmick". I write for the pop fiction review site Wordcandy.net, and I picked up a copy of the first "Hot Gimmick" based on your recommendation... and then I read all nine books, in one massive manga orgy. I had to travel thirty miles to find a copy of the fourth one, but it was totally worth it. (I liked her "Tokyo Boys and Girls", too, although the artwork is a serious letdown.) I'll be writing a review of Miki Aihara this week, so thanks for making my job easier.

Re: Thanks.

[sarea-okelani.livejournal.com]

Hi Julia,

Sounds like we have a lot in common. ;) I don't think I would have read another book by BE after "Nickel and Dimed," but now I know I won't. Thanks for the heads up. I missed the show you're talking about, but it sounds super fascinating. It's not a reflection of the show; it's more a reflection of the fact that I haven't watched any TV since, like, March, and don't know what is on. (If it comes out on DVD I'm sure I'll see it. <g>) That is really lame re: the movie food. I know I would NEVER have purchased that stuff when I was making minimum wage, and even now when I could ostensibly 'afford' it, it goes against my every principle to pay $10 for cheap snacks.

I'm so glad you've enjoyed "Hot Gimmick"! An orgy is a very apt description of how I read HG also; I devoured them in one sitting and pined for more afterward. (Have you seen the scanlations/read the translations of the chapters that aren't out in the U.S. yet?) I don't know why it's so incredibly addictive; I've tried other manga since HG but nothing has captured my fancy so far. I haven't yet checked out "Tokyo Boys and Girls" -- the premise didn't interest me all that much -- though because it's Aihara I may yet be tempted into it. Can't wait to read your review.

Re: Thanks.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I had a *lot* of difficulty getting past how much worse the artwork was in TB&G. In fact, it was only halfway through the manga that I realized that one particularly confusingly-written character was actually TWO characters (which went a long way to clearing up what the hell was going on, let me tell you). So if you read it, be sure to look carefully at the boys' hairstyles. But once I'd figured out who was who, I actually liked the story better than I liked HG. Plus, the manga comes with an extra story that's like an entire Aihara soap opera, but mega-condensed.