September 23, 2004
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TOPIC: SMALL POSITIVE STEPS
In just 24-hours of being back in St. Louis, two very good things have happened. First, my roommate had a friend who is a ticket broker, and the two of us went and camped out on Tues. night for Cardinals playoff tickets. It was my first time camping out in a city, and it was a beautiful night, right by the stadium, and just a good time eating junk food and catching up w/ my boy! With $3,000 each in hand, we bought as many tix as we could for the league championship series and divivisional series. I felt a little bit bad about what we were doing, taking tix away from fans who had also camped out, and allowing others with more money to buy these tickets later (traditionally, I’d hate people like me) however, I got paid $200!!! And, if the Cardinals make the world series, I have the option of camping out again, and getting paid even more than that. The ethics are questionable, but that much money certainly outweighs who gets those tickets, and besides, if I didn’t do it, somebody else would (how’s that for an ethical argument).
So…besides being $200 richer, I also made a new faculty friend. The person I met, was in 100% agreement with me that there are huge problems with education here at Wash U., and she re-assured me that there are several other professors who are concerned with more than just teaching their subject, but are concerned with how students are developing as people. So…through this person, I’ve gained two more faculty contacts who want to speak with me. It’s all one-day at a time. In between meeting these people, not much progress is made, however, each meeting has proven to be fruitful. Today, I meet with a dean about my idea to send Wash U students to do an Outward Bound course in S. Africa and receive 3-credits for it. I’m going in open-minded, but also not expecting this person to jump up and down and help this project work out. However, if unsuccessful, I am very interested in the reasons why, and it is here, if i face resistance that I find to be counter-educational, that I hope to expose the intentions of those who are taking students money in the name of education!
TOPIC: BUDGET LIVING
I’ve managed to escape the rat-race. I am living for free on a friends couch. I spend about $5/day on food. I carry a water bottle around. I have cereal for breakfast, make 3 pb&j sandwhiches for lunch, have grapes and trail mix for lunch, and make dinner that lasts 3 meals. Tonight I’m making terriyaki chicken with pineapples, rice, and beans. While my parents are still paying my health insurance, I am probably living with food costs half that of most people. When I hear people complain of financial troubles, I can’t sympathize, because I know that most people are wasteful when it comes to food. In addition, you hear how hard it is to find a job. My roommate at Starbucks is doing just fine on $30,000 a year, and says there’s pleanty of opportunities, actually, they’re looking for workers constantly. So…if people changed their perspectives on work, and on spending, I think we would no longer have the same problems of financial hardships. Also, when I see commercials about the financial hardships of college, and stock brokers who want to help you prepare to send your kids to college, I don’t sympathize. Those hardships are unecessarily caused by the way college has been marketed. We are wasteful when we spend $100,000 in the name of an education and a degree.
When our culture begins to question how we spend out money, we will begin to notice that we’re making life a lot more difficult than it needs to be. We’ll be able to work less, worry less, and play more. That’s the culture I’ve created for myself. What do you think of this culture, of your culture?
Comments (6)
I lived on a friend’s couch for a month, and it does make living much less expensive. We certainly can’t all sleep on our friends’ couches forever, however. And rent is a big bill.
Still, I’m a frugal person. I don’t buy new stuff, ever. I buy everything but my food used, and I don’t spend much on food either. For example, yesterday I ate leftover rice, a pb&j sandwich, and pasta. Rent takes a lot out of you.
There are a lot of people in poverty in this find nation of ours, Dan. People with families, living in public housing, working three jobs. They aren’t consumers the way bourgeois are consumers. What should they do? Feed their kids grapes and trail mix for lunch. Tell their kids they probably won’t get to go to college at all, much less some $100,000 school? Take their kids and go crash on the neighbor’s (who is in no better of a situation, financially) couch?
It’s a tough question, what should those in poverty do? Part of the problem is a lack of understanding and exposure to the reality of living in poverty. I certainly don’t take the view that they’re lazy, or irresponsible with their money. I am fortunate in that I am choosing the lifestyle I live in, while those that you describe, are forced into it out of necessity.
I think there’s 2 solutions. One, is for gov’t. to set a standard of living for this country so that those living in poverty can still find hope and opportunity. Make college affordable as it used to be. Raise the minimum wage. Maybe those are good ideas, but i’m not a policy expert.
The second solution, is to examine the lifestyles they are living. My roommate grew up in a single-parent household, and has held a job since he was young. He got himself into Wash U., and is now doing well as a Starbuck manager. What made him successful. Simple hard work and determination, and the values he got from his mother. Many people who live in poverty are missing those values that can raise their own standard of living.
However, I have seen first-hand the struggle of those in poverty, those who are good and decent people. I think the solution is to create the types of jobs that will allow the have’s to help the have-nots. Not enough college graduates are pursuing those types of jobs that are available. I think, more than gov’t. intervention, it will take the motivation of the general public to pursue the types of lifestyles where they are helping to uplift the poor instead of pursuing jobs that provide money, but no help to those in need.
Thats a interesting way of making money Dan
Most of my daugters friends who have just left college have debt but they have spent their student loans on things like holidays 
. My daughter has been to Greece and Ireland twice while away at college which is not bad 
“Many people who live in poverty are missing those values that can raise their own standard of living.” This is the myth created by the Republican Party since the days of Chester A. Arthur and Horatio Alger. Some people in poverty are missing those values, as are many who are rich (note the self-development skills of the Bush family). People are in poverty in this country because we have no equality of opportunity. Pointing out that one of 100 kids born in poverty will succeed can easily be matched by pointing out that one of every 100 rich kids will fail. Those are rare exceptions, they don’t alter the facts.
So yes. Free college. Equalize k-12 spending (raise the inheritance tax to pay for that). Raise the minimum wage so it produces $20,000 a year. Eliminate FICA on the first $10,000 we make and charge it on all income (Ted Kennedy’s “FICA Reform”). Stop giving tax breaks to any company cutting US payroll. Just for a start.
wastefulness… we are america, we know nothing of resource management. this becomes a big problem with the representation we have that divides the country into poor and rich. this is a huge argument… not meant for e-props. heh.
Amen.