Monday, January 26, 2004

I went to the book chat on "Nickel and Dimed" at the library today. It was pretty interesting - many different views represented. One guy had me listening in astonishment as he actually proposed the solution to poverty in this country is to do away with minimum wage laws, child labor laws, and taxes. ??????

I have been on both sides of this - living off under $ 900 take home a month with three people, in a $ 525 appartment, with no health insurance, and $ 25 per week to spend on groceries after car insurance, utilities, and the urgent care visits for my asthmatic son, to our much more comfortable existence now. Being "the working poor" isn't a whole lot of fun.

I don't think there are any easy answers, and I don't agree with all of the premises in the book, but whatever answers there are, I don't think they include taking away the laws that keep children from losing their childhood and any possibility of making a better life than their parents through eduction.
That just got me so ticked. Sometimes I wonder what planet people are from.




Next on the reading list: "Affluenza". Should be an interesting contrast to "Nickel and Dimed."

posted by Birgit
0 comments at 10:45 PM