08-28-2007, 11:16 PM
this is kinda off topic, but has to do with poverty and the working poor in general. I just finished a book called Nickled and Dimed. Now I won't try and hide the fact that the author is pretty liberal, but the book still was able to bring home the point that it is almost impossible to survive on $6-$7 an hour, never mind mininum wage. I just thought it was pretty eye opening to how hard it is for so many people to survive. maybe it was just my naivety, but i just assumed that working for $7+ an hour was at least enough to get by on, maybe not comfortably, but not sleeping in your car.
also, something else to take into consideration, a huge part of the author's struggles were caused by the cost of housing. esentially - housing costs were/are rising so quickly that low-income people could not afford to keep up. With developers gobbling up land and low-cost housing left and right to develop into super-sweet condos and apartmetns the supply of affordable housing was vanishing.
ok, well i've had a couple to many beers so i hope this wasnt a complete run on sentance and i didn't get off on two many tangets, but i would still highly recommend that anyone, conservative or liberal read the book
also, something else to take into consideration, a huge part of the author's struggles were caused by the cost of housing. esentially - housing costs were/are rising so quickly that low-income people could not afford to keep up. With developers gobbling up land and low-cost housing left and right to develop into super-sweet condos and apartmetns the supply of affordable housing was vanishing.
ok, well i've had a couple to many beers so i hope this wasnt a complete run on sentance and i didn't get off on two many tangets, but i would still highly recommend that anyone, conservative or liberal read the book