Minimum Wage

I just finished the book for September and I liked it. It took a little while to get into it, but once I did, I couldn't put it down! There are a few things I was thinking about though:

I don't really care for Barbara. A lot of the times I feel like even in living this life, she still feels superior to these people. I mean, there was an entire paragraph about obese people at Wal-Mart. And the paragraph was rude! Really rude, I thought. I understand that this was meant as an honest experiment with no sugar coating or anything like that, but sometimes I felt like Barbara was really judgmental.

At the same time, it was interesting to read about how her relationships developed with her co-workers. I was especially thinking about her relationship with the people she worked with at Merry Maids. She seemed to genuinely care about the pregnant girl and her health. It is interesting to see how different people relate to co-workers. A lot of minimum wage jobs like the ones she had have people in them who are not interested in forging relationships with people they work with. Their job is just a way to make money, not a way to find social interaction outside the home. The only thing these people bond over is a dislike for the management or other employees. But Barbara seemed to want these relationships, even if her fellow employees were not interested.

It is crazy to think that someone in these times could live off of $7 and hour. When I was at BYUI I worked at a furniture store for $6 and hour. $6! I had other income, so it didn't affect me, but I can't imagine how anyone who had to could survive off of that little pay. And to go to school would mean time off and less pay. So it's a vicious cycle of being stuck in lowing paying jobs. It's hard to climb out of that without help. And the help the Government is giving may not be enough...but that's a different discussion for a different kind of blog.