I posted my first thoughts on Barbara Ehrenreich’s socialogy expiriment / book in this blog post. Now I have finished the book and it has changed how I think socially and politically.

I now realize that people can work a full time job and still not earn enough money to go to sleep at night with a roof over their heads. For the lucky ones that are able to do that, saving is literally impossible. Any money not spent on housing is spent on food, and that is the end of their paycheck. For many people, there is no room in the budget for extras.

This newfound knowledge has made me a bit more liberal than I used to be. I think minimum wage needs to be increased for one. Secondly, I don’t think people should pay income tax on the first $12,000 of their income, because that is what I figure to be the absolute minimum people could spend on the bare necessities. Lastly, I think we need some kind of free health care. I don’t think all health care in america should be free, but there needs to be a system that provides health care (including birth control) to families who cannot afford it.

I stopped in Borders book store today and saw in the “new nonfiction” section a book called “Stuff White People Like”. Of course I was intrigued, so I picked it up and read the whole thing right there in the store. The book covered everything I can think of, except one thing. White people love to make soap. This could probably fall under #23 Microbreweries, but it is not mentioned, so I would like to discuss it here.

White people don’t like things that are mainstream, and thus easy to acquire. The book discusses beer, but this same rule can be applied to soaps. White women love to make their own soap, and “corporate” white women with no free time between work and little bobby’s soccer practice like to buy the soap that looks homemade.

Can someone tell me what allows the libraries (this also applies to movie rental places, and anywhere else you can rent copyright materials) to lend books? When you go to the library and borrow a book, the chances of you buying that book are slim. So why do authors allow their books to be lent out of libraries?

Also, I much prefer the book store to the library when it comes to stealing literature. Now I don’t mean literally stealing books, I just sit down at the book store and read what I want rather than buying it. Unless you are looking for some obscure reference book the book store is much more appealing than the library. The chairs are more comfortable, the coffee tastes better, and you don’t get kicked out if you forgot to put your cell phone on silent.

I am currently stealing (some books have to be stolen in sections) “Nickel and Dimed” by Barbara Ehrenreich. It is a non-fiction book about Barbara giving up everything she has and living life as a person with very little education and work experience in order to document the troubles of the american lower class. I’m enjoying it so far, and if the topic sounds at all interesting to you I recommend reading it yourself because the writing is about as entertaining as a book on that subject can be.