I make $6.50 an hour. Am I poor? TiT chimes in

[Servonaut]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3289881

raccoon  (1000+ posts)      Thu May-15-08 02:02 PM
Original message
I make $6.50 an hour. Am I poor?
 Advertisements [?]Here's how I slipped from the middle class into near poverty, and what I'm doing about it.

By Karen Datko

(Boy, could I relate to the parts of her article that I bolded. I guess lots of us on DU and off DU can.)


As a single professional woman, for years I sat securely among the lower rungs of the middle class.

Now I've fallen off the ladder.

In a matter of months, I went from a comfortable life with decent pay and health insurance to a $6.50-an-hour job with no insurance, no furniture and just enough resources to keep the wolf from the door.

I no longer buy anything unless it's absolutely essential. I spend $40 at the supermarket and make it last for more than two weeks.

I never turn down a free meal. I've learned to graciously accept money, furniture, elk meat and encouragement from worried friends.

I am no longer proud.

I have no romantic notions about being poor. I'm not nobler than others, and I'm not a victim. But I am one minor medical emergency away from welfare.

Simply put, I'm in survival mode.

Here's my story in a nutshell: I lost my job as a managing editor at a small newspaper in Montana after the ownership changed hands. Six months later, I moved to Pennsylvania to take a similar job. My living arrangements fell through, and as I searched for a rental that would accept my three dogs, I lived in a campground. When it became clear that I'd be a campground dweller for a while, my boss fired me, telling me my living situation was "bad for business." I sold off my household goods -- everything from a sofa to pots and pans -- and drove back to small-town Montana.

I still own a house here. And I have a network of loving friends.

(snip)

I've decided that the only acceptable course of action, poor or not, is to consider this an opportunity. I used to wake up with the notion that my situation was temporary and that I'd somehow return to my "real" job. Now I have no illusions. But I do have solutions.

I've put in my notice at the restaurant in favor of a much better paying job at a new discount giant moving into town. The pay still will not be enough to live on, but it will do wonders to reduce my stress.

I've begun a pet-sitting business, taking care of pets in their own homes when their owners are away. I charge $10 to $15 a day, competitive with local pet boarders.

I volunteer my writing services for local nonprofits that I support. I've gotten active in community affairs that my previous occupation required me to keep at an arm's length. I no longer define myself by what I do for a living. On the flip side, I won't base my identity on my income.

Published Dec. 28, 2006

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/SavingandDebt/Lear...
 

And right off the bat

TomInTib  (1000+ posts)      Thu May-15-08 02:06 PM
Response to Original message
1. But she kept the damned dogs.
 I swear, people will do the weirdest things.

RebelOne  (1000+ posts)      Thu May-15-08 02:09 PM
Response to Reply #1
5. Why wouldn't she keep her dogs?
 Dog are like your children and you don't give your children away. At least, that's the way I feel about my dogs.

SteelPenguin  (759 posts)      Thu May-15-08 02:11 PM
Response to Reply #1
6. isn't that sort of the point?
 She'd rather have her dogs and her friends and just live, rather than compromise who she is pursuing some goalpost, that always seems to move further and further away the faster you run.

It's not just about money. It's about being happy with who you are and where you are. Money can help, sure. Just not at the expense of your core self.

TomInTib  (1000+ posts)      Thu May-15-08 02:25 PM
Response to Reply #7
10. We all see things differently, I suppose.
 When I left The Last Great Love of My Life, I had no idea where the road was going to lead.

So I gave her my Golden Retriever (and the cars, and the house). I wanted to make sure that he, at least, had a safe place to sleep and comfortable, safe, familiar surroundings.

This article is about someone who was basically homeless and, subsequently jobless because of the dogs. And now she can barely afford to eat.

I would eat the dogs.

Don't get me too far wrong, here, because some of the best friends I've had in my life have been of the four-legged variety.

But I do not think it is fair to drag an innocent animal down with you if you can help it.

Geez, more of the same crap 

[Rebel]

So, she applied for one job, and when she lost that, she gave up?

[Chris_]

I also noticed she is volunteering her writing talents to non-profits that she supports......you'd think that since she worked in the newspaper business, she could freelance, and SELL those efforts, rather than giving them away, but who am I to say.....

doc

[PatriotGame]

Poor dogs.
The DUmb bitch should be charged with animal abuse.

[JohnnyReb]

I have a question. How does one live in a campground, keep 3 dogs and hold a job?

[stickyboot]

She still owns a house in Montana? Granted the market's gone soft, but that's considerable asset to sell.

As for the dogs, I would place them out for adoption if I could not afford to take care of them PROPERLY. And had I been down and out with three kids, I might very well have done the same (if I didn't think they end up in worse straights as a result).

It's hard to feel compassion for tunnel-vision.

[DixieBelle]

That was originally written in 2006. I wonder where she is today? Google says she's hosting a blog - http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Common/Blog%20Contributors.aspx and another link on MSN says she's running the pet sitting business in Montana. So, she's got a house (presumably if she didn't sell) a job and a career as a blogger?

and then there is this little gem on a very liberal lefty blog no less tee hee!

First, let’s examine a bit of information that I uncovered as far as our esteemed author, Karen Datko, through the magic of the Google.
The small newspaper in question that Datko was the managing editor is the Havre Daily News in Montana. With a daily circulation of approximately 4000 I think the word think “small” might be a bit of an overstatement don’t you? The Washington Post it certainly ain’t. Datko completed a graduate degree in Journalism from Northwestern Ill back in 1979. You heard me right, Northwestern! Northwestern University, one of the finest institutions of higher learning in the land. And now Karen Datko makes six dollars and two shiny quarters an hour but things are looking up because she’s applied to the big “discount giant” (WalMart anyone?) so she should be making a few bucks more! Glory Hallelujah boys and girls! Let’s not forget that dog sitting service either!

So how did a graduate of Northwestern, a former managing editor of a *ahem* “small” newspaper, find herself on the path she currently treads? Three very simple words:

She chose it…

It’s right there in her article, and I quote, “But now I know why most of my single women friends here work two or more jobs and think about the prospects of a bleak, impoverished old age. Good jobs with benefits are hard to come by here.” Yes I know, the writing is just magical, isn’t it? That’s not the point. The point is, knowing that Havre, Montana is not a place where single women can earn a livable wage why would you move back there?

To paraphrase the late comedian Sam Kinison talking about the starving in Ethiopia, “We have deserts in America too; we just don’t live in them!” So why would you go back to live where you know you can’t make an honest buck? Datko goes on about how she has a loving network of friends and owns a house in Montana. Ok… But that didn’t stop her from going to Pennsylvania did it? No. It appears it did not. I’m not going to continue going on about the opportunities wasted by the aforementioned author. Her life - not mine. I do take major issue with what I feel is at the heart of the article though:

You are poor. You’ll always be poor. That’s the way it is. Get used to it. Here are some tips.

What a load of bullshit! How dare anyone, the article’s author, MSN, or even myself tell you that this is how it is and that’s just the brutal reality of this world and if you don’t like it go get the Super Blue razor blades out of grandpa’s medicine cabinet and open a couple of veins?

“I’ve learned to graciously accept money, furniture, elk meat and encouragement from worried friends. I am no longer proud.” Yeah? Then **** you! Have some pride! Pride in yourself! One thing that people who feel they’re victims love to say is that they’re not a victim. They aren’t victims, they just want to feel as if they are and in turn have you feel that way too.

SNIPPED

If you’re curious as to what it’s really like to live from hand to mouth and paycheck to paycheck in America this is what you should read. Not some nonsense from someone who took her opportunities and just threw them away only to end up writing a rather shlocky piece for MSN.

America is the land of opportunity. I can never say it enough. We live in the greatest country the world has ever seen. EVER! Of that there can never be any doubt, unless we become the doubters. As bleak as some issues are here (I do cover them in depth and they can be extremely troubling) we enjoy a commodity that many others around the globe do not. Hope.

There will come a time in all of our lives that chance throws us a bone that we wouldn’t find anywhere else. These opportunities are never given away; never easy; never handed out like escort agency business cards on the street corners of the Las Vegas strip. Hell, most of us get one shot and one shot alone. No mulligans, no do-overs, no second chances. One and done!

You just have to be ready when that once in a lifetime chance presents itself, otherwise it’s gone and you may not see one of its ilk ever again. Don’t let some flub author or MSN deter you from taking that risk because they want you to think that what you have now is all you can ever have. That’s nonsense. You’re an American!

You don’t really think we’ve always been lazy, lethargic, and apathetic do you? That’s a recent phenomenon. We scratch and claw and strive for every last inch. We find ourselves surrounded, backs to the wall, and still look to see who we can kick in the balls so we can go down fighting. That’s who we are. American Idol, Oprah, the War on Terror, Halliburton, Dub and Cheney, none of that can ever filter this from our core being.

Of course, I could end up being a bit harsh on Karen Datko and MSN. Maybe the webpage wasn’t meant to be seen by Americans. Maybe it was for the French…

http://amfwonline.us/blog/2007/02/

[PatriotGame]

I have a question. How does one live in a campground, keep 3 dogs and hold a job?

DUmmy is as DUmmy does...

[stickyboot]

TomInTib  (1000+ posts)      Thu May-15-08 02:25 PM
Response to Reply #7
10. We all see things differently, I suppose.
 When I left The Last Great Love of My Life, I had no idea where the road was going to lead.

So I gave her my Golden Retriever (and the cars, and the house). I wanted to make sure that he, at least, had a safe place to sleep and comfortable, safe, familiar surroundings....

This is perhaps version five of what happened when he and the Canadian girlfriend partied company. In this one, he "gave her everything" (which may or may not have been his to give) out of the goodness of his heart and enduring love for his canine companion.