I used to sit in coffee shops with my friends while living in Berkeley in the 70s. I often brought this book along with me to read as I found her jourI used to sit in coffee shops with my friends while living in Berkeley in the 70s. I often brought this book along with me to read as I found her journal writing and her life fascinating. I got as far as finishing volume 2 before finally becoming bored. ...more
This book made me want to hop a train, hitch-hike, or get in a car and travel the U.S. or go stay in hostels in Europe. I remember sitting in front ofThis book made me want to hop a train, hitch-hike, or get in a car and travel the U.S. or go stay in hostels in Europe. I remember sitting in front of Sproul Hall in Berkeley and meeting people who were hitch-hiking all over America and being envious that I was not one of them. I only made it to Canada and drove all over Mexico, mostly in my VW bug with a friend.
But Jack Kerouac's troubled mind always bothered me and made me feel that he wasn't having all that much fun after all. But oh, he is a fantastic writer and well worth reading....more
This was an excellent book on border crossings between Mexico and the U.S. It is horrifying as well. I can still see the mummified bodies of those whoThis was an excellent book on border crossings between Mexico and the U.S. It is horrifying as well. I can still see the mummified bodies of those who tried to cross the borders with just one ola in their hands. They thought that all they had to do was walk across, and they were there in a town or city; instead a desert met them, and they died within a very short period of time. ...more
This book was not only interesting but very funny. Mr. Gomez is building a house for an American in Baja, and every time the American comes to check oThis book was not only interesting but very funny. Mr. Gomez is building a house for an American in Baja, and every time the American comes to check on the progress, the house is moved or something else has gone wrong. ...more
This book should be required reading in high school.
I finally get it. The rich always want to get richer at the expense of the poor. The object of theThis book should be required reading in high school.
I finally get it. The rich always want to get richer at the expense of the poor. The object of the game is always control. If you want certain rights or freedom you always have to fight for them because they are not going to give them out of the goodness of their hearts. And that is history in a nut shell....more
“When someone works for less pay than she can live on — when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently — then sh“When someone works for less pay than she can live on — when, for example, she goes hungry so that you can eat more cheaply and conveniently — then she has made a great sacrifice for you, she has made you a gift of some part of her abilities, her health, and her life. The 'working poor,' as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else.”
The author goes undercover to see if she can make a living on a minimum wage job. Lucky for her, she would have her own job back any time she wanted. So she goes out into the work field but finds out that she and others cannot make ends meet. Food cost too much, rents were too high, and no one can come with the first and last month’s rent. So then she goes out and gets a second job and works 16 hours a day. She still can’t make it.
I have heard people say that these minimum wage jobs are for kids, people who will soon be moving up in the world. Some say they are just for married women so they can make a little extra money, you know go out to lunch with the girls, go to a movie, buy a new pair of shoes. These jobs are not jobs that will help you move up in the world, nor are the jobs always for kids. There are low paying jobs in nursing homes, and even teachers. As I have read recently, teachers can’t afford to rent a home or an apartment in some States. Here in Oklahoma we can’t keep teachers.
What the author found was that some people, if not many, are living in motels, with a friend, or their cars.
I thought of how we need rent control in the U.S. like we had in Berkeley, California when I lived there. I actually thought of a lot of things but I don’t see things changing. We live in a Dickensian society, because the greed in America is such that companies don't care if you have to live in your car, sleep in a rundown motel, or live with a friend. They don't care if you get sick, just be at work. And forget medical insurance, there is none.
Speaking of which, I remember reading how Charles Dickens lectured to people about the poverty, but no one listened. Then he began writing books, and that changed things in England, but I don’t know how England is now. We have new books now, ones like this, but they don’t change a thing.
The author takes you with her on her jobs as she listens to her co-workers and tries to struggle with working a 16 hour day. She tried being a waitress, a maid, and worked at Wal-Mart. And just don’t get caught taking any food out of these places. As I sat and watched the Republican debates last night and heard how people were protesting outside for the minimum wage to be increased to $15 an hour, I heard one candidate say that if he were president there would be no wage increases, and he actually felt that wages were too high. Well, guess what? He is now our president. I shuttered and continue to shutter. Another candidate suggested $15 an hour. Well, if she couldn’t make it on two jobs, she couldn’t make it on $15 an hour, but at least the candidate had a heart.
I have lost all confidence in mankind to do the right thing. The wealthy seldom do things for the right reasons, not that some don’t help. But human rights have always had to be fought for by the dispossessed and those who were right beside them. Roosevelt had no plans on helping the poor until the Socialist and Communist parties talked him into helping them, telling him what could happen if he didn’t. Since then programs were created, but then the fight began to get rid of both the Socialist and the Communist parties by demonizing them, and then they began chipping away at the unions and the programs that could help lift people out of poverty. Get rid of a good education as well. An educated population is a danger to society. And now the Democrats are said to be evil communists by those on the right. I remember a woman that I was acquainted with telling me that Democrats were not Christians.
So what does it mean to not be getting by to this author? She means that you can't afford an apartment, and I don't mean a fancy one, but just a decent one. She also means that you can't get decent food; instead you have to eat prepared junk food because you don't have cooking facilities at the motel or in your car, if you are living in one. She means not being able to get sick without losing your pay or your job, because staying home would put you further into debt, plus it could get kicked out of your apartment or motel room. Forget going to a movie; they can't afford it. Forget doing anything fun. Forget cable TV unless there is one in your motel room. Forget even having a TV. Forget living. Forget trying to move up in the world because you can’t afford to even try since it would take time off your job to even look for work, not that there are a lot of high wage jobs waiting for you anyway.
“There seems to be a vicious cycle at work here, making ours not just an economy but a culture of extreme inequality. Corporate decision makers, and even some two-bit entrepreneurs like my boss at The Maids, occupy an economic position miles above that of the underpaid people whose labor they depend on. For reasons that have more to do with class — and often racial — prejudice than with actual experience, they tend to fear and distrust the category of people from which they recruit their workers. Hence the perceived need for repressive management and intrusive measures like drug and personality testing. But these things cost money — $20,000 or more a year for a manager, $100 a pop for a drug test, and so on — and the high cost of repression results in ever more pressure to hold wages down. The larger society seems to be caught up in a similar cycle: cutting public services for the poor, which are sometimes referred to collectively as the 'social wage,' while investing ever more heavily in prisons and cops. And in the larger society, too, the cost of repression becomes another factor weighing against the expansion or restoration of needed services. It is a tragic cycle, condemning us to ever deeper inequality, and in the long run, almost no one benefits but the agents of repression themselves.”
“But Jesus makes his appearance here only as a corpse; the living man, the wine-guzzling vagrant and precocious socialist, is never once mentioned, nor anything he ever had to say. Christ crucified rules, and it may be that the true business of modern Christianity is to crucify him again and again so that he can never get a word out of his mouth.”
“Everyone in yuppie-land — airports, for example — looks like a nursing baby these days, inseparable from their plastic bottles of water. Here, however, I sweat without replacement or pause, not in individual drops but in continuous sheets of fluid soaking through my polo shirt, pouring down the backs of my legs ... Working my way through the living room(s), I wonder if Mrs. W. will ever have occasion to realize that every single doodad and objet through which she expresses her unique, individual self is, from another vantage point, only an obstacle between some thirsty person and a glass of water.” ...more
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