clock … watching time, the only true currency

Next time you want to complain about your job (assuming you have one), pick up Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America by Barbara Ehrenreich. The author spends one year trying to live on minimum-wage jobs alone and can’t pull it off. So much for the minimum wage actually adding up to something that really is a minimum. The book isn’t preachy, and doesn’t have answers to the dilemmas it underlines, but it’s a reminder of the daily struggle to survive that consumes all too many. I often feel fortunate to be where I am with family and employment, but this reporting tweaks you more than is comfortable… which is as it should be.