class wars
There's a lot going on in my life right now (now a certified phram tech - CphT!, new/repeat boyfriend, my first "comission" - my cousin wants me to write music for his wedding), but one big theme in my life right now is lack of money. I didn't really realize that I was doing ok before, until my rent checks started bouncing and started eating refried beans with rice for several meals a week. Working where I do, I really can't describe how stupid the middle class looks to the lower class sometimes. I can't count the number of times a nice middle class lady has come to the counter at the drug store to buy some fancy face cream for 7.99, and thought, "seriously, you could buy dinner for a week for that. What's wrong with you?" I think more disturbing than little things like that, though, is the overall picture of Americans it gives me. Our priorities are so skewed - how can we spend millions of dollars a year on home improvement products, when our houses are generally ok, and when our neighbors have no place to live? And it's not like your trading-spaces-style room makeover is really gonna be in the pages of Architechural (sp???) Digest anyway. Why not save to do something fantastic? Why does no one want to do something fantastic?
posted by Kim @ 3:49 PM
3 Comments:
For me, personally, as upper middle class yuppie bourgeois scum, it's important to buy sustainable things. I buy eggs produced by chickens that walk under the sky and eat grass and bugs directly from the farmer - at $4/dozen. I buy as much produce as I can directly from local farmers at the farmers' market. Supporting the local economy is important to me, as is supporting sustainable and organic food production. I can afford to help the people who grow my food keep roofs over their heads, so I do.
I won't say how much I spend on skin and hair care products, though I use them very slowly, so it amortizes well over the lifespan of the product. They're also organic or sustainably produced, generally. I buy from Lush, and an 8-oz bottle of shampoo lasts me 9 months or something.
(No, really; my & Ben's combined gross income is in the low 6 figures. I've become that which I hate.)
Dude, free range eggs are like $2 in Iowa. Guess there's some advantage to living out here after all!
Heh! Our guys just raised their prices to 4.50 for a dozen mixed eggs, $5 for jumbo. I don't know what the Teeter charges for the free range eggs; I think they were 3,50 last time I bought them a while back.
Iowa: eggs are cheap, but it sure gets cold in winter. Something tells me I shouldn't go into advertising ;)
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