Adventures in Poverty: Being a Twenty-Something in a Shit Economy

A few weeks ago Jab and I sat at a table/grill in a Korean BBQ eatery, stuffing our guts with delicious marinated meats. Oh the $16 all you can eat carnivorous bonanza was delightful. Though it occurred to me, spending this $16 was now a rarity. Despite this, he said to me, "We're the richest people we know." Even though a $16 meal is a luxury, yes, it's true. We are the richest people we know*.

I used to regularly, albeit stupidly, spend $30 per dinner by myself. Approximately seven months ago, I realized that this was no longer feasible. I'm unsure why for a period time it worked at all, but it seemed that the cost of living had crept up just stealthily enough, and jumped upon me at the right time to make me realize:

"Fuck, I gotta cheapen up right quick."

Around the same time, I was pondering the possible future of the United States' once bourgeoise status (of course, by world standards, we still have this status). We imagined that the credit crunch which would unsheath the real prick that is inflation. Those of us that had outspent and just generally over-consumed, would be forced to level out. For example: those who once lived in $2000/month apartments would be forced to downgrade to a $1200/month apartment. Or perhaps, those that once made payments of $400/month on an Audi would be forced to downgrade to a $250/month Toyota.

We also thought that the present day "working class" would go relatively unharmed. We thought that their wages were low enough, at a modest $9 to $10 per hour, would stay in tact. Though their cost of living may be adversely affected by credit caused inflation. This is credit that we all have, it has caused inflation. Yes.

Mine and Jeremy's third economic prediction was that communal living would become a necessity for the alleged "working class". Basically the working class is just the normal folk who were unable to afford to go to college and did not believe that taking on twenty to fifty thousand dollars in debt to get a degree. Regardless of whether or not you think that is foolish, it's just a fact that exists. Let's move on.

So here I sit on my comfortable leather couch, with my cable TV, my cushy job, all my food, paid off car, liquor, clothing, and of course most valuable - knowing where my next paycheck will come from.

Most evenings, a friend of mine and Jab's sleeps on our couch. As of Saturday, we may be opening our doors to two other friends who do not make enough money to pay for a deposit on an apartment. They are from Japan, have questionable employment papers, and do not quite have the language skills to work elsewhere.

I feel guilty enough that I can't share my lovely (albeit shitty for what I pay for it) health insurance with those that I love that are uninsured. It's no problem for me, whatsoever, to open my home to individuals that work hard, and are enormously kind. I just wonder on what grand scale this phenomenon is occurring.

Here we are, communal living.

Can the government please treat the economy like a giant DSL modem (yes, this totally invokes the powers of the "on / off" switch so we can just reset and start fresh?

I know it's a pipe dream.

*In our age range. C'mon. I know some unbelievably loaded people twice my age. Though no younger than that. Oh, and they were all married at least once.