Unhealthy Lifestyle Simulations

People are still living on $2 a day here in the United States. As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, how is it possible for people to live with this little amount of money? I know that I cannot. In $2.00 a Day, Jennifer Hernandez, a single mother with two kids, is a person who lives on $2 a day as she tries to survive and support herself and her kids in the collapsing economy. The minimum wage job for cleaning houses reinforces the cycle of poverty that Jennifer and her kids live in. This cycle of poverty reveals that there needs to be major changes to the economical infrastructure of the United States since the poor cannot get themselves out of poverty even though they actively look for work or have a job.

The American Dream doesn’t run on magic and fairy dust, it is fueled by hard-earned American dollars, persistence, and hope. Most modern, working class families can’t expect to receive a reasonable income to cover things such as medical expenses and emergencies. With that said, the stay-at-home parent trying to reach the goal of a perfect oasis is even more taboo. It’s hard to achieve this “dream”, when you’re the only breadwinner in your household. Parents can no longer live comfortably, and in some cases even survive, on one person’s income. The costs of homes, transportation, and education combined with incredibly low wages often leaves families in a crippling financial situation, making it virtually impossible to, “keep up with the Jones’s.”

While out dining with a friend Barbara Ehrenreich, a bestselling author of many books had came up with a question which would mark the start of a whole new life experience. Her question was, “how does anyone live on the wages available to the unskilled?” The topic of poverty had greatly fascinated Ehrenreich but not to the point that she would actually want to experience poverty herself. However, this changed when the friend she was dining with suggested she should be the one to go out and experience the unpleasant lifestyle that is poverty. Upon starting this experiment she knew she had to construct a plan so she sat and began to plan out how she would be living throughout the experiment When concluding her experiment Ehrenreich argues

The United States, a place where anyone can “pick themselves up by the bootstraps” and realize the American dream of a comfortable lifestyle. Well, for over 30 million Americans this is no longer possible. Though we live in the richest and most powerful country in the world there are many who are living under or at the precipice of the poverty level, “While the United States has enjoyed unprecedented affluence, low-wage employees have been testing the American doctrine that hard work cures poverty” (The Working Poor, 4). This translates to families of four making around 18,850$ a year. And as soon as they find work or move just slightly above that 18,850$ a year (which is still a meager and deprived way to

In her book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America (2001), Barbara Ehrenreich performs a social experiment in which she transplants herself from her comfortable middle-class life and immersing herself in the plight of the “millions of American’s (who) work full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages” (Ehrenreich, 2001). Her goal was to explore the consequences of the welfare reform on the approximately four million women who would be subsequently forced into the labor market, expecting to make only $6 to $7 an hour. (2001 p.1) Her experiment eviscerated the idea that the American underclass was lazy, and the lie that American’s could live healthy, productive lives on minimum wage. On the contrary, she proved underclass

The poverty simulation for me was exiting and interesting, but most importantly, it stand as a learning experience that I am willing to carry throughout my journey as a nurse to assist and improve on the care I provide the poor and the needy people. Walking in the shoes of those in poverty during the simulation, I was frustrated because as a twenty-one year old my goals were not probably staying home and take care of my siblings or run around to find help with food or shelter but to be in college with my peers, go out on a date and parties. I was exhausted from going from one place to another just to get help with food, clothes in addition go to school.

Throughout the book I learned that trying to live off minimum wage with average life is nearly impossible. It is impossible because the people work all day, they have no health care and they typing scavenge the food that is cheap. Listening sad I feel like life and the economy is unbalanced. ? I've learned that the author is very biased and to me it seems odd that she would change places with someone that makes a low minimum wage when she makes all the money that she needs to survive. So what would happen if you put a child in the mix with trying to live off minimum wage? Some things that I'm going to include in my research paper is the statistics that she states at the bottom of the pages. An example would be the quote “So begins my career at the Hearthside, where for two weeks I work from 2:00 till 10:00 p.m. for $2.43 an hour plus tips” The quote shows that Barbra cannot live off $2.43.Another is “…forced to live off the contents of his car and whatever food items he can scrummage

The hardest thing to do was to find housing within the monthly salary that Ehrenreich was getting because every apartment was above her price range for survival in that state (109). Most of the co workers, had to walk or ride bicycles because they could not afford cars or even to pay gas prices(112). Overall, even though there is a high poverty rate in America, low-income people are still finding ways to survive either by moving in with family or strangers, or living in cheap motel rooms with no luxuries

There are many families out there who are currently struggling to make ends meet. Regardless of their hard work and commitment, the economy will not take pity. I wish I could say that it was not always like this. Unfortunately, no real change has taken place within the past few years. It may not be as difficult as the time of the Great Depression, but who’s to say that we have recovered from it? My claim is supported by Barbara Ehrenreich, an American author, who published a novel called Nickel and Dimed which digs deep into the economic situation in the early 90’s. Ehrenreich decided to run an experiment becoming a blue collar worker to see if she can manage to make a living on low wages. She later blogs of Nickel and Dimed in 2011 to see

After playing the game “Spent” three times, I learned a lot about my character. I tried different scenarios each time I played the game. After completing the first and second game, I thought I had made it through to end of the month with over $300 in my pocket only to discover that the rent was due on the first of the month. Purchasing ramen noodles, hotdogs, eggs, bread and tissue just to keep my grocery bill down to minimum seemed like the logical choices, even though I don’t I despised ramen noodles. I found that I made some dishonorable choices when making a decision on how I was going to save money. During the third game, I tried to make the right choices only to find that I still had to make some unethical choices trying to make

After reading the book $2.00 a Day, Living on Almost Nothing in America. I was surprised to learn about the amount of people living below poverty in the United States of America. There are two sociological concepts that can be used to interpret this book. Social Class, and Conflict Theory. Social class is demonstrated by the lifestyle and perception of which social class you belong and how those of a different social class treat those of a lower class in addition to the struggle of those in the underclass which entails the harshest lifestyle with the almost certainty of never leaving the underclass. Conflict theory is demonstrated between the struggle of those who depend on Welfare, WIC and

No one denies living on less than $2/day as a single person is a struggle. Add to that the responsibility of children and potentially, extended family. This is the story of all too many people in the bottom 10% (and more) in the United States. Because such individuals receive the short-end of the stick, they feel compelled to trade in their SNAP benefits for cash, which are not that beneficial, regardless, because of the 2:1 payoff. In this novel, all of the individuals are portrayed as those who experience an unfair struggle which continues to perpetuate their emotional and financial misery. Don’t get me wrong, I sympathize with their plight, but I do know of, and have seen, in previous employment, many individuals who have capitalized on

Since quarter one was the first quarter of this simulation, I was unaware of how difficult it was going to be to make all the different decisions. Firstly, I had to choose a Company name. Because I was selling computers, I thought that the name “Dev-Tech” was a perfect fit being that this simulation was about development and technology. Next, I had to choose a target segment. I knew going into this simulation that it would be better to invest in the more expensive goods as it would benefit me in the end. The segment that didn’t care about price was Mercedes, so that is the segment that I made my first priority.

Every American dreams of finding a job that pays well enough so that they may comfortably take care of their loved ones and themselves for years to come. Most Americans hope to find some way to make a living that they enjoy, something that they view as productive. Unfortunately, many do not have this luxury. In our society, a good portion of the population is forced to hold the base of our country in place while hardly being redeemed for their time and effort, and thus the problem of income inequality. Numbers of these people live from paycheck to paycheck, barely getting by, not because they manage their money poorly, but because the value of their time at work is negligible.

Today I had the opportunity to experience and go through what others who live in poverty have to go through. I learned so much and I also learned the amount of money that a house of four or even what a house of three have to pay for and how each dollar they earn goes to bills, medicine, food, and mortgage. To make it a month or even to make it a week if you are on a fixed salary or only one person works in your family. The amount of money that someone earns has to go towards helping you plan and pay for anything that might help you and your family survive. During the simulation we had to go along make sure we went with the schedule and made sure the kids were off to school if they were to go there if they didn’t go the police would come and