Making it in America

Building a Life on $25 and a Gym Bag a story of how Adam Shepard does in fact show that hard work alone can lead to a sustainable lifestyle regardless of starting with no money, no car, no job skills, and no house/apartment.

This recent college grad's success flies in the face of a book I was forced to read in college: Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. In this book, Barbara Ehrenreich's posits that people cannot pull themselves out of the middle/lower class as easily as one might think. Her book is about her living the life of a lower class working person, and trying to make due (similarly to Adam's experiment, only she started with $1300 and a car). She also did not rely on her academic background or job skills, working generally menial labor type positions.

This is a popular book in lower level sociology classes (I had to read in college), and my guess is that professors are trying to expose their well-off students to the dark dingy world of the lower class via required reading. With my near obsessive bias towards self reliance, I saw this book as a masturbatory exercise in pity, defeat, and self-loathing. She was never able to make a sustainable living despite the fact that she started her project with her car and $1300 in savings.

Thank Xenu that someone finally took a dump on "Nickel and Dimed". I have been complaining about this book to a number of my friends for some time. I hate the idea that there is absolutely nothing someone can do to improve their lot in life. Despite the fact that everyone is born with different skills, I argue that everyone has the ability to work hard and gradually increase their standard of living. Granted, on minimum wage I doubt you'll have your own apartment with cable and internet, but given the right mindset and reasonable spending habits, there is no reason why nearly anyone (short of serious medical debilitation) should be able to be self sufficient.

Tell me what you think. Did Adam prove a decent point in working up from nothing decent living in 10 months? Is Barbara right in thinking that there is no help for the lower class beyond increasing minimum wages out of our sense of good will? Is it good or bad for a society to have a system ni which someone can live comfortably and not work?