Read this right now, and get ready to feel very, very, very ANGRY.

[Leftist Agitator]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alexa-von-tobel/financial-challenge-go-a_b_566492.html

What would be it like to go a day without spending any money? I've thought about this before but I've never considered actually trying it. I couldn't imagine going a day without spending a single penny -- is that even possible? How would I get from A to B? What about food? Turns out, a day of living expense free is possible and you'd be surprised by the overwhelming sense of satisfaction and feeling of elation that comes from it.

On Tuesday night I had just returned home after a long day of work and I decided to order in from my favorite restaurant. Forty minutes later, the deliveryman arrived with my pasta primavera and a Greek salad and I handed him $32.50, including tip. Pretty steep for a dinner for one, I thought. I returned to my kitchen counter, brown bag in hand, and it was then that I had a moment: I reviewed my spending for the day and I realized that I had spent well over $80 over the course of the day on menial expenses. I hadn't gone shopping, I hadn't dined out at Cafeteria for lunch, and I hadn't joined my friends for drinks. It dawned on me that the taxicab rides, stops at CVS, the Starbucks lattes, the mid-morning or mid-afternoon snacks, my take-out from the fabulous Italian restaurant, and other trivial expenses really added up; realizing the total cost of it all was a painful but eye-opening experience.

That night, I decided to go on a mission to live a full 24-hour day without spending a penny.



(More at link)




Rich people have no idea what the rest of us live like. They have no clue how hard those of us without money have to work just to keep a roof over our heads.

[msongs]

1. wow $32.50 is food for a week here. our UU church has buy nothing days several X/year nt

[Motown_Johnny]

2. I hope he turned off his electricity and gas and water..... if not he spent money on credit

and had to pay it when his utility bills came in

[glowing]

5. Exactly what I thought when I read the head line.. In the very least the water and the

electric is money spent during the day.. AND if there is a mortgage/ rent for living space... AND the parked car must cost something.. with ins needed for car the car that's parked.

[mucifer]

3. You would think she would be ashamed of her habits and not want to

publicize them.

[notadmblnd]

4. 32.50 for one meal for one person (pasta?). That's gas in my car for one week.

It's easy not to spend money every day if you have none. Someone is taking things for granted.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[madmax]

7. I feel terrible

this poor thing. We should take up a collection or something. Such abject poverty upsets me so. :puke:

[ipaint]

8. When he gets to the point he is pulling his own bad teeth like my long term unemployed 56 year old

husband let me know.

Spoiled asshole.

[MindPilot]

9. I went to the author's website.

She's a financial planner! I strongly suspect she is nowhere near wealthy; she just likes to pretend she is.

[hobbit709]

11. More here in this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x8299678

Clueless twit needs to meet reality stick.

[rucky]

21. Too bad the HuffPo scrubbed all the negative comments

and closed it off to further comments.

I guess the clue train came into the station pretty fast.

[lonestarnot]

13. Planning what to do with other peoples' money. hmmmmf. and taking some while she does it.

Nah, not even going to read that crap after reading comments on thread.

[rug]

14. I'm sure she's comfortable.

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/alexa-von-tobel/10/844/709

[Stephanie]

44. Harvard MBA

Her first job listed began in 2008. She's probably under 30. And spoiled rotten.

[slackmaster]

10. Where is the part that's supposed to make readers angry?

This is just pathetic.

[rug]

15. The other 364 days when she does spend money.

[noamnety]

37. For me, it was in her comments more than the main post

The post was clueless, sort of "Look at me playing at not being extravagant for a day!"

In her response to some comments, though, she demonstrates her complete ignorance of how people live, and why: "the point is that the average American is overspending and there are simple ways to cut back. The average American spends $1.33 for every dollar earned, according to the Census Bureau. What’s more, the average college senior graduates with approximately $4,000 in credit card debt, according to Sallie Mae, and as a result, will spend his or her twenties paying down that debt."

The average american isn't spending $1.33 for every dollar earned because they are buying $30 dollar plates of fucking pasta and lattes several times a day. The average american is spending that because they don't make a living wage, they don't have health insurance that covers their expenses, they are being laid off, etc. Her comment implied that she is somehow similar to the average american trying to scrape by, and that if only us common folk would be more like her (on that one day) and skip a latte and figure out how to make pasta from a box and sauce from a jar (?!) we could be financially secure, too.

[Marr]

85. That's exactly what she was implying, yep.

'If only those stupid plebes would handle their money wisely, as I do, they wouldn't be poor'. I've heard that sentiment a hundred times from people in similar circumstances. They're almost always people who were born into comfort and had their parents pay their way right up to the moment they receive their first paycheck... around 30 years old. They haven't got a clue, and they've never really grown up. They're like large, oblivious children.

[chillspike]

12. Someone is already doing that

http://zerocurrency.blogspot.com/

[Walk away]

16. Have you ever lived in NYC? It is extremely expensive.

Why are people so angry? Try living there.

[hobbit709]

17. You can live in NY without Starbucks lattes, etc.

[Leftist Agitator]

18. You can live in NYC without paying $32.50 for a plate of fucking pasta.

And without taking a cab to and from work EVERY SINGLE DAY.

This woman is a spoiled, entitled piece of shit. I don't begrudge her having more wealth than I, but for her to write this article that's basically saying, "See? If *I* can save money by not wasting it on unnecessary, frivolous things you can too!" well that makes me red in the face. Her arrogant tone strongly suggests that she believes that the reason that people who are poorer than her are poorer than her is because they too are wasting their money on pointless shit. It's the smug self-satisfaction that she displays in living like a regular person for a WHOLE 24 HOURS that makes me very, VERY angry.

[Walk away]

19. You think this person is a worthless piece of shit because she gets...

her dinner delivered for under $40 in NYC and takes a cab to work? You are the one with a problem. That is a middle class existence in New York. Not every job is on a viable subway route. I took a cab across town to work for years and so did many other hard working people. And just how much do you think it cost to eat a dinner delivered or not in NYC?

She may not be living in enough poverty to suit your tastes but she is living the life that most working people do who live in Manhattan. She cannot shop in supermarkets for food, if she needs to make a purchase outside of her neighborhood she has to take a taxi because she doesn't have a car. Do you have a car? Do you drive it to work? Why you money wasting energy hog! Most New Yorkers have to take cabs and subways (if there is a line to where they need to go).

[bettyellen]

23. oh bullshit there's grocers in every single neighborhood in NYC and her walk to work was 12 min

so yeah she surely was blowing 5-6 on a cab 2X a day . i grew up and still live in NY as do my friends who teach write police work in iT all sots of good jobs-and sorry her lifestyle is not middle class, not at all.
she got the message about how ridiculous she sounds- and re edited the piece- claiming her overprived dinner was 22 not the original 32 and she used to waste a whooping 80.00$ now she changed it to 60$ LOL. she's still an idiot.
The piece reads like a high school bubble head r=wrote it, I cannt belive she's going to make a career out of this- who'd she fuck fir that million dollar grant? because she didn't get it by smarts, or integrity, that;s clear I wonder if she has a single client. and what she bribed the Huff Po moderator to hide the more cutting comments.

[Walk away]

39. So you live in Manhattan and you think that spending $60 a day...

on food, transportation tax and tips is a case of outrageous spending. Then you must hate most of the people you see everyday. Most of my family lives in the city and I am sure they spend at least that much much a day. They are hardly rich. Two weeks ago I took public transportation from 5 miles from midtown, split a lunch bill at a cheap cafe by the Museum of Modern Art, had a drink with another friend we met on the way back to her apt and I bought a paper on the way home. My afternoon cost me over $50 and I never used a cab.

And you are out right lying if you mean to infer that you can walk into a market that is equivilant (especially in price) to a suburban supermarket in every neighborhood.

I don't know any established adults living in Manhattan that don't eat out and take cabs.

If you this is an example of proflagrancy in NYC what do you think of the actual rich and wealthy? Should we hate them even more?

[Hannah Bell]

47. $50 x 30 = $18250/yr. median household income in nyc = $55K.

so your "normal" afternoon out, if indulged in daily, = 33% of median household income.

half the households in nyc make less.

[Walk away]

50. That is for NYC not Manhattan. There the mean income is $121,549 and the...

median is $64,217.(2008 figures)

And by your logic....half the households make more.

I don't understand why a woman advising other normal residents of her city on how to cut their budgets down is an insult to people who make less money. I would have thought that it was a good thing to spend money locally (on food and transportation) and act more cautiously during hard times. Having fun with it while making a living writing about it isn't a crime.

[Hannah Bell]

55. so what? half the households make LESS. wow, deep ADVICE, don't order lattes

& $32 takeout.

gee, why didn't *i* think of that?

oh, wait, i live that way *normally*, not as part of a budget-cutting exercise.

[bettyellen]

64. no middle class people eat out and take cabs every single day. no one said the markets are as cheap

as suburban ones, just that you could actually spend 10- 15 on a great dinner instead of more than double that. i don;t hate that she has or spends the money, i hate that she is tryintg to make a career out of such dumb fucking advice. i hate that huff po let her edit the $$ amounts in her stupid piece to seem like less of a giant asshole! at least she realized what a dumbshit who shouldn;t be preaching anything about perspnal finanace she sounds like! -she had no idea I was spending 80 on miscellaneous every since day! ack what a maroon.

[dionysus]

96. imagine how much they hate the people who go out for a night of drinking!!

:rofl:

i think there's a big old pile of jealousy involved here...

[Stephanie]

43. She says in the post that her pantry items were from Trader Joes

So I'm guessing she lives in the East Village. Her office is at 21st and 5th. So she has TJs, Whole Foods, the Union Square Green Market, not to mention Food Emporium and all the other markets in that area. Her comments are priceless, she sounds incredibly naive.

[Walk away]

48. You are only guessing. What if she lives up town and takes a cab home...

with her grocery bags. That is what my Aunt does.

Look, if it makes you feel good to hate this woman for eating out and taking cabs then go right ahead. She has obviously committed some horrible crime against society in your mind. You don't have to make up stories about where she lives to make your point. You must want to kill people who really are rich in NYC.

[Stephanie]

52. Wow, are you insane?

How do you get from a list of grocery stores in my neighborhood, to speculating that I "want to kill people who are really rich"? I'm just amazed at the misconceptions about life in New York, as if we are somehow forced to order $32 takeout dinners every night because grocery stores don't exist in Manhattan. That's just stupid.

Her cab to work costs $5. She works at 21st & 5th. So she does not live uptown, or her cab would be a lot more. And even if she did, there are plenty of supermarkets uptown. Do you really imagine Manhattanites don't shop in grocery stores? Your aunt might prefer the stores downtown, maybe she likes to shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joes, as I do. But she certainly has the option of shopping in her own neighborhood. Obviously she has the luxury of shopping where she likes and going home in a cab. When I do that (say from Fairway to Chelsea), I go home on the bus, or a bicycle. I wouldn't dream of blowing $15 on a cab just for grocery shopping.

[Walk away]

59. Please, I used to save myself about 50% of my grocery bill...

driving to Jersey to the Shoprite in Teaneck.

It is still absolutely absurd to call a $60 a day budget in Manhattan excessive. You act as if this woman is eating diamonds and shitting $100 bills. Her lifestyle is perfectly normal. Just because you are on a budget or simply like to live cheaply doesn't mean people who don't are bad.

At this point in my life I wouldn't dream of paying the ridiculous rent or maintenance to live in NYC when I can live in a house fifteen minutes away for less. I don't complain about how disgusting you are for spending all that money in an overpriced city. I understand why someone would choose to live there. It's called a lifestyle choice (unless you are forced to live there against your will) it's a great place to live but if you are so concerned about throwing away money maybe you should move to Newark and commute.

[Stephanie]

61. And have neighbors like you?

No thanks.

This woman is ridiculous. If she wants to blow $80 a day on restaurants and incidentals, that's up to her. But to go on Huff Post boasting about her genius idea of saving $80 every once in a while by boliing the pasta herself and walking to work is just insulting to anyone with an ounce of intelligence. "Hey kids, I have an idea! What if we made our own coffee once a week? Wouldn't that be cool? What if we made a sandwich and took it to work with us? Who's with me?" I mean come on. And then you come along trying to justify it by claiming that there are no grocery stores in Manhattan so obviously most Manhattanites spend that kind of money as a matter of course. Flatly untrue.

[bettyellen]

65. thank you Stephanie. that blogger is a giant ass and a liar- as her edits prove

seriously where do people get theri ideas about Manhattan from?

[Stephanie]

66. What are you up to?

I had lunch with Brett last week. (To the crazy lady: my take-out lunch cost $5.)

[Hannah Bell]

79. her daily budget isn't sixty dollars. that's just what she spends on cabs & takeout.

cabs & takeout isn't all she spends, it's just (as she admits) frivolous spending.

[dionysus]

95. holy shit, she had a cab ride, couple coffees, and takeout in NYC and spent 80 bux. get the fucking

guillotines out right now!!1!1!

:rofl:

[Leftist Agitator]

26. "Do you have a car? Do you drive it to work?"

No, and no.

NYC has an excellent subway system, and from what I can tell, the author has a perfectly good pair of legs with which to walk.

"And just how much do you think it cost to eat a dinner delivered or not in NYC?"

Much, MUCH less than 32.50. For fucking noodles with vegetables.

[Walk away]

42. I have lived in or near Manhattan almost all of my life.

Now I live in New Jersey and if I order Pad Thai, a salad and an ice tea to be delivered from my local Thai Take Out it will cost me (with tax and tip) $28.00. I am not rich and Pad Thai is just fucking noodles. Why would anyone show so much venom over the price of a meal. In my local paper $32.50 would be considered "low priced".

[tabasco]

72. You're missing the point.

It's a CHOICE to spend $30 on a delivery meal of noodles.

A very stupid choice if you're concerned about your budget.

[Leftist Agitator]

74. You know, I was going to point out the same thing.

And then I thought of the 30 seconds that I would expend in typing a similar response. I simultaneously thought of the booger in my nostril that was irritating the shit out of me. I figured that removing the booger would be a better use of my time.

I can make the best Pad Thai that most people have ever had for a crowd for 30 dollars. I would never, ever DREAM of pissing away 30 bucks on something that I could likely make better myself. Granted, not everyone is a cook, but the best Pad Thai that I've ever had came from a street hawker in Miami. Total price for more rice noodles, chicken, shrimp and veggies than most people could ever eat in a sitting? Six bucks. And keep in mind, this was in *Miami*.

But I digress... An overwhelming sense of entitlement from rich people is nothing new, I suppose. I don't think that they'll ever grasp that there are vast numbers of us who could never, *ever* afford to drop 30 dollars on a meal from a restaurant, yours truly included. And then they shoot back that the eight bucks that most people spend eating out is actually 30 dollars in "city money", never stopping to think of the hundreds of thousands of people in their very city who make pretty damn close to minimum wage sure as fuck don't think about "city money", they're just worried about having enough cash to be able to make the electric bill and still eat for the last week of that month.

Ah well, what are you going to do? These rich assholes will be the first ones to die when the shit hits the fan, because they don't know the first thing about surviving by their own devices... They pay us to ensure their survival for them.

[Stephanie]

76. Had to check the menu for my favorite Thai takeout place

Pad Thai = $7.85. That is for the best Thai delivery in a fashionable Manhattan neighborhood. Granted you can make it cheaper yourself, but regardless, the $32 takeout for one is beyond ridiculous.

[Leftist Agitator]

88. And you live in Manhattan, do you not?

I used to live right outside of South Beach. Everything is a little more expensive there, but only a little. The only real killer is rent. I'd imagine it's the same in your neck of the woods.

[Raineyb]

106. It most certainly is NOT. I have managed to live in NY most of my life without

having a 32.50 bill for a take out meal for ONE person.

I manage not to take cabs every bloody where too and Manhattan has less of an excuse as they have the most access to mass transit than any other borough in the city. She's not living in Queens where some areas are poorly served by the MTA. Cabs are not a necessity.

And she most certainly CAN shop in supermarkets for food. Manhattan does have supermarkets. She can get a shopping cart like everyone else who walks to the supermarket does. This life where people take cabs may be very Sex and the City but it's not how middle class New Yorkers actually live.

[bettyellen]

24. She changed it to 22.50 !! Ha ha and her daily total was lowered to 60 from 80$ !

fucking lying idiot

[fishwax]

73. that was a pretty pathetic move

:eyes:

[dionysus]

92. "This woman is a spoiled, entitled piece of shit." hmm. you sound jealous.

[EOTE]

98. This woman is a uninformed idiot with the hubris to try to tell others how to save money.

And you defend her? Hmmmm, you sound clueless.

[dionysus]

99. while her article is silly, i see no reason to hate the woman. seriously. her article boils down to

saying that eliminating trvial expenses can save a lot of money. sounds like common sense, but shit, half the people in this office building blow money on breakfast and lunch here every single day. and they're not as well to do as this woman.

it's surprising for a liberal board to respond with such resentment, outright hatred, really.

imagine if she mentioned she went out drinking at a bar and spent $100, like people do in NYC all the time. you guys would be readying a noose for christ's sake.

is it all about hating people that make more money that you? how "liberal".

:eyes:

[EOTE]

100. This was not her diary, she was suggesting ways of saving money.

And I never said anything about hating her, just that she's incredibly stupid if she thinks her advice is going to be helpful to anyone, much less anyone with genuine money issues. Her whole article is stewing in 'let them eat cake' mentality. If someone needs to be told that they can make a meal for a small fraction of the price it costs to order delivery in NYC, they're probably not even capable of reading. This is a very well paid woman, and this is the type of tripe she provides as advice. It's utter stupidity, plain and simple.

[dionysus]

102. i wasn't aware that this is what she gets paid to do. i thought it was just a blog post.

however you'd be amazed at how some people that don't make money like this woman makes waste cash on things they don't need. a lot of people that waste dough on booze, cigs, and fast food don't seem to realize how much it adds up. when i first started an office job i used to frequent the diner downstairs for lunch a lot until i saw how much it added up and decided to save money by bringing food.

this woman seems to be spoiled and silly but i just can't seem to get worked up over it.

[Stephanie]

41. She's in my neighborhood

Her office is at 21st and 5th. Cafeteria, where she decided not to have lunch, is one block away from my apt. Her $5 cab ride to work means she lives within about 20 blocks from the office. And if I spent $80 $60 a day on coffee and lunch and drinks and takeout and taxis, I'd be out on the street in short order. I know a lot of New Yorkers live like this, but not the ones I know. Making your own coffee? What a sacrifice! I'll have to try that some day. Oh wait! I already do.

[Walk away]

51. So maybe she isn't writing for or about you. Let's hate her even more.

[Stephanie]

53. Her attitude is patronizing and naive

Why would I personally hate her? I don't. But I do think her post is ridiculous. It is astounding that she presumes to give financial advice to anyone, when she hasn't a clue about how most people live.

[KurtNYC]

83. I spend more now that I left (temporarily) NYC

Rent in NYC $1100 (with water, gas, heat, doorman, laundry, porter, super)
Rent here $850 + gas $150 + water $30 + bottled water (bc the tap is poison) $45 + electric $65 + repairs

Transportation NYC $92 unlimited metrocard
Transportation here: $180/mo car insurance + gas + car + maintenance

Lunch in NYC: $3 to $8
Lunch here (eaten out) $9+

Ride to the airport NYC: included in Metrocard $0
From here: $45 or pay for parking there

It is a myth that NYC is more expensive than a small town.

[moriah]

86. Yes, I have.

I lived in Ridgewood, Queens. I worked in Long Island, weekend nights so I couldn't use the LIRR.

I spent about 2-3 hours every day in my car, but only drove 60 miles in total. Yeah, gas was expensive because the car wasn't running at its best efficiency in nearly stopped traffic. Because I could walk to the grocery store I did have a habit of going to the grocery store every couple of days instead of doing large trips once or twice a month like I do here in Arkansas -- up there I was carrying my groceries home, not putting them in the trunk of my car. But I didn't spend that much more on groceries than I do here. The rent on our two-bedroom apartment was $900 -- I'm paying $450 here for an apartment that's slightly larger and has a dishwasher, but I'm divorced now so my portion of the rent is the same.

But other than that and my horrible smoking habit I started up there (cigarettes were twice as expensive up there as they were in Arkansas, I was an idiot), I really didn't live my life much differently than I do here. I went to work, I came home, I got on the computer, I slept, occasionally I went out with friends. The pub within walking distance was not horribly expensive. Yes, the temptation of being able to have any food delivered to our door sometimes was hard to resist when we were both working full-time (he was a medical resident so in actuality he was working double full time <grin>). He was able to take the bus to and from work, but on my days off he used the car for the convenience -- it was actually cheaper to take the bus when it came to gas.

[MindPilot]

20. Different attitudes about wealth and poverty.

People have very different attitudes about money and what constitutes wealth or poverty.

I once went on vacation with my wife and in-laws (really, really bad idea, BTW). We went to Hawaii and stayed in a time-share condo. Since we had a kitchen, the first thing we did was go out and buy some groceries. For my wife and I it was a welcome opportunity; for a few days away from the demands of running a business, we had the time and energy to actually plan, prepare and enjoy home-cooked meals.

Her parents--not rich by any stretch; her dad was a janitorial supervisor for the school district--were shocked and horrified. To them, cooking and eating at home--especially while on vacation--signified that you were too poor to go out.

[southernyankeebelle]

22. You spent that much on one meal for one person, wow. I wouldn't think of spending that much on one

meal. For a family of 6 I might buy lunch at the local oriental take out and we get allot and at lunch discounts. We may do that once every 6 months or so. We might take the 2 kids to McD's or burger king and they will get a happy meal. We usually eat at home. My son is a cook at a restuarant and we go there every so often.

[kestrel91316]

25. I'd like to keep my average lunch costs under $3/day, and it's getting tough.

Idiotic rich twit.

[izquierdista]

27. All of the very, very, very angry here

should step into a poorer culture and see if they can cause the same anger. I'm sure that you have no idea what the Chinese factory workers and African farmers live like. You have no clue how hard those who live on less than $1 a day have to work just to keep from starving.

[Leftist Agitator]

29. You are 100% correct.

But do I write a smug diatribe telling those peasants that it's actually really easy to better their lives by cutting out frivolous purchases?

[KurtNYC]

107. +1

the key difference

[Raineyb]

108. +1 n/t

[SocialistLez]

58. +1 NT

[Kablooie]

103. Michael Shermer talked about this just last week.

In the US most of the poorer families here have a TV, computers, refrigerators, music players, toilets and many other items that would have been luxuries in earlier periods.

[CBR]

28. Somehow the anger escapes me. Someone writing an article

on what they did for a day? I could care less.

[Leftist Agitator]

30. You must have money.

Because those of us who, um, *don't* get pretty fucking incensed when some rich asshole writes a piece about her conspicuous consumption and insinuates that we poor folks should just cut out the lattes and $32.50 restaurant meals and cook for ourselves in order to get ahead.

[CBR]

31. I am in grad school and my husband is a pre-school teacher so,

um, think again. Assumptions and all that.

[Leftist Agitator]

32. Fair enough.

Then precisely why does her post not offend and/or anger you?

[Cleita]

33. That's my life. Other than a couple of trips a week to buy groceries and

get gas I don't spend on extras through the day. I seldom even carry cash as I don't use it. There are no lattes, bought lunches (I brownbag), or frivolous take out meals or snacks for me.

[donco6]

34. Surely she had some leftover CAKE to survive on for a day.

Unless all the little people already ate it up.

She's a bit out of touch with reality.

[jpak]

35. So?

:D

[Name removed]

36. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

38. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Skidmore]

40. This was an "experiment" for this woman....

it's everyday life for millions. I am not feeling empathetic.

[Dappleganger]

45. While her post doesn't make me angry...

I think she's probably one of the most clueless people who've ever written a HuffPo article. Shame on HuffPo for censoring the negative comments, too. That forum is becoming worse and worse every week.

[mainer]

46. Just eating every day requires food in your pantry that you PAID FOR

Maybe you didn't pay for it that very day, but you did pay for it at some point. So you cannot go through life without paying for something (even if it was paid earlier in the form of groceries in the cupboard.) Unless you grow your own food -- from your own seed, and watered with only rainwater -- then just existing requires the outlay of money.

[SmileyRose]

49. HOW DARE THIS WOMAN HELP CREATE JOBS !!!11111!!!!!!!!!!

Good God look at that selfish unfeeling bitch. Thanks to her selfish clueless attitude a restaurant stays in business and employs people, a Starbucks, a taxi driver, and the neighborhood CVS.

She should be ashamed of herself !!!! The only fair thing is for her to stop making enough money to do all that and live poor and homeless the rest of her miserable life.




:crazy:

[patrice]

54. At least some of this is not resentment over how she lives (and incidentally creates jobs), but rath

er her prescription for how others should live, which, not entirely un-likely, includes blanket injunctions against "Socialism", thus obviating programs that, were her target audience to abide by her economic prescriptions, could make the difference for at least some of them between the types of self-enhancement and development (that would make them happy and "self sustaining" and incidentally create MORE jobs) and lives as grazing sheep waiting to be liquidated for capital.

True, her prescriptions COULD create those same opportunities for SOME of her audience, but if she or anyone else deserves appropriate chances for self-enhancement/development (because she is ostensibly earning those opportunities by how she/they live/s), then SO DOES EVERYONE ELSE WHO IS RESPONSIBLY ENGAGED IN THEIR OWN LIVES DESERVE APPROPRIATE OPPORTUNITIES TO GROW, whether their responsible engagement in their own lives succeeds in freeing them to do so or not.

Whatever financial responsibility she adopts would not succeed if the SOCIAL system did not provide the appropriate context for her behavior (an apartment she could afford with the money she saves, reliable investment opportunities for the money she saves, networks of people who will regard her potential as fairly as any others', . . . ). Her "right" to those opportunities is no less than those of others who, though they may not be able meet her specific criteria, relevant to their own context, are nonetheless doing everything possible to take a Stand on their own two feet, even if that doesn't turn out to be "two feet" at all sometimes, but rather only one, or a half of one, or NONE at all. If they continue to be crippled in their efforts by a system that, like the author's prescriptions, denies opportunities appropriate to their skills, aptitudes, and efforts, that is a completely unacceptable Injustice and, according to at least some of them, grounds to abdicate their own responsibilities.

[Hannah Bell]

57. all spending creates "jobs", but jobs preparing lattes & thai takeout don't generally pay well.

which is usually the case with service jobs catering to the needs of the upper classes.

[patrice]

60. Excellent point: Some people are entitled to self-fulfilling employment and others are not.

:sarcasm:

[Arkana]

81. This is not resentment over the fact that she's well-off.

It's anger over the fact that she thinks going one day without spending like a drunken sailor is akin to torture.

[fortyfeetunder]

56. One massive yawn...

I can go a day without spending a penny. The only 'costs' are for energy and utilities....

[Hannah Bell]

62. i can go a year without spending a penny if i pay all my bills ahead of time & stock up on food.

i don't see the point of the article at all.

if you've got disposable income, spend it, save it, who cares?

it's when you don't have much disposable income that scrimping gets, uh, interesting.

[tabasco]

63. I guess they don't have Dollar Store Ragu in NYC.

I could eat sketti for a month for $32.

[Zenlitened]

67. Not anger, but amazement.

It really does have a "let them eat cake" sort of cluelessness going on, doesn't it?

Note to self: If I ever congratulate myself for not living inside a bubble of privilege, that'll probably be a good sign I'm living inside a bubble of privilege. :D

[gleaner]

68. I'm not angry but I am shaking my head in despair ....

$32.50 for one meal? We spend around $1.00 for 1 1/2 pounds of chicken to make a stew that we eat for one to one and half weeks. We used to spend less but inflation is hard here and everything costs more. Starbucks for coffee? I have a jar of instant that yields me 2 cups per day for two to three weeks. It isn't yummy, but it keeps me alert which is what I need coffee to do.

I count our medications to decide when to buy what. It is like an intricate dance, everything depending on how much food costs and how much each drug costs. This time I found a new generic to a very expensive medication I had been prescribed and I was so grateful I hardly knew what to do. I was able to buy my cholesterol medication with the savings. I have the type of cholesterol that doesn't respond to diet and exercise alone. I keep my diet rigorous but I have MS and my exercise is limited, but the statin helps to reduce the cholesterol to a tolerable degree.

I haven't had a haircut in about three years. Too expensive and no transportation. I haven't been able to get my eyes checked or buy new lenses for my eyeglasses for about that long either. I am kind of peering around a crack across one of the lenses now as I write. But those are things I think of as luxuries now. I wonder if a meal at the delicious Italian restaurant would help out with those things or even pay for them? Mind you, I am not asking for money or help or anything I'm just stating how hard it is to get by with the basics and it is very disheartening to read a post like this where someone is musing on a live like ours and kind of feeling sorry for us without understanding what it feels like. I don't need pity. I need an economy where I can afford to buy meals and other necessities. I remember what it was like to have one, but it is so long ago that it is beginning to fade and disappear.

[Leftist Agitator]

69. "I need an economy where I can afford to buy meals and other necessities."

Indeed. But what you need (as do the rest of us) is an economy in which the top 1% don't control 40% of the wealth.

I don't begrudge this woman for her wealth, but I take extreme umbrage at her cluelessness as to how the vast majority of Americans live.

[gleaner]

82. Exactly so .....

One way to achieve an economy which is not an oligarchy is to tax the rich at a rate commensurate with the amount of money they make, hoard and get a free ride.

I used to be an employee of IRS. I worked in an affluent POD, and I was paying tax at a higher rate than most of the very wealthy people I saw. They had the legal tax shelter, investment opportunities which created paper losses to minimize their income and the ability to create corporations as separate entities to run their income through and reduce it before they listed it on their 1040s. I also favor windfall profit taxes and negative tax penalties for the large corporations which move assets and hide them in other countries and bleed the economy by taking jobs offshore.

Will I ever see these things. I doubt it. This is after all the home of the rich and the rest of us. I don't want to be rich myself. I prefer to live simply and leave a small footprint on the earth, but I would like to be able to live without fear of losing what little I do keep and value which is mostly of no use to anyone else. I do not think that is too much to wish for. I am also weary of protecting those who should know better from their own "cluelessness" by giving away pieces of my life. Thanks for your post. You are right as to the what, but the how to accomplish the what eludes me.

[unlegendary]

70. I'm not in the least impressed

I often go weeks spending no money. Today for 'dinner' we fried some shriveled up cabbage and that was dinner. OH, excuse me.I fried it using a hot plate so the electric company got a few pennies. I could have just as easily break up the many sticks from the trees in the yard to cook with, but I can barely walk so I opted for the slight convenience, but generally we're to broke to even think of spending money on anything much less a damned $32 dinner

[bamacrat]

71. If you owe anything or have rent you cannot do this.

If you owe on a car, house, college or even a washer/dryer, you owe each day. If you rent you definitely owe each day. You would have to never turn on the air/heat, lights, flush the toilet, never use a drop of water.

[Rex]

75. It is okay, if the rich keep it up they will be poor soon too.

We all will. I can go days without spending a dime, have to I'm poor. Fucking rich people, don't be surprised by this folks...they really have no idea.

[MN TN]

77. Maybe we should go back to being hunters-gatherers

Living directly off of the land the way our ancestors did.

[Beacool]

78. There are times that I don't spend a nickel in several days.

In my area public transportation is the means used to get to work. I purchase a monthly pass and usually take to work what I will be eating for the day. So, unless I need something or get bored with my own food, I can go 3 or 4 days without spending a dime.

;)

[Arkana]

80. Jesus Christ--this broad acts like she just got waterboarded

and all she did was not spend money for ONE FUCKING DAY.

Welcome to the world of the middle class, lady.

[Name removed]

84. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Marr]

87. I think you'll find that most people here

are for a regulated capitalist economy. Well regulated capitalism is fine. Unregulated capitalism is... well, look at the Gulf, for a recent example.

[LanternWaste]

89. I imagine you also used public roads throughout the day...

I imagine you also used public roads throughout the day. Possibly the local public trash pick up kept your neighborhood from reeking. I would bet that somewhere in the city, the public fire department prevented numerous conflagrations. I would hazard that the freedoms you use to paraphrase a very old email chain letter has been kept alive by a tax sponsored army.

All this while railing against the evils of regulations...

[Prof Lester]

90. AHHHHHHHHHHGH.. Huffpo is crap anyway!

Celebrity gossip??? Who cares what the rich or pseudo-rich or wannabees have to say anyhow? No thanks. I've yet to see anything on that site that was really meaningful to me as a worker.

[NeedleCast]

91. What about this is supposed to make me angry?

That this lady has some minor amount of money and spends it?

[dionysus]

93. i think you're supposed to hate eveyone that isn't as broke as you are. that's all i can get out of

these replies. either jealousy or hatred of people living in metropolitian areas?

[NeedleCast]

104. Got it, thanks

Kinda what I figured. Still a little baffled by the fact that people are getting angry because this laday can afford more lattes than they can.

Since there's really nothing to see here then, I'm off to get a latte.

[shanti]

94. self-delete

[Macoy]

97. this is my normal day

Wow, I don’t drink coffee and I fix breakfast and dinner at home and brown bag lunch just about every day. What she describes as a day of challenges and sacrifice is my normal day ……….I never realized what a impoverish life I lead.


/and here I thought I was living well.


Macoy

[Quantess]

101. Angry, or jealous?

This silly nitwit is pumping her money into the economy, and that's good for all the businesses she's supporting.

What's there to be angry about? That she's a sheltered, spoiled, clueless, yuppie who fritters her money away? Yeah...so?

[Macoy]

105. Not angry or jealous

Not angry or jealous…more bemused than any thing else. I actually enjoyed reading her article. (patronizing attitude aside) I have never lived in a large city, and her article opened my eyes to a way of life I never knew of. It boggles my mind that people eat out almost every meal, and cooking your own food is a rare event.

(yes, I am easily boggled lol)


:)

Macoy