My office mate Light Bright told me this story yesterday: as
she was waiting in line to vote in the recent election, she struck up a
conversation with the short white guy with an East Coast accent behind her. He
was telling her that he was sick of all these rich politicians who only care
about other rich people, and wouldn’t it be nice if they would buy his
groceries since he couldn’t afford to. He went on and on about how poor he was,
and how poor his mother out in New York was… and then he pulled out a Smart
phone. Now neither Light Bright nor I have Smart phones. Hey! Maybe that’s why
we can afford to buy groceries.
Famous Hat
4 comments:
There have been a few studies of big-city homeless shelters that found 20% of residents with smart phones. Reason: It's a lifeline to information.
How do they afford them? That's what we are wondering.
That's what my students always ask when I teach them about this. Answer: I do not know. I'm not sure the researchers do, either. But remember that "homeless" is not synonymous with "not employed." Example statistic from Minnesota:
"The employment rate for homeless adults in 2006 fell to 28 percent, with 12 percent working full time. From 1991 to 2000, the percentage of employed homeless adults more than doubled from 19 percent to 41 percent. The proportion working full-time rose over the same decade from 7.5 percent to 26 percent." [http://voiceschange.wordpress.com/welcome/statistics-of-homelessness/]
I think the guy was not as poor as he claimed to be but making conversation that the fat cats indeed suck.
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