When The Rich Become Poor - "Nickel and Dimed"

Several years ago, as part of a Business ethics class I was teaching, our students were required to read a book called "Nickel and Dimed." The book is a quick read (less than 200 pages) and tells the story of Barbara Ehrenreich, an upper-middle class, country club attending type of writer from the outskirts of New York City -- Westport, Connecticut if my memory serves correctly.

Ehrenreich decided that she wanted to experience life as a member of the working poor. Her objective was to feel on a firsthand basis the daily frustrations involved with working a minimum wage type job. even after four years, I still think about this book, and am apparently not alone - it was a New York Times bestseller soon after its publication.

Why did this book touch a nerve? Let me try and count three ways.

After reading Barbara Ehrenreich’s book “Nickel and Dimed,” I believe that there are three good reasons for its success, and understand why it is an effective story and one which became a national best seller.

First, she emphasizes the points she wishes to make by diversifying her experiences. Rather than working one low paying job, she moves from one part of the United States to another, taking on different jobs at different companies. This gave her real world experience as a working poor person, but allowed her to view the picture from different angles. She was poor in Maine and poor in Minnesota. This allowed her to meet more people and gain the knowledge of many rather than a few. This gives her a greater depth of knowledge on what it is like to be poor. Also, by not staying in one location for a long period of time, she did not allow herself to develop any survival skills or shortcuts to help her situation.

Second, her book was effective because her normal lifestyle contrasted the one which she decided to live as a low-earning worker. If an individual was always working at a wage close to the poverty level and decided to write about it, the story wouldn’t be as interesting because to the writer, it would just be a story about his or her life as it always is. Because there is no shock value, it wouldn’t be easy for the writer to best describe their situation. Barbara Ehrenreich was effective because her own feeling of shock and helplessness communicated well to the reader because she did a good job at describing her feelings. I don’t believe a person who is normally poor would be able to express themselves as well. Therefore, Ehrenreich’s ability to contrast rather than compare to her normal life makes this story effective.

Finally, the author makes this an effective story by not just giving the reader her own opinions. She goes to great lengths to interview other co-workers to add more insights to her own. By telling other’s stories, and having the professional writer’s ability to put the correct words in place, Ehrenreich ends up telling the stories of poor workers in five different cities, which helps to complement her own experience. Making this a collaborative work gives emphasis to the plight of the working poor person who has to work long and hard hours at menial jobs every day just to keep a roof over their head, gas in the car and food on the table. And if the car runs out of gas, or the power goes out, or the bus breaks down, another problem develops. 

Ehrenreich does a good job at bringing this to our attention. Her use of detailed examples is excellent.

In all, this is a great story which probably needed to be told from a rich person’s point of view. It is easy to read, which makes it appealing for people of all economic and educational levels. It gives a great account on what it’s like to earn a living when you have to work at low paying jobs and shows the real world problems that these people face every day.

For Garner, Bowling Is More Than A Game

Century Lanes in Hampton, VA

For many of us, joining a bowling league is an opportunity to share great times and spirited competition among friends and co-workers. It’s an outlet, and little more. Sure, there is the chance to latch on to a dream team and win one’s league, a feat which comes with a marginal cash prize and bragging rights around the water cooler. In short, it’s fun. Because of the built-in handicap, the bowler with a 120 average has as much chance to be on a winning team as the more accomplished bowler who peaks at about 180. Interspersed among the masses of high rollers are a couple of gamers who average a smidge over 200. To average over 200 is to enter rarefied air and achieve an “Idol” like status within the league.

For Hampton’s Josh Garner, bowling is becoming more than just a game. You see, this season, Josh’s average is an unheard of 228.

And to quote Garner, this (average) is “kind of low for me.”

Looking at his history, this should come as no surprise. Although Garner just turned 21, his accolades in the sport exceed those of most bowlers who have been in the game since duck pins were popular. After all, how many people in your league were featured in Sports Illustrated?

Garner was, as a featured subject in the May 31, 2004 “Faces in the Crowd” section, and he was wasn’t even a teenager at the time. To quote SI, “Josh, a 12-year-old seventh grader at Spratley Middle School, became the third youngest person ever to bowl a perfect game and have an 800 series in the same day.”

Did I mention that he was 12 when this occurred?

Garner is the youngest Peninsula bowler to roll a 300 game, as well as the first to bowl back-to-back perfect games at Century Lanes in Hampton. For the record, his best series is 824, a staggering 274.7 average for three games.

More recently, Garner made local headlines when he rolled back-to-back 300 games. On September 19, he scored a perfect game (as part of a 746 series) on his home lanes at Century. Then, the next night he rolled another 300 as part of a 763 series, using a newly drilled ball which he pulled out of the box just before the game. For the former Kecoughtan graduate, these represented his 15^th and 16^th perfect games. For good showing, on September 26^th, during the Hampton Handicap League at Century, he rolled one more perfecto – number 17.

Bowling has become Garner’s game of choice these days, although he did pitch and play shortstop all four years of high school for the Warrior baseball team before graduating in 2009. It’s a year-round endeavor, with the typical winter season lasting approximately 36 weeks, followed by a truncated summer league which goes for “three or four months.”

As previously mentioned, bowling has become more than a game for Garner. Century Lanes had been owned by his grandparents for over 30 years, but when they passed on, it looked like new owners would take over.

Says Garner, “I was taking some classes at Thomas Nelson (CC). But when they (grandparents) passed, I decided to use some of the inheritance money to get the center back into the family. So I bought into Century Lanes.” For Garner, the move was part sentimental value (“my parents said that I started bowling as soon as I could push a ball”) and part business venture, a chance to put real world usage into the business theories learned in junior college.

There may be more chapters written in Garner’s bowling career. Along with becoming a part-owner of Century Lanes, he would like to move his game to the next step, which includes taking a shot at joining the PBA.

“In the near future, I’d like to work on getting some sponsors, so that I can pay the fees to enter into these larger tournaments, and hopefully become a professional.”

Century Lanes is located at 1519 East Pembroke Avenue, Hampton, VA. Their phone number is (757) 722-2551 and their website can be found at bowlcentury.com.

What Would Hobbes Have to Say?

With the presidential election over, I am hearing from a number of conservatives who are disgusted with the result. Most of them show up on the TV screen, but quite a few have been in person. This was undoubtedly the most divisive election of my lifetime, and it is boldly displayed in the data. The president won almost all of the voters in categories such as African-American and Latinos, while Romney won a huge majority within his bases.

Is this a metaphor for the future of
our American government?

However, there were many fewer voters than in 2008 – more than eight million (roughly 121 million in 2012 compared to 129 million in 2008). Some Americans were more disgusted with the mudslinging and media abuse than the choice of candidates and as Geddy Lee of Rush once sang “if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice.” Many chose to simply stay home and not be part of the process. These people have no legitimate reason to complain over the next four years.

Because of the ideological differences between President Obama and Governor Romney, it was hard for many voters to find common ground between the two, although they may have had a few consistencies. In a sense, the choice seemed to be for good versus evil, and the choice of candidate to play each role split right down the middle; in fact about 51-48, in favor of our current President winning the showdown and riding off into the sunset.

Getting back to the complaints I’m seeing and hearing, the main ones look at the President’s record over the past four years. Terms used such as ‘redistribution of wealth” come back in conversations labeled as “socialist.” Today the inevitable occurred as I saw a picture of a bumper sticker on Facebook. The sticker read “Welcome to the U.S.S.A – The United Socialist States of America.” In light of the angst displayed by many over the past few months, I think some of us saw that coming.

Regardless of one’s personal preference, the election is over and we need to come together to support the President’s second term. The people have spoken. Personally, I believe that the politicians have backed themselves so far into a corner that compromise is now a necessity of job security for our legislators. As a collective society, we chose to make few changes in a Congress that holds less than 20% job approval. Fool us twice? I'd hope not.

My hunch is that the person who could benefit most from a well-crafted compromise in the budgetary process is none other than the current chairman of the Budget committee, Congressman Paul Ryan. Hmmm, didn’t he just run for Vice-President? Balanced budget = 2016 Presidential candidacy?

For those who would like to read an old philosopher’s view of this, I would recommend a glance at Thomas Hobbes’ “The Leviathan.” In Hobbes’ view, people are usually driven by fear and the natural “State of Nature” is a violent one. For this reason, we need to be governed by one force which represents our collective identity, but one which has a large monstrous head. Regardless of your political preference, (and I disagree with the thought, but love the metaphor) it’s worth a look. 

Is It More Important to Make a Dollar or Make a Difference?

I guess this question popped up in my mind last Friday night. Hurricane Sandy had bounced off our southeastern coast of Virginia, taken a fatal northwest turn somewhere around Delaware and had decimated the Jersey shore. But as I caught up to the news, it became apparent that Staten Island, New York, home of my alma mater Wagner College, had caught the worst of the storm, and there were at least 22 casualities. Reading through Facebook posts made me realize that it was now at the forefront of the headline news.

Geraldo Rivera as an investigative reporter
for WABC-TV in New York during
the early 1970's

By chance, Geraldo Rivera flashed past my screen while I was channel surfing and I had to turn back. I knew there was a chance he’d be on top of this story. After all, Geraldo, then a rookie  newsman with WABC, earned his first famous scoop as a local investigative reporter in 1972 when he uncovered the atrocities which were occurring at the Willowbrook State School on Staten Island. I knew that the Island had a special meaning and he might be able to provide a keen insight into the blight of these hundreds of homeless people lined up near Midland Beach.

It was disappointing to watch. Obviously, Rivera is now jaded and far too comfortable in his own opulent lifestyle to truly communicate the importance of the moment. It’s not his fault. And Rivera has performed some remarkable acts of charity, including funding scholarships and paying the college tuition for selected students, some who he identified out of a group of 27 middle-schoolers, during a visit to Spanish Harlem.

But the fire wasn’t there for Geraldo the other night. Rivera talked with some of the victims, gave a few youngsters awkward rubs on the head, went to commercial and returned without the previous guests on several occasions, suggesting that they were “moved aside’ during the break.

The whole episode made me think, is he trying to make the best effort to help, or is this a good news topic to push ratings on his self-titled show? Money or mission? I wasn’t sure.

Being the social media age, it took minutes to pose the question on Facebook and receive many thought provoking responses to the question – “Is it more important to make a dollar or make a difference?”

Here are some of the responses I found to be most worthwhile. I know it’s trite to simply say “Thanks for sharing,” but I did appreciate the insight, especially from a couple of people who were in the eye of the storm and certainly thinking of more important things than answering my question.

Jehmeesah Walker The way I see it, making a difference is more important. BUT!...when you make a dollar, you have the resources to broaden the scope of that difference you're making…. The question I tend to struggle with is whether making a difference of a BROAD scope is more important than just making a difference, as small as it may be. In other words, is Beyonce's influence to be revered more than that of a pre-school teacher simply because it's farther-reaching? I don't really think so.

Michele Mascali Petersen The dollar may make your wallet or home full...but making a difference fills the heart and soul....'You can't take it with you'...and I'm sure at the Pearly Gates no one asks for your credit score...but yes, a paradox...unfortunately too many with the dollars keep it instead of spreading the wealth....

Terri Naudzunas DeMeno Jim, look at some of my photos (Terri currently lives on Staten Island and has posted some amazing pictures showing the intensity of the damage from Sandy), a difference it is what matters

Lisa Halvorsen Malatos Make the dollar to make the difference

Robert Stratton It is something that every thinking person should evaluate for themselves. Mr. Jefferson had the right idea with that "pursuit of happiness" language. I hope that there will also always be incentives for people to try to have both.

Christine Rugen Chale Susan is right Jim, I know so many people who are successful and still give back in so many ways.

Meredith Lynch Acacia It was a great question and I think there is merit in both but I do agree that it is easier to make a difference when you have the dollars to back up your intentions.

John Sargent False choice. You could do both...or neither.