Growing up in the highest per-capita income town in America, born into a very well off family, I have experienced just about nothing even remotely close to a low wage life. Being poor is something that terrifies me, seeing as I have lived my life with so much having been given to me.
During high school I was required to do very involved forms of community service. In my catholic middle school I did some community service, but that entailed things that were just simply helping out in my community, in which there was no one who was even remotely underprivileged. In high school I worked at a community centre in an urban area a few towns over from mine. I worked with children who had grown up in a world completely different from mine. They had no concept of the levels of security and material goods that I had grown up with.
This was an experience that really opened my eyes up. I had been living in a little stepford wives-esque little gated community that completely sheltered me from people that didn’t have all the benefits of an affluent background.
The closest that I ever got to living a “low wage” life would be recently during the recession. My dad works for a bank, and his job, like many other bankers, was in danger of being cut. As a precaution my family decided that we were going to be taking severe cutbacks on luxury items, in order to save money. This reduced wage lifestyle for me was a real change. Things that I took for granted like high speed internet, 1000+ channels of cable, and my car were all taken away. While I was completely understanding of the situation, it still was shocking to me how much those things had meant to me. How people lived without those “basic necessities” was beyond me, but in time I came to realise that they were just silly extras.
Fortunately I never had had to worry about losing anything more than these silly extras, but some people do have to worry very much about these things every day. While I have trouble dealing with the fact that I no longer was able to watch episodes of Dexter and The Tudors, every week due to my financial situation, there are people that have to deal with the fact that instead of paying for dinner, they are going to have to pay for healthcare.
I worked my first full time job as a caddie. This was at a very posh country club in my town that served as a weekend getaway for the rich who couldn’t make the trip to Nantucket or Cape Cod. While there I worked alongside with other junior high, high school and college students, but also, and more importantly, people that worked this job for a living.
This was an environment that had people who were working for their wellbeing, under people who make obscene amounts of money. It was a very odd and somewhat confusing situation to me. I never knew that people like them existed, and working alongside with them was very interesting and eye opening. This is something that I want to explore; people that work for the extremely rich, yet make a very small wage.