I just finished this book called Nickel and Dimed by Barbara Ehrenreich. I got the book from the center library and really became intrigued by it. The author, Barbara, moved from city to city, taking minimum wage jobs in restaurants, hotels, even Walmart. And she proved that a person could not live indoors without two jobs, 7 days a week. It was a vicious cycle that she got in and it really opened my eyes to these workers lives. In one chapter she said" What you don't necessarily realize when you start selling your time by the hour is that what you're actually selling is your life". These workers lives are consumed with working just to get from one day to the next. There is no getting ahead or catching a break, the companies value profit not employees, but they can't quit because that would mean a break from one pay to the next. It really made me start to look at the lady checking me out at Walmart. I thought to myself, she's pregnant, on her feet 8+ hours a day and might have to work another job just to fuel her car, if she has a car at all. And there's me, buying a hundred dollars worth of "stuff" that I don't need to "decorate" our house. Where is the logic in that?
I'll leave you with her last statement in the book...
"The "working poor," as they are approvingly termed, are in fact the major philanthropists of our society. They neglect their own children so that the children of others will be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other homes will be shiny and perfect; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high. To be a member of the working poor is to be an anonymous donor, a nameless benefactor, to everyone else. As Gail, one of my restaurant coworkers put it, "you give and you give".
What can we, as Christians, do?
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There is a girl at my work, who also works a second full time job, and is single mom. Just for her to afford to work and have a car good enough for her son, she works 2 jobs, and typically sleeps something horrible like 3 hours a night. Somehow, she squeezes going to the gym in, simply because she says she has to have a stress break. Everyone thinks she's crazy. But it makes sense.
Part of this issue is that it's Corporate America; not to be a cop-out, and it's a serious issue, and it's huge. I just overwhelmed not knowing what to do.
Hi. I just came though here to catch up on Amanda's blog. This particular post really caught my interest. A couple of posts down Amanda is learning how to acknowledge God in everything and ask for His favor. I fully agree with this perspective (or is it a way of life?) and I encourage you to continue with that.
Interestingly, this current post is really a derivative of that one. When people make money a God in their life, putting all their time and energy into the creation of money, the result is that this cruel "god" consumes them. Contrast this to the "acknowledge God in everything" attitude and you can plainly see where the answer is for people trapped in the cycle of poverty and idolatry. What they desperately need is to have their eyes opened to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He is the only one who can break this destructive cycle of sin in their lives. What we can do is to share with them as best we can the good news of the true God who loves them and has died (and rose again!) in order to set them free! And pray pray pray that they will "see the light".
Love in Christ,
Howard
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