I played this pretend for a while in Boston. I say pretend, because I had a middle class parents safety net that I eventually returned to, and finished my degree. I don't know what this is like without a safety net. I can only imagine, because it isn't great even with one. I commonly borrowed from the bank of ecib to make rent, and much of my check was spoken for before I got it. Fishing through the sofa and house for a $0.99 7-Eleven hotdog dinner, walking across town at 11pm to get an expired bagel sandwich from my roommate at the coffee shop. There is no fucking way I could have done anything but get trapped in debt working at a Hardware store. I'm a privileged sob.Mondays are paydays at McDonald's. Before I leave for my hospital job, I get my McDonald’s paycheck. It's $215, for 2 weeks of work. I know I will be broke by Wednesday.
My privilege was realizing that (A) I made it through college largely by having a lot of credit cards, which I got because I was at a decent college, which means I established a credit rating early and which means I used revolving credit to get through most stuff and (B) I kept those credit cards from eating me alive by applying the sum total of my meager inheritance from my dead grandparents to them.
Anyone spending four hours a day on a bus in order to make $9.50 an hour is not getting their veggies on the reg. There are some choices at McDonald's that aren't terrible but the poor lady is basically working 80 hours a week in order to get two part-time jobs.Another tragedy and humiliation here is that a diet rich in McDonalds is likely a factor in her diabetes.