[NON BLOG] Belonging to the Working Poor

[rfmcdonald]

Wednesday, I nicked the skin above my nail on my right index finger with an exacto knife as I opened some boxes of books. I kept it cleaned and bandaged, but by today it had managed to become infected, red and inflamed. On my supervisor's advice, I filled out an incident report and went to a nearby walk-in clinic, where, after a perfunctory examination, I was given a prescription for antibiotic pills and cream to fill at a nearby PharmaSave, where I had to acknowledge that, no, for the first time in my life I'm not covered under any health plan (my father's at work or my own at university).

While waiting in the PharmaSave, I realized that I now belong to that class of people known as the working poor. My income, I'm afraid, places me squarely in this category. I'm not depressed by this; in fact, I'm rather excited at the thought of belonging to any socioeconomic class apart from "dependent" in my own right. Of course, the search for positions with hgiher income will accelerate. (london_calling, what's the address of that website with jobs in charities?)

I'm certainly no Barbara Ehrenreich. I just thought it an interesting thing to mention.