[NON BLOG] Again, my socioeconomic status
Oct. 4th, 2004 07:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rfmcdonaldLate last night, after disembarking from the west-east TTC subway line on Bloor and before boarding a southbound subway heading south ultimately towards Osgoode, I picked up a copy of the weekend National Post, a free one with part of the top half of the front page neatly razored off by the Indian family that was closing up its convenience stall at 11 o'clock. (I only get the National Post free of charge, I hasten to say, whether as a late-night discard or as an early-morning complimentary copy at the Drake after I buy my morning breakfast. I never pick up the Sun; I have certain standards.)
Including with the National Post was a free copy of Saturday Night, formerly a standalone weekly magazine and now (after Black and under CanWest hegemony) also an insert in the weekend National Post. The theme of last weekend's issue of Saturday Night was housing, and it began with an article condemning Mike Harris' destruction of social housing in Ontario as fundamentally wrong-headed, particularly given that there is a housing crisis generally. Social housing, the article noted, was intended for the working poor, an income classification defined by the writer as including people who use put than 30% of their income towards their home.
As I read that article, I realized that I put 40% of my income towards my rent. Adding on things like my Metropass and credit card bills, and the percentage rapidly ratchets up. Including discretionary spending on things like food, it even hits the triple-digit percentage level.
Two weeks ago, I observed that I belong to Toronto's working poor. Back then, as I wrote, I was bemused. Now, I'm vaguely perturbed, and oddly excited. I'm on my own in a vast and diverse city that offers almost as many opportunities for self-destruction (if you want to self-destruct) as for success (if you can swing success). The metropolis' annhilatory potential feels almost as active now as it ever did when I was jumping on the CN Tower's glassed floor area.
I like this, I think.
Including with the National Post was a free copy of Saturday Night, formerly a standalone weekly magazine and now (after Black and under CanWest hegemony) also an insert in the weekend National Post. The theme of last weekend's issue of Saturday Night was housing, and it began with an article condemning Mike Harris' destruction of social housing in Ontario as fundamentally wrong-headed, particularly given that there is a housing crisis generally. Social housing, the article noted, was intended for the working poor, an income classification defined by the writer as including people who use put than 30% of their income towards their home.
As I read that article, I realized that I put 40% of my income towards my rent. Adding on things like my Metropass and credit card bills, and the percentage rapidly ratchets up. Including discretionary spending on things like food, it even hits the triple-digit percentage level.
Two weeks ago, I observed that I belong to Toronto's working poor. Back then, as I wrote, I was bemused. Now, I'm vaguely perturbed, and oddly excited. I'm on my own in a vast and diverse city that offers almost as many opportunities for self-destruction (if you want to self-destruct) as for success (if you can swing success). The metropolis' annhilatory potential feels almost as active now as it ever did when I was jumping on the CN Tower's glassed floor area.
I like this, I think.
