|
How does class affect how you spend your non-working hours and impact your vacation options?
Survey Responses:
As an independent double-major undergrad paying my own way through college, there is very little time for leisure or vacations. So I try to incorporate fun activities in with my work, such as travelling as a student abroad or letting my parrots ""supervise"" my research papers. I also shoot for jobs which compliment my education or personal interests somehow; I'd sooner do clerical work for professors or tech for an avian vet, than flip burgers or cashier someplace, for example. It isn't that these jobs are better, but the skills aquired are rellevent and often help me bridge the divide.
I'm on public assistance for a lifelong disability. I don't have a job. I can't afford vacations or a car, even if I could drive safely. Working-class and middle-class people alike lecture me about how I spend their tax money and how I spend my free time. If I don't spend every moment of the day sitting around suffering, and every penny of my income on the bare essentials, there are plenty of people ready to call me a parasite or lecture me on my choices. They consider this their business because it's their tax money. As a result, I'm often reluctant to show anyone what I do with my time or how I spend my money. Even anonymously like here. The message many of these hardworking taxpayers send is that they know all about me and can tell me what to do with my time and money just because I don't have a job and they do. Some patiently and patronizingly justify their classism. They ""explain"" the old leech / criminal / malinger / welfare queen stereotypes and say this is why they can't trust us to make decisions. It's especially not supposed to be considered classism if it comes from the working class rather than the middle or upper classes. That's when I'm supposed to understand the difference between noble hardworking Americans and parasitic scum. But it is classism. And after getting told what to do enough I'm not likely to say what I do with my time or money. Even if it's something so small that it wouldn't be a big deal to most of the people who tell me what to do. So I only talk about this stuff to people who aren't going to chew me out about it, which means either people who are also on public assistance or people who don't consider us worthless leeches.
As an undergrad college student, a struggling independent, and a daughter to a comfortably middle class family, I am forced into a confused sense of leisure. While most of the time (on my own) I try to spend as little as possible on leisure, seeking out free activities as much as possible, and feeling guilty any time I spend any money on say a movie ticket or a beer at a bar, I also occasionally go on (or am conned/forced into going on) vacations with my parents where a concern for spending is basically non-existent.
I am a farmer's daughter with a master's degree in art-resulting in a huge student loan debt. I am as-educated as my middle class peers, but make the same amount of salary as the working poor. I have three friends who are professors. They have money and free time to go on camping vacations. I am left at home to take care of their cats. I am ashamed every time an academic person asks what I plan to do for the summer. I plan to barely pay my bills and take care of my friends' cats.
Class and its social and psychological effects can and does engulf people with a unspoken given reality of never quite been acceptable, respectable, or worthy enough of a normal existence:-/
Read earlier survey responses:
June 2006: What are the ways that you see class or classism play out in your spiritual community or congregation of faith?
May 2006: When did you first become aware of your class or class differences? How old were you?
March 2006: All U.S. citizens benefit from different forms of government assistance. Some are more stigmatized than others. What forms of assistance benefit you and others in your class?
February 2006: How do class differences impact your relationships?
January 2006: What privileges should we all have?
Are there any privileges none of us should have?
December 2005 Survey Question:
How do class issues come up for you during the end-of-year "consumer" holidays?
November 2005 Survey Question: Please tell us about your experiences of class, class differences, and classism in your education/school.
October 2005: Tell us about a time you've either been an ally to someone or had someone be an ally to you around issues of class.
September 2005: What are the ways you see the race and class divisions exposed by Katrina?
August 2005: What class did you grow up in? What was good or bad about your class experience growing up?
July 2005: What are your strongest memories connecting race and class?
June 2005: The New York Times and Wall Street Journal each ran their own series on class. What is your response to the recent press on class?
May 2005: The good, the bad, and the ugly of cross-class relating
|
