Why drive for Uber? At my age, education, and experience level?
“And maybe to make you a little angry.”
Some things I’ve either this summer said “maybe next week” or still can’t really purchase:
- Toothpaste (at least the good kind).
- Some over-the-counter meds like active antacids.
- Coffee. Of course I couldn’t do this without caffeine, but coffee costs occupy my thoughts. It deserves its own post.
- Dental work. I need a lot.
- Shoes. I’m skating on two pair. One is a very-well-worn pair of sneaks with a number of blatant holes. The other a barely presentable brown casual dress. Not sure how to resolve this.
- Mattress pad for a really lumpy mattress.
- Speaking of sleep, the Dog needs cranberry supplements. The vet says she’ll stop waking me at 3AM if we buy these. At $20, there are other priorities.
- Eye glasses. (Real ones).
- A replacement for the wifi router that got damaged in the storm.
- Socks. Nearly all have large holes. It’s not a pricey item, but see the next item.
- Bill payments early in the month instead of pressing the deadline each cycle. (Almost made it this month!).
- Really, any meeting I might otherwise have chosen to attend, from 15 May to 15 Sept. this year. Last year, these were all covered by consulting and repair earnings. This summer, that income dropped off the cliff.
- Pants. Faded jeans are the new Jeans Shorts. No self-respecting adult would be caught mowing grass in them. Yet that’s my normal workday uniform, with a few non-factory holes. When I go to meetings, I pretend that people in Columbus or Pittsburgh see me so infrequently they’ll assume its coincidence I always wear the same pants and tie.
- Dinner in a restaurant. The last time I ordered a dinner entree just for the pleasure of dining out? You wouldn’t even believe if I told you. Too, my body is past the point I should still be abusing it with McDonald’s dollar menu.
- Business cards: they need updated with the new website domain name. Not this month.
You get the picture.
To be sure, my teeth got brushed at least twice a day. And I could have foregone the $3 pint after #edCamp in Pittsburgh last May. I could drive a 15 year old vehicle instead of a 10 year old one (although Uber doesn’t allow it). I’m sure there’s some better income source you know of that I’m just not seeing.
The point is to illustrate the mismatch of today’s low wage cash economy. And maybe to make you a little angry.
I’m working four part-time jobs, and redesign the American High School — doing a damn good job of it — in between.
Maybe the people who manage the funds to improve high school — and know of me — don’t actually want it to happen?
Ed Jones is bootstrapping a Statewide Experiment in Customized Teen Learning, leads the Hackable High Schools movement, and once redesigned the world’s most complex software/electronics system. He works to publish the book Hacking High School, Making School Work for All Teens, and lives & works (usually) in Appalachian Ohio.
