(no subject)
there are two things in modern american society that are in need of demystification: sex and money.
money maybe even more than sex.
now you can even talk about sex at the dinner table.
i am very interested in the social significance of money. of the idea of working, selling your time and talents, your labor and your self, for a price. of the idea that work is what our society is founded on, that everyone must work in order to spend, so that others may work, in order to spend.
much of my interest in work and money manifests itself as an attempt to find a way of "dropping out" of the cycle of consumerism. of finding a way out of what marx called alienated labor ("my work would be a free manifestation of life, hence an enjoyment of life. presupposing private property, my work is an alienation of life, for i work in order to live, in order to obtain for myself the means of life. my work is not my life.") so far, this has lead me to working in freelance (no boss, my work is, in theory, my own), in a job i enjoy (doing what i do because i like it, not solely to make a living), and trying to cut down my expenses so that i don't have to work any more than i want to work.
that's my definition of privilege: not having to work. and not in a born rich sort of way. in the way what i spend, i spend carefully. and that i am content with less.
a new favorite blog find: myopenwallet. in which the blogger, an anonymous woman in her 30s living in brooklyn, writes about "how much money I make, what I spend it on, how much I save, how I budget, my home-buying experiences, my financial goals and ambitions, my thoughts on class and what it means to be rich or poor, and anything else that relates to money."
a few favorite entries:
how i could be living
woulda shoulda coulda
if everyone had a personal financial blog
this is the spirit in which i want to be open about money. so when i tell you that my rent on an apartment i l-o-v-e is $330, in new york, or that the boots you like so much cost me $2 on the street in jersey city, i'm not really trying to brag. i'm trying to encourage an open dialogue in which a force that rules so much of our lives is not too taboo to talk about.
money maybe even more than sex.
now you can even talk about sex at the dinner table.
i am very interested in the social significance of money. of the idea of working, selling your time and talents, your labor and your self, for a price. of the idea that work is what our society is founded on, that everyone must work in order to spend, so that others may work, in order to spend.
much of my interest in work and money manifests itself as an attempt to find a way of "dropping out" of the cycle of consumerism. of finding a way out of what marx called alienated labor ("my work would be a free manifestation of life, hence an enjoyment of life. presupposing private property, my work is an alienation of life, for i work in order to live, in order to obtain for myself the means of life. my work is not my life.") so far, this has lead me to working in freelance (no boss, my work is, in theory, my own), in a job i enjoy (doing what i do because i like it, not solely to make a living), and trying to cut down my expenses so that i don't have to work any more than i want to work.
that's my definition of privilege: not having to work. and not in a born rich sort of way. in the way what i spend, i spend carefully. and that i am content with less.
a new favorite blog find: myopenwallet. in which the blogger, an anonymous woman in her 30s living in brooklyn, writes about "how much money I make, what I spend it on, how much I save, how I budget, my home-buying experiences, my financial goals and ambitions, my thoughts on class and what it means to be rich or poor, and anything else that relates to money."
a few favorite entries:
how i could be living
woulda shoulda coulda
if everyone had a personal financial blog
this is the spirit in which i want to be open about money. so when i tell you that my rent on an apartment i l-o-v-e is $330, in new york, or that the boots you like so much cost me $2 on the street in jersey city, i'm not really trying to brag. i'm trying to encourage an open dialogue in which a force that rules so much of our lives is not too taboo to talk about.