About fifteen years ago, I was laid off from a teaching position. I’d seen the lay offs coming when I went to meet a buddy in HR to take to lunch and she was sitting in her office, sealing hundreds of form letters, and she acted all nervous.
I left but I knew that the cuts were coming.
We got laid off the end of the 1st week of April, which was significant for two reasons: I was intending to quit in June to take another teaching position, and the lay offs came during the beginning of the whole housing crisis so health insurance and unemployment were extended for the laid off, on April 2nd, to 99 weeks each. If they had laid us off 1 week earlier—-they did some in the initial waves—— I would’ve been screwed.
I happily signed the form to get a chunk pay of about 2 months, plus I had savings. I immediately applied for unemployment to not deplete my savings, which I put into the stock market—-I would day trade all day through the summer—-my next teaching position to begin in August.
Turns out from yet almost a decade prior, when I first found out about unemployment and applied for it, while consulting, I had somehow gone over my “allotted” amount. Which meant that instead of getting $25 plus $400 a week, I wasn’t eligible for the $400+ for like 8 to 12 weeks to pay back the shortfall from previous years. But the $25 was for the recession. so I would get that, weekly.
I had paid off my rent and utilities so really the $25 was for food.
At first I was nervous—-could I make it to the end of the summer?
My shopping list was tight!
- One week a 5lb bag of rice
- The next week 4 to 5 boxes of pasta.
- One week a pork roast and bag of chicken—-both about 5 to 10lbs.
- Two 3 liter sodas.
- Cake mix/frosting
- Frozen vegetables.
- Jar of pasta sauce
- Hamburger meat.
Essentially on the $25 a week, I varied through the above, buying one staple, two meats and veggies, a week—-and through thoughtful planning, it would last. What I also did was I would go to sleep through the daytime, I’m a night owl anyway. I would get up by 9am to trade stocks, go back to sleep until 4pm, to see the results. Have a late lunch and then a late dinner. Sleeping at least 12 hours a day. Besides writing and stock trading, I really had nothing to do.
Week 7 or 8 my mother tells me she’s seen all of these programs on TV, go to Social Services—-I’m a displaced worker due to the fact I was laid off from a non-profit—-they have benefits for workers like me. It takes her a week to talk me into it but I go. I walked to save on carfare and it was summer—-60 blocks to and back. With a bottle of ice water. Fill out applications, talk to social worker—-the guy who takes your pic for your EBT card actually hit on me. I didn't understand he was hitting on me, he was asking me so many questions—-and I’d never been in such an office so I thought he was entering information to my account until it got too personal.
He was not attractive enough to reciprocate. Think nerdy guy, badly dressed, who has attained the career status by 30+ of taking pictures for EBT cards at Welfare. No, he doesn’t even create the cards, he just takes the digital picture and matches it to your file in the computer. (Which is why I thought he was also part of the overall interview process—-all the little beige rooms lookalike and I’d never been at Welfare for an EBT card——and he was asking from my personal information.)
The social worker tells me I have to come back in a week. I thought the whole “emergency food stamps” was like-an emergency you’re hungry today? Plus I had to go to another office, downtown—-train rides—-where the cards are actually printed up. Yes, inefficient. This amassed to almost two weeks to apply, walking there once, then to get the card then walking back there again with the card to be activated at the office that I had to walk to. The HEIGHT of inefficiency. It’s like they sort of don’t trust themselves so they’ve compartmentalized each function but they’ve compartmentalized the function-offices—-200 blocks way from one another.
When I get there with the card for activation I’m in line behind the REAL Welfare recipients, including a woman with 4 kids, who was mad because she was only getting $900!!!!! a month in Food Stamps. I’d been living on $25 in cash, I couldn’t believe it—-but then I looked at all her kids.
I get to the counter and they activate/deposit the Food Stamps onto my card—-$400—-because they calculated from my end work date/last check—-like May to this September date—-I remember it was Labor Day weekend. Ironically in the meantime I’d been accepted and had my start date at Columbia University so it would be my first and last time (so I thought). I went to Gristedes and both steaks and lobster and Pepsi and just a swath of missed foods, fresh fruits and vegetables—-just sacks and sacks of food. lol But if you calculated it—-it was about $25 a week. lol
I’ve shared this story in school/classes and online and one of the odd questions is why I bought such high end food.
- One, that’s my personal taste level.
- Two, it was given to me, Kyle, under my name for my food choices—-good, bad, expensive.
- Three, I’ve been working since I was 7; I got a Tax ID # for my birthday at 14 because I was running a small amateur national comic book company so I had to pay business taxes from expenses;
- I worked full time from 14 when I could legally work to not only help support that business but also household expenses—-I was responsible for my personal phone and food for the family/house from my paychecks—-which taxes were deducted from.
- By 18 I was paying half of the mortgage on the condo after I finished high school, several years before my family was balanced, after lay offs that I wasn’t financially needed.
- I worked 5 jobs to put myself through undergraduate and had worked for at least 10 years before the above layoff, with only 1 month off between consulting contracts/companies, etc..
I say the above to say—-I’ve paid taxes for close to 25+ years, since I was a teen, Social Services is a net, to catch citizens from being destitute and having to do something insane like move down South to live with their parents—-as my mother suggested, twice, when I got laid off (and perhaps haring the two of them in their house).
I’ve earned the safety net because I’ve contributed to it for decades.
The second time—-Columbia actually advised us—-because of the contingent way students/adults are paid—-to take advantage during our no-pay times of both Unemployment and Social Services and tell them Columbia sent you—-they’re office is like 3 blocks from campus—-there was literally a desk waiting for thousands of us.
I think they gave me like $200 in Food Stamps then.
Ironically I got seriously ill undergraduate but was able to recover over the summer yet had to move off of campus as a trade off for university non-liability and being a student. The university actually used Social Services to get me an apartment—- 3 times in 20+ years times—-working for all of those 20+ plus years, with the exception of say 3 months in total—-I’ve received about $5000 from Social Services.
- On an average of $50,000 a year in averaged salaries, about $12,000, in taxes, times 20.
- So on about $250,000 INTO the System, I’ve gotten back about $5000 in aid when I needed it.
- Even if you calculate in Unemployment—-another $25,000 sporadically over the years—-I’ve gotten $30,000 or 10% of what I’ve put in in Federal, State, Local taxes and FICA.
- AND on top of that I’ve paid Business Taxes.
I don’t believe in the concept of fair. I tell (myself/my students) that I live on Earth, not the planet Fair. Only children under 10 years old expect fair and we should disabuse ourselves of that entitled expectation by then.
But that $25 a week and my subsequent budgets, when alone—-up to about $150 a week, have taught me how to budget for food, my tastes, my aesthetic, which is a good thing. It’s like a super power—-I know I could go allllllllll the way down to $25 for myself. I think that’s valuable experiential knowledge. Also knowing how to cook—-that really is what builds that budget into a healthy intake of nutrients—-that’s another thing I’ve known how to do well since I was a child.
I know how to live on the cheap or modulate based upon goals, etc..
I think poverty/low resources can be a skillset but not a lifestyle.
#KylePhoenix
#TheKylePhoenixShow
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