I've Been a Bad Bad Boy
7 hours ago
Thursday, April 11, 2013
Inflation?
Yesterday afternoon while walking back to class with a student, I spotted a quarter on the ground. "Look!" I said, tapping it with my foot since my arms were full. "A quarter." He stopped, looked at it for a few seconds, and shrugged. "Meh," he said and continued walking. "Then pick it up for me," I told him. "I'm not as rich as you are." He smiled and carried it to our room.
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I've no reference point. What will a quarter get you. Get, in a universal meaning. Like a big pear is €2. An apple about 50c. 500ml of Coke is €1.30
ReplyDeleteIt won't get you much anymore...maybe $0.50/$0.75 for a 12oz can of soda on the cheap end, an apple about the same. The kids can't buy anything at school for a quarter. They are our biggest coin (other than a few half dollars still circulating and the random dollar coin used at the train station) so they do add up.
DeleteI tried to get the info before I asked. All I could find was the Sacramento stats price index saying it cost $10 more a week to live that people are getting in La Met area and the SF Met. $230 in the average pocket with 240 being the needful.
DeleteIt's no darn wonder he didn't pick it up.
Right!?!? You aren't kidding. I feel like those numbers are low too, must be the least livable amount? This time of year it's worse too. Our gas prices go up due to the use of "summer" gas which in turn makes everything else we pay for go up.
DeleteThe funny thing is the majority of my students, I'd say 3/4, qualify for free or reduced lunch due to their family's limited (or undocumented) income. It always surprises me when those kids who are part of the program come to school with $2-$5 every single day to buy from the snack bar. I still pick up quarters because I'm paying for their lunch. :)
Yes, but that's the true indicator of poverty. That $3 a day for 180 days is 540. They won't ever have the 540 at one time, but the 3 or even 3x6 daily is possible. It's the same with rent. The poor pay weekly, everyone else monthly. And when you pay weekly there is are 13 months. That poor always have some cash in their pocket, always. It's like the chick out for a night with a 50 tucked in the cup of her bra for a taxi.
DeleteBTW, do you know how Ryanair and Southwestern make their real money. Snacks.
Oh, don't even get me started on snacks! The food company who services the schools in the valley sells the snacks in addition to the school lunches. We've told them numerous times that we shouldn't be selling hot cheetohs and cookies and slurpees to the kids at school. But it continues because crap sells better (and is cheaper) than anything nutritious. That's how they make their money too.
DeleteYou are rich : ).
ReplyDeleteYou are right.
DeleteI actually had him drop it in the classroom change dish. If someone needs a few cents, they can take it from there.
DeleteI still would pick up a penny if I were alone.
ReplyDeletePennies are hardly worth the effort. I don't even like carrying them in my wallet.
DeleteHa! Perhaps not so much inflation as not knowing the value of $. Kids these days don't get $ or change for allowances...they get gift cards and their parents swipe a plastic card for what they purchase. When I was a kid I knew what a dollar could buy...(okay, what 25 cents could buy,) but kids don't use money...so why bother.
ReplyDeleteTGIF! I had an amazing field trip today and best of all I don't feel like I taught...what a great way to start a weekend!
You could be on to something. That's a really good point.
DeleteAs for field trips...I'm glad you had fun. I'd prefer to stay at school. Field trips cause me so much anxiety. It's never happened but I'm always afraid I'm going to lose someone. I have nightmares about it the night or two before going on a field trip. Everyone is always complaining about there being no money for field trips (which is a valid complaint), but it makes me secretly happy that we only go once a year. That's about all I can handle. :)
Probably more laziness than inflation!
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