Stratification Exercise

This is gonna be soooo much fun, k?  Yes.  Alright, here's the deal.  When I was working on my master's degree in sociology, I had a stratification course which dealt with amongst other things, the SES or socio-economic-status of groups, families, regions, countries, counties, and individuals.  Generally SES is based on education (level obtained), income, and occupation.

Now, my prof was a very groovy guy indeed.  He liked hands-on stuff.  So we found out what the current poverty level for 1 person household according to the government's definitions.  Then we took that and made a budget, complete with housing, rent, water, sewage, garbage, power, gas, insurance, mode of transportation, household items, personal hygene items, clothing, health insurance, oh! and let's not forget food and medications and non-essentials like entertainment.  Build this imaginary person's life with realistic limitations.

Ya know what?  Out of a class of about 25, I was the ONLY person who could do the exercise completely and feasibly.  Ya wanna know why?  Because I lived it.

When I was 18, getting ready to apply for financial aid for undergraduate school, I reported my family's income.  It was a family of four.  Our household income was less at that time than it would be some 7 years later for ONE person.

So having said that, whip out your pads and pens, boys and girls, cuz we goin do us some rithematicin.

The goal is to come up with ONE month's budget (including rent, water, sewage, garbage, power, gas, clothing, personal hygene items, household items, food, medications, transportation, etc.) for ONE person with an income of $600.

(and by the way, that's generous, very very generous, i receive less than that)