I found myself manning a kiosk at a mall. It was not because I got drunk or went insane, though it would be more convincing that that was the reason. Instead, it was simply because I agreed to help out a friend who was going through tough times. The past month was not an easy time, if not for the sheer cognitive dissonance experienced during this time. In many respects, it was a rare glimpse into a world I seldom experience - the world that a growing number of people are facing - that of the lower class. It really is eye-opening what being in the shoes of someone else will reveal.
On the one hand, the lower class is accused of exhibiting self-defeating and self-destructive behavior. Their very composition keeps them from rising above poverty. On the other hand, the lower class have no choice but to behave in this manner, as they lack the luxury of an elevated emotion. This all became clear to me as I experienced it firsthand.
For the past month, after work (at the day job), I would man a kiosk selling anime and Chinese merchandise at the Galleria. This was a thought-provoking time. The first thing that I discovered was how much I took the respect people had around me for granted. At the kiosk, people are generally nice, but there are times when there is an aura of condescension, as if I was a beggar, begging for money. Of course, I knew that I was a professional with a good-paying day job. However, a question lingered in the back of my mind - what if I wasn't. What if my job was to man the kiosk, like so many people today? To that the answer is that my self-esteem would definitely suffer. Emotionally, I would definitely be drained. Thus, I have new respect for all the people employed in the service sector, whom I had previously dismissed as having worthless jobs, because for them to be able to face every day is a challenge.
Hard work for cheap pay. The hard work came in two forms - doing all the things that are required behind the scenes, such as the restocking, making sure the money was in order, opening and closing the kiosk, and selling to the customer, such as telling them about all the things we have which they might be interested in, engaging them in conversation, and sometimes resorting to psychological warfare in order to make them buy things. All these things were nontrivial, but the last one was hardest for me, because I don't like lying and I don't like recommending things to people that I don't think are very good. Perhaps the hardest situation I've faced was to accept someone's money for something when it seemed like that person was worse off than I was, but was buying something I thought was overpriced. Exacerbating the situation was when it was a parent who was buying an expensive toy for her child. During those times, I really hated being reliant on taking their money. As for the cheap pay, roughly two hours at my day job was equivalent to the whole day at the kiosk. The income inequality this suggests is shocking, and this is still comparing two working jobs. Again, this created a sense of respect in me for the people who are forced to accommodate this lifestyle.
Finally, at the end of the day, after the day was over, I would find solace in a bowl of ramen. It was an extremely good bowl of ramen, mind you. Yet, supposing that the kiosk was all the income I had, half of the day's pay would be blown on the bowl of ramen. Despite knowing that, I would still do it, because the ramen was just that satisfying a reward for toughing the day out. From a different perspective, by the end of the day, I was in sore need for some satisfaction, regardless of the cost. Now I understood why working class people face the challenges that they face; why saving is such a challenge; why living within their means is so hard.
As a footnote, working at the mall, and seeing the people who walk around in there, I am quite shocked at the standard of living people have. It would not be a stretch to say that the average American now is quite poor, financially speaking. With no bright economic future ahead, there is really a sense of doom.
