Scratch Beginnings
by Adam Shepard · first published 2007
13mentions
4recommended by
12HN commenters
2010–2020first – last mentioned
33% recommend67% neutral
Adam Shepard graduated from college in the summer of 2006 feeling disillusioned by the apathy he saw around him and incensed after reading Barbara Ehrenreich's famous works Nickel and Dimed and Bait and Switch—books that gave him a feeling of hopelessness over the state of the working class in America. Eager to see if he could make something out of nothing, he set out to prove wrong Ehrenreich's theory that those who start at the bottom stay at the bottom, and to see if the American Dream can still be a reality.Shepard's plan was simple. Carrying only a sleeping bag, the clothes on his back, a
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…"Nickel and Dimed" that I had with this game. She made a series of completely irrational decisions which resulted in expenses larger than they needed to be. As a counter to this, I highly recommend Scratch Beginnings by Adam Shepard. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061714275/ref=as_li_ss_tl?... The summary, from Amazon: Adam Shepard graduated from college feeling disillusioned by the apathy around him and was…
on “Flash Game Simulates Living on $9/hr.” ↗…opportunities to improve her situation (e.g., her managers offered her promotions, etc). She turned them all down since she wasn't aiming to write a "how to lift yourself out of poverty" book. See also the book "Scratch Beginnings", about how a guy started with only $25 and got himself into a stable financial situation (e.g., apt, pickup truck, $5k in savings) in only 10 months with only hard work. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061714275/ref=as_li_ss_tl?...
on “Amber Waves of Green” ↗…hablo Ingles. But I'm sure that those illegal Mexicans are suffering from privilege, unlike the white man born into a country where welfare benefits usually exceed the mean GDP/Capita of Mexico. The book Scratch Beginnings is well worth a read: https://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings-Search-American-Dr... I'm not even sure what you're suggesting though. It sounds like you're suggesting that we should continue shaming…
on “Basic income doesn't emphasize divisions between poor and working people” ↗If you're going to read the story of someone determined to prove you can't get ahead in the US you should also read that of someone determined to show you can. Scratch Beginnings http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings-Search-American-Dre... > I am going to start almost literally from scratch with one 8′ by 10′ tarp, a sleeping bag, an empty gym bag, $25, and the clothes on…
on “The Disneyfication of a University” ↗This reminds me of the book "Scratch Beginnings" except that the guy in the book was gone for a year and had the goal of getting a stable job, car etc. It's a good read.
on “Homeless Experiment” ↗…people are not young, athletic, with good physical and mental health, no dependents, and the background security of being able to leave their circumstances immediately any time they want. The book is "Scratch Beginnings" by Adam Shepard, btw.
on “What really drives the poor” ↗>Shepard's plan [in "Scratch Beginnings"] was simple. // If he did the same but tutoring a small group of randomly chosen people from the jobless line who were nonetheless motivated to achieve then I think he'd be on to something. Now just…
on “Flash Game Simulates Living on $9/hr.” ↗A similar "homeless experiment" is documented in Adam Shepard's book "Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream." After graduating from college, he moved to Charleston, South Carolina with just $25 and a sleeping bag. He had the systemic advantages of being an educated,…
on “An Unremarkable Event in the Tenderloin” ↗Someone did this experiment and wrote a book about it: Scratch Beginnings: Me, $25, and the Search for the American Dream http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings-Search-American-Dre...
on “Capitalism Has Gone Off the Rails” ↗In https://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Beginnings/dp/0061714275/ the author leaves everything behind and builds everything up again. There's no riches though (unless his book sold really well).
on “What is the best “I was broke and almost 30” autobiography you can think of?” ↗…his own book. Shepherd started with $25, a sleeping bag, a tarp, and an empty gym bag and ten months later managed to have a job, an apartment, a pickup truck, and $5300: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_Beginnings
on “Poor in India Starve as Politicians Steal $14.5 Billion of Food” ↗…very complex and 2 views can be different and at the same time true. Nickel and Dimed[0] is a book on low-wage jobs and how it is difficult to get by without support from some kind of social program. Scratch beginnings[1] is the story of a guy that tried to live in a shelter and get by. In ten months he had moved into an apartment, bought a pickup truck, and had saved around $5,300. Both these stories are opposing,…
on “Ask HN: How do you avoid cherry-picking data?” ↗…unavoidable costs are precisely the sort of problem that have repeatedly been shown to thwart the accumulation of wealth among the poor. Ironically, the referenced book (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scratch_Beginnings) was specifically written to rebut Barbara Ehrenreich's first person book on poverty, Nickel and Dimed. A major theme of that book is the debilitating impact of catastrophic costs, health care in particular,…
on “What really drives the poor” ↗