h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You can be a consultant as we write the book, Lady Scott.

We'll want to make it clear in the foreword that some people already live very nicely while earning $1.42 or less each year--if they own huge mansions that can be rented out for princely sums, or if they are married to people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.

However, *those* people have no reason to buy such a book, or even read it. They already have things figured out.

No, the strategy that Michele and I will use is that an ordinary person can make a go of it. Actually, I don't really *know* how a person totally without assets could get by on such an income.Anybody got any ideas?

you make it sound as if americs were a slave race instead of the land of the free

Oh, but we are!

You see, the term "slavery" was abolished after our Civil War, but shortly afterward, the term "employment" was used instead. It's the exact same thing, albiet without the perks of a nicely appointed slave quarters and free offal! See? Only the name has been changed.

Michele is trying to make a go of being a freed slave, and you see how she is suffering. The basts have cut off her supply. She doesn't have enough cash to buy a roll of eau de toilet paper. They'll keep this up until she's forced to find herself a new master ... errr ... I mean, "employer". This "employer" is in turn enslaved by others who are above him in the chain and so on and so on until you get to Bill Gates. See?

Massa got me workin', Massa got me workin' ... Some day Massa set me free!

The term "Land of the Free" is used for propaganda purposes by our P.R. department.

Ain't nuthin' free in this country, and don't let them try to convince you otherwise!

Rants?

Oh dear... do I rant often?

And can anyone tell by my previous post that I'm just a little-teensie bit bitter at my ex boss???

And don't even get me started on where my tax money goes and which politician gets millions of tax dollars to do a study on how warts effect dating...





Oh dear... I guess I'm having another rant!

Michele, dear, we need to tap into your expertise on living on %1.42 per year, so we can share your secrets with the many other wage-slaves out there. What helpful hints can you pass along?

OH that's easy Paul! I'll share a few of my secrets now:

1. Coconut husks... yes you too can have new clothes if you learn how to make them out of coconut husks!

2. Give up all health and dental insurance - it's a waste of money anyway. I mean you spend large amounts of money monthly so that you can be healthy, and get poked and prodded in areas that shouldn't be shared with anyone other than yourself (gee, can I consider that a date?) but when you get ill, you've already been laid off and you don't have insurance anyway - so just think of all the money you've wasted those years you were healthy and employed! Besides - you know what Thomas Jefferson said... "an apple a day"! And apples are much cheaper than health insurance! (mind the worms...)

3. Macaroni & cheese! It's an entree, it's a side dish, in some countries it's considered a dessert! Carry a box around with you at all times. Learn to eat it raw, the crunchy noodles are better for you as they keep your teeth healthy which is good, because in the step above you gave up dental insurance anyway... remember?

Those are only a few tips I have in store for the readers Paul, but they'll just have to read the book for the rest!

*prepares for her book signing tours*

Yes, I desparately need a vacation..............................



































Oh wait, I'm already on a 6 week vacation!

Reckon that boy is fixin' to be lynched.


ER






You big show-off!

You don't need to gloat about it!

Do you have *any* idea just how lucky you are?!

Seriously, I truly hope you have a deep appreciation for just how blessed you are to be able to take so much vacation, especially since you're able to take it all at once, not to mention that you actually have the funds to travel such great distances and see so much of the world.

As you should be able to tell from this thread, not many people in this country *ever* have that kind of opportunity, or anything even close to it.

Unless they're rich!

I did get to go on a 7 day southern Caribean (sp?) cruise a couple of years ago, it was really affordable! (we went in October - which is considered an "off" month - but the weather was perfect!) so the cruise was only $549 a person, and with airfare and hotel in Puerto Rico, It was under a thousand a person.

Don't ask what I spent shopping though...

Okay, I won't ask.

Plastic shopping bags are another neat product that almost everyone has lots of, and they're free. I recycle them in all sorts of ways.
I use them to carry my laundry in when I go to the laundromat. I also use them for carrying my laundry to the laundromat. They come in very handy on laundry day. And they have many more uses as well.

Underwear, perhaps?

You're unaware?

Oh, wait, plastic shopping bags are great for insulating the walls of the cardboard box you have to live in. And if you have enough of them, you can stuff a mattress with them. Or wad a lot of them in a pillowcase and use it for a pillow. Punch tiny holes in the bottom of a bag, and use it for a coffee filter.

haven't bothered to read b/l - not my style.

have you thought about the economics of the thing? - artists here are obsessed with economics

with a lower standard of living, one needs less money. I manage to work p/t and admittedly get council help with rent, but apart from that apart from food. alcohol and books what does one really need to spend money on?

I save up and can travel, cos I don't own my own home and have no children. i don't spend money on possessions. All my furniture and white goods are 2nd hand.

Honestly I'm not gloating - just genuinely curious,

"Do you have *any* idea just how lucky you are?!" - Actually, I don't consider it to be "luck" at all. Australian workers fought long and hard during the 1960's and 1970's to set in place the conditions and ongoing wage arbitration which I now enjoy. Ongoing arbitration allows our wages to be incremented annually with regard to inflation and the like. We get four weeks of vacation leave per year and most employers will allow you to hold some over from one year to the next and take it all as, for example, a six week break. To quote Peter Daicos (an Australian Rules Footballer who will be unknown to most US citizens) "People always said I was lucky. But funnily enough, the harder I worked, the luckier I got".

I get to take a lot of vacation, but I take it a day at a time for the most part. An exception will be my European concert tour in early August. From August 1 to August 11, I will be singing in Prague, Vienna, and Budapest. But before you throw , bear in mind that (a.)I'll be wearing a wool tuxedo in August, and (b.) the trip will cost a prretty penny. Still, I'm hoping it will be fun.

Sounds like a fun trip.

Can you give us a preview now Paul?