$2 a Day Begins

For Dr. Shawn Humphrey's Economic Development Class (Econ 384) I and 21 other students am going to be living on $2 a day for one week starting six hours from this post. Why, you might ask? -- Indeed. Why would an average American want to live on the equivalent of ONLY one small, or is it venti, Starbucks coffee per day for five days straight? The answer is that 2.8 billion people do just that every day. Out of the 6 billion people in the world, roughly a third of them live on less than $2 a day, 1.3 billion (or all of China) live on less than $1 a day. And so I wanted to see what it was like to live not as an average American, but rather like an average citizen of the rest of the world.

Today was the first great challenge of American Capitalism. I had to venture out into the mayhem of Central Park, and more specifically that of Wal-Mart to see just how far $10 would take me. The items that I was able to purchase with my money include:
A six pack of Ramen = .25 cents
Bush Baked Beans = .88 cents
One can of Pineapple = .87 cents
One bag of Tortilla = $1.22
One bag of Rice = .88 cents
(The remaining items courtesy of the Dollar General Store near Giant.)
Shampoo = .75 cents
Conditioner = .75 cents
Travel sized packet of toothbrush and toothpaste = $1
Miniature Deodorant = $1
Face bar = $1
TOTAL = $9.23

.....Now, how about that Venti frappuccino...any generous donations from the crowd?