The Divorced Mum

ANGIE CROSS, 27, has four children, aged from 5 to 10. She lives in Frinton-on-Sea in Essex. She gets £585 a month state benefit and also works as a part-time barmaid for £21 a week. 'Money's been tight since I split up from my husband four years ago. The kids always come first, but special occasions for them are rare. They're lucky if we go to McDonald's once a month. All their school uniforms are second-hand. When I was a kid I used to get lots of treats. I'd go riding and I used to have piano lessons. I feel dreadful not being able to give my kids the things I had. Every month I work out exactly what has to be paid and what can wait. I have to be very careful with money, and that doesn't come easily because by nature I'm very extravagant. My biggest extravagance now is a packet of ten cigarettes.

My monthly food bill comes to about £350, and towards the end of the month we have beans on toast three nights out of seven. I usually make the kids a packed lunch for school, but occasionally I don't have enough food to make one, so I tell the kids to have a school dinner and say they've forgotten their dinner money. It's not really telling lies because I'll always pay as soon as I can.

I get very depressed and I frequently sit down and cry. Some- times I'll go wild and buy something just to cheer myself u p, but I always regret it. I once spent £30 on some clothes but I felt really guilty. What I want more than anything else is a holiday and new shoes for the kids. Who knows? I might win the lottery!'

3d) Figure out the words by their definitions:

· spending or costing a lot of money, especially more than is reasonable

· to end a marriage or romantic relationship

· very unpleasant

· ashamed and sorry because you have done something wrong

· owned or used by someone else before you

· something special that you do or buy for yourself or someone else

· to become less sad, or to make someone feel less sad

· to feel sorry or sad that something has happened

· to solve a problem by doing a calculation

The Taxman

BOB WILDEN, 24, is a tax inspector. He earns £23,558 per annum. His wife, Denise, 20, earns £7,500 as a part-time secretary. They live in Maidenhead, Berkshire. They have no children.

'I'm mean in some ways, generous in others. I'll be first at the bar to buy a round of drinks, but I'd baulk at buying a couple of packets of crisps as well. I'll go hungry rather than stop for a snack at a motor- way service station. We always buy food in bulk so it's cheaper. We frequently cook in bulk, too, and put it in the freezer. Denise and I never row about money. We both indulge ourselves now and then. She'll spend £40 at the hairdresser's and I won't penny-pinch on the kind of malt whisky I get. I never spend much on clothes though, probably about £95 at the most. I don't need to look smart to be a taxman.

Denise generally gives £20 a month to animal charities, but she won't donate to beggars wearing £100 trainers. I'll give the real down- and-outs a quid sometimes. My widowed mum is a pensioner and lives alone, so I always make sure that she has enough to eat.

I have four credit cards, but one is never used. A bill for £700 arrived this morning for one of them. It frightened us to death. Occasionally we have to get loans to clear our credit card debts. In my job it's possible to become a bit of a social leper. Some friends are always boasting to me about how they dodge paying tax. I don't like that. I don't like paying tax either, but I'd never dodge it.'

3e) Provide antonyms from the text to the following words:

· Full time

· Rare

· Behave truthfully

· Pay out loans

· Underrate

The Miser

MALCOLM STACEY, 38, is a part-time BBC journalist and author of two books about money. He earns £50,000 per annum. He lives in York with his wife Jo, 32. They have two young children.

'I never buy luxuries and I never buy a round of drinks. When colleagues go out to the pub, I'll stay in the office and say I'm expecting a phone call. I'll never invite people to dinner, but I never feel guilty about accepting their invitations. I know they invite me to have someone interesting to talk to. The meanest thing I've ever done was to go to a wedding without a present. I just took some wrapping paper and a tag saying 'Love from Malcolm' and put it onto the table with the other presents. I got a thank-you letter from the bride. She obviously thought she'd mislaid the present.

People don't believe I can be so stingy. I'll organize an office collection for earthquake victims but I won't give anything myself. I’ve put a wishing well in the front garden. I would never ask passers-by to throw money in, but I collect it when they do. I hardly ever use my car; we grow our own vegetables and we recycle everything. We never buy new clothes, we get them second-hand from charity shops for about £2 a garment. We can live on £5 a week.

I've always been mean. When I was a child I would never buy flowers for Mum, but I'd give her a bouquet from her own garden. My wife gets embarrassed by my meanness, but we never row about money. People think I've got a fortune stashed away somewhere. I don’t care what they think.'

3f) Figure out the words by their definitions:

· to use something again, often for a different purpose

· a piece of clothing

· a lot of money

· ashamed of something and worried about what other people will think of you

· a well into which one drops a coin and makes a wish

· unwilling to spend, give, or use a lot of money

3g). Which people do these words describe? Why?

thrifty skinflint well off hard up privileged underprivileged

3h) Compare these people’s relationship with money. Using the words in bold from the texts describe your relations with money.

Discuss how money (or the lack of it!) affects your life.

Ex 4a) Read the article below. What is its main idea? How is our sense of well-being connected with money? Explain what kind of studies were carried out, what were their results and what do these result mean (what conclusion do they suggest).

Why Wealth Doesn’t Always Buy Happiness

If the purpose of the market economy is to increase national or average income, it does a pretty job – better the most known alternatives. If the purpose is to increase people’s satisfaction with their lives, the market economy does much less well.

Studies in economies show, that foe every 1,000 pound increase in income there is, indeed, an increased sense of well-being – but only for the poorest fifth of the population. Beyond that, there is almost no increase in people’s satisfaction with their lives as income levels increase. The rich are no happier than the middle classes and the upper middle class is no happier than the lower middle class. Beyond poverty or near-poverty levels of income, if money buys happiness, it buys very little and often it buys none at all.

This is strange, because market economists report that the purpose of the market is to maximize the satisfaction of human wants, but they measure that in a circular manner: satisfaction with something is revealed by the very fact that it was bought.

Yet studies show that the things that contribute most to a sense of well-being cannot be bought, such as a good family life, friendship, work satisfaction, and satisfaction with the users of one’s leisure. There is little relation between these things and people’s incomes. For many people security of income actually contributes more to measured well-being than does level of income.

Most people believe that if they had 25 per cent more income they would be much more satisfied with their lives, but those whose incomes are now at that higher level are not more satisfied with their lives. Why are we so easily deceived about something that is central to our happiness? One reason is that changes in income do briefly influence our sense of well-being – and decreases make us more miserable than increases make us happy. But even the happiness that comes with an increase in income does not last long, for very soon the new level of income becomes the standard against which we measure our achievements.

Many studies show that people are not good at explaining why that feel good or bad, for people use conventional explanations of the sources of well-being. And the market ideology says that source is money. According to a recent study at the University of Michigan, when people were asked what activities they enjoyed most, they ranked their actual work activities higher than anything except playing with their children and talking to friends – and much higher than watching TV. Work is a major source of life satisfaction. Of all the sources of well-being, a satisfying family life is the most important and this form of satisfaction does not vary with income except at the bottom; poverty is associated with family misery. To promote “family values”, policy should be directed to the relief of poverty.

Because satisfaction with the work one does is central to a sense of well-being, full employment should be the primary objective of economic policy.

GLOSSARY

average income – средний доход

beyond poverty level – за чертой бедности, ниже прожиточного минимума

bottom – дно, крайне низкий уровень

briefly – недолго

conventional – обычный, традиционный

decrease – снижение, уменьшение, спад

employment – занятость (рабочей силы), работа

increase – увеличение, возрастание, рост

leisure – досуг, свободное время

level – уровень

market economy – рыночная экономика

miserable – несчастный

objective – цель, стремление

purpose – цель, намерение, назначение

relief – снижение, уменьшение

satisfaction – удовлетворение

security – надежность, стабильность

sense – чувство, ощущение

source – источник

to contribute – содействовать, способствовать

to deceive – обманывать, вводить в заблуждение

to increase – возрастать, увеличивать(ся), расти

to influence – оказывать влияние, влиять

to last – продолжаться, длиться

to maximize – максимизировать, увеличивать до предела

to measure – измерять, оценивать, определять

to promote – способствовать, содействовать, поддерживать

to rank – оценивать, давать определённую оценку

to reveal – выявлять

to vary – изменять(ся), менять(ся)

value – ценность

wants –потребности, нужда, необходимость

wealth – богатство, состояние

well-being – (материальное) благосостояние, достаток, благополучие

Ex 5a) Charity. Answer the questions:

· Have you given money to anybody on the street recently?

· If not, do you ever give money?

· Is begging prohibited in your country?

· Do you often see people asking for money on the streets in your town or in other towns in your country?

·. What do you think is the best way to help people who ask for money on the streets?

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