This morning I got breakfast at a Whole Foods, and my bill came to $8.02. At first I was annoyed: why can’t they calculate prices and taxes that land the total on the dollar? My second thought was that maybe generating a ton of change is intentional, so that it’s easier to give homeless folks a little something as we walk out of stores. My third thought was about the wages paid to Whole Foods workers. [Don’t ask about how and why my mind skipped from thought to disparate thought!] Earlier in the week I learned about how SJSU sociology students helped raise the minimum wage in San José. That’s the type of story that makes me proud to be in my new post. I’m looking forward to learning about additional examples of the powerful use of the social sciences here in the San Francisco Bay Area!