78uuu lumière des étoiles

Dusty:Starlight:Culture



You know what you can do with that $100?
2006-05-08   9:13 p.m.

Take that, Fristy-pants! Really - they think so little of us? That the $100 "rebate" offered to Joe-Worker (or Joe-teacher) would placate everyone and stop this incessant "I hate the president, he can suck it" rabble everyone is suddenly so interested in...rousing?

This is so telling about the class differential and the HUGE disparity between those in power and those who aren't. Those in power have either never had to worry about how they're going to survive day to day, or year to year (W), or they've completely forgotten how they grew up, have essentially become "the man" in their rise to power, and have sold the lot of us "lower" classes down the river (Corzine, Frist). I suppose they thought $100 would seem like a lot to everyone. I suppose they thought we'd think $100 would buy lots of swiffers, socks and ammo at WalMart, and that we'd decide those GOPs aren't such bad guys after all.

But WalMart aside - Gee, a whole hundred dollars? Why, that will buy my husband three - yes THREE - tanks of gas for the VW Golf he drives 70 miles each day to get to his teaching job! Don't worry, I won't bother here to tell you that he, and every other teacher I know, are grossly underpaid and do not retire with 1/1000th of what an oil exec apparently retires with. Nor will I tell you of the worries my mother, who taught for the last forty years (paying heartily into the social security system), is plagued with from time to time over how the money she will or will not have coming will or will not last for her.

The most frightening thing in all of this for me? We - my husband, my mother, myself - are bona fide members of the middle class. We're all professionals, college educated, and never wanted for anything essential to survival. As much as I could or would like to complain about cost of living, etc., I really can't - I have a car. I have health insurance, have been able to afford education, and yes, the occasional chai latte, Avail concert or trip to Africa.

But what of that secure future for those "like us" - members of the middle class who study, study, study, work, work, work, and plan, plan, plan? What of my students, for example? Many are bright, hard working, determined and successful. They're bound for good jobs. But they're also starting out life with a tremendous debt, since, in response to things like Governor's budget cuts (ahem), tuition will be hiked and hiked again as much as legally possible over the next few years, adding to their already overwhelming student loans. Add that to increased cost of living (dorming) expenses (oil just to heat the damn place) that students will have to absorb (pay for), or cost of transportation (gas in your tank; increased bus fare) just to get to classes, and add THAT to the fact that each student still makes $8/hr. selling TVs at BestBuy or slinging coffee at Starbucks (if they're lucky enough to be child-free and have time for a part-time job on top of full-time school). What do you get? A new middle class that's not so middle class; a new, potentially jobless middle class that will quickly become a "labor" class.

I've seen it happening already: a growing number of "intellectual" laborers, in fields ranging from tech writing to speech pathology, who, instead of being employed full time with all that entails - benefits, pension, etc. - are contracted out on an as-needed basis, unable to sustain full-time status anywhere. I'm actually quite alarmed that no major news source has covered this growing trend (hmm). Just a few months ago, a friend of mine got "laid off" from Sony, only to be hired back on a part-time basis for the same job the following week. Only now, Sony doesn't have to pay into his 401K or provide him with basic health insurance. He's working just two hours short of what he was as a full time worker. And believe me, he's sought jobs elsewhere. Ok money - if not the same money - for my friend, but deduct paying out of pocket for health insurance and having to stash as much as possible for retirement since now any retirement funding package he had is stalled, and his salary is essentially halved. Yet gas, transport, food, basic services, etc., are all set to increase exponentially - "how am I gonna do this?", he asked at a party in the fall. Didn't know what to tell him.

We're running out of "elsewheres" to go to, by the way. Both my schools just cut 20% of their staff and faculty in preparation for budgetary crisis. Who knows what will happen in July when the actual budget gets decided. Those 20% are going to have a really hard time finding work when every other school in the state has had to do the same thing. Even Steve's school, a public elementary in Northern NJ, had to lay off a few teachers since they could no longer afford them. Where are those teachers going to go? If, as I think is the case, most other schools have had to do the same thing, where are they going to go? Nevada? Alaska? Truck driving school?

I hardly blame the schools (or Sony, for that matter...ok, maybe I blame Sony a little) for what they need to do; with increasing costs in basic essentials, they simply can't afford to operate as they were at full-staff. Out of work + expensive gas(/food/school/whatever-else) = unhappy people. And unhappy people quickly become desperate people. Desperate people have kept me away from some countries I'd really like to travel through. I don't like it when people are desperate.

And that asshole wants to give us all $100. Yeah, let them eat cake.

xoxox

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