Getting By

As a high school debater, I debated the role of unionism in our society--my favorite position was Negative." We don't need them in this great country where everyone has a chance to earn a living wage. They are anti-American, etc. "
As I entered the workplace myself, I wished for one to join. And I did--NEA helps teachers get some of what they deserve. The closest I ever came to poverty was in college as I worked 40 plus hours a week while trying to pay tuition and books in an entry-level job. My folks raised three children on less than minimum wage--I do not know how they did it and still provided us with shelter and food. My Dad's highest year of salary was probably about $10,000.

I just finished reading a book that raised my hackles and made me ashamed and angry at our society of greed. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. The premise of the book is investigative journalism--Barbara Ehrenreich was assigned to find out how a single woman, booted into the labor market by welfare reform was going to make it on $6-$7 an hour. She worked as a waitress, a housecleaner, an aide at a nursing home, and at Wal-Mart in the months she watched.

Her conclusion, of course, was that they cannot make it--It takes at least $14 an hour for a family to eat, and sleep under a roof. That was in 2000, probably more now.

The poor today are not only underpaid, but also relatively invisible in our society. She calls them
"the major philantropists" of our life in America. "They neglect their own children so that children of others can be cared for; they live in substandard housing so that other houses can be clean and shiny; they endure privation so that inflation will be low and stock prices high." Perhaps my ire rose the highest as she described her job at Wal-Mart. Demeaning, spirit sucking, denying basic civil-rights, this corporate giant deserves the Booby Prize for the Nastiest Corporation of the Decade while its owners top the list of richest billionaries in the U. S.

I decided years ago when I discovered that Wal-Mart would not allow their employees to unionize,but paid them a lower than living wage with teethless benefits, that I would not shop at Wal Mart anymore except under extraordinary circumstances. And so, Target has become my store of choice.

The book is eye-opening, often funny, but very convincing that rather being a haven for those fleeing less democratic nations, the U. S. is instead one of unrelenting rapaciousness ready and willing to take advantage of those who serve us. And please no comments on the "folks who need to buy an alarm clock and get a job." Otter Creek served a woman this year who had no alarm clock and no money to buy one. The choice was food for her baby or an alarm clock--what would you do?