I woke up in the middle of the middle of the night, couldn't get back to sleep, so I toddled off to the living room. Spent a half-hour working on my latest Doctor Who short story, wrote all of one paragragh--gee, now I have two paragraphs...but really, I'm enjoying writing again, if only for a wee bit of time, each day. And this latest story is actually proving to be a bit fun to write--if slow in coming. It involves Doc #10, Martha, a park in Cardiff, a little climate change and two of the Doctor's former enemies....well, that part is still just a pile of mental notes inside my head at the mo.
So, wrote a paragraph, decided to head back to bed...but still not terribly sleepy...grabbed Nickeled and Dimed by Barbara Eherenreich. It's about a writer who decides to spend some time finding out what it's really like, working as a low-income worker in the United States--big ol' rich, powerful U.S.A.---all hail the cigars and pinstripes...I mean the stars and stripes--forever.
Having spent most of my 30 years of various employements as a low-income worker, I found this book to be quite on the mark...which surprised me, as the author had never been in that situation herself, before. I first got a copy of the book in my State and Local Government political science class at Adirondack Community College...an odd choice for a textbook, given that the professor was a die-hard neo-convervative Bush-loving republican. But despite that handicap 
I have to give him credit for even reading the book, tho' some of his comments about low-wage employment were sometimes a little off from the reality scale.
One thing he said that still make me laugh, is on the dire need for public transport here in the US. He said that "America is too big" to make that practical--but had no reposnse to my come back that..okay, we can build rockets and shuttles and probes to go into the vast reaches outer space, but America is too big for a comprehensive bus and train network? In the words of Austin Powers, "Riiiight."
Cars are expensive, and unless one lives in a city with good public transport (not like Glens Falls, where the busses stop running at 6PM and don't run at all on Sundays and holidays..and only go to certain areas of the city and one suburb.) It's not just the gas--although when I was working at Saratoga Gaming and Raceway, one entrie day of my pay was what I spent on gas for a week just to go to work--and I was only making about 75 cents over the minimum wage..the state and federal government took out another 70 dollars from my cheque, and the housekeepers union took out another 10 to 15 dollars, before I even got my share. Basically, I was working full time for a part-time income...and getting a serious bad back and a hernia for my efforts.
Cars cost gas, oil, tires, insurance (expensive here in NY state)...and labour at the garage runs from 40 to 95 dollars per hour (that's 20 to 42 pounds)...not counting the parts, or if they have to hook your vechincle up to a special analyzing machine that's really a lot of money...there's also the yearly inspection...and, most low-income workers drive junk cars, so most of us dread inspection time. If your car doesn't pass state inspection, and you're broke--you either have to drive illegally, or give up your car or borrow money you can't pay back.
Millions living in rural areas could find employment if the US government would wake up and smeall the proverbial coffee--but, corporate interests are more important, because that's were the pol's get they campaign funds from. And big business means the oil and car manufacturers and insurance companies. That attitude doesn't really help the economy, and it certainly doesn't help Americans...but it does a world of good to the elite and rich and powerful...and that's just the way thing's are here, and always will be, most likely. So it's either slave away on your feet all day, just to pay for your set of wheels to get to your job--buying food becomes a secondary priority to low-income Americans...or, you could just stay home and live on welfare or disability--and belive me, for many, they are actually better off that way...no joke, no exaggeration. They get food stamps, housing assistance and virtually free medical care...it's not that people don't want to work, in America, it's that they literally cannot afford to work!
But, in reading the book, I read a line that really touched home. At one point, the author was discussing those of us who've had to work seven days a week, without let up for months, just to survive. On page 106, she wonders what working 7 days a week for months on end, at menial, backbreaking tasks, does to a person. I can tell her...I worked every single day, from late July to the second week of September, without a day off, washing, drying and folding dirty towels all day--and no lunch or tea breaks--sometimes I wasn't even allowed to use the bathroom (the owners tended to thoughtlessly lock both the nearest bathrooms when they left, and the only one available was on the opposite end of the complex--about a 7 or 8 minute walk away--too far when you've hundreds of dirties waiting to be done. You become and automaton. Your work is your life..it is all there is...your motions become robotic, you cease thinking and just focus on the job...the only time you can think for yourself, is when there's a pause between loads, or if a machine breaks down. Your feet hurt, your back aches, your mind becomes numb and your soul? What soul? Slaves don't have the luxury of souls, ha-ha.
NOTE: Sorry about the bad spelling--my computer "desk" is either my lap or a wooden board resting on a cardboard box--makes it hard to type, as my chair is low to the ground, the screen is way up high (and I have so-so eyesight) and I have to mostly type hunched over like Quasimoto.
