I was reminded of the South African coal miners who were forced by
apartheid to live long distances from their job. In the USA you are
beginning to see a kind of economic apartheid.
Go to http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/middleclass.html in order to see
some of the statistics discussed by Moyers and Krugman. For example, the
monthly rent for a modest 2 bedroom apartment in San Francisco is
$1,362. While the income necessary to afford such an apartment is
$54,480, a schoolteacher's median income is $38,293.
Things are much worse in our country than many of us behave Lou.
We have not yet developed a general forum and doctrine to explain what many people in our country might consider the Third Edition of the American Revolution. Talk about taxation and no representation!
Other segment of the population with consider the issues of survival differently.
Hey $1362 a month for rent would put me in the poor house and amongst the homeless. Commuting 3 hours one way to work everyday - as stated in your article, doe not give me time to have sex with my wife. Six hours of travel to work a job 8-10 hours a day means the kids have to go, because one has to sleep at least 4 hours.
Nine hours work plus 6 hours travel plus 4 hours sleep is 19 hours in a 24 hour day.
Lou, it takes me 45 minutes to an hour to "shit, shower and shave." That's 20 hours in our 24 hour day. What this means is that I become a stranger in the house because the wife and kids don't know me as a real person.
What if my 4 hours of free time do not coincide with when the kids or wife is at home? Then I am a weekend dad or rather human and we all know that everyone works overtime on Saturday and Sunday - to one degree or another, which means I am headed in the direction of social revolution or counterrevolution.
Here is the real story of the current value of labor power which is rapidly falling.
Heck, the ancient battle for 8 hours work, 8 hours rest and 8 hours recreation appear as a pipe dream to the modern proletariat.
Melvin P.
Melvin P.
