What recovery? Working poor struggle to pay bills

[NeoConsSuck]

By Stephanie Armour, USA TODAY
Cathy Gardner faces difficult choices. With barely enough money to cover her bills and the rent on the home she shares with her brother, she sometimes can't afford to buy food. Other times, she goes without the prescription drugs she takes for her depression.

It's a constant struggle, even though Gardner holds a full-time job as a hospital food service worker, dishing up trays of pizza, pot roast and beef stroganoff for patients.

"There's a manufactured home selling for $7,500, and I can't even afford that," says Gardner, 54, of Salem, Ore., who earns $1,200 a month. "I have a good job, but I have to choose between buying gas or getting food. It's very hard."

Food server. Home health care worker. Grocery clerk. These are the kind of bread-and-butter jobs that once sustained a family with decent benefits and solid wages. Today, these jobs are more likely to bring a life of poverty.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2004-06-08-low-wage-working-poor_x.htm

[Cronus Protagonist]

1. Hah! I struggle to pay bills and I'm self-employed

The shit doesn't stop at the working class this time around. I can no more afford that $7500 prefab than she can.

Click here for "BLAME BUSH FIRST", and other fair and balanced yet stunning buttons, magnets and stickers

[Mechatanketra]

2. What's the old saying?

"If you want to live like a Republican, you have to vote for a Democrat."

The depression she's taking drugs for isn't the only one she's suffering. Bush is managing to do what his spiritual ancestor Harding did in only half the time: bankrupt the country in the name of sustaining Gilded Age excess. And he won't need Coolidge and Hoover to finish the work.

[Disturbed]

3. BushCo doesn't give a shite.

The Dems rarely mention the Working Poor or the Poor these days.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[prolesunited]

6. Haha!

I'm sure he'll be around soon to explain this all away and tell us what a good thing it all is.

FWIW, I started a related poll on this in GD.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x1754790

[arlib]

9. Interesting....

...and thanks for the link. I'll be curious to see further results.

[arlib]

14. Apparently...

...he has defenders in unlikely places also.

[struggle4progress]

5. No matter what she thinks, if she has to "choose between ...

buying gas or getting food," she doesn't really have a good job. She's getting screwed like the rest of the working class.

[WhiteTara]

10. There's a difference between fulfilling and good work

She said she loved what she did and so that's what I think she
meant by "good"

[HippieCowgirl]

7. Thanks, Bush!

Nice to see my fellow Americans are getting all of these shiny new jobs created by the Bush economic recovery. Can't you all see we're doing better and better every day?

BAH!
It makes me angry, but not surprised. First all the squalling about welfare reform, and welfare-to-work, and years later, people who WANT to work for a living can't do it.

Every time I read stories like this, I count my blessings that I was able to get an education and get out of poverty. There, but for the grace of God...

[davidinalameda]

8. amen Hippie

too many of us are one paycheck away from the streets

[Galley_Queen]

11. Just Added Up My Bills

to update my budget. Since January, my monthly bills have gone up by $170.00. Higher heating gas bills, higher home insurance, higher cable, higher water bills. The only bill that hasn't gone up yet is my electric. And, can't afford health insurance. That cost has gone up by over 20% every single year for the past 4 years, with lowered benefits.

Oh yeah...let the good times roll!!!

[skippysmom]

12. Everything seems to be going up

except our salaries, of course.

But there's no inflation, right?

[AP]

13. Let's just unfold this very short tale:

Here's a woman makig 1200/month working in the health care industry.

Health care is now the BIGGEST sector of the economy, and makes up a huge % of the GDP. The drug industry is currently the most profitable industry in America, enjoying 50% profit margins.

I can't believe that that industry can't afford to pay this woman a little more. Where is all the wealth going?

Choose between eating and gas?

Our government is run by the oil industry. Our government is creating an environment intentionally wherein people can't chose NOT to buy oil.

Food retail prices have increased something like 25 or 50% over the last 15 years (IIRC) whereas wholesale prices paid to independent farmers has decreased by as much. Where's all the profit going? Not to consumers. (Oh, and the fact that wholesale prices are dropping means that independant farmers have to sell out to vertically monopolized agro businesses which are the same companies making all the money off the high retail prices for food).

Only housing option is a rental home or a $7,500 pre-fab house which she can't afford? Do we need to get into the fact that escalating unreal housing valuations and getting people hooked on refinancing to create wealth is the substitute the Republicans have used to stoke this economy so that they don't have to increase wages?

This woman is in a position in society that was not created by accident. She's the wage slave that the Republicans have created to keep the rich rich.