On Apr 3, 2:52=A0am, Ted <tedor...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Apr 1, 10:07=A0am, "torresD" <torres...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=3D9E03EFD9133BF935A25752..=
..
>
> > Blue-Collar Jobs Disappear, Taking Families' Way of Life Along
>
> > By ERIK ECKHOLM
> > Published: January 16, 2008
>
> > After 30 years at a factory making truck parts,
> > Jeffrey Evans was earning $14.55 an hour in
> > what he called
>
> > ''one of the better-paying jobs in the area.''
>
> > Wearing a Harley-Davidson cap,
> > a bittersweet reminder of crushed dreams,
> > he recently described how astonished and
> > betrayed he felt when the plant was
> > shut down in August after a labor dispute.
>
> > Despite s****adic construction work,
> > Mr. Evans has seen his income reduced
> > by half.
>
> > So he was astonished yet again to find himself,
> > at age 49, selling off his cherished Harley and
> > most of his apartment furniture and moving in
> > with his mother.
>
> > Middle-aged men moving in with parents,
> > wives taking two jobs,
> > veteran workers taking
> > overnight ****fts at half
> > their former pay,
> > families moving West --
> > these are signs of the
> > turmoil and stresses
> > emerging in the little
> > towns and backwoods mobile
> > homes of southeast Ohio,
>
> > where dozens of factories
> > and several coal mines have
> > closed over the last decade,
> > and small businesses are giving
> > way to big-box retailers and
> > fast-food outlets.
>
> > Here,
> > where the northern swells
> > of the Appalachians lap the
> > southern fringe of the Rust Belt,
> > thousands of people who long had
> > tough but sustainable lives are
> > being wrenched into the working poor.
>
> > The region presents an acute
> > example of trends affecting
> > many parts of Ohio,
> > Michigan and other
> > pockets of the Midwest.
>
> > Slammed by the continued decline
> > in the automobile and steel businesses,
> > Ohio never recovered from the recession
> > of 2001-2,
>
> > and blue-collar families who
> > had made it partway up the
> > economic ladder find themselves
> > slipping back,
>
> > with chaotic effects
> > on families and dreams.
>
> > Throughout the state,
> > the percentage of families
> > living below the poverty line --
> > just over $20,000 for a family
> > of four last year --
>
> > rose slightly from 14
> > percent in 2005 to
> > 16 percent in 2007,
> > one study found.
>
> > But equally striking is the
> > rise in younger working families
> > struggling above that line.
>
> > The numbers are more dismal
> > in the southeastern Appalachian
> > part of the state,
>
> > where 32 percent of families
> > lived below the poverty line
> > in 2007,
>
> > according to the study,
> > and 56 percent lived with
> > incomes less than $40,000
> > for a family of four.
>
> > ''These younger workers should
> > be the backbone of the economy,''
> > said ****loh Turner,
>
> > study director for the
> > Health Foundation of
> > Greater Cincinnati,
> > which conducted the surveys.
>
> > But in parts of Ohio,
> > Ms. Turner said, half or more
> > ''are barely making ends meet.''
>
> > One consequence is an upending
> > of the traditional pattern,
> > in which middle-aged children
> > take in an elderly parent.
>
> > As $15-an-hour factory jobs
> > are replaced by $7-
> > or $8-an-hour retail jobs,
> > more men in their 30s and
> > 40s are moving in with their
> > parents or grandparents,
> > said Cheryl Thiessen,
> > the director of
> > Jackson/Vinton Community Action,
> > which runs medical,
>
> > fuel and other aid
> > programs in Jackson and Vinton Counties.
>
> > Other unemployed or
> > low-wage workers,
> > some with families,
> > find themselves staying
> > with one relative after
> > another, Ms. Thiessen said,
> > serially wearing out their welcome.
>
> > ''A lot of major employers have left,
> > and the town is drying up,''
> > Ms. Thiessen said of Jackson.
>
> > ''We're starting to lose small shops, too --
> > Hallmark, the jewelry and shoe stores,
> > the movie theater and most of the grocery stores.''
>
> > Shari Joos, 45,
> > a married mother of four
> > boys in nearby Wellston, said,
>
> > ''If you don't work at Wal-Mart,
> > the only job you can get around
> > here is in fast food.''
>
> > Between her husband's factory job
> > and her intermittent work,
> > they made $30,000 a year in
> > the best of times, Mrs. Joos said.
>
> > Since last fall,
> > when her husband was laid
> > off by the Merillat cabinet factory,
> > which downsized to one ****ft a day
> > from three,
>
> > keeping anywhere near that
> > income required Mrs. Joos
> > to take a second job.
>
> > She works at a school cafeteria
> > each weekday from 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m
> > and then drives to Wal-Mart,
>
> > where she relaxes in her car
> > before starting her 2-to-10 p.m.
> > ****ft at the deli counter.
>
> I watch the jabbering heads on the financial network with
> a smile on my face. The outsourcing of American industrial
> production is going to come back and start biting *****.
> Enjoy!
>
> ted
its already biting *****/ way more than a few cities are having to
cut way pack on fire, police, parks and libraries and are still so far
in the red they cant see day light..
and that as the tax base contiues to collapse. why?
two reasons, one you know, good jobs sent offshore so cor****ations
can earn record profits at the expense of everyone else and themselves
in the end.... a collapsed nation is not profitable for most of these
types.
the reason most dont know is the shyrocketing cost of civil servants,
80%! bloat in their numbers, and stunningly ludicrous retiremant
packages at 4 to 5 times what most people earn while working.
and those are not funded by the employess contributions in most cases,
they lie about that in calif and many other states, its taxpayer money
that funds those by the billions of dollars a year in some
cities...and that money is drying up fast... the city of vallejo
california a few weeks ago almost filed bankrupcy citing those
reasons..... at the last moment police and fire volunteed to cut back
on their bogus overtime plots..... many other cities are citing the
same reasons, San Jose calif in the last month, Novatto within the
last year or two, city of SF within the last month,
and we have just begun to see it hit the fan,
Phil scott
>
> http://www.vdare.com/=A0V-Dare-
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