Milk...It Does a Country No Good
This posting is not reactionary to the plight of the United States economy. Instead, it is a jaded opinion that has been brewing inside of me for decades. Namely, I have always worried that the middle class would disappear and without restoration, this schism could be the social platform for another Civil War...this time between the rich and the poor. My thinking in regards to this nation resorting to violence may sound extremist and alarmist but signs of the demise of the middle class are outrageously evident.
My opinion has strengthened carrying a briefcase around the State of New Jersey as a pencil pushing social worker for the last 22 years. My work takes me inside people's homes, where I see different cultures living differently now. The neighborhoods are not changing for the better. Every town develops a bad section. Not just outcasts and rejects do drugs anymore. There are so many houses and businesses boarded up that, if I did not know better, I would be checking the weather forecast every night for a hurricane. Habitable homes are staying unsold on the real estate market longer. Dollar Store purchases are staples and nobody is looked down upon trying to find a bargain at Goodwill. There is the abyss of unemployment for the more unfortunate. The dwindling lack of affordable health care coverage is affecting more of the populus.
The middle class is suffering a vanishing act in society and the majority of people are struggling making ends almost meet. More common folk are doing without essentials they formerly took for granted while the rich order less caviar for their next catered affair or maybe they don’t bring up the best vintage from the wine cellar for the upper crust guests at a party that will be a tax write-off in its entirety. The middle class is disappearing and former card carrying members should be put on milk cartons for rememberance at local convenience stores. If you can afford milk at $4.00 per gallon, take a look at the picture on the side panel before you search your light wallet for four singles. The picture is changing to someone you know. Fewer people are buying milk and when they do they are buying less quantity, less groceries all together. When you can no longer afford actual milk without using a credit card that is nearly maxed out, look again because your picture may appear on the carton with no middle ground to go back to. The rich have been milking everyone far too long and this country needs to run on something other than oil that keeps everyone over a barrel. Milk..it does a country no good.
Labels: social work
posted by Joe Tornatore | 8:49 PM
8 Comments:
nice post! I have found I don't need to purchase as much! it took me awhile to figure it out! I was still cooking like when my kids were younger and hubby much bigger. However the economy made me learn the lesson well!
I know that we, the EC-5 go for the half-gallon or quart these days. Seriously.
Joe, you bring up good points, but as for the Civil War, I don't think this will happen. I have not heard anyone repeat what the infamous Marie Antoinette(France) allegedly said,"Let them eat cake!"
Until then,we'll try to help one another as best we can. I for one try to help humanity, one person at a time.
You must find it quite soul wrenching, day in and day out, seeing poverty and deprivation at its lowest levels.
As for the cost of the milk issue:
Look at China's suppliers of milk...adding water with melamine in order to pass the protein test!!! All those dead babies and tens of thousands of sick ones waiting in line to be healed! What a primordial cornucopia crock of inhumanity we've gotten ourselves into! As bad as it gets here in the USA, it is far worse in other places.
mommanator,
you work off all those calories between three states. lol
evil,
there is always calcium suppplements.
et,
i would say let them eat blueberry pie. lol
Excellent post!
These are troubling times, but I think many of us felt this coming on for awhile now. It's sad that so many of the working class and poor were sold a bill of goods from this current administration only to find themselves sold down the river.
And if ET has not heard anyone utter Marie Antoinette's infamous line about cake, I can recall someone saying something equally as banal: "Your doing a good job, Brownie". All the while, the poor of New Orleans were caught up in a deluge.
Now, that deluge is happening on Wall Street.
See you on the bread lines, brother!
pax,
Time to batten down the wallet.
I live in Elizabeth, NJ and have seen many fore closed homes. Many of them belonged to people given loans 4 years ago. With loans that they could have never kept up with once the interest was added on. I am not sure of the details but the banks gave people huge loans with only a few thousand down with no interest for 4 years. But the moment those 4 years came up they owed it all back! Now they had a morgage they could not afford and ended up losing their home.
And since everything is in the suck; the banks where then stuck with houses that no one was going to buy. Can anyone say 'Soon to be Broken'?
There are many borded up homes with for sale signs on them with few to no lookers. For one thing they are in areas most people with money would not dare to go; even if cloths are cheaper and the banks are asking for crazy amounts. $400,000 for a house with no yard, in need of many minor repairs, no garage and neighboors that would scare off most would be gang bangers??!!
honk,
not much different a couple of hours south of you.
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