I Couldn't Afford to Go to Work Today

I have a 45-minute commute to and from work, which costs me about ten dollars in gas each day.

What the heck are they driving?

Chu, Obama's energy secretary stated the following:

In a sign of one major internal difference, Mr. Chu has called for gradually ramping up gasoline taxes over 15 years to coax consumers into buying more-efficient cars and living in neighborhoods closer to work.

“Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe,” Mr. Chu, who directs the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal in September.

The price of petrol in Europe right now is more than three times the price of gasoline in America.

http: //www.allamericanblogger.com/5786/obamas-energy-sec-wants-gasoline-price-increase-of-300/

Don't expect the price of gas to go down under the current administration.

What an excellent write-up !!!!

Welcome to the future. This is seemingly the transformation in class and income inequality the working class is witnessing in this stress monkey modern life. Not that it hasn't always been a struggle, far from it, it is just that the bosses and upper tier are becoming more and more emboldened in their shenanigans.

I spent most of my life, more or less, working to buy gas to get to work so I could make the money to pay for the gas to get to work and so on and so forth.

Time to bite the hand that feeds us. Organize, resist and get mean now or be a serf later. Where are the Wobblies when you need em?

The Bottle Rockets: Gotta Get Up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrQq-bCrOPs

In the article the writer says "I don't mind that they make more. It's how they go out of their way to make sure they get most of what's left as well, to hell with everybody else."

Dear writer I feel that you are shocked and saddened at the enlightenment that you are receiving, and that is that life can be full of the worst contingencies imaginable. I bet u would love a good ol fashioned revolt as much as tex above, but your top priority is to get food on the table. All's I can say is. Preach dear writer.

Let people know that in life one must plan on contingencies. I personally have a great paycheck but every week I plan on it not being there. I have no children. One reason is because I have no guarantee that I can provide a good future.

I know the world has no shortage of able bodies for labor.

I know I cannot depend on even the kindest seemingly most trustworthy people I have ever met. ( lend them money and see how much you get back)

I know I cannot depend on people who have more money than they can spend to not want more.

I know I am an adult and everyone around me who wants to give me a crap deal knows I have the right to take it or leave it even if leaving it means desperation or death.

I know that it's likely societal problems will creep up on most of us in a way we do not expect.

Excellent seed!

Then, we have to look at those who have deliberately made bad choices. Yeah, I know, I just had to bring that up. A neighbor of mine chose to quit his job a few years ago, because he didn't think his boss was showing him enough respect. He had been one of the smart ones, saving 10% no matter what he made. He blew through that in no time, partying with 20 year olds (his son's friends, not messing around with young girls - just being a best friend and not a dad) until 5 a.m. and drinking and smoking cigarettes and pot. Three years later, he hasn't done squat but try to find people willing to pay him 25$ per hour for whatever, and then doesn't show up. He's been offered some pretty good jobs - $18 per hour driving a truck and benefits - and turned them down because he doesn't want to change his lifestyle and actually have to drive a half hour to work. He won't bring in decent renters, instead of 20 year old partiers, for the same reason. Does he really not see that losing his house will change his lifestyle far more, and devastate his kids because they can't save him?

For fixing lawn mowers, he's worth it (well, actually not, mine has been broken at his house for over a year after we made a deal that he'd fix it if I'd pay for his daughter's eye appointment, $160). For cutting grass with MY lawn mower and MY gas (if it were working)? Please, I can hire teenagers for $10 per hour for that. I've now hired another neighbor, for $30 per hour - but he will use his own riding mower, his own gas, he will clean up my downed trees (which is free firewood for him) - now that's worth it.

I'm now paying the auto insurance for this guy's daughter, who I love as if she were my own; she's putting herself through college and this is one little thing I can do to help her out, now that he's thrown away everything but the house. Oh, and I just bought her textbooks for this semester, but she's paying me back (well she offered, but I won't let her unless I truly need the money). She lives with me during most of her college breaks because she can't stand seeing what her dad chose to do with his life.

He now truly can't afford to get to work, because he just sold his car to give himself another month or two in his house. In a small town with no public transportation, he just signed his foreclosure statement.

I know many people in dire straits didn't deserve it, but people like this guy just give them all a bad name, because he did it to himself. His daughter tried to get him to go to free counseling for depression - because other than complete stupidity, which he didn't show in the past, what is most likely to make him act this way?

Thanks for letting me vent here. Can someone turn so completely, suddenly stupid, or is something like depression likely at play?