ThinkProgress reports on a Capitol Hill press conference yesterday where Republican Representative Michele Bachmann (who already has an, um, colorful reputation) waxed rhapsodic on the joys of having to work two or three jobs to get by:
I am so proud to be from the state of Minnesota. We’re the workingest state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs.
Meanwhile, on the same day, the New York Times reported on how the "just get another job" economy is working out for people in southeastern Ohio:
Middle-aged men moving in with parents, wives taking two jobs, veteran workers taking overnight shifts 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...
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.
Maybe Rep. Bachmann should spend some time talking to those Minnesota workers she's so proud of, who have had to take two or three jobs just to cover their living expenses. I bet they'd be thrilled to know how happy she is for them.
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Like a true slaveowner...
"Aren't you excited, I got you 40 more acres and a new mule."
Posted by Chris on March 18, 2008 at 2:43 PM
Posted on March 18, 2008 at 2:43 PM