[Homestead] [Homestead ] MY microcosm of economic downturn

Lynn Wigglesworth lynnw1366 at hotmail.com
Mon Dec 22 11:18:34 EST 2008


> You remind me of my best friend A, Bob, you are out of touch with the
> lower echelons.  There has been a separation for quite a number of
> years now.

Since the time I moved here (12 years ago) there is a very clear separation 
between those who make minumum wage (or less, like farmers), and the 
'professionals'. 'Professional' here means teachers, bank executives, etc., 
who at most make $50,000, but they are two different worlds.

> In my last two jobs, I have been subjected to discrimination and
> harassment.  At the grocery store, the owner told the manager than when
> he walked through the store, he did not want to see me, a 40 year old
> woman, he wanted to see a pretty young thing whose butt he wanted to
> slap as he walked by.  More recently, in my last job, I made less than
> half of my male co-workers doing the same do.

At 53, I can't even get an interview for a minimum wage job. But that's not 
the current crisis; jobs have been tight here for years. There are so many 
applicants for every minimum wage job that they don't even have to interview 
us 'old ladies'..

> But we aren't worried, Bob, because there will soon be lots of low
> income burger flipping jobs.<G>

I can only hope :-) The difference between me and the middle class is that I 
could actually live on minumum wage. I don't have an expensive lifestyle to 
support.

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA 



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