WHY THIS second rate poet DOESNT LOVE BIG BUSINESS part 34:

On october 8th, 4 days before I seriously began putting my head on the blog, I purchased a curved radiator-hose for my Mazda Protégé 1990 at Kragen Auto Parts 1475 41st Avenue, Capitola CA 95010; payed 20,25 dollars to cashier number 053874-01 at register 03-1. Having called in advance to order the hose at phonenumber 831 469 8172, this shop being number 01134 is the Kragen Auto Parts chain, with the payment I concluded transaction number 01468761 in their books.
I had to go there by bus number 73 from downtown Santa Cruz, because two nights earlier, just as I picked up a Mexican family hitchiking up to campus, because their van broke down, the radiatorhose in the Mazda blew, filling the car with steam to the tunes of K-hits 97,9 playing the Monkees` 1967 hit “ Pleasant valley Sunday”.

Driving by bus from Santa Cruz to the surburb of Capitola you – so to speak – are given a tour through the rural city limits, the working poor neighbourhoods of America you hear a lot of but doesn`t see. Here in the periphery of the Californian foodchamber the hoods are mostly occupied by Mexican laborers. Calling it a hood might be a mild exaggeration as the hoods are trailerparks scattered along junctions, intersections, swamped landfills with stunning names like:

Beach View, Eaton Estate, Manon Park, Van Ness Park View, Sunset Park, Pacific Pearl, Golden Torch, Mira Mar, Seabright Shear Cliff …

This kind of housing – accommodation – is what the average working family can expect at an hourly minimum wage around 5 dollars. Mostly working for BIG BUSINESS as Dolé (farming-produce, your banana) K-Mart, WalMart and ofcourse the fast-food industry, I was surprised really, I mean truly, I was so naïve as to believe that the terms were different - but I had to acknowledge the fact that these employers have absolutely no legislative obligations concerning social benefits and security to their employees.
This creates more than one funking paradox of some importance. To keep a family going at this level of income, they typically individually holds more than one job, that is, the individuals in the family who is working and can work. That means that they have to commute a lot. I´ll get back to that.

Paradox 1:
These “working poor”, no longer a workingclass, more a new underclass , are to some extent dependant on social welfare as an compensation due to the lack of obligations from the employer and also caused by a, in general extremely competitive society. This in fact means, that the people working for BIG BUSINESS also is draining the hastly crumbling remains of an American welfare-system and any notions of social security. In other words: BIG FUCKING BUSINESS is letting the State pay for their lack commitment to anything but a major turnover.
And there are still people – educated people; fucking scientists outhere, who claims that unimployment, poverty as such is merely a question of morale failure and deprivation, thus excluding social struturalistic and economic issues, people who state that the underclass is the cancer which eats away at the textures of societies. Among those David Murray, author of the 1994 book ”The Bell Curve” and spin-off publications among which, the danish government is ripping off electorial campaign-material as a little pathetic copy-cat, and by who US and UKsocial politics are more than inspired..
So: BIG BUSINESS can afford not to care, because BIG BUSINESS has no body to take care off, it just moves parts around at will, the stratification of economy celebrated by the right as the wonders of globalization.. That’s not a luxury any human can allow unless driven by a serious deathwish.
To me it seems, more than ever, that it is in fact DAS ÛBERCLASS© in a smooth conflation with BIG BUSINESS, which constitutes the cancer which eats away the textures of societies. The academic and political effort to understand and analyze the “underclass” is worth the good intentions if the results are implemented in real politics. It seems although that the notion of a new “underclass” also serves another purpose, namely to take the focus of the more and more powerfull ÛBERCLASS©, which parallel to its growth in power is shrinking in size.
Well Fuck them too!

Paradox 2:
Also the demand from the white neighbourhoods in nearby surroundings of the trailerparks have, among others social Non Profit organisations working at full speed to better the conditions for the people living in the trailerparks, but subsequently they also help keeping housing prizes on private property at an historic high.

Paradox 3:
And so, back to commuting from job to job. Having more than one job, these workers have miles to cover everyday driving. And they do so often in trucks and SUV`s, but not old beat up cars as you could expect. No, they do the SUV thing, which I in an earlier posting stated as the most energy-consuming commodity in American postwar culture, having raised imports of oil over the last decade with more than ever. See posting 11.27 of WHY THIS second rate poet DOESN´T LOVE BIG BUSINESS part 16. So why don’t they just drive an old beat up car? Do what the simpleliving scum do in Denmark and let the old beat up Opel Corsa 1986 become the ultimate statusymbol. But no: its doesn’t work for these people because they need reliable cars – if theres one thing about the monsterous SUV`s – they are reliable and strong multipurpose cars, though also a terrific statussymbol among the poor. BIG BUSINESS have seen it and target these people. Large motor corporations like Ford and GMC set up deals with financial companies which again gives cheap but long term to the Mexican Worker® buying the brand, not just any car: The Ford or the GMC.
In dire need of commuting – they buy, with public transport is as good as non-existing, and not the thing you rely on for being on time 70 miles down the road.

And the story continues…