I live in Florida and watch the ebb and flow of political concerns here and through-out the rest of the country. Obama is showing some resolve, Prosser won in Wisconsin, and Rick Scott is selling his family's shares of Solantic and you know what? None of it seems to stick with me as much as my long-time mechanic not taking my credit card this morning because it costs them too high a transaction fee. We're talking about a $10 total transaction.
They say all politics is local and I used to believe that meant state-wide politics and policies or even policy at a municipal or county level. No, today it was at-any-time-could-be-an-ex-government employee and a at-any-time-could-be-an-long-time-ex-local business owner talking about the local state of the world. I was there to get a full repair estimate on my car so I add it to a list of personal items on our pending bankruptcy filing. The mechanic inspected the car and gave me the written estimate. I saw his wife to pay off the work. That's when she told me to come back with cash. It turns out that it would cost them $4.00 to process a $10.00 credit card transaction. Since I have to bring my wife's van back to get an estimate, no problem. Full disclosure: the combined age of my car and my wife's van is 20 years. It's good to have a long-time mechanic that trusts you. They asked me about bankruptcy and I told them about my fears of losing my job. The mechanic told me about business which for them meant just absolute emergencies.
Most of the business they get these days is brought to them by a tow truck. Before the recession, customers would come in to routinely get their oil changed, brakes bled, tune-ups, or just check out whatever weird sound came from their cars. A lot of their customers are bringing their cars in when they absolutely have no choice because they can't afford it. I started thinking about the last time I had an oil change. It wasn't a good feeling. It got worse when I filled up my small sedan and it cost $60.00 for regular gas. The price of gas, the rising costs of benefits & food, and the lack of a raise for years on end are all really good reasons to cut down on non-essential purchases and expenses. The problem is that the longer the recession goes on, the more purchases and expenses become "non-essential", including rountine maintenance for your car.
If one of our cars broke down, that would be it for us. I wonder how many broken-down cars over the last three years have done families in? I wonder how many people are just hanging on, one break-down, accident, or bad break away from losing it all? We have three small kids and while we certainly qualify to file for bankruptcy, I don't relish the thought of doing it. But it seems to be be the only choice my wife and I have to provide for our kids. I'll never say that having kids has made our lives easier but I can say they make certain decisions very easy. Bankruptcy is an easy choice for us. Now while we can afford it and not later when we can't.
We've done things to save money but austerity isn't enough. For the first two years, we pulled through but not any more. Like a lot of families in Florida, we're faced with the very grim reality of driving past many vacant homes and offices on way to work or to look for it. A few weeks ago, I had lunch with some friends in the same boat. We talked about the misery index at work. Which we define it as being fortune enough to still have a job even though employees around you were losing theirs or positions just were not being filled as they were vacanted. Us "fortune" ones get to do more work for the same pay and pay higher costs for less benefits. And if we complain to anyone about it, we're given the same response, "Well, at least you still have a job."
And I'm pretty sure if any of the millions of unemployed in this country had heard the conversation between my mechanic and me this morning their response would have been, "at least you two still have jobs."
It's the shock doctrine in full effect. Much like the way I felt this morning, people have their attention on something else and that's when the bad stuff starts - Michigan's governor is doing more damage to the state than the recession, Wisconsin - fucking Wisconsin, and Republicans proudly vote to kill Medicare. People like me are too busy wondering about what creditor to piss off this month or how to feed their family to stop the insane policies around us. We're distracted - mission accomplished. The other side of the shock doctrine is that it leads to over-reach; a feeling of being invincible.
I have a feeling that the other side is overplaying their hand and the distractions are beginning to wear off. I mean they voted to replace Medicare with vouchers, happily voted to do this. I would like to attend Paul Ryan's town hall meeting attended by seniors in his district. There's nothing John Boehner can say or do that doesn't have the Tea Party angry with him. It seems like Governor Scott and the Florida Congress are walking back some of (but not nearly enough) of their controversial decisions. So there's hope but right now. Maybe one day, I'll be able to get an oil change without fear of hunger.
And if we're all lucky, maybe one November Wednesday morning, a majority of former House Republicans will wonder why voters were so attached to Medicare.