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Geographic Fragmentation

I whole-heartedly enjoyed the latest issue of the Free Press. It is a good thing that there is another voice in this city, even if it is on a smaller scale.
Regarding the article, "Dismembered" (American Social Life is in the Pits: Unions are the Cause and the Cure) by Doug Collins, I feel that there is a larger cultural reason that what is called "social life" has declined. While TV and the "generation gap" are probably factors, I think that the biggest factor is what I call "geographic fragmentation." Specifically this refers to things like suburbanization and the "freeway culture." Most people only run into their neighbors at the regional supermall, gas station, or convenience store. By making a car a necessity for any trip, no matter how small, the possibility of random human contact is removed. Is it any wonder that civic life has been almost completely absent in American culture for the last 40 years?

Frank James Milliron
Seattle




Temp Survival

After faxing 234 resumes in the last three months for positions as an administrative assistant, and receiving no offers, I accepted a temporary part-time administrative assistant position at $9.80 an hour for 15-20 hours a week. The client-employer pays $16.10 an hour for my skills.
The money I make is barely enough to live on. Thus, I now qualify for $10 a month health insurance (the remainder of my bill, $136, is paid for by the state), food stamps ($55-119), energy assistance ($10), food bank ($20-50), telephone credit ($5) and subsidized housing (paying $225 instead of $600 for a newer one-bedroom apartment).
If I was paid more, say $12-13/hr, I wouldn't be eligible for any "corporate welfare" secondary benefits. And the temp body shop could still earn a profit.
So if you're an employer using one of the temp slave companies or reducing your worker's hours, you might want to ask yourself in a rare moral moment why taxpayers ought to pay for the cheapness of your company.

(name withheld on writer's request)



See related articles:
"Temp Nation" (WFP Issue 14 February/March 1995)

"Free Money" (from this issue's edition of Working.)



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Contents on this page were published in the March/April, 1997 edition of the Washington Free Press.
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