Christmas Horror Story
as told by Theron Dash

In case you missed it, here's a heartchilling tale to contemplate, as we Wal-Mart our way to the bottom.

There are 3,066 counties in America; just about all of us live in one. According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, an American who works full time at the federal minimum wage cannot afford to rent a one-bedroom apartment in 3,062 of those counties.

So except for three counties in Illinois and one in Florida, a minimum wage worker, on his or her own, with or without a family to support, will likely be homeless.

That's assuming that 70% of the income goes to trivialities like food, clothing, transportation, medicines, etc. The rule of thumb used to be that housing should take no more than 25% of total income, but the government figures that 30% is good enough.

This is the United States of America. Not just the country where social justice became a political principle. But the richest nation in the world. The richest nation the world has ever seen.

And it only gets worse. Rent and utilities for a two-bedroom apartment---crowded, but enough for a mother and father and a couple of kids---requires three fulltime incomes at minimum wage. Which is probably how many families do afford it: one parent works 80 hours, the other 40.

We aren't talking here about the unemployed. Or the underemployed. We are talking about the overemployed, the dead on their feet. And with two people working, that's even more for transportation, and then there's daycare.

As for the single person, good luck. Sleep in a ditch and dream of being one of that glorious top 1% that has seen its income rise by 200% since Reagan's election. Die without health care. We don't actually care. Come back as an "unborn child", then we'll talk.

Our evangelical moralists apparently don't believe in Darwinism when it comes to nature, but they sure seem to believe in it fervently when it comes to their fellow Americans.

This story would make Scrooge cry. But not our Republican rulers and their rich and morally bankrupt friends. For them it is the best of times.

May they and their bankers meet the ghosts of Christmas Past (say, the Great Depression) and Future (the Bush Apocalypse). Not that the threat of a sparsely attended funeral cuts any ice with them. They'll be Raptured by then, right?

It's a far, far righter thing we do than we have ever done before.

In the meantime, everybody enjoy The Little Match Girl on Christmas night. Just be sure you're looking at the TV set, and not out the window.

Cause next year you might be looking in the window, and into the mirror.


The Seattle Times: Nation & World: Report cites scarcity of low-income housing