tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post7050911338794561376..comments2023-11-25T03:11:51.759-06:00Comments on On Today's Page: Short-hand explanation for $50K minimum needs (poverty) line for a family of threeDenis Drewhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5037190876571380696.post-90821743372741287282015-02-18T20:51:50.353-06:002015-02-18T20:51:50.353-06:00My personal decent into the much lower middle clas...My personal decent into the much lower middle class because of complete lack of American labor market bargaining power AND concomitant political muscle:<br /><br />In 1980, arrived in Chicago to support myself driving taxicabs. Between 1981 and 1997 Chicago allowed one 30 cent rise in the mileage rate — at which 1990 midpoint it started building subways to both airports, opened up unlimited limos, began putting on free trolleys between all the hot spots downtown (e.g., the Aquarium) AND adding 40% more cabs. By early 1997 I had emigrated 2,000 miles to San Francisco to get an (American?) job driving a cab.<br /><br />NYC, same story: in 2004 dollars: after last successful taxi strike in 1976 (rug then pulled out by lease system) meter raised to $2.25 a mile. By early 2004 had dropped to $1.50 a mile (lease meant shortfall totally on drivers) before raises back to $2.00 — after over 50% increase in per capita income, in the only place on earth (lower Manhattan) where wealth is a plateau not a pinnacle.<br /><br />PS. As long as we are on the "taxi driver" topic — I’m Irish and I can’t shut up — allow me to explain the decent of Times Square from being the Great White Way into becoming Robert DeNiro’s hell. One-two punch: the Supreme Court said porno was First Amendment protected which for some reason caused the area to fill up with naughty shops, which is what attracted the lowest side of the street business — simultaneously the heroin epidemic hit — synergistic combination, unhinging Robert to blow away the whore house. :-)Denis Drewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11833367196756465896noreply@blogger.com