When It Gets Real

(Closed Captioned for the Privilege Perception Impaired)
NOTE: I was going to title this with a word in place of "it" that rhymes with it, and is generally considered a vulgarity, but I decided to spare the obscenity on my friends' stream. Although what we are doing to the poor is FAR more obscene, and in sparing your sensitivities I have shown far more consideration for you than public policy shows to the needy.

Also, I have highlighted parts of this tale that outline my privileged point of view because I feel it is important for us to understand privilege. Also, because I'm kind of an ass!

I started off this morning heading to the day labor joint. I arrived at 6AM (Privilege point: having a car is a privilege not everyone enjoys. Had I had to walk to the day labor place, this easily could have added an hour or more to my day). I sat in the waiting room holding for an assignment for 2 hours, then decided to run for a burrito. I spent $4.33 on two burritos, a point that will be important later in this tale.

I took another laborer to the job site. In my case, the hotel's paid for for the week because of work done yesterday in IT. We had six guys onsite, all with varying backgrounds. There was another IT guy there, two truckers, a welder, and a young man who assisted his brother in roofing.

When we arrived onsite, after asking around, we discovered it was about a 4 hour assignment. This was not a big deal for me, but a huge deal for the others who were depending on this as their primary source of income.

The assignment was to place a 50,000 square foot tarp on the floor of an event center. The total weight of the tarp was about a ton, it was split into 4 sections. After hearing that it would be a half day assignment, I decided it would be a good social experiment (Privilege point: I came into this well fed and not having to worry about a roof over my head). The idea, as I saw it, was to try to make enough for the day off of this day's earning's alone.

I had a comic relief moment about noon when my fitness app alerted me to the fact my step quota for the day had been filled, without even trying (If I even have to discuss the fingerprints of privilege all over this one, I honestly can't help you!)

We finished the day with 5 hours instead of 4, so that was a win. I didn't have a pair of gloves with me and so had to buy a pair (if this was truly life or death, I would have lied). At the end of the day, I had a check for $34.23.

That was just under what I needed to pay for the hotel room $34.50), so I decided to hunt for cans. I walked for 3/4 mile; that was enough for me for the day. I gathered 1 pound of cans, a total so low the guy at the recycling center half sneered at me. A grand total of forty cents.

So my take for the day was $34.63. Not enough after the room for even a packet of ramen noodles. (Privilege point: had I not had a bank account, I would have lost a percentage of the check to check cashing fees in many places. I also didn't count the gas in the total).
Now, had I been genuinely without means, I could have hit the guy I gave the ride to up for gas money. I also noticed a pretty good street corner open for evening rush, so if there was genuinely a need, flying a sign wouldn't have been out of the question.

But honestly, does it speak well of us as a society when the best we can do is tell people to fly a sign? Can't we do better? Further, don't we have the MORAL authority to do so?

Technically, I lost $4.20 on the day, plus gas (the cost of the burritoes). That's not even counting supper. (Privilege point: the poor don't have a surplus to use when they come up short. They merely go without! So in the real world, I'd have had to keep walking till I acquired the cans)

I'm going to keep hammering this point home because, honestly, it's a point that needs pounding. Don't come to me with the pretense of being a Christian nation if you want to continue to destroy the working class.