I have a friend and she lives with her boyfriend; both are relatively new to Portland and they moved cross country with little more than their backpacks and bicycles. She busts her ass, working, I'm quite sure for minimum wage or close to that and doing writing for two different papers. Meanwhile she doesn't have any of the luxuries I do, things I often take for granted. Like my cell phone, my car and the fact that I have some nice clothing hanging in the closet. Though she has a home it almost made me want to cry when I saw her meager wardrobe hanging up in a closet too large for the combination of two dressers and a few of her boyfriend's shirts.
She and I were talking about the economic crisis, but not the housing or banking problems that face our country now. We were talking about the state of the last few years; the fact that young people are having as hard a time as ever before trying to scrape by. What makes this doubly sad is that Portland is a pretty livable town in terms of housing rent; though some areas of the city are pretty expensive to live in. No, we were talking about how it's been hard for the last few years; something I attribute to the domino effect.
Though I haven't been earning my own way for more than a few months I can say that I think the second gas prices started reaching $2.50 per gallon things started getting rough for people. People now are doing really badly especially struggling middle and lower-middle class people; people, who, a few years ago would be doing alright or bettering their circumstances and getting it really rough. The thing is, I feel like it isn't until now, when gas is mercifully topping out at $3.40 a gallon, that politicians are saying that people are having a rough time. Truth is, the second gas prices went up people started tightening the belt or sliding backward, and this only got worse the higher gas prices rose, and then eventually, when food prices got really high. The other day $25 bought me a 5 micro dinners and a gallon of milk. For years, dating back even to 2000 clothing prices, even at average places got expensive.
So when a man, undoubtedly from Lake Oswego or West Linn came into Aaron Brothers yesterday and had 14 original, signed posters to frame and found out that they would be around 100 dollars before a %25 off coupon was applied to the frames, and then demanded that he get a better deal, I felt like beaning him and stretching my arm around the desk and slapping him. Dude, if you have the type of job that can afford you the chance to get 14 different original signed Nadal vs. Federer posters, then your doing alright, and you don't need an extra discount that only applies to you, and not "the average guy off the street." What an asshole. The guy thought he walked on water and deserved better then everyone else. Even if the Lord Almighty showed up and asked for a special deal we couldn't do it. We can't arbitrarily do that kind of thin; and if someone like the asshole wants a deal, they need to go to a flea market, ebay or Turkey, but either way, they need to stay the fuck away from Aaron Brothers. As he's arguing with me, his three children, whom he can afford to support, start playing with stuff in the shop and leave stuff on the floor. Future generation of America, god help us all.
Like I said, times are tough, and it is times like this that I feel lucky to not only be employed but to also have a good paying job that provides health benefits. I really do feel lucky to be employed when things are so junky, and I am thankful. I also wish good luck to those who have been or who are now recently struggling.
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