State Of The Economy: Tampa

As you are all aware of by this time, the economic state for many lower income residents of Tampa is in a major degree of shambles. sure, the minimum wage is at a whopping $7.21 per hour, but with rises in the price of food, drugs ( legal ones ), and tobacco, that wage increase has been totally snuffed out of existance.
Want to have a really shitty time trying to live on minimum wage in this area? then might I suggest that you get sick for a week? That is what I did from the 4th up till now. I went and caught a bad case of pneumonia. Is there a good case? This illness has set me back almost to the starting point once again!
On Monday the 6th, I had just a bad headcold, which I could live with. On Monday, after going to a temp service and getting only a few hours of work per week, I finally got a decent job with 10 hour days, six days per week. Yippeee?! After spending Monday going from the high heat and humidity into a nice ice-cold truck on a regular basis, I got a little bit more sicker. Tuesday? Forget about it! I couldn't even move!the lungs were aching,the muscles were sore, and I'm not sure what the rest of me was doing. I'm a type 1 diabetic, so this shit did not help me much. So imagine. No income coming in, and plenty of income going back out. Needless to say, the job was taken over by someone else. Another one bites the dust!
There are many more people in even worse situations than I, and I do not see how they manage to pull living off on a regular basis. Perhaps this is why so many of the poor in the Tampa area drink and do drugs. I guess that the escape, even though temporary, is a means of management for the people here.
I'll have more on this after my illness is finished with me.

U.S. Unemployment Rate 9.5%...

... which is little changed from the previous month of May. 467,000 jobs were lost in the month of June with the largest losses coming in the manufacturing industry, as well as in the professional,construction, and the business services industry.
The unemployed stands at 14.7 million persons as of June 2009.

In June, unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men
(10.0 percent), adult women (7.6 percent), teenagers (24.0 percent),
whites (8.7 percent), blacks (14.7 percent), and Hispanics (12.2 per-
cent)--showed little change. The unemployment rate for Asians was
8.2 percent, not seasonally adjusted.
Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who com-
pleted temporary jobs (9.6 million) was little changed in June after
increasing by an average of 615,000 per month during the first 5 months
of this year.
The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or
more) increased by 433,000 over the month to 4.4 million.In June, 3
in 10 unemployed persons were jobless for 27 weeks or more.

www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.html

Friday is the third of July,so that means that our 4th of July holiday weekend is beginning. Many businesses will be closed or they will be having short work days. I am no exception. There will be no new postings at this site until Monday, the 6th.
Have a great and safe holiday everyone!

State Of The Economy II: Tampa Florida...

...and it got just a little bit worse for those low income, hourly workers today. This would be concerning the new Florida excise tax on cigarettes which went into effect on July 1,2009. Another blow to smokers and tobacco dealers everywhere.
Yesterday I wrote that I would be introducing you to some of the cast of character's who actually have to resort to all kinds of tricks in order to feed themselves since the work environment here in Tampa is the pits. That will have to wait for another day.
The state of Florida has added an excise tax of $1 to each pack of cigarettes sold in the state.Rolling tobacco such as "Tops" and "Bugler" are also hit by this tax.So why is the state doing this? The excuse as of last week was that the state has to come up with the cash somewhere because the state's tax revenues are down. The state is not making any money so let's just raise smoker taxes and fuck them even more!
The better off will grumble and grip about the increase, and a few may even decide that it is time to quit. Those who are not so well off will feel the increase the most. Granted, some will opt to give up the habit. Great for them!
This tax increase will definitely be a burden to those who are working at the minimum wage level. Let's look at the price increases on a few brands of smokes.
"Remington" brand of little cigars. This brand is the low-budget, generic brand of smokes that anyone could afford, whether homeless or not. This is the last resort brand for smokers in the Tampa area. The price per pack on June 30,$1. Price on July 1,$2.25 at one nearby store.
"Winston" brand from RJ Reynolds, my personal favorite. June 30,$3.89 per pack. July 1,$4.99. "Marlboro"? Forget about it! June 30,$4.89 per pack. July 1,$5.99.
This is at a store in my neighborhood. I have seen some selling for as much as $6.99. This is ridiculous! Tampa has a bad enough problem with folks getting robbed by crack-heads and other druggies, not to mention people who just plain need the money. I'm wondering how long that it will take before we are getting held up for cigarette money or the smokes themselves.
Though I now believe that smoking is not so good for the person, the state should not be placing the cost of their ineptitude on the lower-wage workers who just happen to smoke.
As an after thought, I should note that Cigars are exempt from the excise tax. I would guess that since most cigar smokers are just a little bit better off than most of us, it just wouldn't be fair to tax them along with you and I.

State Of The Economy: Tampa Florida ( Continued )

Maybe I should clarify a few things before continuing on with this topic.
When dealing with the " state of the economy " here in Tampa Florida, I am talking about the economy of the hourly worker. I'm not concerning myself with salaried workers at this time because they seem to be not suffering as much as the hourly employee is.
I am also concerning myself with those hourly workers who now happen to be living on the streets behind some building, or who are sleeping in cars, Salvation Army centers, or other homeless shelters, ect.
Many of you readers will think of the homeless as that group of people who are to lazy to work or who are either drug addicts or alcoholics. While it is true that a few of the individuals that I have hung out with are one or both, most are actually hard-working and have ended up on the streets because they could no longer afford to live the way in which they were accostumed to living, because of company downsizing or whatever.
So. Are we all on the same page now? I hope so, because the reader is about to get educated on how life is in the world of reality. Stay tuned folks because this could very well be you in our currant economy, and in that which is still to come.
Tomorrow you will meet a few of the players in this saga, and in the days to follow I will take you out with them in their daily struggles to find even temporary work in order to put food in their mouths.