the American angst of having fallen from the middle class

the American angst of heaving fallen from the middle class

fiction
edward w pritchard

In my case the American angst of having fallen from the middle class is cushioned by the not totally uncomfortable old vinyl padded seats of the reliable cross town number 19 bus that I sit on as I head downtown to make war with the good government employees at the social security office concerning my need to pay for additional premiums for medicare part D prescription coverage so I can continue to be a good consumer of pharma services now and into the future. As the trusty old bus bounces along from stop to stop I hang on to my American dreams by using the shiny metal poles designed to cushion a sudden stop should the bus driver collide with anything or accelerate or brake too aggressively. Despite being in a constant rush to get from the initial pick point at any of the low income grocery store stops, to the metro/greyhound central terminal master Bus station downtown I have never experienced a bus driver being involved in any type of traffic altercation. Sometimes  a concerned driver will let a homeless type passenger or obviously poor student ride for free to maintain social order I suppose. To me, bus drivers seem like pretty good folks, especially the women drivers. I tolerate their smoking outside the bus when ahead of schedule because I assume they have a stressful job and life.


The bus is fifty cents a ride for the elderly and it appears that anyone can get for $2.50 an all day bus pass so you can go from the unemployment office, to the Medicaid, or social security offices for Medicare like me, or to the county health offices for mysterious other social services related to mental health and american angst. Fifty cents a ride is a good price to ride the eight miles to downtown from where I stay. I still have change in my pocket to buy an overpriced $1.75 20 oz. diet mountain from the vending machines designed to give the low income folks easy access to the varieties of American consumer culture. I am usally hit on by someone asking for money for groceries or to donate to their church next Sunday; probably as an older white guy I am not one of the stereotypical sub class types and appear an easy mark, or it could be a tribute to the local Goodwill Stores where I purchase one of half a dozen very nice, warm wool over coats that I wear about in Winter. Necessary, when I ride the bus since the local bus stop with the glass seated enclosure is 1350 steps on my garman from my abode.

The good thing about the metro bus is it gets about town rain or shine so I can reach downtown in snowy weather unlike the suburban local school buses near my house which only move about the streets of our area on clearer days. At least where I live metro bus drivers get less snow days off than Public school bus drivers from what I can unscientifically surmise from riding the metro bus past the school bus parking lot the last few snowy days. Probably school bus drivers aren't involved in decisions to close the suburban schools on wintry days, such decisions being left to school administrators and teachers unions I would imagine.

Recently I had to take two buses without a transfer to pick up a borrowed truck for the day. It only cost 50 cents times two but although inexpensive buses take a while to get about especially if where someone works or is going is off the beaten path. Usually though most people who ride a bus to work are younger women, a little too heavy to walk far, again being unscientific when it comes to proper sampling techniques, I am sure that the extra two hours it takes to get to the McDonald's or dollar store for work makes for a tiring day after doing an eight hour shift on one's feet all day. So, even  if  McDonald's and the dollar stores aren't off the beaten path it still lowers anyone's net profit from working there if because of circumstance they are forced to ride a bus to work because they aren't in proper shape to ride a bike or walk to work or if they have others things to do after working besides walking  for two hours to go say eight miles or ride a bike for an hour to go the same distance. Also it would be a lot easier if they had a nice new car to drive to McDonald's to work. Taking a bus to work for most people I again without a proper statistical sample surmise is stressful in itself even though one hears a lot of interesting conversations on a bus, even an introvert like myself, and one learns a bit about the American angst of having fallen from the middle class that one doesn't realize riding about in a new car especially if one isn't fortunate enough to have another new car as well being driven by their hard working spouse to their well paying career work location. Again without a proper sample I notice that from looking and listening to people who ride the buses about town most of the bus customers don't seem to have a sufficient other in their lives, who has their backs in the good times and bad in life and have a well paying career as well, which although probably their fault, the bus customers, their fault that they are alone, they not having a proper car, nor a store of Capital, capital C, in the Bank, then that is for the lonely person on the bus, one of several indices that can lead to the American angst of having recently fallen from the middle class. I assume such a situation happens more often to introverts without properly chosen careers, a store of Capital in the Bank and successful life partners but such an assumption would be a sweeping statement which would be unscientific, being mere here-say [hear-say sic.] on my part. Speaking of hear-say evidence and improper rules of disavowed evidence in a court of law for this fallen American angel of the American angst to imply the estoppel evidence rule, to why him and other lower class bus riders deserve special consideration and subsidy because of the current lack of equity, inherent hardheartedness, and lack of opportunity  involved in the pursuit of happiness in the Capitalistic system is disingenuous at best as well as just plain naive considering that everyone knows that if one is forced to rely on a estoppel defense in a court of Law, that one has a weak hand and is bound to lose before the court, estoppel defense, being here, in this argument that recently life has gotten so much the harder resulting in more and more good people falling out of the middle class in America even though once in some golden age there really was equal opportunity for all; when in fact any Jury knows that such was never the case and as any good lawyer knows Judge's have a very short attention span when it comes to interpreting the fairness of anything involving Equity either in court or Society at large. Summary Judgment being then Some are Bound to Lose. Case Dismissed.