The Chicago taxicab business is not the only industry under particularly serious economic stress, a point brought home in a Petition for Injunctive Relief filed recently by the seven Chicago taxicab drivers in the Circuit Court of Cook County.
The most recent, and perhaps most dramatic, threat to standards of living has been in the form of higher gasoline prices, which have risen 33 cents a gallon just in the past month.
Tat means you are paying up to $2,000 more per year just on gas.
But the erosion in our living standards has been a long time coming and it comes from multiple sources.
Consider this: Since 2000 the average weekly wage has gone up, in inflation-adjusted terms, by a mere $33 since 2000.
There are plenty of indications that Chicago taxicab drivers have nonetheless fallen behind -- even if you leave out the whopping 128 percent increase in gasoline prices during that period.
According to on-going nation-wide studies:
• The percentage of people with no health insurance increased 63 percent since 2000, and;
• The number of jobs with health coverage declined by 12 percent.
• 74% percent more people -- almost one in 10 -- spend at least a quarter of their income for health care than was the case in 2000.
The number of people who are below the poverty line is up from coast to coast, bankruptcies are up 27 percent and home foreclosures are up 92 percent.
Maybe we need to focus on supporting the aspirations of working-class taxicab drivers and their families, not the avarice of corporations, or the revenue needs of City government and not the personal whims and pet issues of some the “voices” who post to this forum.
It seems that those who have the most “opinions” to offer have the least in terms of realistic solutions to the problems that face us.
The real heroes among us are not the ones who can bang their drum the loudest and most persistently, but those who take small positive steps toward focusing on the underlying reasons of why we can’t get a meter increase when we need it.
Okay, Wolf, I'll bite.
Which "personal whims" and "pet issues" of which "voices who post on this forum" should we "ignore", in your opinion?
Who exactly has the "most opinions to offer" and the "least in terms of realistic solutions to the problems that face us", in your opinion?
Who are the "real heroes...who take small positive steps toward focusing on the underlying reasons of why we can't get a meter increase when we need it", in your opinion?
What exactly are you referring to? Please elaborate.
-Mike Foulks
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Replying to:
The Chicago taxicab business is not the only industry under particularly serious economic stress, a point brought home in a Petition for Injunctive Relief filed recently by the seven Chicago taxicab drivers in the Circuit Court of Cook County.
The most recent, and perhaps most dramatic, threat to standards of living has been in the form of higher gasoline prices, which have risen 33 cents a gallon just in the past month.
Tat means you are paying up to $2,000 more per year just on gas.
But the erosion in our living standards has been a long time coming and it comes from multiple sources.
Consider this: Since 2000 the average weekly wage has gone up, in inflation-adjusted terms, by a mere $33 since 2000.
There are plenty of indications that Chicago taxicab drivers have nonetheless fallen behind -- even if you leave out the whopping 128 percent increase in gasoline prices during that period.
According to on-going nation-wide studies:
• The percentage of people with no health insurance increased 63 percent since 2000, and;
• The number of jobs with health coverage declined by 12 percent.
• 74% percent more people -- almost one in 10 -- spend at least a quarter of their income for health care than was the case in 2000.
The number of people who are below the poverty line is up from coast to coast, bankruptcies are up 27 percent and home foreclosures are up 92 percent.
Maybe we need to focus on supporting the aspirations of working-class taxicab drivers and their families, not the avarice of corporations, or the revenue needs of City government and not the personal whims and pet issues of some the “voices” who post to this forum.
It seems that those who have the most “opinions” to offer have the least in terms of realistic solutions to the problems that face us.
The real heroes among us are not the ones who can bang their drum the loudest and most persistently, but those who take small positive steps toward focusing on the underlying reasons of why we can’t get a meter increase when we need it.
