Thursday, April 07, 2011
A ticket to impoverishment.
Local newspaper yesterday, three NJ Turnpike toll collectors arrested for allegedly substituting lower fare tickets (shorter rides) for higher ones & pocketing the difference. The theft was a few thousand each. Not reported if they knew each other. It's the kind of high-risk, low-return scam I associate with gambling addicts; the small business accounting clerk embezzlers, etc. High risk because it's almost certain you'll get caught sooner-or-later through audit, supervisor suspicion, or a fellow worker whistle blower, & even if you avoid jail time you lose your job, benefits, & pension.
These guys ranged in age from 57 to 62 & had twenty years with the Turnpike Authority. They were earning $66,000 annual wage & need a union to get it. This is a modest working-class income in expensive Jersey. At best, if you have a family to support, you own a modest home, drive a modest car, take modest vacations, & lean on your kids to attend a state college or join the National Guard. A spouse earning about the same raises your comfort & security levels (so far as there is any job security now) but you still won't live high-on-the-hog. Mississippi perhaps, not here.
The comments section turned into the issue of wages. Some people really think these guys were overpaid - after two decades on the job! & there are far fewer toll collectors now on the state's toll roads because of E-Z Pass. In a few years the occupation will probably become extinct. But the Turnpike Authority wants to privatize toll collection, & of course the winning low bidder would win by making human toll collector a low wage job: $25,000 is the number being thrown around. $12 an hour. That is not a living wage in Jersey. Maybe a single person could scrape by for awhile, sharing an apartment & driving a junker, but if there's kids you'd be eligible for food stamps & maybe The State Children's Health Insurance Program, & definitely those kids would be eating subsidized lunches at school, 40 cents for a $2.50 meal. So the state is prepared to take a legit but unattractive occupation that provided a livable income & make it a ticket to impoverishment.
No wonder rummage shops are becoming popular.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
These guys ranged in age from 57 to 62 & had twenty years with the Turnpike Authority. They were earning $66,000 annual wage & need a union to get it. This is a modest working-class income in expensive Jersey. At best, if you have a family to support, you own a modest home, drive a modest car, take modest vacations, & lean on your kids to attend a state college or join the National Guard. A spouse earning about the same raises your comfort & security levels (so far as there is any job security now) but you still won't live high-on-the-hog. Mississippi perhaps, not here.
The comments section turned into the issue of wages. Some people really think these guys were overpaid - after two decades on the job! & there are far fewer toll collectors now on the state's toll roads because of E-Z Pass. In a few years the occupation will probably become extinct. But the Turnpike Authority wants to privatize toll collection, & of course the winning low bidder would win by making human toll collector a low wage job: $25,000 is the number being thrown around. $12 an hour. That is not a living wage in Jersey. Maybe a single person could scrape by for awhile, sharing an apartment & driving a junker, but if there's kids you'd be eligible for food stamps & maybe The State Children's Health Insurance Program, & definitely those kids would be eating subsidized lunches at school, 40 cents for a $2.50 meal. So the state is prepared to take a legit but unattractive occupation that provided a livable income & make it a ticket to impoverishment.
No wonder rummage shops are becoming popular.
Labels: in the news, justice, New Jersey, postcard
