world of "special Happiness",if you are not a 1%er,you can join and we don't charge a fee for our enjoyment.

Same boat, different location and materials... but the same issue here.

It's a really big tent.

All the best to you in the rotten circumstances that neoliberal economics and greed have brought to this land.

Feel the Bern!

It's not that Bernie is going solve all your problems or our country's problems in a few years in the White House.

It's that he understands what has happened in this country and appears to be the only candidate who really wants to do something about it.

Do you have to provide your own transportation to do your delivery job and yet, are an hourly or per job employee? Is your employer receiving the payment for your work but not paying for your transportation? Are you a part-time employee?

Are you working for a subcontractor? Or are you the contract employee and not getting say worker's compensation or unemployment insurance coverage?

My wife is bound by contract to do a daily delivery route. For which she receives a set amount per piece. She may receive tips at the whim of customers.
Currently, we spend about 2 hrs a day on the routes and sometimes 1 hr a day waiting for product.
We supply the vehicle, fuel, and pay for her insurance which is in effect only while on the route.
We do not do the advertising which recruits customers. We gain or lose customers frequently.
The length of the route maybe changed by the parent company at whim (as far as I can tell by reading the contract).
If, for any reason, we need a substitute we can be charged per piece delivered by another contractor (to be fair; this delivery fee is waived about 50% of the time by the parent company).
We are contractors, we are classified as owning a small business. We file a schedule C small business profit/loss form each year.
I am disabled, but help her on her route by doing the driving and maintaining the car.

I am not going to name the business or industry. I will not expose my wife to potential problems with her contract holder because I might have summarized our situation in a way which might offend the more favorable side of her contract.


I like Bernie.
I am proud to say I volunteered and worked his Madison Wi rally.
My contributions to his campaign have been what I could afford.
I downloaded his 12 points to my phone and spread the work.
The only bumper sticker I have ever put on a car I owned is an official Bernie 2016.

My wife and I have struggled financially for years. We are doing better now and I hope you will also.

Health care is a human right.

Living in a liberal democracy, rather than an oligarchy, is a human right.

Decent housing is a human right.

Living a decent life, despite disability, is a human right.

Living on a planet not being destroyed by casino capitalism is a human right.

I don't see anyway to establish basic human rights without overthrowing oligarchy and putting Bernie in the White House.

You have inspired me to work harder for that. Thank you.

You are most definitely not alone.

I live below the poverty level on Social Security Disability and just blew the last of my savings in Tijuana going to the dentist. Last year, I had to sell my car, which was my only means of transportation other than public. Just to pay for the dental care I get in Tijuana at one third the price I would pay in California.

Going to a dentist in America has become a laughing matter: the dentists laugh at me and tell me to go elsewhere, because I have no insurance except for the meager (insulting) crap that comes with my Medicare HMO, and no other way to pay their outrageous, exorbitant fees!

Despite all this, according to the State of California, I make too much money to qualify for Denti-Cal, our state's ONLY dental assistance to the poor.

Bruce Springsteen sang, a few years back, about how America "takes care of our own." Except that we don't. We just don't. In America, you're on your own. If you weren't born with a silver spoon up your ass, you are really, really, sadly on your own.

What sucks is that in the US and Canada workers have been more productive, and generated more wealth than ever before. It has been steadily increasing for 40 years. The problem is the redistribution of wealth to the top instead of raising wages to parallel the increased profits of the large industries. Also cutting taxes for the very wealthy, plus bought off politicians creating loopholes and ways to store wealth off-shore, resulting in no money for infrastructure or quality of life spending on education and health. People work longer for less. The minimum wage should probably be more like $25 an hour based on the cost of living now, and the increase in production and profits. And on top of that free healthcare and college. But all that new wealth generated goes here:

We are constantly fixing cars, fixing something on the house, fixing clothes, fixing something. We have been lucky to be able to do these things ourselves, or we'd probably be living in a cardboard box under a bridge.

I finally got the crappy trailer storm door replaced this week. I've been wanting to do it for about fifteen years, but there was always something that was more urgent. It's made a big difference already as these cooler days come along. My brother and my middle son did the work, shimming and adjusting until it fits tightly into the frame. All we need to do is get some caulk to finish it up, and we're good for the winter.

Now we get to fix the back door, which has basically rotted in the frame, as well as the floor, because the wind blows rain/snow on it and we can't stop it leaking. This has been a huge issue since I got this crappy POS trailer 22 years ago. It came with a patio door that leaked like a sieve and drew cold air in during the winter. Replaced the floor three times already, fourth time later this week. Yay.

By the way, we're going to use the old storm door on the back, until we can afford to buy a new one. It will at least keep the rain out, and hopefully the dogs won't tear it up like they've done the door. They go out the back to run around and have their bathroom breaks, into an area we made with leftover materials and stuff from my sister (a section of chain link fence she picked up off the road and sold to me cheap).

Even if we could afford to pay someone to do the work, nobody wants to work on mobile homes. So I'm very lucky in that my brother can do most anything, with little materials (we've often done stuff with scavenged materials, it's like a miracle). My middle son helps him, so he's learning about carpentry after learning about car repair over the years.

I guess you could say it's a trial being poor. You have to be able to do a lot of bending, or else you'll break. I've come close a few times, but I just keep going on. There are days I really hate having to watch every penny, to always buy the cheapest stuff, to do without new TVs, or computers, or a nicer phone. But it is what it is, as they say.