'You're working for gas now', Camden, Ala. workers pay the highest % of income for gas: 13%

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/24/news/economy/camden_alabama/index.htm?postversion=2008032910

'You're working for gas now'
The people of Camden, Ala., pay a bigger chunk of their income for fuel than anyone else in the country - meaning tough choices for the ever thinner family budget.

By Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney.com staff writer
Last Updated: March 29, 2008: 10:46 AM EDT

Gas price's hardest hit

High gas prices are taking their toll - especially in rural Camden, Ala., where for the second year running residents pay a higher portion of their budget on gas than anywhere else in the U.S.

CAMDEN, Ala. (CNNMoney.com) -- Corey Carter spends a quarter of his paycheck on gas.

The 30-year old Carter, who earns $7 an hour making car parts for a Hyundai factory near Montgomery, Ala., spends $65 a week on gas, double what it cost just a few years ago.

Paying $30 more for gas out of a $240 paycheck makes a big difference.

"Going out to eat, going to the movies, you can't do stuff like that," says Carter, filling up his Firebird at a BP station in Camden, a quiet southern town 80 miles southwest of Montgomery. "You're working for gas now."

Carter, and other residents that live around Camden, are having a particularly hard time - they devote more of their budget for gas than anyone else in the United States.

[Trajan]

1. High Paying jobs ...

Have moved from California to Alabama and Texas ..... We are talking state of the art aerospace systems work .....

They moved from union won collective bargaining agreements that provided generous pensions, 100% Health Care, GREAT wages with automatic wage progressions and COLA adjustments ... to NONunion, HALF wage, NO pension, pitifully weak health care .. NO automatic progression .. NO COLA ....

You would think that those in the South would be the first in line to toss out the bastards who created this mess ..... Yet there is no push to unionize in the south .....

When I lived in the Ozarks : (yes : A New Jersey boy from NYC and LA) They always mentioned how CHEAP it was to live there (and hence why it was OK to get paid so little money) .... Yet cars cost the same as LA ... so did fuel and food (in fact: many items were HIGHER in Missouri ,, thinks like beef and eggs, which should have been cheaper ... ) .... The only thing that was less expensive was rent, which was marginally less expensive ...

I did the math many times, and showed those whom I worked with how the 'cheap' home cost did NOT compensate for the pitiful wages .... It was quite clear that paying 300 dollars less per month on rent did NOT make up for the $1500 less in wage accrual ...

And yet: This is RUSH country ???? .....

WHO would vote against their own interest ?.....

[Fumesucker]

2. Camden to Montgomery is about 70 miles one way..

That's a 140 mile daily commute.. For $7 an hour.

This is the kind of thing that rural people are facing, even marginal jobs are an unacceptable distance away.

Corey Carter must have a car that gets pretty decent mileage or he would be spending more than that on gas.