[Texgreen] The poor I saw in Houston

[Roger Baker]

[I saw it in Houston when I was there for a peak oil conference (ASPO- 
USA).

You ride the light rail in central Houston (only about 7 miles long)  
and you see a few well-dressed riding alongside the marginal poor  
(mostly black). You look outside the windows and you see the homeless  
crashed midday, asleep on the downtown sculptures and in the grass  
alongside the transit lines. I ave change to those who solicited  
outside the conference hotel.

I rode rail amidst the dignified, struggling poor who ride transit to  
their jobs. If now is the good times before $90 oil reverberates  
throughout the whole economy, what will it look like in another six  
months or a year? -- Roger]



Higher food bills squeezing working families

PRICES HIGH | Stores can see Americans are struggling

October 21, 2007
BY ANNE D'INNOCENZIO
NEW YORK -- THE CALCULUS OF LIVING PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK IN AMERICA IS  
GETTING HARDER.

What used to last four days might last half that long now. Pay the  
gas bill, but skip breakfast. Eat less for lunch so the kids can have  
a healthy dinner.

Across the nation, Americans are increasingly unable to stretch their  
dollars to the next payday as they juggle higher rent, food and  
energy bills. It's starting to affect middle-income working families  
as well as the poor, and has reached the point of affecting day-to- 
day calculations of merchants like Wal-Mart, 7-Eleven and Family Dollar.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/612788,CST-NWS-stretch21.article