Life's Little Injustices (Take XXV): Hey, If "Nobody Wants To Work," Why Are The Lines So Long?

 

<"My name is Grace Slick, and I'm a tad dissatisfied
with the state of America today...":

Welcome To The Wrecking Ball!, inner gatefold sleeve>

Lines -- long, long, long lines...

Lines -- long, long, long lines...

Pushing in, shoving in, butting in -- cutting up some lines...

Lines for the rat race, you get wasted

All these traces, lines on your faces...

Breadlines, bloodlines,
Standing in the back of unemployment lines...


<Grace Slick, "Lines"
Welcome To The Wrecking Ball! (1981)>

Old records pop into your head at the funniest moments. The above citations came to mind while the Squawker and I endured one of modern life's grisliest rituals, namely, the weekly grocery store outing that you know exists to Hoover as much money as possible out of your pockets. It's basically like visiting that ninth circle of Hell, only without the medieval woodcuts to dazzle your eyes.

For those who don't know, Welcome To The Wrecking Ball! (1981) marked Grace Slick's third solo outing, before she returned to her Jefferson Starship day job, so to speak. It came as a surprise to people, amounting to an about face from Dreams (1980), its moodier, orchestral-driven, ballad-oriented predecessor/

I'm suspecting that the contrast was intentional, with crunchy power chording carrying the day on Wrecking Ball!, whose key players (producer Ron Frangipane, engineer Ed Sprigg, and guitarist Scott Zito). Although it's somewhat favorable, I take issue with Allmusic Guide's characterization of Wrecking Ball! as Slick sounding like "she's fronting Genesis vocally while the band dwells on hard rock."

Actually, the results sounded closer to much of the AOR hard rock of the era, down to the token moody ballad ("Shooting Star"). The results peaked at #48 in Billboard, so somebody liked it, right? Still, with Grace Slick working the mic, the results will sound a notch or two above what the Foreigners and Journeys were doing back then. "Lines," though, is the real gem here -- essentially, Grace free associating whatever connotations of the word pop into her head, most of them negative (surprise, surprise, right?).

All I know is, the song made my best friend in high school and I laugh our asses off at the audacity of the whole thing. For two teenage boys, Welcome To The Wrecking Ball! served its purpose - provide an enjoyable way of passing a Thursday afternoon, waiting to see what the weekend would bring. What I wouldn't give back to go there, considering how fucked up so much of our world seems today, eh?

And, while it probably won't win any positions on those All-Time Greatest Album lists, it does what it says on the tin, as they say in the UK. Sometimes, that's enough. At any rate...

...something else stuck with me on this particular shopping trip, which came right at the end. As the Squawker and I pulled our carts into the checkout lanes -- of which there were just three, with cashier and one bagger apiece to work them. The self-service machines were humming, jammed with the legions of people using them, which is why we glided past them, though that wasn't the only reason, as I'll explain shortly.

What struck me were these long and winding lines, created by the simple act of sticking as few people behind the counter and the cash register to work. At least Squawker and I could sit down, but I saw a lot of visibly irritated people shifting from foot to foot, as they rolled their eyes, and looked straight ahead, waiting for that ninth circle to end.

Grocery stores, in particular, seem to really enjoy pulling this scam. Big box or small one, it doesn't seem to matter, because I see this phenomenon everywhere I go, with the inevitable long faces and weary sighs of resignation providing the perfect counterpoint. What else is new, right? So many businesses, I swear, have adopted "Customers are cattle" as their new working motto.

And yet -- and yet -- over and over again, the captains of industry continue their lament: "Nobody wants to work." It's repeated like some perverse variation on the Rosary, as if one more mumble of the relevant Scripture might finally change the game.

So, I'll serve up a few questions, for the sake of public service, which go something like this:

If nobody wants to work, why are the lines always so perennially long, and why are we still stuck with so many of them? And why are we being herded into them, even now?

And for those do end up working -- or "wanting to" schlep the cash register for that minimum wage, in RichPeopleSpeak -- why do I see so many of them walking to work? I bring this up, because Matthew's, our local grocery store, is only two miles down the road from our complex. Driving past there, on any given day, I see many of those who man the registers heading there, on foot, dressed for work. 

So, let me repeat the question, for the overdogs who somehow missed it -- can we finally, simply, and realistically admit, that one job is nowhere near enough to pay the bills anymore? Because however many hours they're getting, it's clearly not enough to afford a car, right?

And, last but not least: who decided this was AOK, and why do we continue putting up with it? As the saying goes: answers on a postcard, please. The sooner, the better, because the picture's not getting any prettier. --The Reckoner