The Marginal Class (those that used to be the Lower Middle Class) is further driven to quasi-Third-World status by simply making it hard for them to travel. Gasoline is high priced at $3.25 per gallon for those in the Marginal Class. All the usual big-media pundits wonder what the tipping point is for Americans' gas price tolerance. They are the part of America that can live above any bruised economy and are oblivious to the Marginal Class. I have been pondering lately just what the Marginal Class starts to eliminate from their lives when they are overwhelmed by an imploding economy. Once they have eliminated enough consumer culture out of their lives they enter the Under Culture (the class that cheats the norms and mores of consumer life and takes short cuts in almost every aspect of daily life - just to get by) . Here is just a "short-list" I think may by relevant and realistic:

   They stop buying new cars.
   
   They buy used, high mileage cars.
   
   They stop buying insurance of all kinds and for sure auto insurance. 
         
   They rarely take their kids to the doctor.    
   
   They for sure do not go to the dentist.
   
   They do not license their pets, they sure do not take them to the vet.
      
   They themselves do not go to the doctor. 
   
   They do not license their car, rather they may steal license plate stickers.
   
   If they get too many tickets and can't pay they just let their driver's license lapse - they drive anyway.
   
   They smoke generic cigarettes or buy them on the black market.
   
   They share medications. 
   
   They quit paying taxes. 
   
   They do services and do not report the cash.
      
   They disconnect the land-line phone.
   
   They stop getting cable or dish TV.
   
   They start living in groups of three to five to an apartment just to save money.
   
   They disconnect the Internet.
      
   They do not subscribe to media such as newspapers and magazines.

   There is not much camping equipment (trailers, campers, motor homes, etc.) traveling on the Interstate any more. In the past few decades a thriving recreation culture and industry accommodated the Marginal Class with small campers (there was a pop-up camper culture for decades) for weekends and holidays. I fear a fun industry is being completely unraveled by completely oblivious ruling class types via their gas pricing schemes. The one happy activity a Marginal Class could have, is the camping culture. It is something they can do as a family with kids, pets, and extended family, and still feel like they are part of America. Camping is something probably thought of as silly by those that live about the rabble. The removal of such a nuanced activity is a gateway to the Under Class. 

   You see I don't believe there is a tipping point for our culture in regards to high gas prices. People will eliminate just about everything else and still pay the high prices to keep their cars running. Liberals seem to think high prices will snap us all into some epiphany to conserve gas. Conservatives seem to think high gas prices are a sign of "business is business" and if you can't make the cut and put gas in your car you are just a failure anyway. No, these economic obfuscaters who preach a tipping point with gas prices fail to realize, that it is after all a slow, subtle, slide into the Under Class from the Marginal Class. Any one who has ever walked a bit in the Under Class knows it does not befall someone over night. It is a slow languishing transition. And once you are in the Under Class you must understand the rest of America holds you in contempt. It is after all your fault you can't work a third part-time job to pay the bills. 

   I know a horrible secret about our obfuscating big-media pundit class and the two political parties. Few have ever been in the Under Class - fewer have served in the military. They live above the rabble. We are only an "other" to "them," the one's sanctioned as the holders of the Fourth Estate. We are a hypothetical construct to be speculated about by "them." Much the same, I fear as they speculate about Iraq or speculated about Vietnam, or the connections between the two eras, most likely never having been to those places themselves either. 

   We are all asking the wrong question by asking how high can gas prices can go before we as a society implode - transportation of goods, retail goods and its advertising, recreation, food delivered to the elderly, and even newspapers are all things we worry will not get where they are supposed to because of too high gas prices. The real tipping point that should be considered is how many Under Class people will the society at large tolerate before it implodes under their weight? If you are one who lives above the rabble and think we as a society can absorb a huge Under Class, even a quasi Third-World culture, then I suggest you just keep on doing what you do best - remain self absorbed and continue business as usual - be beholden to big-media, the Republicans, and the Democratic parties rather than to the United States, and have another Latte.  

   This week's Wisconsin soldier to remember is Army Sgt. Warren S. Hansen, 36, of Clintonville. He was killed in the U.S. military's worst single loss of life since the Iraqi war began, 17 101st Airborne Division soldiers, including Hansen, died Saturday night November 15, 2003 when two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters collided in midair and crashed in the northern city of Mosul. Hansen became Wisconsin's sixth soldier to die in the current Iraq war. Sargent Hansen was assigned to the 9th Battalion, 101st Aviation Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. Warren worked in maintenance and handled inspections for the aviation unit in the 101st Airborne. Hansen was single and joined the military soon after high school. He was planning to return to his home base in Fort Campbell, Kentucky by March, 2004.

   3,395 Americans have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

   25,245 U.S. troops have been wounded in action in Iraq since Spring 2003.

   72 Wisconsin soldiers have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

   102 journalists (several nationalities) have been killed in Iraq since Spring 2003.

Soldier of the week, military casualty, and journalist casualty information sources: Committee to Protect Journalists; cnn.com; and, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.