Down and out in Seattle and King County

Dawn comes soon enough for the working class...

Surprising face of working poor
Their jobs allow them to barely hang on in city -- and they're all around

Surprising to whom, latte boy? And what's with the "they're all around"? All around like rats? All around like under the bed? Yikes, it's "those people"! They're everywhere, and what's more, they're multiplying!

Here's what isn't a surprise:

One factor contributing to the invisibility of the working poor in this region is that the "relative 'haves' don't tend to interact with the relative 'have-lesses,' " said Steve Williamson of the King County Labor Council. "People don't realize they could be one paycheck away."

So much for solidarity. It's the latest in a series of dispatches from a land where "we love humanity, it's individual people we can't stand":

Despite Seattle's reputation for "niceness" and its heritage as a working-class city, however, some residents expressed frustration with the working poor. Readers suggested they should be living doubled up and out of view, taking the bus in from the outlying areas where they can afford housing so they don't clog our roads, and keeping out of emergency rooms so they don't drive up health care costs for everyone.

Or keeping them in jail for, you know, clogging up the sidewalks.

(Bonus links: The Magic Nine Factors That Cause the "Seattle Chill" and "The Have-Nots" by the incomparable X)