tobias & irony Sara on 11 Sep 2007 07:56 pm
Fitti diapers: taxing the poor
So, last night Tobias needed a new diaper. We were in West Oakland. The only thing that appeared to be a Safeway had been converted into a Baptist Church, so our remaining option was a corner liquor store - you know the kind, metal gates surrounding the building, cardboard advertisements for Miller High Life in the windows, one lone bulb lighting the place.
Thing is, to pay for the diapers - “Fitti” brand, I am not kidding - we needed to use a card, and to use a card there was a $2 surcharge. You’re stuck in West Oakland, don’t have any cash, you need a diaper so your baby’s mama doesn’t freak on you for not thinking to pick them up earlier in the day, you think you could also use a six-pack while you are at it, you have one of those credit cards that keep showing up in the mail. What would you do? You pay with the card. You need diapers now and that $2 is not real anyway is it? Not yet. Not til it fucks up your credit and you can never buy your own car or house or even think of paying off your credit card debt - which by now is chock full of surcharges, service fees, late payment charges, you name it.
Yet another way we have institutionalized keeping poor people poor.
on 11 Sep 2007 at 8:56 pm 1.tao said …
its the modern day equivalent of serfdom, but without cool fights between people in armor.
on 11 Sep 2007 at 9:15 pm 2.Sara said …
and without bubonic plague
on 05 Nov 2007 at 10:19 pm 3.Waff said …
Report them and the credit card company will demand they stop doing that or cut them off.
It’s illegal and violates cc rules — the cc companies don’t want businesses to do that or to charge a minimum because they want no barriers to people using their cards.
on 28 Dec 2007 at 12:10 am 4.sues said …
The barstards. Had bank fees of $75. I complained and got $50 back, and this is in New Zealand. Its a crime.