Disappearing middle class

I saw this gentleman waiting for a bus, took a photo, then started to notice other things. The pile of gloves left by someone else seemed oddly out of place until a different, fidgety fellow with greasy, oil-stained hands like a mechanic stopped by. "Hey, look at my shoes - they're just like new from a box at the Salvation Army!" He initially seemed a solid working class exemplar. Very quickly that image disintegrated with the confession that his hands were covered with resin from cleaning his pipe. In the span of ten minutes he neither begged nor proselytized as he confessed his descent from normal high school to homelessness on the pharmaceutical express. There was no lower place to fall to: choosing to sell plasma, or get thrown in the drunk tank, or a half way house with no drugs, or sleep on the lawn by the diner were competing options for the days ahead. But he'd stay dry during the rain in the bus-stop shelter, and find the cheapest 'eats' at the dollar store across the street. Then he shuffled on, "Gotta get some socks to go with these shoes..."

 

Done