VL-IV p. 68/82 Sunbelt/Unions

[Robin Landseadel]

An extended selection from the Wiki article on the Sunbelt points to  
many themes in chapter six that are extensively explored throughout  
Vineland, starting with our country's slow drift away from Unions and  
organized labor. Note how Hubble & Sasha Gates [Sasha's mother being  
Eula—nee Becker—who married Jess/Jesse Traverse*] bitch at the TV:

	. . .Names listed even in fast-moving credits, meaning nothing to
	a younger viewer, were enough to provoke from her parents
	groans of stomach upset, bellows of rage, snorts of contempt,
	and, in extreme cases, switches of channel. "You think I'm
	gonna sit and watch this piece of scab garbage?" Or, "You want
	to see a hot set? Watch when she slams that doorsee that?
	Shook all over? That's scab carpentry by some scab local the IA
	set up, that's what scabs do to production values." Or, "That
	asshole? thought he was dead. See that credit there?" getting
	right up beside the screen to zero in on the offending line, "That
	fascist fuck," tapping the glass over the name fiercely, "owes me
	two years of work, you could've gone to college on what that
	SOB will always owe me."

Here's the Wiki entry:

	. . .Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
	Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Texas
	are commonly thought to belong to the Sun Belt. . .

	. . .The Bible Belt occupies much of the same geography as the 	Sun  
Belt, with the exception of the southwest.

	Author and political analyst Kevin Phillips claims to have coined
	the term "to describe the oil, military, aerospace and retirement
	country stretching from Florida to California" in his 1969 book
	The Emerging Republican Majority.

	The term "Sun Belt" became synonymous with the southern
	third of the nation in the early 1970's. There was a shift in this
	period from the previously economically and politically
	important northeast to the south and west. Events such as the
	huge migration of immigrant workers from neighboring
	Mexico, warmer climate, and a boom in the agriculture industry
	allowed for the southern third of the U.S.A. to grow by leaps and
	bounds economically. The climate spurred not only agricultural
	growth but was also a haven for many retirees who set up
	retirement communities in places such as Florida and Arizona.

	Industries such as aerospace, defense and oil boomed in the
	Sun Belt as companies took advantage of the low involvement
	of labor unions in the south and enjoyed the proximity to many
	U.S. military installations who were the major consumers of
	their products. The oil industry helped propel many southern
	states such as Texas and Louisiana forward and tourism
	exploded in Florida and southern California.

	The economic emergence of the Sun Belt also had political
	ramifications. The Republican Party is said [who?] to have
	gained the most from the rise in power. . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Belt

* from "Against the Day", page 1076

	Jesse brought home as an assignment from school "write an
	essay on What It Means To Be An American."

	"Oboy, oboy." Reef had that look on his face, the same look his
	own father used to get just before heading off for some
	dynamite-related activities. "Let's see that pencil a minute."

	"Already done." What Jesse had ended up writing was,

	It means do what they tell you and take what they give you and
	don't go on strike or their soldiers will shoot you down.

	"That's what they call the 'topic sentence'?"
	"That's the whole thing."

	"Oh."

	It came back with a big A+ on it. "Mr. Becker was at the Cour
	d'Alene back in the olden days. Guess I forgot to mention that."