When I read this story from the Philadelphia Inquirer the other day, I knew I had to write about it. An official from Philadelphia Christ Church went searching for a water leak and wound up discovering an 80-year old message scrawled in pencil on the back of a bathtub:

"Tub set 1-9-33 by Louis J. Volpe. This work kept two men from starving during the Depression."

Volpe's message started me thinking about the simple power that skilled-trades jobs have always had to put food on American tables, and the consequences of today's ever-widening gap between haves and have-nots. The resulting Huffington Post piece seems to have struck a nerve. It was featured on the front page of HuffPo's Impact section. Here's an excerpt:

Today fewer Americans may be starving to death than during the Depression, but that doesn't mean U.S. workers aren't struggling to make ends meet. In 2008, nearly 50 million people in this country (more than 16 million of them children) lived in food-insecure households. Without income sufficient to cover basic needs, many families are forced to choose between food and other necessities, such as housing, healthcare, childcare, and transportation. And things are not getting better. Each year the gap between this country's haves and have-nots continues to grow. In this weekend's Financial Times, Edward Luce picked apart the American Dream, profiling families whose stories paint a portrait of the dying middle class. Among those mentioned were Mark and Connie Freeman. Although their joint gross income of $70,000 is more than a third higher than the U.S. median, the couple says they're "never more than a pay check or two from the streets."

This story is far from unusual.

Check out the rest at HuffPo. And, as always, I welcome your comments on the HuffPo post page.

Cross-posted on my blog.