[Spartan300]

This is an interesting article. Doesn't look like a "recovery" to me. Bad times getting worse.

http://paid.outbrain.com/network/re...qType=1&wid=100&imgType=0&version=39601&idx=5

 

[rwisaacks]

Sad, this sucks so bad it ****es me off. I am thankful every day for what my family has.

 

[big john]

i was almost there. 3 payments behind on our mortgage and all utility's were at least 2 months behind. i hustled eveything and everyone in site, sold most eveything and would push crackheads out of the way to get to the front of the line at the temporary work force place. we made it. house may be falling down around us, but it is now paid for. moral of the story, when it comes time to f**k,fight or hit the fence.... FIGHT fight like your life depends on it. no one is going to help you but YOU

 

[Thedishdoc]

This line in the article is scary.
"So what should we do with all of the Americans that are being forced out of their homes by this economy? Should we just round them all up and put them into fenced camps?"

 

[LadyFenix]

Very true article about what is going on.......also, tough to read. I see this same thing in my town, and I don't live in a big city.

The streets can be very mean, if you are out there all alone. At least, the people profiled in the article still have a car to live in.

Reading this made me think about something I saw several months ago. I went out for a late morning walk and found a young woman with two small children huddled under the low-hanging branches of a big pine tree at the edge of my apartment building property. It was cold and raining. The kids had warm jackets, but she didn't. They were all terrified and shivering in the cold.

They had been there for two days after she was evicted from her apartment. Nowhere to go and nothing to eat. No place to live......and she had lost her job, her car, gone thru whatever money she had and (finally) been evicted from her home.

I know times are hard, but it is horrifying that things like this are happening in America. I put her and the kids into my car and drove them to the local Community Center. I didn't know what to do.....but I knew the people at the Center would. Not a great solution......but at least it got them off the street and into a place where they could get a hot meal and some much-needed warmer clothing.

I often think about her and wonder what happened to that little family. She was just one example of what is going on all over this country.

 

[MattB4]

It is very sad for the folks that just got caught up in the gears of the housing bubble. Sure some were foolish and some were crooked. However quite a few just did not realize that a major downturn was about to happen.

As is though, there are literally millions that would be homeless today if the foreclosure process has not been stretched out because of financial institutions unwilling to write off the defaulted property yet. Truth be told many of the largest Banks are flat out broke if they had to figure the todays value of their loans.

Since I live in a remote area I am not forced to have to see the displaced and the homeless. I would love to be able to help them but I get by on a very meager amount each month. If it was not for the fact I have zero debt and own my land free and clear, I never could get by on my savings and small income.

 

[Jojo]

The biggest mistake is to think it couldn't happen to you. You can have the best education in the world, the greatest job, and be prepped for (you think) anything. All it might take is one serious illness in your family. You have no idea, how fast you will go through the money you have in the bank and the preps you have stored, in order to save someone you love.

 

[FarmerJohn]

if your livingin your car your no longermiddle class as typically accepted by society

 

[petergunn]

I hate to say it but i think we will see hoovervilles in the major cities soon. When the welfare & food stamps & all the other govt. programs end the anarchy begins

Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/11/07/17605...lass-americans-will-be-sleeping#ixzz1S6sSjYlK

anarchy will happen when the cell phones and cable gets cut.

 

[Angry Cow]

I can't work as a computer repairman because there are too many former tech workers in Sacramento who are trying to repair PCs for food, or just a little money, many are doing $15 flat rate repairs and for that amount of money I make more being on SSI. This of course doesn't stop the for profit colleges from pumping out legions of half @$$ed techs who are desperate to pay student loans that can total $20k or more, and who are joining everybody else in doing $15 repairs.

There is literally nothing left to train for, all the "fix-it" occupations such as car mechanic and computer repairman have so many people here trying to do them that prices have been forced down to impossible levels. I know of car repair shops advertising $15.99 oil changes, heck for that cost they're not breaking even on the oil much less the labor.

I live in Sacramento CA and we have the second worst employment market of any big city in the USA. I have a place to live because I live with my parents. Ironically prospective dates NEVER want a guy who lives with his parents, or who doesn't have a job or a car, even if it's the only way he's staying off the streets. Then women complain that "there are no men available". Well look around you sweetie, Mr. Perfect lost his job and had to move in with his folks. The elite were allowed to gut the country and run it on credit cards, now everybody is loaded down with debt and have no way to pay it.

 

[LadyFenix]

The biggest mistake is to think it couldn't happen to you. You can have the best education in the world, the greatest job, and be prepped for (you think) anything. All it might take is one serious illness in your family. You have no idea, how fast you will go through the money you have in the bank and the preps you have stored, in order to save someone you love.

****************

This is SO true......and I know that from hard experience within my own family.

It costs a LOT of money to be sick with anything major in America. If you have insurance coverage that has a 10 or 20% deductible, you would be horrified at how fast that total adds up.

Many people have racked up staggering medical debt that they will never be able to pay off in their lifetime......no matter how hard they work. And they didn't do anything wrong. They just got sick.

 

[mekon1971]

How times have changed. Two years ago, I had a corner office, a secretary, a company car, an expense account, a home, a 401k - I was an upper middle class Project Manager for a construction company that did over 20 million dollars a year. When the housing bubble hit, the contracts started drying up - and I was doing large commercial buildings. We went from over 200 employees down to 100, I became a "Business Development" person, looking for work - we had never had to actively "look" for projects before because of the reputation we had for quality and affordable work.

As the months passed, we dropped to 75, then to 50, then to 30 - I went with that last cut. At first I thought, oh well, a quick vacation and then I'll be back in the saddle. I am very qualified and thought it would take no time to find a new job. Sixteen months later, my unemployment ran out - that was 3 months ago.

During those sixteen months, I lost my house, cashed out my 401k trying to keep things going, burned through my savings, moved from a higher cost-of-living area to the Dallas, TX area to save on living expenses (after the house was gone), and eventually lost my vehicle once the unemployment finally ran out.

Oh, and my wife was in Peru as a missionary during this time!

Talk about a radical life simplification! I was one of those people that thought it couldn't happen to me. I now get by on scavenging and bartering. My wife is back from Peru and has been working. Her income is our primary income right now. With the last bit of money we had, we opened a Thrift Shop and are trying to help others who are falling victim to the economic downturn.

We struggle just to cover the rent and bills and truly get by day-by-day.

I am a combat veteran, college educated, and didn't think it could happen to me.

 

[outdoors]

wait, i thought all the homeless, unemployed, and disadvantaged were just lazy good for nothings. " sarcasm"

I feel for all those that are caught in the grinding of the gears.

 

[trainwreckmetal]

How times have changed. Two years ago, I had a corner office, a secretary, a company car, an expense account, a home, a 401k - I was an upper middle class Project Manager for a construction company that did over 20 million dollars a year. When the housing bubble hit, the contracts started drying up - and I was doing large commercial buildings. We went from over 200 employees down to 100, I became a "Business Development" person, looking for work - we had never had to actively "look" for projects before because of the reputation we had for quality and affordable work.

As the months passed, we dropped to 75, then to 50, then to 30 - I went with that last cut. At first I thought, oh well, a quick vacation and then I'll be back in the saddle. I am very qualified and thought it would take no time to find a new job. Sixteen months later, my unemployment ran out - that was 3 months ago.

During those sixteen months, I lost my house, cashed out my 401k trying to keep things going, burned through my savings, moved from a higher cost-of-living area to the Dallas, TX area to save on living expenses (after the house was gone), and eventually lost my vehicle once the unemployment finally ran out.

Oh, and my wife was in Peru as a missionary during this time!

Talk about a radical life simplification! I was one of those people that thought it couldn't happen to me. I now get by on scavenging and bartering. My wife is back from Peru and has been working. Her income is our primary income right now. With the last bit of money we had, we opened a Thrift Shop and are trying to help others who are falling victim to the economic downturn.

We struggle just to cover the rent and bills and truly get by day-by-day.

I am a combat veteran, college educated, and didn't think it could happen to me.

Wow! I can't imagine how bad that sucked. I hope the best for you and your wife.

 

[BooBooBear]

My sister's management job was eliminated and her job was shipped off to the Philippines, as were all the other employee's jobs in her department. They received no prior notice of their pink slips. The work day ended, and they received the bad news.

Her husband is the primary home caretaker for their 3 children and works in the evenings as a part time custodian cleaning office buildings. Not a lot of income for a family of 5 to live on. They were considering living in their camper.

9 months into her job search, I received a phone call from my sister asking how my husband and I made it through a period of both us being unemployed for 6 months. I took the opportunity to explain "prepping" and keeping a well stocked pantry. Those food preps and our savings is what got us through those shoe string months of unemployment.

12 months after being laid off from her management position, my sister found another job, but at 1/2 of her former salary. She feels very lucky to have this job and would do anything to keep her family fed. They are slowly catching up on their house payments, and relieved that their mortgage company did not take forclosure action. They are also happy to have health insurance again. The cobra payments my sister was making during her period of unemployment were astronomical.

I find it very difficult when I read news articles touting our economic revcovery when it's just a bunch of hogwash.

Times are tough for all of us, and I pray for those who face severe economic hardship and end up living in their cars, campers or tents.

 

[Von Bohmen]

I blame our govt for the mess we're in.

 

[mekon1971]

Any reduction in the unemployment numbers are just a manipulation of the data right now. Someone who no longer qualifies for unemployment due to length of unemployment is no longer counted. Someone who goes from a $60,000/year job to working @ McD for $8/hr no longer qualifies for unemployment and is no longer counted. It is a lot worse than people think.

 

[DBR]

Well, strictly speaking, if you look at some of the other threads running in this subforum you will see that these people actually chose what happened to them. They were optimistic, believed the real estate person and the loan officer, got the ARM and they more than they ever bargained for...right? But, it's not the fault of anyone but them. Anyone can lie in business, lie, make the pitch, just business, nothing personal...that's OK. It's always the little people crashing everything. Like those little people at AIG and stuff. :

 

[LadyFenix]

As we get farther into the current mess, I realize more and more, every day, how lucky I am to have had relatives who drummed it into my head to always live below your means, not accumulate any debt (except for buying an AFFORDABLE house, not a McMansion) and to pay cash for everything else, including cars.

A lot of people I know used to laugh at me, because I choose to live a simplified and self-reliant life. They aren't laughing, any more.....

 

[Gen. Ben Raines]

I blame our govt for the mess we're in.


Please explain how the government is to blame?
Do you want the government in every aspect of your life?
I, in no way fault anyone for my troubles, it is my life, my wife , my children, my responsibility PERIOD!
The gov. did not tell me to have kids, the gov. did not tell me to buy a house, the gov. did not tell me to go to Jamaica for vacations, the gov. has no hand in this, I made the decisions, now I have to live with it and work thru it.
This is someone who went form self employed making great money to living on disability waiting for a heart transplant. My wife still works but our lifestyle has been reined in considerably, we struggle, we scrimp, we get by.
I want the gov. to leave me the F#$k alone.