Posted on 07/30/2011 1:41:10 PM PDT by kathteach
TO: The Press, Congressional Member, President Obama, Other Little Guys in America FROM: Narrative of the quintessential little guy they are all talking about with the debt limit increase RE: Stop saying the little guy will get hurt if the debt limit is not raised
How can I be hurt by Congress’s failure (or success) at raising the debt limit? Listen up….
Mortgage interest rates – I lost my house in the fall of 2010 and so did four other people on my block. We had to leave the keys on the counter and walk away because we owed more on the loan (with two home equity loans our banks were so happy to give us even though our houses were already falling in real value in 2006). We could give a rat’s ass about mortgage interest rates – we will not be in the mortgage market again for a long, long time if ever. We have been renting since the shit hit the fan in our own little financial world after our mutual funds (any savings my wife and I had) disappeared in fall 2008 and we lost our houses a year and half later. Mostly government workers (uhm – teachers are government workers) and lawyers are buying houses right now so they can eat the increases in mortgage rates.
Loss of a job – My small business crashed and burned in 2009 (right after the market crashed and Moody’s and S&P got caught accepting bribe money from AIG and the big investment banks who were playing Bingo with the artificially constructed credit default swaps) – and since I lost my unemployment two moths ago (even though it was extended four times) I am now working in a fast food joint (and you all wonder why teens can’t find jobs this summer – that’s because WE grownups have them). BTW – loss of income and house resulted in my wife moving back into her folk’s house with our kids because I turned out to be a loser in the bread winner department. We can’t even get divorced because neither of us can figure out how to list our non-asset (an underwater mortgage on the house we used to live in for eleven years) and distribute liabilities – and the lawyers we manage to pay tell us to hire forensic accountants to figure it out and we can’t afford it). The increase (or not) of the debt limit will not create a new job for me or many of the guys I know who are underemployed right now. It only helps Obama keep his job as far as I can tell and even that – whether our President is re-elected or not – doesn’t seem to matter a fig. The government cannot create jobs – they can only improve the climate for those who do. Any businessperson knows this – and I am not a tea partier or a Republican. I am also no longer a sheepish Democrat. Politics seem so removed from the nightmare I am living – yet I know somewhere in the back of my logical processing that they are probable the trigger for it all. It is just too damn depressing to think about getting involved in politics when all I really want to do is save up enough money this month to buy my in-laws a gun because they live in a dicey part of town where a lot of armed break ins are happening and they are taking care of my wife and kids now. Before you call me a complete loser, I apply online and in face and network like crazy for every and any job opening I am qualified for within the location of my kids – I just can’t walk away from my family (yet) and move to Texas where they say the jobs are.
Car loan interest rates – Get real. I am driving a 1991 Chevy Corsica I bought for $1,000 off Craig’s list a year ago and my wife is hauling our kids around in a 1990 Doge minivan she bought this spring from a neighbor for $800. Thanks Obama for Cash for Clunkers that dried up the used car market. We lost our cars way before we lost our savings, house and marriage. Someone just showed up in the dark of the night with keys and drove both of our new cars away – the loan company guys should be in Congress because they know how to get around an awful lot of red tape (smiley face here);
Credit Card Interest Rates: Seriously? We have one old card we worked really hard to maintain (while we defaulted on two others) but the current interest rate now is 28% and even though we keep making minimum payments now, we capped our limit last Christmas. We expect it to be cancelled any day – stand in line with our other creditors, Citibank. We’ve decided to go bankrupt just to get rid of it all (except our two student loans which we just keep re-negotiating due to distress so they won’t be a problem) if only we could afford an accountant to help us figure out what to do with our non-asset – our former house which has been sitting in the bank’s portfolio (not even for sale) for almost over a year now).
Frozen Bank Accounts: Again – are you kidding? I have like $1,600 in the bank and my wife lost all her bank accounts last summer due to continual overdrafts. Her bank fees for overdrafts were $1,040 in one month and our friendly neighborhood bank has put a lien on MY paycheck to collect her overdrafts. I could completely handle the loss of any money I have in any damn local bank. And remember – I work at Wendy’s right now. We both cash our checks at the Cash To Go checking store in the crappy mall on the West Side – tho Wal-Mart cashes checks now but the line is usually over an hour long no matter when you try to get in there. Having a bank account again is something a long way away for us. Another reason we can’t get divorced – I can’t afford the government enforced child support. We both agree me being in jail for non-payment of child support would not help any of us. Thank God for my wife’s folks – they are carrying the load for my wife and kids through this nightmare we are living in (a nightmare that any Congressional Bill to Raise or Limit our debt ceiling will not awaken us from).
Food Inflation: We have been on food stamps for almost three years and – to our astonishment - believe we will be for the rest of our lives. Yet we have already been feeling food inflation – like all American families are. Thanks to gasoline price increases, heavy items like laundry soap and dog food have skyrocketed (both not covered by food stamps, by the way). Anything with corn or corn syrup has skyrocketed thanks to the way Congress decided to subsidize corn farmers for ethanol. You would not believe how much more we spend on food this last year alone – so bring it on – more food inflation. We already can’t afford the kind of food we think our family of six needs so it gets worse – what else is new? Bring it on – we will keep buying the cheap deals (KFC has 99cent BBQ chicken sandwiches this week – I bought twelve and am keeping them in a freezer in the basement – oh yeah, the fridge crashed two months ago and there is no money for a used one right now.
Social Unrest: Since no one buys newspapers anymore – me included – we might not notice how crime has gone unreported in our town. The car radio news never really focuses on local crime waves and neither do their news websites. Social unrest has become a VERY local thing and neighbors are talking with each other about what happened on this street and what their cousin the cop told us all to do about the creeps hanging out on the corner. Every now and then, the local TV news reports astounding things like “There have been 40 violent armed muggings in downtown Madison WI since April and the police are asking your help to identify….” WTF – if this kind of social unrest has crept its way into the Berkley of the Midwest – Madison WI – you know we are all in a lot of trouble. Like the debt limit increase (or not) will alleviate any of this.
I think my narrative here describes the little guy right now in America – not nearly as bad as say a family trying to make it in Eastern Congo right now but a real report from an American family man who used to be on the upward, desirable, middle class track with American life. We’ll be fine thanks to family and friends but we will never forget what happened to this country since 2008 (coincidentally right when poor old President Obama took office). It is not getting any better – it seems to only be getting worse.
My rich brother in law who has it all – the boat, the 1.2 million house in an expensive Chicago suburb, the trips to Europe every year – just called me and asked if I would let him move in with me in my lousy studio apartment downtown. He lost it all in the last five months – including his wife and kids who just left to move in with her folks – who happen to also by my in-laws. I swear – we need to buy my in-laws a bigger house instead of a gun!
See- good things are starting to happen. My rich brother in law is my new roomy – my rent will be cut in half, I can now afford a gun for my in-laws and I get to feel a little less of a loser in life because the mighty have fallen too – right into my own ratty apartment! I’ll try hard not to rub my brother-in-laws nose in his mess because this kind of pain and suffering has become a new Join the Club moment for all kinds of Americans who do not work for the government in an way shape or form.
It isn't much better anywhere else, good thing we have Obama or things might have gotten real bad. /S if needed
Let’s see - big home and not one but two home equity laons - stupid move one.
New cars, bad move 2
“Had” to take a fast food job? Bullshit - if the whiner in the story had any real skills, he would have moved and gotten a better job. Ya, moved. I have done it 3 times and still take jobs out of town or out of country.
Sorry you got divorced - guess that whole “death” and parting thing was not in the cards.
It used to be the only thng you could count on was death and taxes
Now the only thing you can count on is the FedGov making things worse, every day and in every wy - as pols “help” their chosen victims.
Get ready for the next great depression - it is on our doorstep right now.
He's from Madison Wisconsin....just as leftist as Chicago, but smaller and prettier U.of W. is there as is the state Capitol.
But, but, did you write Dear Leader a letter to outline your problems? You do know he reads letters like yours would be EVERY NIGHT and he thinks about you and your problems when he goes to bed (to keep from thinking about Mrs. Dear Leader) and when he gets up every morning...doesn’t that make you feel a lot, lot better? Now go write that letter, you will feel much better after Dear Leader reads it and waves his magical hand over it...What a mess!
But, but, did you write Dear Leader a letter to outline your problems? You do know he reads letters like yours would be EVERY NIGHT and he thinks about you and your problems when he goes to bed (to keep from thinking about Mrs. Dear Leader) and when he gets up every morning...doesn’t that make you feel a lot, lot better? Now go write that letter, you will feel much better after Dear Leader reads it and waves his magical hand over it...What a mess!
Chicago - I see Mayor Rahm Emanuel wants to take vacant lots over in Chicago to plant “Victory Gardens”. /sarc
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