Laid-off Corporate Workers Confront New Reality

ALLEN – Mary Ann Knight thought she had seen and heard it all in the eight years she has worked at Allen Community Outreach, helping people make ends meet.
That is, until former upper-middle-class residents, hit hard by corporate layoffs that have rocked North Texas the last three years, began walking through the agency's doors, seeking help paying bills.
Mixed in their stacks of monthly bills that cover life's necessities are those that also cover lives the clients don't want to leave behind: $800 car payments, private school tuition that ranges from $1,200 to $2,000, mortgage statements up to $4,000, cable TV bills in the hundreds of dollars and country club dues, to list a few.
"I didn't think I could be shocked any more," said Ms. Knight. "When we tell people, 'We can't help pay those kind of bills. ... We're here to help with the basics,' they get upset with us. They'll say, 'We've always given to charity.'
"It's not like we don't want to help. But it's just that there are no funds for folks like that. They're just living way above the level in which we can help them."
Facing the prospect of losing their way of life, an increasing number of the unemployed are turning to social-service agencies for assistance for the first time. Allen Community Outreach has seen its number of clients increase by nearly 37 percent in its last calendar year, said executive director Glenda May.
Since January, the Assistance Center of Collin County in Plano has helped 2,292 residents by paying for prescriptions, utilities, mortgages and rent. About one-quarter of such charitable agencies' clients are previously unserved middle-class residents who request assistance of $4,000 to $8,000 a month, agency officials say.
Agency directors call folks new to being needy "the situational poor." They've depleted their savings and retirement accounts and struggle to cling to a lifestyle they no longer can afford.

"Our clientele has changed so much," said Kimberly Girard, program coordinator at Frisco Family Services. "We used to serve the working poor. Now it's the CEOs and former executives of companies. They've tapped out their bank accounts and borrowed from family members." Traditionally, charitable agencies have served the "generational poor" – a single mother of two who grows up poor and earns less than $15,000 annually, for example.
But the lagging economy has hit Collin County, the state's wealthiest county, particularly hard. Home to many of the telecommunications industry's top companies, the county boomed in the 1990s as newcomers flocked to fill high-paying positions.
In the last two years, though, the county's jobless rate has more than tripled, from 2 percent to 6.5 percent in March. The county has witnessed a 103 percent jump in the number of homes facing foreclosure.
Randi Lucero, 55, of Frisco is one of thousands who fell victim to the economic downturn. The marketing assistant was laid off from an electronics company after 22 years. Her unemployment benefits ended last week.
"My lifestyle is going to change drastically," Ms. Lucero said at a recent employment workshop. "I'm in an awkward situation because I support a lot of people. I also help provide for my daughter and grandchildren. There's a lot that we do, so I've got to figure a way to come up with some money."
At the Assistance Center of Collin County in Plano, Jackie Hall said cash-strapped homeowners today seek twice to three times as much in mortgage assistance than they did two years ago. Some are seeking as much as $4,000 in mortgage help a month, far exceeding most agencies' emergency assistance budgets for all their clients that range from $3,000 to $5,000 per month.
"Our funds are definitely stretched these days," said Ms. Hall, executive director.
Area social-service agencies are funded in part by the Collin County United Way, state and federal grants, and donations raised through annual fund-raisers. Said Ms. Girard of Frisco Family Services: "Just since the first of the year, we've seen an increase. Put it this way: In January, we had 15 new clients. In April, 58 new people walked through the door.
"I've had people who paid rent that was almost $1,200. I had a gentleman that wanted us to help pay $4,000 in bills. Our measly $300 assistance wouldn't get him anywhere."

Of the two groups the agencies primarily serve, many job counselors and case workers say that the 30-something and 40-something former professionals have the toughest time adjusting to sudden changes. "The people we call the situational poor are so beyond the level of what we can help with," said Ms. May. "It's like they're in denial. Some have even said, 'I want my United Way donation back.' In many ways, they're actually worse off than the single mother we normally help because they've never had to deal with adversity."
Tim Brown of Frisco, who was laid off by a small software development company 14 months ago, did everything society deems necessary to be successful: he earned a college degree, is highly skilled and eventually earned a six-figure salary.
"I still carry a lot of anger around with me," said Mr. Brown, who has since returned to graduate school for a master's degree and has tapped into his savings and retirement funds to support his wife and three children. He recently sought job-counseling assistance at Frisco Family Services.
"I don't know what the situation is going to bring me in the next six months. I was talking to someone who said, 'You're lucky you're getting your master's degree this summer,' but I don't know how lucky I am. The times changed so quickly, and it didn't allow a lot of planning to come along with that."
Wendy Darling, a career development coach for Frisco Family Services, said highly educated out-of-work professionals tend to identify with their professions and lifestyles more than the working poor.
"We identify so much with our jobs," she said. "For a lot of people, that's who they are. A lot of them are still attached to their salaries and the work they did. We all like our comfort zones. It's hard for them to adjust and accept their current circumstances before it's too late."
Several human service agencies have shifted their focus by providing job-coaching workshops and counselors to help the struggling cope and consider new careers.
"We're trying to get people to think out of the box and accept they may not make six figures any more – but is that so bad?" said Ms. Darling. "I think the positive lesson that could come out of this is that we as a community need to reach out to help our neighbors and get back to the basics in life.
"It's OK to have a nice home and nice things, but when they're gone, that doesn't mean you lose your soul."

So, I take it you would not care to answer my questions?

I answered you indirectly. You want direct answer? Quote from your post:

Let's suppose the fellow who offers the lower price doesn't actually need to cut my grass in order to survive and that the other fellow will not be able to make ends meet if he doesn't get the $35.

Are you saying I should pay the higher bidder his price simply because he needs it? What about my needs? If I cannot afford $35 by what moral standard should I try and satisfy his needs?

I you really cannot afford $35, then I guess you might be fine. But if you CAN afford it, you should pay $35 to the one who needs it.

Rather than reward the one who provides the more efficient service?

Let's extropolate. Let's say that suddenly everyone begins paying people not according to the quality or efficiency of services rendered but according to their "Need". What's that going to do to the world and the state of things? After a while, there would be no incentive whatsoever to provide good service. The incentive would be on demonstrating need. After a while, a government agency would have to be created to confiscate all the wealth I didn't "need" in order to provide for those that had "need".

Are you certain you want to come right out and advocate such a system? Even the modern liberal is careful to cloak his Marxist wishes. This is totally antithetical to conservative philosophy. You realize this is communism, yes? Why would you want to make such a statement at Free Republic? I ask that honestly. I am truly baffled.

You oversimplify what I pointed to. I more or less agree with the views on those matters as defined by the traditional Roman Catholic doctrine. I believe that this doctrine can be considered conservative in the context of the Western civilisation.

The free market doctrine is not conservative at all, it is a revolutionary relative of Marxism and it HELPS spread of Socialism. If the free market fundamentalism is not checked it will cause the victory of Socialism or other catastrophe.

It all boils down to this fact: Supply and demand in a global economy based on Free Enterprise. We Americans must face reality fast,if want to survive. There is no longer a difference between an American, and an Indian, or Chinese, or Malayasians of equal talents and capability to provide the same service, or added value. This is the world of the 21st century. The irony is America taught the world on how Free Enterprise works, now we must walk the talk

Let's see. We are now more productive than ever. Certainly, we are far more productive than we were 50 years ago, when this country was able to simultaneously feed, clothe and rebuild Europe (think Marshall Plan and Berlin Airlift), keep Soviets at bay, fight the Korean War, all of that while making it possible for any honest hardworking American to live a middle class standard. We are far more productive than during WWII, when we supplied, armed and fed Britain and Russia while at the same time fighting Japan and Germany; we could even afford to write off what our Allies owed us.

We still are more productive than everyone else; Indians, Chinese and Malaysians are not more productive than us, they are merely willing to work for less. We easily could feed, clothe and supply consumer goods to all Europeans and Asians if they only could afford to buy from us.

At any rate, foreign trade is less important to us than to Europeans and Asians (it's a smaller part of our GNP.)

Even though our productivity has been rising and continues to rise, our living standards haven't changed much since early seventies. In fact, taking into account the fact that we used to have one breadwinner per family, but now have two, our living standards have declined.

What next? Globalist hardline masturbators are telling us that we "must" accept even lower living standards.

I beg to differ. We didn't have free trade with the Soviet Union. We don't have to have free trade with Communist China either.

Man, that is a truly depressing thought - that my father was right, after all.

You should have paid attention!

I was born durring the depression and hae lived by the rules set down by my parents.

It's real simple, never borrow money for personal consumption except for a home mortgage. If you haven't got the money you don't need it.

I did my hotrodding and racing, had yachts, an airplane, own a home and a condo that are paid for and never borrowed one cent to obtain them, just worked hard and saved until I could afford to pay cash.

I make enough money to be considered lower middle class. I drive a 91 VW Fox and I do not own a home, although I've been looking for one in the last few weeks. I can't believe that $100K buys so little, it's shocking to me, because I still think that's a lot of money.

I don't think $100,000 is necessarily a lot of money. The problem with most middle class incomes is that people are encouraged to live to the limit (or beyond) that their incomes set for them. I think distinctions between "white-collar" and "blue-collar" are almost meaningless because so-called white collar jobs don't necessarily pay more and there are a lot of overlaps. An accountant position would be considered "white-collar" but many accountants make far less than tool-and-die makers or machinists. Also it depends on what part of the country you live in. In parts of the SW, making $10 an hour puts you in the group of the top third wage earners because 1/3 makes minimum wage or less, one third makes under $10 an hour. In California $10 an hour isn't going to get you very far.

Christian doctrine calls for a pure communist form of government.

Actually it seems communist forms of government are what works with free trade and globalism. Communist China has already moved into the top three world economies thanks to globalism and is climbing to the top. Countries with middle class are slipping. What country besides Communist China has actually shown an economic benefit from the policies of the last decade?

>>Communist China has already moved into the top three world economies thanks to globalism and is climbing to the top<<

Citation?

Everything I've read says that China is already starting to have problems by trying to combine free enterprise and communism. The combination doesn't work -- it is just that China has more sheer mass on its side. Look at Kalifornia. Right now they can get away with the socialist experiment they are attempting but when all the capital runs away (I will be moving out pretty soon) they will find there are more people in the cart than pulling it.

China is another Soviet fall awiting to happen.

Americans are more productive.... Productivity = Quality of Labor + Capital + Technology. Americans no longer can exclusively claim to high quality of labor over many low cost labor nations. Capital now flows wherever in the world it can be invested with the highest return. Technology diffuses much faster to all parts of the world than it used to. Thus we are losing jobs. This just reflects the reality I'm talking about. We used to lose only manufacturing jobs, now we are losing development, and engineering jobs as well. Soon, we will lose research jobs also. This will be the end of our technology lead, unless we can reverse the decline of the quality of our education. But, I still believe that the American people will soon wake up and start competing in the job market effectively, to keep the rest of the world from eating our lunch. Else, our decline from the only world super power to an also run nation will be very steep indeed. This has happened to many nations in Europe, it can happen here too.

Actually, someone making around $70,000 gross will take home about $44,000.

Someone making $190,000 will take home about $96,000.

This is a joke right ???

No, why would you think it was? The full 50% of gross rate(including fica and everything else) doesn't happen until you make about 300k. It will vary a few percentages per state. The Gov't taxes the everliving crap out of us. Something like 84% of the budget goes to social programs. 4% to Military and 12% to infrastructure and overhead. The rest is social programs. If someone has current numbers, please post. I'm quoting numbers from the 90s. -Mal

The free market doctrine is not conservative at all, it is a revolutionary relative of Marxism and it HELPS spread of Socialism.

Could you demonstrate?

In my view, the free market is a logical extension of the respect for private property. Capitalism is not a political system- it is the logical result of freedom. Were I to connect any doctrine or idea directly to the spread of socialism it would be that of democracy. Democracy, unchecked, is the cancer that rots away freedom. Democracy as a political system will inevitably lead to socialism.

Capitalism and freedom are practically interchangeable in meaning. You cannot argue that an abundance of freedom leads to lack of freedom- at least I can't. This is similar to the convoluted arguments of the leftist- too much freedom leads to nationalism and fascism (or put another way- the opposite of communism is nazism). Nothing could be further from the truth. The Nazis and the Communists are two birds from the same tribe. The opposite of communism is freedom. Right and Wrong- not Right and Left. This is an obvious attempt by the modern liberal to wash his hands of the crimes of his own philosophy.

I oversimplify nothing. I offered a simple model and you responded to it. You were not forced to do so. You offer no explanation as to why one should reward a lesser value based upon perceived "need" nor do you reflect on where such a misplaced value system might logically lead. These are simple questions. They have simple, logical answers. The Church need not be consulted.

If we systematically reward need over value where does that lead? Should I be compelled to reward need over value? Who gets to decide these things? Why should I not make the decisions concerning my property? Why should a man burn in hell as a result of his indiscretions but not hunger on this Earth as a result of his folly? Our choices in life have their consequences- the "need" based model is an attempt to escape this reality. Am I to serve the needs of the stranger down the road or the needs of my self? If the correct moral choice is to serve the needs of another is this not enslavement?

I'm maybe half your age but can completely relate to what you are saying here. I'm a twentysomething IT worker who went through some "involuntary career transitions" lately. The H1-B situation is out of control. I've seen IT shops employing 25 to 30% (or more) foreign visa workers. It is reasonable that some companies should be able to import a very limited number of foreign workers (talking bona fide specialists here, not just imported run-of-the-mill workers). If I was in charge this would be my policy: Any company employing more than 100 people can have NO MORE than ONE PERCENT foreign visa workers. (Smaller businesses get none.) This alone would get a million or so Americans off unemployment.

Let me know when you find your next career beyond the IT world. If things keep going the way they are, the rest of us in IT won't have a choice about it someday. - Frosty

Good Evening All-

Stated by T.G.O.R.N.: "The middle class in America is gasping it's last breath."

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

Yes, that's just it. The typical bell-curve of real household income is shifting to that of the letter "M" in that the households in the middle portion are being pushed one way or the other, with a stronger possibility for decreases in take-home pay.

The unfortunate part is that these "stations in life" are not necessarily determined by skill, work ethic, honesty, or dedication. It often falls to luck-of-the-draw, timing, and who you know.

Should I ever have children, God knows he or she will be trained in the hard sciences to MANUFACTURE "something" for consumption. Our focus on intangibles, intellectual property, and the service economy has not been healthy for the United States.

Just my humble opinion,

~ Blue Jays ~

Over the course of 12 yrs of education that adds up 4 extra years (going by the current education calender). In theory, you should be able to pack a four year degree in there.

That's just one reason my ten year old will be taking college calculus this fall. There is a lot of unnecessary duplication in the curriculum design, largely due to separation by subject. My guess is that the system wastes about eight years by the time the kid reaches the bachelor's level.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.