Posted on 10/13/2002 9:22:35 AM PDT by American Preservative
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:41:09 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Many middle-class people joke about being "one paycheck away from the street." This is the story of a couple who've slammed hard into that reality.
Over the past 18 months, they've gone from his six-figure salary and life in a tony townhouse apartment complex in Silicon Valley to collecting aluminum cans and sleeping in a 28-foot-long recreational vehicle in a parking lot behind the husband's old office building. Once distracted by VCRs and mega- cable, they now watch local television on an old black-and-white set, stand in line at a public food bank for groceries and do their laundry with a garden hose.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I am CLOSE friends with 8 couple who are going thru this ... everyone of them ... including myself blames Klintoon for this ...
While I do have compassion for the folks suffering now, I remember when the computer types were being quite superior and saying we needed to get rid of the manufacturing jobs and everyone should go into computers. We didn't need to manufacture anything, we would export technology. The ones I knew had very little sympathy for the factory workers.
Now we have little or no manufacturing, it looks as if we have a lot less of the technolgy industry and a boat load of illegals to support. Sounds like a recipe for a economic boom to me!
While I do have compassion for the folks suffering now, I remember when the computer types were being quite superior and saying we needed to get rid of the manufacturing jobs and everyone should go into computers. We didn't need to manufacture anything, we would export technology. The ones I knew had very little sympathy for the factory workers.
Now we have little or no manufacturing, it looks as if we have a lot less of the technolgy industry and a boat load of illegals to support. Sounds like a recipe for a economic boom to me!
Yes, but this article vandalizes (I would prefer a harsher word, but.. ) their plight for the sake of a stupid, manipulative story. I was in the Seattle area in 60's when the aerospace boom went bust at Boeing and in Michigan in the 70's when the steel and carmaking industries hit bottom. People bitched about management in public and the unions in private, but, in the end, they either got off their asses and did something useful with their lives or they wallowed in their own little pity parties until the money ran out and then went on TV for handouts - no, don't change your stupid, wasteful, extravagant lifestyle buddy, just wait for Uncle Sugar to bail you out with my tax money that I perfer to use supporting my family, my relatives, or my friends who might just really need it.
In the end, people who don't plan for the future, deserve what everything get. My message to them is, to quote Bruce Willis, "Welcome to the party, pal!"
Clark worked long hours for some of the biggest companies in Silicon Valley and pulled down as much as $150,000 a year,
Clamper, like you I live and work in the Bay area. When I came to this area in 1985 I could not find a home I could afford and ended up near Modesto. I did the daily commute over the Altamont every day.
I have never earned any where near $150,000 dollars a year (more like a third of that). But I am financially better off then this couple. How could this be?
First I was not paying $2500 a month for rent. I made a decision I would rather pay part of my equity on the house in travel time. Second, we kept our living expenses low. Third we paid off all our credit cards years ago and finally we put all our extra money in the bank.
When I got out of the Army in 1967 I was a high school drop out and no skills. I too worked my way through college. My first career ended when I realized that it was so seasonal that while I could make good money while working, work was intermittent. I changed fields. The second career path I chose I discovered after five years was one I really was not suited for. And so I changed careers again, and started from scratch. Fortunately this one took, and if the good Lord is willing and the creek doesnt rise it will be my last one. But if it isnt, I will find another one, and start over (I know it is tough, and by the way I am older then you are).
I think the mistake this couple made was not believing that the job would ever come to an end. Me, I think every paycheck may be the last one, and asked myself am I ready.
Good luck in your job search, I hope you find what you are looking for.
I'd love to see the parking lot of the San Mateo County Unemployment office.
All the folks I've known over the years at the plant where I've worked who have been laid off both short term and indefinitely have never, ever considered food lines.......
FWIW, the computer tech industry over the past decade and a half has spawned a workforce of gypsies, individuals changing jobs at the drop of a hat in favor of the next employer willing to up the ante.
Unfortunately, if it doesn't have anything to do with computers then they don't have anything to offer to anyone. God help them if they have to resort to manual labor.....
I suspect what many of these silicon valley folks will do is file for bankruptsy rather than sell and move across country for another job......
The rumbling you hear in the distance are the fractures in the foundation of the banking system.
What created the stratospheric real estate prices in the Bay Area were all those high-paying tech jobs, and the people who wanted to live near them.
What happens to real estate prices when there's nothing to induce buyers to really want to live there?
What happens to banks when they have lots of mortgages in default, and they can't find new buyers for the houses willing to buy for the outstanding mortgage?
You said it yourself ... you are older ... and probably bought your house when it was cheap and commuted from Modesto BEFORE the traffic became intolerable. You also did not have to live thru the great high tech depression. I am working ... and I like my job ... BTW I do Altamont every day too.
Did you go to Austin or to "Round Rock" where Dell is located? My son-in-law is in Real-Estate in Round Rock and business has been VERY good the last number of years.
Young people have been buying 2 and 3 hundred thousand dollar or more homes and living extravagantly.[sp?] Then in the last year many were layed off and are now losing their homes. I don't find this story so unbelievable. These people's friends and 'contacts' [chances of finding another job] were there. Most of us prefer the 'familiar', instead of going out into the unknown.
I sure like the County Line on 2222 ... great ribs and a Shiner
I'll have to ask my daughter about that - sounds good the next time we visit them!!. They have a boat on Lake Travis now -- enjoying the 'good life', hope it lasts for them! [ and hope things are going good for you now.]
What about the part where they're paying $800 to park in an RV park? Maybe they just make foolish decisions but since their RV runs, they can move it to a dive trailer park and pay $200 or less and if they're not working they don't have to worry about a long commute.
I have friends who have ....
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