I know I am repeating myself here, but how can any self-respecting analyst look at the damage that has been done to the financial system and the economy during the past two years and not think it is going to be a very long time before we see anything resembling normalcy?
How can they ignore the fact that economic history is clear about one thing: the aftermath of bursting credit bubbles and financial crises like the ones we have experienced have been painful and protracted affairs?
More important, perhaps, how can they read reports like the following from Washington Post staff writer Paul Schwartzman, entitled For Many Americans, Nowhere to Go but Down," and not realize that talk we are on the road to recovery is a ridiculous fantasy?
MIDDLEBURY, Ind. -- He sinks into the couch, foot jiggling, his gaze traveling from his wife to the television to the darkness outside, broken now and then by the distant glow of passing headlights.
His mind settles into another round of "What if?"
As in: What if we don't have cash to buy milk, eggs, bread or diapers? What if our unemployment benefits run out? What if we never find jobs?
And then Scott Nichols thinks of the words he doesn't want to say, what for him, a 39-year-old husband and father of two, is the option he has hoped to avoid since being laid off nine months earlier.
They already took free food from a church pantry, cardboard boxes filled with Corn Flakes and bologna and saltines, his wife, Kelly, walking in, head down, while he stayed in the car, ashen. They pawned his wedding ring, sold part of her Silver Eagle coin collection and had help from the Salvation Army paying their electric bill.
Now another cliff approaches: the loss of the home they rent.
"Looks like we'll have to go to your mom's," Scott Nichols says to Kelly, 33, who is in a beige recliner, staring ahead.
Moving to her mother's would mean returning to the rundown industrial town where they grew up, a place that makes him feel dirty, inside and out. They would sleep in her basement jammed with forgotten furniture, a few steps from a pair of cat litter boxes and below three narrow windows blocked by insulation.
Twenty months after it began, what has the American recession come to?
There are signs that the bottom has been reached. The stock market is on its way back up. Retail sales are improving. The overall sense of desperation, so widespread at the beginning of the year, has eased.
Every day come new reports suggesting some improvement.
But underneath all of the reports is this living room.
"Okay," Kelly says.
The people who have just agreed that they are out of options sit in silence, wondering the way out.
"It needs to be paid," she insists. The $40 installment on their Kmart layaway plan is nearly a week late.
"That doesn't leave a whole lot of money," he says. If they pay the $40, they will have $31 for themselves, their 2-year-old daughter and his 17-year-old son until their next unemployment checks arrive in five days.
"This is why we have no money," she says, irritated, fatigued.
These are the conversations that pervade Scott and Kelly Nichols's days.
How did they get here? How did their every other exchange evolve into a riddle that includes the refrain "How much?" followed by "How much do we have left?" How did their horizon become a basement in southern Michigan?
Nearly four years ago, in search of better pay, Scott Nichols took his older brother's advice and followed him to where he had moved years before: northern Indiana and the flatlands of Elkhart County, the country's largest manufacturer of recreational vehicles.
"The RV Capital of the World," as Elkhart's leaders say.
Scott got a job on a paint crew at an RV plant, and by the end of 2007 his income had climbed to $53,000, more than he had ever earned. After work he was the man at the bar with the thick roll of bills, the man he had always wanted to be, buying round after round for himself and his friends. The man with "the full pocket," as he liked to say. He took his son on a fishing trip. He took his family out to eat and told them to order whatever they wanted.
Then gas prices soared, the economy unraveled and demand for RVs plummeted. Over the course of a year, Elkhart County's unemployment rate rose from less than 5 percent to more than 18 percent. Thousands of workers lost their jobs, the casualties including Scott, and Kelly, who worked in accounts payable at another RV company. The crisis in Elkhart drew the attention of President Obama, who traveled there within weeks of taking office. Obama plans another trip to the county on Wednesday to further focus on the economy.
When he lost his job, Scott had no savings, his primary objective always having been to earn enough to cover the rent, eat an occasional steak, feed and clothe their children, ride his dirt bike, fish, golf, play poker, buy lottery tickets, and drink Bud Light.
For two decades, a robust U.S. economy had allowed Scott a paycheck-to-paycheck life, one in which he was always confident that the next payday was ahead. Lose one job, and soon enough there was another. He flipped burgers at a diner. He was an apprentice at an auto body shop. He drove a delivery truck, was a gofer for an elevator mechanic, mopped floors at a burrito plant, worked as a forge operator, and sanded and buffed and painted truck caps and RVs.
But this time, as weeks stretched into months, Scott found himself not only with no job opportunities but also with nowhere to turn for help. His parents, a retired machinist and truck-stop waitress, still live in the same cramped mobile home in which he grew up. His brother, the one who persuaded him to move to Indiana, has been behind on his own bills since his RV company cut his hours. And Kelly's mother, a retired public school teacher, can offer only her basement.
At the kitchen table, Scott opens the newspaper.
"Movie Extras Needed Now -- 45 bucks to register, earn $100 to $300 a day," he says, reading aloud.
A company needs "employees to assemble products at home, $500 weekly, no experience necessary."
Another is looking for people to "earn $3,800 a week working from home, selling information packs."
"Here's that one we got burned on," he says.
Part-Time Inside Phone Sales. Data Entry From Home. Bodyguards Wanted.
He folds the paper and tosses it across the table.
* * *
" 'Bee Movie?' " asks Hailey, the 2-year-old, climbing into Scott's lap. He loves his children. He tries to be a good father. He dotes on them.
"I don't want to watch the 'Bee Movie' right now," he says, rubbing his eyes. He pours cough medicine into a spoon and takes it to her. "I know it doesn't taste good," he says.
Five weeks before they will have to move unless they find jobs, every day is a slow-motion version of the one before, the soundtrack a mix of sighs and yawns, whatever is on TV, Hailey's laughter, Hailey's crying, Hailey's whining, discussions about which bills to pay, and infrequent, inconsequential chatter.
"That new Camaro is freakin' ugly."
"Didn't see it."
"It's right across from the library. How could you miss it?"
They always sit in the same spots, as they do today, a Wednesday, Kelly in the recliner, tattered at the edges. Scott is on his end of the couch, clutching a jug of Pepsi that he refills when it empties.
A photograph from their wedding day sits on a wooden shelf in the corner, "Kelly and Scott, July 10, 2004" in script on the frame. Her smile is wide, her dress bright white. He's in a black tux, grinning, his hair a buzz cut, his goatee neat, the mustache pencil thin.
Now, sitting on the couch, 11 months after being laid off, his hair is thick and uncombed, and his mustache full. He has gained 40 pounds since his last day on the job. He needs a refill on his antidepressant but doesn't want to spend money to see a doctor.
"C'mon, Karma," he says to the dog, a docile Labrador and Rottweiler mix. "Let's go get the garbage can. Quick trip. Like the wind."
Scott walks to the end of the driveway, 87 paces, from where he pushes the bin back to the house, a gray mobile home with a finished basement and a garage on three flat acres. He falls back onto the couch, glancing up at a framed print of three wolves, then at Kelly, then at Hailey. His toes wiggle inside his white socks. He yawns.
In the months since his layoff, he has walked into this place or that place looking for work, unannounced visits that resulted in nothing. He went to a factory that makes ambulances. Nothing. To another that sells truck caps. Nothing. Another that produces tops for aerosol cans. Nothing. He heard about an RV plant that might be hiring, but decided he needs more information before he'll get in his car anymore. He refuses to waste gas chasing rumors.
Driving anywhere alone is an expense that needs justification. Driving anywhere as a family is nearly impossible, because their two-door Cougar is too cramped and too sagging to accommodate their collective weight. Their second car, an old sport-utility vehicle, is stranded in a mechanic's back yard, needing repairs that Scott says he can't afford. So they stay home, which is another way to avoid spending money.
There is time to think: about the laundry he needs to wash. Or maybe he'll save it until tomorrow so he has something to do. He imagines the taunting he's sure he'll hear from his other brother -- the brother who has remained in Michigan -- if he moves back there and into the basement: "So you thought you were gonna go down there and make a ton of money . . . "
He thinks about his son, Cody, with his C's and D's and no direction or ambition. What will Cody do in a year when he graduates from high school? He thinks about taking classes to learn how to use a computer, aware that a new skill could help him find a job. The idea infuriates him. He has a blue folder filled with certificates: "Scott Nichols has satisfactorily completed the Advanced Auto Body Course." And: Scott Nichols "has completed 460 hours of training in auto glass installation." And: "Scott Nichols successfully completed 1,020 hours of training in auto painting."
Why should he have to start all over?
"Did you eat all the doughnuts?" Kelly asks.
"What do you think I was eating last night?" he answers.
She studies Hailey, who is on the floor, gaping at the TV.
"She's kind of sedentary," she says.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
Scott smiles. "Why?"
She rolls her eyes. "I'm going to smack you."
For dinner, they eat breakfast -- pancakes and sausages, which is what Scott had scheduled for this night when he mapped out a month's worth of meals to save money. The handwritten menu hangs on the refrigerator. Another night was soup and sandwiches. Another night was Chicken Helper and cottage cheese. Another night was leftovers. This night, Cody washes the dishes, his shoulder-length brown hair concealing his face as he leans over the sink.
"Homework?" Scott asks.
"No."
"Imagine that. If I get another call from school."
"You won't."
"What'd you do, tell them I don't have a phone?"
Cody disappears into his room to play Xbox. The TV is still on, the "King of Queens" fading into "Family Guy," "Two and a Half Men," "The New Old Christine," "Gary Unmarried," and "Seinfeld." As the sky turns black, no one switches on the lights. Kelly and Scott are in their usual places, the living room consumed by the blue glow of the television and an unceasing laugh track.
* * *
Monday is the day Scott dresses and leaves the house with a purpose that reminds him of the way he felt when he went to work. Only now he's off to collect their unemployment benefits, electronically delivered to their bank accounts by the state of Indiana: $268 for Kelly, $390 for him.
"Payday," he says, driving to an ATM.
He withdraws $700, which he tucks into a front pocket of his jeans. He buys a Pepsi, four packs of Marlboro Lights and $20 in gas. He pays the electric bill, buys brake pads and a $66 money order for the kids' health insurance, and hoses down the Cougar at a car wash. At the bank, he deposits $500 toward rent.
"Five, 10, 12 dollars," he says, counting his remaining cash.
He has $100 more coming, his reward for winning the NASCAR betting pool at his bar, a dark, smoky joint called the Winners Circle. He walks in just before noon, hoping to find someone, anyone, who might know something about a job. The place is almost empty. The bartender, gray-haired, gravelly-voiced Valerie, delivers his winnings and a $2 draft. He rarely drinks at home or in front of his kids. He never drank at work. But sometimes he drinks here, beer after beer after beer.
"I don't want to end up in a bell tower with a high-powered rifle," he likes to say. "I need to let loose in some way. I'm not going to give up everything."
At 1:10 p.m. he orders his fourth Bud. At 1:44 he orders a fifth, then a sixth. His cellphone rings. He knows it's Kelly before he answers. There's that question again: How much does he have left?
"We're still fine," he says. "Promise! No I'm not! . . . I've only had six. . . . I'm good. . . . This is it."
He downs a seventh beer, then an eighth at 3:04. He drives home slowly. The last thing he needs is a cop pulling him over. He passes Coachmen RV on his left, a plant where he applied for a job six weeks earlier. He passes Evergreen on the right, another RV maker, the sign at the entrance to the long driveway announcing, "Not accepting any applications."
In the kitchen, Scott gives Kelly the rest of the money in his pocket, $70, which needs to last until next week's unemployment money arrives. He hands Hailey his loose change for her piggy bank before falling into a chair and losing himself in a game of solitaire.
* * *
"Mmm."
Kelly is the one out of the house now, closing her eyes as she sits in a Subway, savoring a foot-long sandwich.
Her thoughts shift to a phone conversation she had that morning with their landlord, when she gave notice that she and Scott would be moving out in a month unless they found work. The prospect of leaving Elkhart makes her think about the place she wishes they were going, a house that exists in her imagination.
"A Victorian," she says. "Four bedrooms, two-and-a-half baths, a family room, a living room, a sunroom, what I would call a sewing room, a kitchen, a dining room and a wraparound porch. That's what drew me to it, the wraparound."
She takes another bite and wanders around the first floor.
"The family room was going to be where I kept my plants," she says. "It was going to be soft green. . . . And the sunroom, that was going to be yellow and it was going to have golden wicker to decorate it. . . . And then upstairs, the master bedroom was going to be mostly white with some blue. . . . And the master bath was going to be purple and white and I was going to have a stained-glass window."
She's ashamed that she and Scott have no money. She's embarrassed that they can't find jobs. She didn't grow up this way. In high school, she had a 3.9 grade-point average. She keeps a few old papers in a box, a teacher's "A -- Well Written" scrawled on one, "Very Good!" on another. She got a scholarship to a community college, then lost it after she started partying and stopped going to class. She held a series of forgettable jobs at forgettable places: a bank, a photo lab, a Burger King. She went back to school, finished her two-year degree and continued to work at forgettable places.
She thinks about her mother, a divorcée, raising two daughters on her own and taking them on trips to New York and Washington, D.C., and Europe. She and Scott have never taken a family vacation. They were together for eight years before getting married, mainly because Kelly wanted to save up for a catered wedding reception. Scott would have been happy flying to Vegas and mixing in some gambling. He doesn't need a tux. Or a Victorian.
"And the first bedroom was going to be Hailey's bedroom," she says. "Soft green with a big Oriental rug with a big rose in the middle. And a big canopy bed. . . . "
She takes a last bite of her sandwich.
"I know it'll never happen," she says. "But you can still dream. Wish. Imagine."
She wipes her mouth with a napkin.
"If I made $60,000 and Scott made $60,000, we could probably do it in three or four years."
Her voice trails off.
"Someday."
She tosses her trash in the garbage. The tour is over.
Click here to read the rest.
In reading about the RV employee, I am astounded how he stupidly threw away money--buying drinks at a bar for his friends. I like to have a beer myself; but never at a bar. It costs 4 times as much and you can always invite your friends over if you need compnay. Saving that extra $300 a month he spend would have served him well now.
I also worry about the future, despite having a well paying union job that has wage increases through 2011. We have already lost COLA increases, which account for about half my normal pay raises. And our employer will almost certainly ask for wage/benefit givebacks in our next contract. At least I have been preparing for the future, not whistling blindly past the graveyard.
Posted by: Steve | August 04, 2009 at 09:55 PM
Self respect? The analysts are self-serving, saying what's necessary to please the given audience.
Posted by: Mark Wolfinger | August 04, 2009 at 11:06 PM
These analysts are looking at the market to interpret what is going on in the US real economy.
On another note, we should not just look at the US consumer to interpret the US stock market we must look at things from an international perspective---as US markets are open entities.
One other thing, the painter who drew a Bull while looking at the Bear. Well the painter is Mr Market! (not just guys from Washington, Wall Street).
Posted by: Tony | August 05, 2009 at 12:56 AM
"but how can any self-respecting analyst look at the damage that has been done to the financial system and the economy during the past two years and not think it is going to be a very long time before we see anything resembling normalcy?"
You should ask Barclays' Tim Bond.
Posted by: Karthic | August 05, 2009 at 04:22 AM
There is an old story from Scotland called "The First and Second Marriage."
In the first marriage, a husband had a job that paid enough to keep his wife
and two children from starvation. However, he stopped by a local drinking house
every night to have a pint before he went home. His poor wife begged him to
no avail to come home and save the money. One night the state inspector was to
arrive and the owner asked the regular customer, the only one there, to go up=
stairs to their apartment until the inspector left. The man was amazed at the
lovely home above the bar; beautiful furniture; books, expensive rugs, affluence
everywhere. When the woman came up and told him it was safe now to return, he
asked, "How did a barkeeper acquire such wealth?" She laughed and said, "Fools'
pennies, my friend, Fools' pennies." The man never returned to the drinking
house and eventually saved enough to begin a small retail shop while the family
moved into crowded quarters upstairs. Eventually he began to prosper. The second marriage is another story.
Posted by: Marion Shaw | August 05, 2009 at 07:04 AM
I appreciate that readers here are probably less likely to be pro-military, but if I were a 39 year-old husband & father of two (which I am) and out of work I'd be at an Army recruiting office in a heartbeat.
Instant free-housing, free-comprehensive healthcare and a paycheck to boot. "Yeah, but they'll just send me to Iraq..."
So what? Be a man. Be a father. Get of your beer-swilling ass and fall in line.
Posted by: Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg | August 05, 2009 at 09:15 AM
I agree with Snoop. US Army, here I come!
Posted by: ArtE | August 05, 2009 at 09:22 AM
Gee, Snoop, I'm not anti-military, having had a few children, and other
relatives serving time. It is true that they (and their defense contractors)
are about the only people left with access to taxpayer money, but we have
slid into this solution before and it was called World War II, Korea, Viet-nam,
Iraq. Short term solutions historically only lead to long term disasters (like the economic one we are in now). Are we really going to give into the widely held belief that war is the only salvation for modern civilization?
Posted by: Marion Shaw | August 05, 2009 at 09:57 AM
Marion, I'm not suggesting 'war' is the answer to anything. But neither you nor I have the ability to influence what's happening in Iraq, Afghanistan or anywhere else.
My only point is that this man has a responsibility to provide for his family and he should be doing anything & everything (legally) to provide for them. Go where the work is. If that means going into harm's way, so be it. That's what parents are supposed to do.
And I would submit joining the military in this disastrous economic environment is an outstanding option for someone in his situation.
Posted by: Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg | August 05, 2009 at 11:16 AM
This article is enraging! Am I supposed to feel pity for these idiots? They are getting all they deserve. Blowing money and not saving when times were good. Mooching money in the form of unemployment and then buying cigarettes and lottery tickets and beer with the money - and gallons of Pepsi even though you are already a fat piece of sh$%. You have a dirt bike and Xbox and your kid is screwing up in school - school that I'M paying for as a taxpayer.
Disgusting. What a bunch of losers. He should just kill himself and his son and do the world a huge favor.
Posted by: Matt | August 05, 2009 at 11:27 AM
Two things jumped out at me. First, he is wasting a lot of money. Eight beers? That must have cost at least $32 in a bar. And I'm guessing he does that at least once a week. The other thing is that he and his wife need to expand their job search. I'm guessing there is an assisted living center in his area that is hiring. Or fast food restaurants. I would suggest they like sitting on their asses collecting $658 a week. That is why continually extending unemployment benefits is a bad idea. Take that away, and I'm guessing Scott and Kelly would find a job.
Posted by: Gman | August 05, 2009 at 12:26 PM
Snoop: I don't normally engage three times in a row, but I would take exception
to your comment that none of us have any influence on what is going on in Iraq
and Afghanistan. Technically that is true. But theoretically, if the American
public had the collective will, which it does not now have, it could demand
that competitive bidding be restored and giants such as Halliburton and
Blackwater, and other insiders who have made billions off these two wars,
be eliminated through fair competition. That would reduce the unexamined
incentives to go to war. Moreover, it is well documented that the United States
is the largest supplier of global weapons throughout the world, ranging from
missiles to jetplanes to whatever kills and destroys. The beneficiaries of these
massive sales are well connected to Wall Street banks and insider deals and
a large majority of the Congress reap handsome rewards from these business
transactions as well. Throw in the oil companies while you're at it. Yes, you
are right. A poor boy who knows little would be better off with a paycheck from
Uncle Sam than living under a bridge. But Uncle Sam has become so accustomed to
the war business, that any other way of life, which would require imagination
and hard work, is too much trouble to think about. So it looks like the thinking
is over for our generation at least and definitely we should not think about the
thousands of people in other lands who are living under bridges due to our
smart bombs. With all due respect and no intention to be argumentative.
Posted by: Marion Shaw | August 05, 2009 at 12:33 PM
a quote from one of my favorite writers..."everyone eventually gets what they deserve". And this fella got his.
Posted by: Brioan | August 05, 2009 at 12:35 PM
if the American public had the collective will, which it does not now have, it could demand that competitive bidding be restored and giants such as Halliburton and Blackwater...
Didn't the American public do just that, Marion? You know, the whole "hopey-changey" dance that was going to solve all our problems? Last time I checked we still had >100,000 troops in Iraq, and we're sending tens of thousands more to Afghanistan.
Where have all the leftist goof-balls gone, who screamed for 8 years about the Bush-Hitler-chimpy-McEvil-dictator? Why is no one holding BHO's feet to the fire? All I hear is *crickets*.
Posted by: Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg | August 05, 2009 at 12:55 PM
OK--I read the full article and the posters comments. My own comment is this: Ask yourself how atypical is this story. How many times must we multiply it by other families in the same scenario? Lots is my guess. This story is scary as it reflects too much mainstream lifestyle in this country. Go all over the US and you will find it happening-------or about to happen. The guy, his wife, and kids are in a bad situation. Some argue that it is of his own making, let him sink. Yes, but we are Americans and last time I checked we had compassion for our fellow man. We dont agree with the lifestyle we see in the article, but I am not ready to let him, or at least his family, suffer and fall apart. No, I dont know how to help him, would if I could. Lots of the posters make excellent points about the saving money and beer costs and such. But to really understand this, aren't we talking about a slip in our culture? Lets of course tell why we think it happened, but I have to insert some passion along with it.
Posted by: HSpencer | August 05, 2009 at 01:02 PM
I don't think that sending this guy off to Afghanistan to shoot at people is any better a solution than asking his wife to strip for a living. Not everyone wants to kill others or degrade themselves in public to make a buck. This couple is learning some hard lessons. Their marriage may or may not survive. For the sake of their kids, I hope they pull through.
Posted by: lah | August 05, 2009 at 01:10 PM
If the government isn't competent enough to provide healthcare to its citizens then certainly it isn't competent enough to run something as large and complex as a military. If you wouldn't trust your life to a government-run healthcare system, then certainly you shouldn't trust it to a government-run military.
I hear Xe (formerly Blackwater) is hiring assassins and thugs for their contemporary Blackshirt/Brownshirt Brigades.
Posted by: Morocco Bama | August 05, 2009 at 01:12 PM
"This couple is learning some hard lessons."
Iah, I don't think they're learning anything. And I'd respectfully disagree: if he needs to join the army or she needs to strip for a while to keep them from living in a tent under an overpass, then 'yes', they absolutely should do that. They need to put their stupid pride in a box and take of their kids.
"I hear Xe (formerly Blackwater) is hiring assassins and thugs for their contemporary Blackshirt/Brownshirt Brigades." Yeah, it's all true. And they've got killer robots disguised as puppy dogs, too. They'll chew your feet off and put all the hippies in concentration camps.
Posted by: Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg | August 05, 2009 at 01:38 PM
This family has problems, but it is not financial need. $700 in weekly unemployment benefits? With that, in their situation, knowing there was a crunch coming, I would probably have a savings rate of about 50%. After moving in with the parents, absent rent expense, savings would increase.
Posted by: Erich Riesenberg | August 05, 2009 at 01:41 PM
The moral of the story is that Mr. McFatty Fat should switch to Coke and Hoegaarden versus Pepsi and Bud Light.
Either way, for a myriad of reasons, I'm glad he's not joining the military. First and foremost being that when he comes back from his tour and can't find work he will be in a belltower with a rifle.
We need the military for folks like Snoop. Get all the angry people who worship war, brutality and death together on one battlefield and let them have at each other until none are left standing. Then we can start to build. Of course, those who advocate wars seldom fight them, cowards that they are. They solicit what they consider the dregdes of society to fight their wars, creating the conditions that make fighting in one a viable option to supporting one's family, as Snoop advocates here.
Eric Prince is a coward, as are the former Navy Seals who murder for him and Empire.
Posted by: Morocco Bama | August 05, 2009 at 02:16 PM
Wait a minute. I don't think Snoop is worshipping war and brutality. That is
unfair. As for the righty goof ball thieves and the lefty goof ball thieves,
is it not obvious they are all sleeping together and eating from the same
golden bowl of government contracting; bailouts, handouts and shootouts.
No, I agree. War is here to stay. That was my entire point; no matter who is
going to end up under the bridges and for whatever reason.
Posted by: Marion Shaw | August 05, 2009 at 02:25 PM
War is here to stay so long as you advocate those with no options fight them for those with many options. If those with no options refrain from fighting the wars, then those with multiple options advocating war will either have to fight the war themselves (which, of course, they won't do), or not advocate war, and instead settle disputes in a more constructive manner.
Michael's point in posting this was not to highlight the lifestyle of these people, but to make the larger point that the evidence does not support the meme of Recovery that's being proferred by the MSM and their selected "Experts."
Posted by: Morocco Bama | August 05, 2009 at 02:39 PM
Oh, yeah... the Army is just falling all over itself trying to sign up down-on-their-luck 39 year olds.
Posted by: Dave L | August 05, 2009 at 03:07 PM
Yeah, I agree, Dave, the Armed Forces are too busy recruiting NeoNazis and other fine, upstanding citizens.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/15/neo_nazis_army/
At least they're providing for their little skinhead children back home, like real men.
The Snoop Patrol. The Few. The Proud. Soon to be the Many.
Posted by: Morocco Bama | August 05, 2009 at 03:29 PM
I agree that the point of the post is that recovery is a non-event, especially in the industrial sector of Indiana.
Point is there is no employment for the man. Going to Michigan probably wont fare him better either. The take on the lifestyle thing is that he could do some things on his own, while free on unemployment, to increase his chances for later job seeking. He could make some no cost efforts to improve himself. Actually, were I this guy I would be enraged at the "internet whuppin" he and his family have been subjected to by the article to begin with. They have been laid bare through the Washington Post article for the world to see. Did he or did he not have a chance to approve the publication of this rather demeaning article? Was he paid anything for it? As for all the talk in posts as to his joining the military, that is a moot point as he could not pass the physical, going on the photos in the article. No matter what one may think of the military, it is not designed to be a catch all for the down and out. I do think some internal family management is in order. Getting into the best possible physical condition for one. In the original article there are too many photos of them laying around on sofas. Diet and exercise. Personal appearance is important. Relocation is going to be a must-do, but probably should be to an area of the country that boasts lower unemployment. Today can be the first day of the rest of their lives.
Posted by: HSpencer | August 05, 2009 at 03:59 PM
For you clearly paranoid, lost children, I'm simply identifying a means for "Fatty McFatass" to provide housing, health insurance and income to support his family.
Apparently you'd rather see your children living on the street than sacrifice your precious dignity with service in the military.
You may now return to your bong hits.
Posted by: Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg | August 05, 2009 at 04:23 PM
"What if we don't have cash to buy milk, eggs, bread or diapers? What if our unemployment benefits run out? What if we never find jobs?" (Extracted from the original article).
Just about sums it up?
Posted by: HSpencer | August 05, 2009 at 04:44 PM
I'm sorry but $700 a week is still enough money to live a decent life and save a bit. These people act as if they want to fail.
Posted by: edgar | August 05, 2009 at 05:01 PM
Owebama's Elkhart speech, prosperity for everyone:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32283931/ns/us_news-the_elkhart_project/
Posted by: edgar | August 05, 2009 at 05:12 PM
The damage done to the financial system & the economy
as been going on for decades not just the past the 2 years.
judging from the average comments, hell will freeze over
before things improve or maybe ...just maybe Mother nature
will get tired of human folly ,greed and stupidity.
Posted by: roger | August 05, 2009 at 05:35 PM
How much are we individuals and how much are we part of a community, including our lifestyles and ideas. How pernicious is the seductive TV and all those commercials saying "buy this now" to feel good? Since the 1960s I have been running into folks who live from day to day, looking for a good party and good time, and quickly bored with anything that requires them to read or think. Our churches preach instant gratification, instant salvation without effort, and no duty to those who draw the short end of the stick. Finally, there are consequences when writ large across the whole economoy, this means that the large American middle class market is disappearing, that trends of flat incomes that has existed since 1970 and the actual decline of incomes that has been occurring since 2000 will continue. We will be less like Western Europe and Japan, and more like Mexico and Central America, small, arrogant superwealthy elites with masses of poorly educated people scrambling to make a living in a future remarkably like the one portrayed in "Blade Runner," filled with violence and the potential of military dictatorship.
Posted by: Sherprarick | August 06, 2009 at 08:09 AM
Blah, blah, blah. Everyone is missing the point. This isn't about the army, Iraq or Fatty McFatty individually.
This is a collective sea change.
The issue is that the tide is going out. At first only the smallest bits of beach grass and trash are swept out, but eventually everyone will be swept out in one form or another. Ask yourself if the economic crash has affected you yet. If not, it soon will.
Posted by: Abraham | August 06, 2009 at 08:57 AM
I am supporting myself, just barely. I do not want, nor do I receive, government assistance. I am trying to get by on very little and I can't afford cable tv, soft drinks, cigarettes, or beer right now.
It infuriates me that he is receiving taxpayer money to buy the things I tell myself I can't afford.
Posted by: Melanie | August 06, 2009 at 09:05 AM
"...I can't afford cable tv, soft drinks, cigarettes, or beer right now."
Good for you, Melanie. It sounds like you've got a good head on your shoulders. All that stuff is nothing but a drain, physically, spiritually and financially.
The people who won't survive this train wreck are typified in this article. You, on the other hand, (although you might never be a "millionaire") will come through this a much stronger person.
Posted by: Snoop-Diggity-DANG-Dawg | August 06, 2009 at 09:18 AM
WTG Melanie. While that man is blaming everyone else for his problems, in a stupor, considering hurting people, and getting fat you will be fasting, getting stronger, leaner, and more alert. Best to you.
Posted by: edgar | August 06, 2009 at 10:43 AM
If he wants to make money, the military isn't the way to go. Sign up with a private contractor instead. As a mercenary you get paid ten times as much as a soldier, for doing the same job.
And if we're talking about doing immoral things for money, then his wife could become a prostitute and sell drugs.
After all, What Would Jesus Do? When he was hungry, did he sign up with the Roman Legion?
Posted by: Weaseldog | August 06, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Been mulling this one over since I read it yesterday. It's really easy to pick apart this family's lifestyle. Cheap beer, smokes, anti-depressants, lottery tickets, no education, no ambition, no common sense. Poor white folk. There are lots of them.
You can make a culture full of "strong backs and weak minds" work if you have an economy that makes stuff. The corporate power structure that runs our government decided that it was more advantageous for them to promote a "knowledge-based" economy, whereby they could ship manufacturing overseas and save costs. The tech and real estate bubbles papered over the cracks in this plan for awhile, but now we're seeing the true cost of all the "efficiencies" globalization has introduced.
The problem here is cultural. These people are the products of a junk culture of bad TV, bad food, anti-intellectualism, dependence and victimization. They don't have the tools to find their way out of the hole they're in. They don't know how they got there. These people are suffering because we've let corporate greed hollow out our economy and culture for the last 30 years.
Posted by: Brint | August 06, 2009 at 01:51 PM
This story is as old as Aesop's fable- The Ant and The Grasshopper.
While it was summer, the Grasshopper played the fiddle and did not worry about the winter.
The ants, meanwhile, put away food for the winter. When winter came, the grasshopper had nothing, but the ants were warm and secure, with enough to eat.
Tennessee Williams had a term for this- "Poor white trash".
Posted by: Roberto Cramer | August 06, 2009 at 01:57 PM
These folks are mid- between boomers and gen X folks. Not old enough boomers to have "gotten it" growing up, and not young enough gen X to have the mindset that they are on their own. The boomers rebelled against their parents and expected a "me" lifestyle. The parents then gave up. As long as a boomer had a job he/she was good. No job---not good. No plan B.
The constant stream of "money-honey" kept them in potato chips, hot dogs, BBQ wings and beer. A big Dodge truck (black that says "big horn" on it} a black mouth beard, and a beer belly. Then the factories closed. Economic crisis, because these same people in white shirts and ties bought $400,000.00 homes that no one making the median income in the US could afford. Foreclosures, repossessions, layoffs. No more "money-honey", no plan B. The chin sinks but you can't see it behind the circular mouth beard. The black "big horn" goes back. The 401K (for the white shirt and ties) halved or went to a third of value. Health insurance with the "company" became unaffordable COBRA. Then none at all.
Mass layoffs. Loss of house. Unemployment checks. No Plan B.
Posted by: HSpencer | August 06, 2009 at 05:16 PM