The Recession and Layoffs Thread

[Foofoogal]

I am number nine of 11 children. I know poor in and out.
My attitude has changed completely since I was a child watching tons of people.
I am speaking from my perspective for what it is worth.
Knowledge is power but attitude goes a very long way. Ignorance is not bliss.
It truly scares me that people want the government to fix it all. Not going to happen ever!
It is not cold hearted or callous to desire better for people and get so frustrated watching like a cat chase their tail round and round the same cycle.
Nothing makes me sicker than to see a person with a bitter poor attitude. It is like some I know are allergic to success.
I have seen rich poor people and I have seen poor rich people.
1/2 full or 1/2 empty is a choice.
I have even heard some like a badge of honor that they are poor trash.
Wow, I am going to get myself in trouble if I don't shut up.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

It truly scares me that people want the government to fix it all...Wow, I am going to get myself in trouble if I don't shut up.

I just want the govmint to stop breaking things! Especially in Maine.

In trouble with whom? Are you being followed?

 

[Foofoogal]

Not followed but my postings have a knack for closing threads. Especially if any hint of God. Which is who I depend on for my bread and butter.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Not followed but my postings have a knack for closing threads. Especially if any hint of God. Which is who I depend on for my bread and butter.

Nah. Watch:

I believe in God!

It won't close.

 

[scotrace]

lol



just kiddin'

(reopened)

 

[PrettySquareGal]

You middle class boat people sure are crazy.

 

[Foofoogal]

I completely understand life happens and sometimes unexpected drastic things happen to change our lives sometimes forever.
My point I guess I am trying to make is about legacy. Do we just leave a legacy to our children that states:
"Well, I guess we are screwed, so just screw it?"

I refuse to but it is what I hear and see from some even family members. Sort of like that rich man, poor man movie many years back.

Knowledge is power like I stated. Practical knowledge as well as spiritual knowledge.

I can just speak from my own life. Dirt poor financially but not in spirit. My mother always said someone could afford a bar of soap and be clean. If they own 2 dresses wash one and wear one.
My honey and I got married in 1975. He had a stereo and I had a hope chest with mostly hope in it.
I went to the free library and picked up every book I could find about antiques, strolled thru every antique shop I could find etc.
I did catch a break and won a tv show that gave me the dream money to start my business which I believe was God. Anyway, then I had to thru trial and error learn the business.
I still confess I am totally lacking in knowledge on the tech side of things and this is my own fault. I need to take some classes or something but find it so boring.....
My honey has a good job but in the 32 years of marriage I have never once seen the man not do something to support his family. When rained out or laid off he would kick carpet or roof houses or whatever. He used to come home from work so dirty sometimes I had to make him some eyes to see him like a raccoon.
We sat home on Friday nights with the kids and made popcorn while many of our friends partied on. Now many have nothing to show as they wasted it on junk. Even squirrels know how to put away for winter.
Food is very expensive and everything else. I completely understand it is hard to make ends meet. I believe though if one is healthy and has some brain cells they can ask God for creative ideas to help them.
Sell at etsy. com or make stuff to sell at flea mkt. or somewhere. Have a garage sale. The internet has opened the world to sell something.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Many churches now have practical classes on debts and finances. It is definitely lack of knowledge to do payday loans or get into subprime mortgages. Ok. I am done. :eusa_doh:

 

[Miss Neecerie]

You middle class boat people sure are crazy.

Its the confined space in the boat.....cabin fever....

 

[pgoat]

That's exactly what happened to us this year! It was a sickening moment when I realized how much we'll owe. So much for our economic stimulus, but at least we'll break about even.lol

We live paycheck to paycheck, can't afford to buy a house, drive 20-year-old cars because they are paid for, have trouble paying off the medical and dental bills, and are starting a home-based business. Makes me wonder how many others out there are in the same boat with us. I'll bet it's quite crowded.

Ah, but that's life in the middle class, right?


Brad

yow! we're in exactly the same boat as you guys Brad. I was planning on skipping the chiropractor next week because I may want to eat lunch every day....

we did just blow $3000 on a new computer (our 10 year old one is on its last legs), so we're not living under a bridge just yet, but boy are we strapped......

 

[pgoat]

She's on Feline Security.

we've got two of those living with us now....lousy freeloaders!

 

[pgoat]

btw, i DEFINITELY make most of my own $ problems.

I make a decent salary, but living in NYC is not exactly cheap. the class lines here are way too close for comfort - every night when i walk home I gaze up at the gorgeous buildings and window shop at the best and most expensive things the world has to offer - being careful not to step on the sleeping homeless folks wrapped in newspapers and cardboard on the subway grates......

Of course, frequenting the FL with its allure of custom hat ads and pics of shiny happy people posing in their enviable vintage finery isn't helping a compulsive shopper like me any.....

 

[nobodyspecial]

The exponential growth of "payday loan stores" and "auto title loan stores" in recent years has not seemed to me to be an encouraging sign about the current state of affairs. (Did I put that mildly enough?)

Where in Wisconsin do you live? I spent the weekend in Ashland for the Book Across the Bay ski race and was amazed at the number of payday loan stores that I came across. I get to the area once or twice a year and do not recall the same number of these outlets from my last visit.

 

[jgilbert]

There is a huge difference in being broke and being poor. Nobody here is really poor.


LizzieMaine. I have lived on less than $1,300.00 even in today's dollars. No I did not like it. However I learn so much from it. I was luckly that this happen yrs ago while younger, and it has played a huge in my life since.Most of it was attitude. Take that a fear, make it a challenge, and then go kick it's butt!

PrettySquareGal Why did they not get reinsurance?

I am not trying to pick a fight with anybody, I just do not buy the fact that you are victim of some upper class plot.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

PrettySquareGal Why did they not get reinsurance?

Do you mean why are some things not covered by health insurance? You'll need to ask them. Also, try a google search (not being a wiseguy, just saying.)

 

[nobodyspecial]

From much of what I've read, large, unexpected medical bills are a leading cause of personal bankruptcies. Most folks seem to be able to scratch by until they get hit by some sort of uninsured, or underinsured illness.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/bankruptcy_study.html

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Exactly. It all goes back to what I said earlier about class privilege -- too many Americans don't have a realistic picture of what it means to actually be working poor because they've never actually had to experience it first hand. We've become a society so rigidly divided among class lines that we've lost the ability to understand that not everyone has that same privilege.

I know $200,000 per year executives whose lives would completely short out if they had to get by on the $75,000 that would seem more than adequate to you or me. They would die. So I find the jabber coming from some of those folks about how everyone should just put their shoulder to the wheel, etc., etc., rather laughable when you get right down to it. Many of them would be flat-out unable to cope with real economic adversity. And if they can cope with other kinds of adversity, it's often because their money enables them to.

I have no problem with wealth, or with conservative political views, either. But I do have a problem with cluelessness.

 

[skyvue]

From much of what I've read, large, unexpected medical bills are a leading cause of personal bankruptcies. Most folks seem to be able to scratch by until they get hit by some sort of uninsured, or underinsured illness.

As for naivete about what insurance companies cover, here's an example: I have a good job with what most would consider an excellent insurance plan, health and dental.

In late 2006, I had to have oral surgery because I had what I can only describe as a bone spur or growth growing inward, toward my tongue, on the inside of my lower left gum (I had another one growing outward on the outside of my upper right gum). The pain became excruciating and the lower growth was actually beginning to poke through the gum.

This was considered a medical, not a dental, procedure (I don't pretend to understand what goes into these decisions, but the oral surgeon told me that I would have to submit the claim to my medical provider, not the dental one, and he was right).

Now, get this: The surgeon sent the removed bone growths off to lab just to make sure they weren't cancerous (they were not). That expense, the insurer paid, no questions asked.

But how about the surgery itself, the removal of the bone growths?

On that, they didn't pay a dime. Not a single cent. The only oral surgery they cover, they said, is the removal of wisdom teeth. And this is a major provider, not some fly-by-night operation.

What was I to do, I asked the representative -- just allow the bone growths to keep progressing until I was entirely incapacitated?

She had no answer for me, but I paid for the entire cost of that operation out of my own pocket.

And I am fully insured.

Note: Edited to remove political commentary.

 

[Patrick Murtha]

Where in Wisconsin do you live? I spent the weekend in Ashland for the Book Across the Bay ski race and was amazed at the number of payday loan stores that I came across. I get to the area once or twice a year and do not recall the same number of these outlets from my last visit.

I live in Northeast Wisconsin. Having worked in commercial real estate, I know for a fact that the northwest corner of the state is particularly littered with these establishments because Minnesota has much more stringent laws and regulations respecting them (not sure about Michigan). Superior is especially bad in that respect because of the proximity to Duluth, but Ashland is no doubt horrible too.

 

[The Shirt]

I guess my take on the whether we are or or not in a recession is probably a little simplistic. I make a reasonable salary, have never been an outrageous spender. I put away for a rainy day. It has begun to feel though as if the rainy day has come. My salary no longer can keep up with the escalation of prices all over the board. My reasonable home mortgage monthly payment has increased steadily $50 a month per year due to insane property taxes. I could not sell my house if I tried for the value assessed to it. This squeeze is in addition to gas prices, monthly escalating food and gas bills. I have released any frivolous spending such as cable, gym memberships, phone lines, internet services, etc. I feel the pinch. I am by no means suffering, but tight nonetheless. The fact that as an independent girl who has always provided for herself is considering how convenient and lovely it would be to have a two income household, well I think it's disheartening.

My BF was laid off the construction business almost now a year and due to the union contract cannot work in the field. Nearly a thousand electricians in the city alone are without work and some have "sat on the bench" for nearly 2years. I have other friends who have searched for work for over a year for something that pays reasonable close to their last position and nothing is to be found. There are jobs out there - just not jobs that will allow a person to live above poverty level here.

I feel affected. I feel like it's only going to get a bit worse before it gets better. I'm not sure what is to be done about it except to tighten my belt, continue to clip my coupons and think of "free" entertainment options. It's a cycle - and I feel like I just need to wait it out.