Not just statistics

One in ten homes is behind in mortgage payments. While a fair portion of these represent people whose homes are “underwater” and who have chosen to walk away, with the financial ability to rent or buy cheaper, others are like me. Many, many others who are said to be one paycheck away from destitution  are losing that paycheck as I type.

I was, by all measurable standards, part of the middle class. The lower middle class, yes, but the middle class – with healthcare coverage, an option to have a 401 (K), a decent job and all that means.

Looking around, it’s the lack of decent-paying jobs that’s most troubling.  In order to increase globalization “parity” the top wage countries must come down in wages to meet the pay scale of the other rising countries. Which is why you saw Republicans playing hardball with the UAW — they will not say what they know: to “compete” on an international stage our wages must drop.  Problem is, our COLA is not dropping. Instead, what we’re likely to see from the 700 billion dollar bailout and all the other bailouts that are forthcoming in 2009 is inflation, rather than a drop in prices. Inflation comes as a result of more paper money being printed. So the cost of goods and services will likely RISE.

Goodbye, middle class.

There are times I think our oligarchy would love to see us all starving in the streets. It makes their riches somehow richer. How else to explain a ruling class that helped create this mortgage mess and enriched itself on the profits?  Like nobody could see this as the end result. Right.

Fortunately, for now I have a safe, softer place to land (more on that later). But what of the other 1 out of 10 homes? These aren’t just numbers, just as housing is more than sticks and nails. These are LIVES being destroyed as people run out of jobs and options.  I’ve scattered ten years worth of accumulated living to four winds: three places to store them – perhaps not long term, depending on whether or not I find a job – and some of it coming with me as I enter the next phase of my life.

Do you have any idea what it means to pack up and toss ten years of your life, or the desperation that must set in when you realize you could wind up on the streets, living in your car or worse?

And what of that federal bank bailout money? Has one cent of it gone to help the people who so desperately need help – the homeowners who are losing their homes, security and everything they ever tried to build for themselves?

Don’t think so.

Please, this holiday season, forego Walmart and give money to your local foodbank. They are all low on food and funds right now.  If you are still living somewhere secure and safe, think of the million or so people newly out of work, and those who fell off the unemployment rolls already. Take care of each other. We’re all we have.