In a Funk...

[Acebass]

I wanted to share with you a letter I sent to a friend of mine, and see if I'm alone here or is the rest of America feeling the same way...

Sorry man just overlook me for now. I had to come up with $400. week before last, to keep my electric on, that was a partial payment, I thought I had some time to get up the rest, ya right. I came home Thurs and my power was cut off, had to come up with an additional $268. to get it back on. While I'm fighting all that I forget that those bills where the past due ones and that I had a current one coming due for another $250., got the cut off notice for that yesterday for the 16th.
Nancy's got a job finally, if you want to call it that, working for Kelly services as a temp making 8.50 an hour. Thats hard to swallow when the job she had for 19 years she was making almost twice that much.(Fuji Film bought her business and down sized everything)
People say "well be thankful", and yes I am because without that we would be sunk, but I also say this is America and we have a dream here about improving our lot in life, but everytime we try some Republican bastard gets into office and screws things all up for us.
I also wonder sometimes if I'm not just pulling myself with this forum, are we doing anything are we changing anything? Like I said I'm just in a funk and would like to see things get better, before I die at least.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Lots of folks barely hanging on

Here in NW Arkansas, people are really hurting because of the astronomical rise in natural gas prices and in gasoline prices. I had to leave my land and rent a flat nearer my work because I couldn't afford the 100 mile a day commute any more. I am the main worker in my family, and that's on $8 an hour. Boss is talking about cutting back hours if jobs don't start coming around. No health insurance for me or for my husband, who, with pre-existing conditions, can't get insurance other than AFLAC (which we pay for-at least if we're in an accident we'll have some coverage and can tell the ER folks we have some insurance so they won't throw us out on the street).

[Just Me]

34. My Mom and I were just talking about the "astronomical" heating bills.

We used that word: "astronomical"!!!

I turn off my hot water heater every night and afternoon and keep the thermostat at 60 degrees. I still got a $518 bill for two months. My Mom keeps her water heater at luke warm and her thermo at 60 at received a $280 bill for one month.

Basic necessities are consuming our food money each month. We pay for water!!! We can NOT possibly afford health coverage, hard as we try.

It's just insane! We live on the richest continent on the earth and, we wonder if we can keep a damn roof over our heads, warmth in our homes, food in our bellies and medical attention when needed.

It is that bad for the most of us, even if we are too proud to admit our lot in American life.

[hfojvt]

36. a couple things you could try

I turn my water heater down as low as possible, except for half an hour before I take a shower I turn it up, and turn it back down before I start my shower (otherwise it heats up water after my shower, when I no longer need it)
I turn my heater all the way down at night, or when I leave for work.
I close off a couple rooms for the winter - one is my master bedroom, which does not have heat ducts anyway (I use an upstairs bedroom in the winter) and the other is my bathroom.

[BlueManDude]

2. Cheney says you should be saving more. n/t

[Acebass]

3. ROFLMAO

I saw that.:rofl:

[Acebass]

6. DO AS WE SAY, NOT AS WE DO:

I had a savings Dick! Went into the hospital for a weekend, oops there goes savings...
Where's his reality...

DO AS WE SAY, NOT AS WE DO: "The American dream begins with saving money and that should begin on the very first day of work," Vice President Cheney said yesterday. "Yet a lot of American families live paycheck to paycheck...and this underscores one of our fundamental obligations in Washington: to be good stewards of the taxpayer's dollar ."

You tell'em shooter!

[BlueManDude]

7. I'm sorry about your current situation

all I can say is keep going.

I have my own small real estate-related business and have done very well for the last 7 or 8 years. Never had any money concerns, would always spend extra to get the "best" of whatever - but in the last few months this has changed. My income has slowed to a trickle and I've been dipping into fallback savings/nestegg and future investment income for monthly bills. It's more than a little scary and the next few months are pretty critical for me.

I hope things turn around for both of us. I just have ZERO confidence in the competence and rationality of the ruling party in this country. These people are fucking up our economy and creating a massive divide between rich and poor. There appears to be no way to stop them.

[Acebass]

27. The ship doesn't rise...

unless it does for all...the rich can't support this economy for long...it's a strong middle class that drives the economy and without it we're doomed...

[Toots]

4. The trickle is on the way......honest....

:crazy: Why should they care you don't give them thousand dollars at a whack...

[BlueManDude]

9. Where the fuck is a strong Democrat who talks about...

Trickle Up Economics? About how the government needs to enact policies that make housing, education and health care (the 3 biggies) more affordable for middle income people? These are the people that drive the economy and consumer spending. You think the original poster has money left over for an IPOD or a new car?

God why are they so clueless and afraid?

[OzarkDem]

14. They're not united, too dependent on corporate contributions

and too frightened to rely on their grassroots bases for funding.

Dems leaders are in the worst shape we've seen them in quite a while.

[KoKo]

19. Edwards tried....but the other Dems refuse to address the real issue

of Wall Street Greed where the Venture Capitalists and lawyers make the big bucks out of consolidation and downsizing and "productivity gains" are said to be good while we outsource jobs to India.

[BlueManDude]

29. Focussing on "poverty" is a losing political strategy

Focussing on the "middle class squeeze" on the other hand is a winner. It may just be a stylistic difference (and I don't denigrate the importance and accuracy of his message) but IMO he needs to slightly shift his themes.

[KoKo]

32. Especially when Edwards being a Millionaire seemed to contradict

his message of: "My Daddy was a Mill Worker." Most Americans outside the South had no idea what he was talking about..

And, the media sure didn't want to explain it.

[porphyrian]

5. Lots feel this way, and they better goddamn vote.

Hopefully, we'll be in great enough numbers to prevent the Diebold factor this time.

[Acebass]

8. I know we can't be alone...

My wife had a 401K going I had a savings account, we were looking forward to a nice retirment.
Nancy couldn't find a job, there's a story here in itself, we went through here severance and 401k before she, as a last resort, took the job at Kelly's. Then the winter set in, thanks to Global Warming, our heating bill wasn't as bad as it could have been (gotta look for that silver lining :puke: ) My utilities have more than doubled but my pay check has stayed the same, and in my wifes case has been cut, what hope does this administration give us for the future? I'm too old to have to keep starting over!

[acmejack]

10. No, your story is very common among the working class.

There are some
I know with unfortunate certainty that there will be no retirement for me as I had once envisioned, those funds long since spent, the good news is people like us are more willing to PROTEST as we have NOTHING to risk.

Just reminding those in charge. Like Chris Kristofferson wrote and Janis Joplin sang, "Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose", well an awful lot of us are being freed in a hurry!

[Acebass]

11. Let em eat cake!

When are we going to storm the gates...count me in!...

[OzarkDem]

17. Not just working class

There's just as much of this going on among college grad career types. There's a much bigger gap between the have's and have nots.

I sometimes wonder if high energy prices are just another means of driving down wages, making people more desperate than ever and willing to settle for lower wages.

[KoKo]

25. Retirement...Ha....we will be working with our canes...maybe picking up

garbage the way things are going. A nice cane with a pick on the end to clean up the roadside waste from the McBurgers or the wrappings from the Chinese crap that we are buying.

[doni_georgia]

12. Lots of people in your boat

I just paid a $339 gas bill this month. Pisses me off, my bill wasn't but $150 in December and $125 in January - got my February bill and nearly fell out! February was warm here - hardly ran the heat at all. I called the gas company, and they said that December and January they estimated my usage, but they sent a meter reader in February and whacked me with the difference. I'm lucky I had the money. But many people I know don't have the money. I live in an area where a lot of Delta employees live. God you wouldn't believe the houses for sale. There are 6 for sale on my street alone.

I have been in a funk for about 5 years now. I'm sick of it.

[Acebass]

15. Oh but the economy is getting better...LOL

Don't you find this interesting?

Economists at Odds Over Savings Rates By ELLEN SIMON, AP Business Writer
Sat Mar 4, 9:29 AM ET

Now that America's savings rate has been negative for an entire year, a first since the Great Depression, the question is whether we're a spendthrift nation on its way to the poor house or whether we're looking at the wrong numbers when we calculate savings.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060304/ap_on_...HE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

If that link doesn't work let me know, I have it on my site also...

[doni_georgia]

18. link didn't work

I live near the Atlanta airport. Tons of Delta and Ford employees. People here are worried shitless about their future. Yet the other day at work this repuke said, "Well, no one could expect people's lives to continue to improve." Assholes.

[Acebass]

20. try this one

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060304/ap_on_...HE0BHNlYwN0bWE-

if that one doesn't work try this one
http://politicalswitchboard.invisionzone.com/index.php?showtopic=8204

[OzarkDem]

13. I can sympathize

I see a lot of people struggling these days. Its incredibly frustrating knowing people are being hurt just because our leaders are allowing energy companies and others to steal from the public.

I look through DU and other forums and see so much Bush & GOP corruption and incompetence finally becoming public, and nothing happens. Its almost as if the public has accepted it. And our own Dem leaders in DC seem unwilling to do more than argue with each other as to whether we should do anything about it.

Keep your faith and keep working on making a change. Perhaps we need to be turning more of our focus on our own leaders to speak out more forcefully. Don't give up hope!

[KoKo]

16. Bush says we aren't educated enough and that's why we need to outsource.

Just in the last few months three of our friends had their company's bought out and they all have a least a masters from prestigious business schools ...one has a PH.D. and they are in their late 40's with kids who are getting ready to go to college.

They all had to take jobs outside their states for half the salary and one had to rent an apartment the other is staying in a cheap motel,theother is renting a his own trailer to live in and drives the trailer back to his home on weekends ...so their families can stay in their communities and the kids can finish school in a familiar place.

What is this doing to our society? Father and mothers who have to leave and commute back because they can't find jobs where they are. And, the jobs they are commuting out of state for are so unstable that they are afraid to move their families figuring they will be "downsized" or "bought out" again in a few months and will have moved their families to someplace strange for nothing.

Two of my nephews who are all collge graduates...in engineering with masters degrees are in business with their retired fathers traveling around the country trying to get consulting business. The engineering jobs are few and their own fathers were downsized. So, now they spend their time on the road hawking for business wherever they can find it.

They will never make the money their educations promised them. And, they can't afford health insurance.

So...Bush says Americans aren't educated and that's why our jobs are going to India. Yeah...right... He would be happy if everyone was slopping hamburgers or greeting at WalMart. Taking jobs away from those who didn't hock their life to college loans and further education but who really need those jobs to survive.

It's so disgusting what's going on...it's beyond belief. And, I suspect it will only get worse before we rise up and demand that these Wall Street games STOP and we put a freeze on any new outsourcing of jobs until America can gain some economic stability.... :-(

[Acebass]

22. I have a degree in Marketing...

Lotta good thats doing me...
I work for 11 bucks and change, an hour, at a local hospital selling their used medical equipment for them...

[KoKo]

24. Did you read my post or just the subject line?

I was agreeing with you....;-)'s

[Acebass]

26. Twice btw...loved the Walmart thing...

thats another of my pet peves...Walmart what a joke...we screw our employees so we can keep your cost down...right!...

[acmejack]

28. Exactly the thought I was trying to put into words!

I am a mid fifties engineer, I can quite literally tell you what the ones and zeroes do in a computer or a digital device! I know all these obscure things that nobody has any need or interest in a person knowing now days, they throw away the device and buy a new one. I allowed myself to get over specialized which also hurt. I have stayed current but that hasn't helped and the consulting work gets sparser and the casual work gets leaner.

[Acebass]

30. We're on a bubble

and pretty soon it's gonna burst...

[SammyWinstonJack]

21. !

"...but everytime we try some Republican bastard gets into office and screws things all up for us." Says it all, imo. One step foward, two steps back. :banghead: :argh:

[Acebass]

23. I could accept my lot in life...

If I hadn't done what I was told to do to make it better...
But for every hoop you jump through there's another waiting for you...

[KoKo]

31. It's what it is........life and the times you were born in and where you

came out ..whether you get the "brass ring" or manage to achieve a little that makes you feel happy and fulfills your sense of why you are here on this earth.

But...making the best of it and achieving something is what makes it worthwhile.

(Hey...I'm just telling you what's supposed to happen...it's up to you and the rest of us to make it happen.)

So many of us are still searching and trying to make it come together. Let's hope we do...

[Acebass]

38. If you only knew...

[SammyWinstonJack]

37. It's that imaginary carrot that they always dangle in your face to make

you strive to reach for the unattainable. :shrug: It's always just out of your reach and yet you believe you can.

[Just Me]

33. It's tough. College graduates can't get a living wage these days.

I have friends who were loyal to their positions: their companies weren't loyal, dropped them.

The "get an education" ethic isn't working. The "hard work" ethic isn't working. The "loyalty" ethic isn't working.

There's a LOT of folks feeling cheated, these days. x(

Economic INJUSTICE is prevalent, here and everywhere.

Blame the corporacrats,...who want to rule and ruin the world. They feel no responsibility and they are spreading this disease. Of course, they are sick to begin with because all they want,...is more.

[Acebass]

39. Kiss ass still works unfortunatly...

I see it every day...

[earth mom]

35. 70% of the country is living paycheck to paycheck...

the way things are going the bottom might just fall out for a lot of people who weren't expecting it...it will be quite the rude awakening.

So don't feel bad because you are not alone....

Hubby and I have been living on the edge for years-we didn't do well during Clinton and expected it to get worse during Bush. Only good thing that happened is that almost 2 years ago hubby got a decent paying "part time" union job (oh yeah-a union that Bush hates) where hubby gets about 32 to 40, occasionally 48 hours a week, though it's been closer to 32 lately. I stay at home with our kid and we're hanging on, but just barely. Our heating system went out this past Christmas and we couldn't afford the 5 to 8 grand it would take to fix it, so we've been using the wood stove that luckily came with the house. I have a difficult time getting a fire going in it though so there have been many cold days in this house this winter--until hubby gets home.