Hardship divides a family

[n2doc]

By Ronald D. White, Los Angeles Times
September 12, 2010

Byron Gamble
Byron Gamble is no longer in the driver's seat.

A 10-year employee of FedEx Corp., he lost his delivery route last year after a long absence to mend an injured back. Since then, the married father of four has watched his career and finances skid.

Gamble's wife, Angela, still has her FedEx job as a shuttle driver picking up freight from local airports. But her $25,000 annual salary isn't nearly enough to keep up with the bills.

The couple have spent most of the $30,000 they had saved for a down payment on a home. Gamble sold his 2005 Nissan Altima to raise cash; he now drives a 16-year-old Volkswagen Jetta whose driver's side door is held shut with bungee cords. No longer able to afford rent, the Gambles moved out of their roomy townhome in Westchester.

Relatives were willing to take them in, but none had room for a family of five. Gamble, 31, now lives with an aunt in Los Angeles. Angela and the children, the youngest of whom is 6 years old, are staying with her parents.
more
http://www.latimes.com/business/unemployment/la-fi-america-unemployment-gamble-final,0,355701.story

Welcome to the new america- don't get sick, don't get old, because if you do you might as well kiss all you hold dear goodbye.

[Swamp Rat]

1. k&r

[shireen]

2. breaks my heart ...

i like stories that focus on just one family -- it's necessary to put a human face on the statistics. Take Mr. Gamble and his family, and multiply with all the numbers of people affected by unemployment. That is the real depth of the pain. But i don't think many of our elected officials are capable to that kind of empathy; if they were, we'd never be in this situation.

[TexasObserver]

3. We need more Jobs programs and more Stimulus money.

The entire push to make the deficit an issue is based upon the GOP and its strategy. They NEVER worry about it when they're in power. Reagan, Bush and Bush never once came close to balancing a budget.

We cannot cut the budget enough to help the economy. We can help it by deficit spending.

[Mimosa]

6. Will the rulers allow that? n/t

[TexasObserver]

7. The Chamber other nefarious forces have opposed it.

I've been calling for these measures for a long time, and strongly advocated the president and congress pushing them through by June, 2010, but they didn't.

Our side has allowed the other side to control the debate, to dictate the issues, repeatedly.

[lib2DaBone]

4. So sad. Our elected leaders in Washington are completely our of touch with reality.

[Starry Messenger]

5. I feel like we're right back to the 19th century.

I was just reading this passage this morning:

http://www.marxists.org/archive/bebel/1879/woman-socialism/ch13.htm#s1

These womanly virtues the virtuous capitalist appreciates fully; and so, with the development of industry, the field of woman’s work is extended each year, but — and this is the decisive factor — without materially improving her social condition. Where female labor power is employed, it frequently releases male labor power. But the displaced male workers must earn their living; so they offer their labor power at lower wages, and this offer again depresses the wages of the female workers. The depression of wages becomes a screw set in motion by the constantly revolving process of developing industry, and as this process of revolution by labor-saving devices also releases female workers, the supply of “hands” is increased still more. New branches of industry counteract this constant production of surplus labor power, but not sufficiently to create better conditions of labor. In the new branches of industry also, as for instance in the electrical, male workers are being displaced by female workers. In the motor factory of the General Electric Company most of the machines are tended by girls. Every increase in wages above a certain standard causes the employer to seek further improvement of his machinery, and to put the automatic machine in the place of human hands and human brains. In the beginning of the capitalistic era only male workers competed with one another on the labor market. Now sex is arrayed against sex, and age against age. Women displace men, and women in turn are displaced by young people and children. That is the “moral regime” of modern industry.

Despite all the claims of being modern, capitalists never change the playbook.

[Tsiyu]

8. There are so many unemployed

especially among young people, it's heartbreaking. How low Mr Gamble must feel separated from family.

We need a jobs program fast. I hope Obama's "FixTheInfrastructure" plans can get these people decent incomes.

thanks for posting

[w8liftinglady]

9. in Texas,we have seen an epidemic of "under-employed'

no benefits
long hours
and you better not bitch,because there is some other hungry family out there.
It is time for a Jobs Building Plan.