Der Spiegel: Recession Shadows America's Middle Class

[marmar]

American society is breaking apart. Millions of people have lost their jobs and fallen into poverty. Among them, for the first time, are many middle-class families. Meet Pam Brown from New York, whose life changed overnight.

The crisis caught her unprepared. "It was horrible," Pam Brown remembers. "Overnight I found myself on the wrong side of the fence. It never occurred to me that something like this could happen to me. I got very depressed."

Brown sits in a cheap diner on West 14th Street in Manhattan, stirring her $1.35 coffee. That's all she orders -- it's too late for breakfast and too early for lunch.

She also needs to save money. Until early 2009, Brown worked as an executive assistant on Wall Street, earning more than $80,000 a year, living in a six-bedroom house with her three sons. Today, she's long-term unemployed and has to make do with a tiny one-bedroom in the Bronx. It's only luck that she's not homeless outright.

"One thing came after another -- boom, boom, boom," Brown recalls. "I kept getting up and dusting myself off, but I could never get ahead again. I spiraled further and further into the abyss." Her voice is trembling now. "I've done everything America told me to do. I went to school. I've never been to jail. I've kept my nose clean. My kids are great kids." ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,728368,00.html

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

1. We're doomed!

[tsuki]

2. When did we get to be so mean? And why do we read about it in a foreign publication? nt

[Raster]

4. Because American publications won't tell us the truth. They will not show us the view behind...

...the curtain, because THEY ARE THE CURTAIN. The corporate-owned, corporate-controlled media is just as much responsible for the sorry-assed state of American affairs as any crooked politician.

[truedelphi]

7. We cannot even read the true analysis of what went down last Tuesday.

Many Americans, tired of Tweedledee and Tweedledum, decided on third party.

But is that even mentioned?

Not as long as the huge campaign monies from both sides of the Aisle keep the news Media quiet about the necessary slant of reality.

You have to really dig around to find out that. For instance, in Alaska the main block of voters came in at thirty nine percent independent.

In Colorado, the Democratic candidate for governor won, with 52% of the vote there, but in second place was someone on the independent ticket with 37 percent of the vote.

Kamela Harris "D", who is having an on going vote counting battle for California Attorney General remains only a point or less behind Cooley. Yet even there, the news media is mum about whom the other 9 percent of the voters decided on.

[Raster]

8. You are so correct.! The true meanings and indications of last Tuesday will be obscured as much as

possible with numerous misinterpretations along the way. Tuesday's election was NOT a mandate for the Republicans. Tuesday was the electorate saying they are dissatisfied with the Democrats and their empty promises. Most of the citizens of this country realize that the United States government answers to a higher power than that of the citizenry. And most of the citizens of this country are beginning to realize that our options for leadership and direction are limited--PURPOSELY. One need only glimpse at the governments of the parliamentary democracies around the world to understand how confining and limited and DISHONEST American democracy truly is. This is not and has not been a government of, for and by the people for a very long time.

[TwilightGardener]

3. Lots of people are just a couple paychecks or one unlucky event

away from the brink.

[XemaSab]

5. How awful

:(

[RKP5637]

6. And many Americans are STILL too ignorant to get what's going on. This has become a

ridiculous place, and the fools that think the R's and the wealthy elite are their friends bringing jobs to them.

This country has become the laughingstock of the world in my lifetime. I no longer have any doubt we will see the US for most an inhospitable place to live in the future. Too many Americans are too selfish, too self-centered and too ignorant to save the country.

This country is no longer about people at all. Only profit and the oligarchy.