walkingman

I do not believe all the economists and financial analysts who are filling our airways with their predictions and conjectures. There are so many fancy words and terms being throw about but none of them seems to want to use the R word. Yet I think we are in a recession and headed into a depression. No matter how they try and sugarcoat it the signs are everywhere if one just looks. I live in an upper middle class suburb and can definitely tell that the economy has taken its toll on families here. This little slice of Americana is no longer shiny and bright. We have foreclosed, boarded up, and abandoned homes in our neighborhoods. We have fathers and mothers who are out of work and have been unemployed for many months. We have had city services cut and an increase in free lunches at our schools. The government says we are close to turning a corner and that recovery is near. Yet I have seen too many people for whom recovery could not come fast enough. I feel like we have let them down. Not too many years ago I can remember friends, neighbors or family criticizing people who filed for bankruptcy, went through foreclosure, or were on welfare as being somehow second class citizen. From my experience those who filed bankruptcy were hard working people who had exhausted all options after suffering catastrophic losses usually related to medical illness. They were also involved in foreclosure cases for the same reason. And not everyone on welfare is lazy. Now that the shoe is on the other foot I rarely hear these comments any more. However economists do not want to use the R word and so we dance around the issue instead of addressing it head on. I wish the politicians in Washington and in state houses across this nation would get their collective heads out of their asses. Instead of worrying about getting re elected or rewarding one of their contributors with some project, they should be enacting legislation to fix our economic situation. They have fucked with us enough. It is time we said no and told them to go fuck themselves. They are supposed to work for us, the people, and if they will not, then I say fuck them and let us vote them out. There are too many people who are hurting now for us to let the politicians lead us down the path to ruin.