Open Letter to Obama Administration- Economy
February 10, 2009 | Vetting explained
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In 2007 my father died. I almost immediately after fell ill myself and was forced to quit my job upon my doctor's orders. Because my husband's job was doing fairly well, I decided to take the doctor's advice and quit. We thought a couple of months would be enough to get better. I have not been able to find another job since. Not only this, but my husband works recruiting student pilots. With the high cost of fuel and the airlines merging and firing so many pilots, the banks stopped loaning to students. When this happened, my husband's salary was cut 50 to 60%, hence our total income was now about 1/3 of what it had been the year before. We went from three figures to barely eating let alone anything else. In the middle of all this, we tried to renegotiate our home loan (our home was bought @ 289k and is now worth less than 140k) While doing this verbally, we agreed on certain terms with the company (a new company had taken over or a change in name?) but when we received the papers, half of the terms we had discussed were missing. When we told them, they insisted we sign anyway, but we didn't because things started to sound fishy. We asked them to include this information but they refused and while discussing this, we were served foreclosure papers from yet another party whom we had never even dealt with nor had heard of them prior to this suit. We have now had to contract an attorney because they do not even own the note to our home and apparently one of the "affidavits" was signed by a person who has been indicted for 11 counts of fraud by a federal grand jury just in recent weeks. WHAT IS GOING ON in this country??? Where is the accountability? Can't one get sick and find another job? Can't one trust a bank anymore? This did NOT happen when I was growing up. Laws were respected. Corporations did not control our lives. We go days without eating sometimes. We went from being middle class people to the verge of foreclosure (or close to it at any time) because things went beyond our control. We can’t control gas prices, we can’t control banks; we can’t control illness or death. When we bought the house, we were told my credit was so great that I could buy a home for 750K, but I was extremely conservative and I actually bought this house at a lower price than what it was going for- and it's just a townhome, not a mansion, not even a house with a white picket fence, just a plain townhome. I got sick, lost my job, couldn't find another; my husband lost almost all his income due to fuel costs and the banks being too greedy, How is this our fault? I can see if we had been careless, but looking back, even if we had saved every penny, we'd still be in dire straits today. And besides, what does one work for? I personally do not work to come home, drink beers and fall asleep. That's the sign of an unhappy society when people drink to forget. I've never done it and neither has my husband, but if you can't even treat yourself to a cheap meal or a drive now and again, then what's the point of living? Just to work and save in case the economy crashes and leaves you helpless? Both our cars broke down at once. One of my cars, AN AMERICAN BIG THREE, had many issues and I had the extended warranty but the company kept telling me they were fixing it and they never did. Every single time, it had the same problem and new ones appearing. This is why no matter how much money they get as bailout or loan, I will never buy a Big Three car again. I may consider Ford only because they have not requested to be bailed out and only if they offer something fuel efficient and environmentally friendly. And that’s IF and when I ever have money again. So now, my husband has to use my car to get to work, therefore I have no transportation and the closest bus to my home is 10 miles away and the closest business is a super market a mile and a half away of a walk, and I am 46. I am stuck at home without a job and without money to buy a car to go to a job, even if I had a job… so it’s a vicious circle. Meanwhile… we are just waiting to see if our attorney can save us in any way, forking out money which we do not have and that we will have to pay in installments, and we are not even sure of the outcome… yet more money taken away from our dinner table. And we had to hire an attorney because we may not be attorneys, but we are not stupid and we know when something doesn’t sound kosher, but in order to fight back crooks, we have to deplete our wallets so someone who does know the law can help us. We have major health care issues and have not been able to go to the doctor or dentist or buy our medicine either. Wow, just wow… Thanks for letting me vent, but we need action and we need it now and we need it to be fair, once and for all. Until America stops allowing greedy corporations and banks to suck the blood of its citizens dry, we will never see a striving economy again. We'll never be the land of opportunity we once were. We'll just be a nation of homeless, needy, uneducated, health-care deprived sick people doomed for depression- a great economic depression- but even worse, a nation of depressed people. I’ve gone from feelings of guilt, to fear, to anxiety, to sleepless nights, to sadness to anger… because we’re not bad people, but we can’t survive like this. We just can’t. You tell me. Is this fair? Is it fair when I hear big execs are getting more and more breaks? Is it fair when I hear that the banks were bailed out yet they’re sitting on the money so there is no flow of cash? That’s called inflation if I remember well. And that’s called greed too. Is it fair when I hear that the Big Three being bailed out, yet GM just fired 2000 employees? I thought the bailout was to prevent this? I thought the whole excuse about giving these corporations money was to save jobs. No, things have to turn around. If all those trillions spent on this war, spent on banks and Wall Street and private corporations were given directly to the people, we’d all see jump start in the economy faster than you can say “bailout”. We know now by heart that nothing trickles down; it only trickles down to the pockets of the wealthy. We also know that progressive states fare much better in minimum wage, job opportunities and that these states protect their residents whereas conservative states protect corporations, have more crime, less education, less jobs, less pay and are stuck in time. When will we all grow up, and I mean ALL grow up as one nation? We have had eight years of no progress and a dirty war that devastated this nation helping only war profiteers while thousands of lives were lost in vain. We all know that. Why is it that we keep repeating ourselves like parrots but do nothing about it? In the words of Rep. Kucinich, “Wake up, America. Wake up, America!”
In 2007 my father died. I almost immediately after fell ill myself and was forced to quit my job upon my doctor's orders. Because my husband's job was doing fairly well, I decided to take the doctor's advice and quit. We thought a couple of months would be enough to get better. I have not been able to find another job since. Not only this, but my husband works recruiting student pilots. With the high cost of fuel and the airlines merging and firing so many pilots, the banks stopped loaning to students. When this happened, my husband's salary was cut 50 to 60%, hence our total income was now about 1/3 of what it had been the year before. We went from three figures to barely eating let alone anything else. In the middle of all this, we tried to renegotiate our home loan (our home was bought @ 289k and is now worth less than 140k) While doing this verbally, we agreed on certain terms with the company (a new company had taken over or a change in name?) but when we received the papers, half of the terms we had discussed were missing. When we told them, they insisted we sign anyway, but we didn't because things started to sound fishy. We asked them to include this information but they refused and while discussing this, we were served foreclosure papers from yet another party whom we had never even dealt with nor had heard of them prior to this suit. We have now had to contract an attorney because they do not even own the note to our home and apparently one of the "affidavits" was signed by a person who has been indicted for 11 counts of fraud by a federal grand jury just in recent weeks. WHAT IS GOING ON in this country??? Where is the accountability? Can't one get sick and find another job? Can't one trust a bank anymore? This did NOT happen when I was growing up. Laws were respected. Corporations did not control our lives. We go days without eating sometimes. We went from being middle class people to the verge of foreclosure (or close to it at any time) because things went beyond our control. We can’t control gas prices, we can’t control banks; we can’t control illness or death. When we bought the house, we were told my credit was so great that I could buy a home for 750K, but I was extremely conservative and I actually bought this house at a lower price than what it was going for- and it's just a townhome, not a mansion, not even a house with a white picket fence, just a plain townhome. I got sick, lost my job, couldn't find another; my husband lost almost all his income due to fuel costs and the banks being too greedy, How is this our fault? I can see if we had been careless, but looking back, even if we had saved every penny, we'd still be in dire straits today. And besides, what does one work for? I personally do not work to come home, drink beers and fall asleep. That's the sign of an unhappy society when people drink to forget. I've never done it and neither has my husband, but if you can't even treat yourself to a cheap meal or a drive now and again, then what's the point of living? Just to work and save in case the economy crashes and leaves you helpless? Both our cars broke down at once. One of my cars, AN AMERICAN BIG THREE, had many issues and I had the extended warranty but the company kept telling me they were fixing it and they never did. Every single time, it had the same problem and new ones appearing. This is why no matter how much money they get as bailout or loan, I will never buy a Big Three car again. I may consider Ford only because they have not requested to be bailed out and only if they offer something fuel efficient and environmentally friendly. And that’s IF and when I ever have money again. So now, my husband has to use my car to get to work, therefore I have no transportation and the closest bus to my home is 10 miles away and the closest business is a super market a mile and a half away of a walk, and I am 46. I am stuck at home without a job and without money to buy a car to go to a job, even if I had a job… so it’s a vicious circle. Meanwhile… we are just waiting to see if our attorney can save us in any way, forking out money which we do not have and that we will have to pay in installments, and we are not even sure of the outcome… yet more money taken away from our dinner table. And we had to hire an attorney because we may not be attorneys, but we are not stupid and we know when something doesn’t sound kosher, but in order to fight back crooks, we have to deplete our wallets so someone who does know the law can help us. We have major health care issues and have not been able to go to the doctor or dentist or buy our medicine either. Wow, just wow… Thanks for letting me vent, but we need action and we need it now and we need it to be fair, once and for all. Until America stops allowing greedy corporations and banks to suck the blood of its citizens dry, we will never see a striving economy again. We'll never be the land of opportunity we once were. We'll just be a nation of homeless, needy, uneducated, health-care deprived sick people doomed for depression- a great economic depression- but even worse, a nation of depressed people. I’ve gone from feelings of guilt, to fear, to anxiety, to sleepless nights, to sadness to anger… because we’re not bad people, but we can’t survive like this. We just can’t. You tell me. Is this fair? Is it fair when I hear big execs are getting more and more breaks? Is it fair when I hear that the banks were bailed out yet they’re sitting on the money so there is no flow of cash? That’s called inflation if I remember well. And that’s called greed too. Is it fair when I hear that the Big Three being bailed out, yet GM just fired 2000 employees? I thought the bailout was to prevent this? I thought the whole excuse about giving these corporations money was to save jobs. No, things have to turn around. If all those trillions spent on this war, spent on banks and Wall Street and private corporations were given directly to the people, we’d all see jump start in the economy faster than you can say “bailout”. We know now by heart that nothing trickles down; it only trickles down to the pockets of the wealthy. We also know that progressive states fare much better in minimum wage, job opportunities and that these states protect their residents whereas conservative states protect corporations, have more crime, less education, less jobs, less pay and are stuck in time. When will we all grow up, and I mean ALL grow up as one nation? We have had eight years of no progress and a dirty war that devastated this nation helping only war profiteers while thousands of lives were lost in vain. We all know that. Why is it that we keep repeating ourselves like parrots but do nothing about it? In the words of Rep. Kucinich, “Wake up, America. Wake up, America!”
- Tags:
- economy,
- survival_stories
- Posted in Assignment:
- Surviving a tough economy
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