If you read Barbara Ehrenreich's Nickel and Dimed, you get a very clear picture of what's happening nowadays. When I was a kid, there were a lot of families in which one income could support a family, even if that income came from a factory worker. No more of that in the USA.
One of my wife's friends told her she'd started a new business, and visited us a few months ago. I was loath to sit and listen, as I thought it was an Amway rep. It turned out to be some financial services thing, Ameri-something, that was affiliated somehow with Citibank.
The guy accompanying my wife's friend started his presentation by asking me the amount of my debt. He was amazed when I told him I had none aside from a mortgage and a car loan, and questioned me a lot to find the credit-card debt he simply took for granted every American had.
He was also very surprised to hear I carried life insurance, assuming I'd never heard of such a thing before. But it appears to have been a universal assumption that Americans carried large debt with multiple credit cards and didn't bother with life insurance.
The guy and my wife's friend left, as I thankfully had no debts for them to consolidate. But the truth is that it's hard to keep up.
There's a great film called "Maxed Out" about the dangers of credit card debt as well as the predatory nature of their issuers. College kids are a prime target, and you'd better talk seriously to your kids before sending them.
A recent bill signed by President Bush (that had been vetoed by President Clinton) pretty much assured that death would be the only relief from Visa and Master Card for most Americans. The bill was written by a huge credit card company.
The whole "more work for less pay" phenomenon has infected our country like a plague, and really has me worried about my child's future.
Awesome post, RBE.
Great overview of the current state of the average American's economic conditions.
Maybe I'm too cynical, but every time Wal-Mart shows up at our school with some kind of check for us--usually about $1000 per year from the largest supercenter in the state--I always want to scream "IF you really want to do something to help the kids in this school, give their parents health insurance, give them a raise, give them flexible hours of their choosing.' Instead, we get to be grateful for a few crumbs.
And, no, it's not just Wal-Mart, but they are the only ones with the gall to tell us with a straight face how good they are for our community.
Great post! This new situation is going to make Great Depression seem like happier times.
It will get worse as banks start to unfold the Enron-style credit derivatives.
Very important topic, and great post.
Another aspect of this economic mess is the "career" hoax. Remember when you could go look for a job? There don't seem to be jobs any more; they're all "careers." Not only are they "careers," but they're specifically "careers" AT specific companies. In other words, "career" here has less to do with your field of interest than with your "brand."
I suspect this word change is meant to trick people into thinking their jobs are more promising than they actually are. People will spend more money to train for a "career" than for a job (hence the proliferation of schools like Interboro), and will then spend extra hours and weekends at the "career," believing it'll pay off eventually, since it is, after all, a "career." Then, when the layoffs come, everyone feigns great surprise and distress. Well, some are genuinely surprised, but shouldn't we know better by now?
I have seen people laid off of jobs after 25 years of dedicated service, with no warning. "Pack up your things and turn in your ID by noon; your email account has already been cancelled and your passwords deleted. If you're in the building past noon, we'll have you removed by security."
When I see a job, I call it a job.
Thank God for the public sector, one last bastion of something resembling a fair work world...
...unless it's the NYC Board of Education 
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