Posted on 11/15/2010 7:10:08 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Anne, 45, has always considered herself middle-class: As a single mom earning $65,000 a year in ad sales, she was able to rent a one-bedroom apartment on the Upper East Side for $1,000 a month and send her daughter, now 12, to private school. “I was able to make it,” she says. “Even go on vacation sometimes.”
In the span of 15 months, she has come to define herself as poor — even if the government won’t, denying her multiple applications for welfare and food stamps because, she says, she once made “too much money.”
Upon losing her job in June 2009 — her company was going under — “I was plunged into immediate poverty,” she says. “It was a surprise attack.”
Anne has borrowed money from her sister and her retired parents — who are struggling themselves — to pay the rent; she applied for a Section 8 and was able to slash it in half, to $500 a month. She depleted her 401(k). She had no savings, was living paycheck-to-paycheck. But she still felt economically safe, given her location and her tax bracket and her white-collar job.
“Now, when I go to the grocery store, I have to decide what is absolutely essential for my child,” Anne says. “Sometimes, I’m eating whatever-in-a-can. A lot of the time, I’m literally walking around without a penny in my pocket.” She deliberates before taking her daughter on a day trip downtown, because a round-trip subway fare will cost $9. She negotiated a tuition break with her daughter’s school, and the ease of that leads her to believe she’s not the only parent who’s asked, which she does not find especially comforting.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I guess I could have said half of people make more than the median, but then again I was replying to Pessimist.
Be skeptical of any article that quotes Barbara Ehrenreigh
Remember that giant sucking sound that Ross Perot talked about. That’s where all the jobs went.
well the title is partly true... the jobs certainly wont be coming back while the zero is president.
Joke, I’m sure. And funny.
We have on starting college in January and the second will be starting in less than 2 years.
Both the kids will do their first two years at a community college. Hubby and I plan on selling the house. (we’ll break even on the sale - won’t get back a dime we’ve put into it, but we’re counting ourselves lucky if we even manage to sell it) We then plan on renting two very cheap two bedroom apartments - one for us and one for the kids. That’ll save us about $700 a month in mortgage and utilities. (Two separate apartments will give us the ability to position them closer to school and hubby closer to work to save more on gas.) The kids will have to work part time to afford car insurance, gas, clothing and food. My husband is also giving his GI Bill to our son.
After all that, we’ll greatly reduce the student loans both of our kids end up with. We’ve made a deal with the kids that we’ll pay back 100% of whatever they rack up for the first two years (once they get their associates) and 50% of their bachelors degrees (if they graduate).
What’s amazing to me is how easily we all slipped into survival mode - how easily we’re able to give up our land and our dreams. Nobody is upset or complaining. My husband and I aren’t resentful or heartbroken over loosing the equity in our home. We’re all just happy to have a way to work through this and know that there are many who are worse off than we are. At least we have options.
"I support local supermarkets rather than Wally World and I'm really starting to wonder what type of damage NAFTA is causing."
"Lots. So is sending manufacturing jobs to China."
What is really scare is look at where some of the food in Wally World comes from. I am not talking about farm raised salmon from Chile. I saw frozen Tilapia farm-raised from China. Who knows what the mercury levels are in those ponds?
I have no doubt we are getting close to the point where any food which can be frozen or processed will be available from China. How hard would it be to have chicken nuggets, frozen pizzas, and frozen lasagna shipped in from factories in China, with ingredients from farms in China.
I found the ultimate import. Located in a New Orleans food market freezer .... Frozen crawfish from China.
Are they union markets?
Joke, I’m sure. And funny.
That's just wrong.
...another reason why it’s wise to shop the periphery of the supermarket.
It’s cheaper, too.
At Wally World, the Tilapia on periphery, with the other "fresh fish", had in small print "Previously Frozen". I wonder where it came from.
Seafood is one of the “exceptions.”
There are really three classifications:
(1) Wild caught, processed in someplace not named China.
(2) Wild caught, processed in China, shipped here frozen.
(3) Farmed in China, processed in China, shipped here frozen.
Of these three, I only consider item #1 fit for human consumption.
We have a son starting college in three years, we plan on doing the same thing you are. Selling the house, land everything and breaking even. Sucks. At least we are not under water.....To tell you the truth, in some ways, I am looking forward to the simple(poor) life. I am not selling my golf clubs, there are limits.
I have the same thing where I am. Numerous chain stores all within a short drive. My guess is that with the disappearance of a good portion of manufacturing something had to replace it. That something became consumption which needs commercial real estate. Thats the only thing thats been propping up this economy for the last 15 years.
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