I started asking myself that question a few hours ago, when a new "poll" was discussed on MSNBC that says 55% of Americans are worse off now than they were before the "recession" and that 45% felt no change in their life as a result of the recession.
Myself my life has improved during the recession, it was in part to the fact that my life had taken a downward spiral since May 2000 when I re-injured myself while on the job at the Postal Service. I was delivering a large box to a law firm, it was not packed properly and when I lifted it the weight shifted and I felt my back pop, and down I went and the box went one way and I went the other. I was able to finish my route but by the end of the day about 4 hours later I could barely move. I went to the doc in the box as soon as I checked everything in to the accountable clerks and turned in my vehicle report and keys.
I was put on bed rest and told to get an MRI done 2 days later at Saint Joe's and they found I had now injured L3, L4, L5 and S1. In Feb 1992 I had a disectomy (sic) on L5/S1, so I had to fill out all the federal workmans comp forms for the on the job injury. The Postal Service decided to take the position that I had not hurt myself on the job but rather I had hurt myself at home playing with my grandson.
The managers that wrote these statements were not aware that my daughter and my grandson had moved to Virginia in Feb 2000, but their statements led the OWCP to deny my medical bills and compensated time off from the Post Office to recover. I was already having cardiac issues and mental health issues and had missed many weeks and in 1997 I had missed 4 months after a triple bypass. By May 2000 I could not mentally deal with the managers at the Post Office any longer and at 1000 hours on May 20, 2000 I told the station manager where he could shove my letter case walked to the time clock and punched off for the last time in my life. This was after 17 years of delivering mail, a stroke and 7 heart attacks, but the stress of these people were killing me, I did not have a plan nor a job, I just needed out of that job then, no matter what the future held I was gone.
I found work at a tire factory (distribution center) that supplied a John Deere factory in Grovetown Ga, from there I went to a call center that had a contract with America Online before they sent all their call centers to Bombay. The closing of the AOL call center and my cardiac condition worsening happened at the same time June 4, 2002. I went to the VA since I no longer had health care insurance ans was "low income". The heart cath showed my ejection fraction was less than 30% and 2 of the bypasses and stents had closed off and not surgically repairable I was put on a medicate only status. No surgery, no transplant etc, just go home and take your meds until you quit breathing.
Luckily due to life's choices I had made back when I was 18 in 1973 and had enlisted in the Army, where I stayed until Sep 1982 it opened up the ability for me to file a claim with the VA for veterans benefits for the medical problems I was dealing with that were considered service connected. The VA determined that I have PTSD and my cardiac conditions were rated as being secondary to my already SC PTSD, which took me to a level of compensation at the SMC S rate which basically means I have one medical condition rated at 100% and one other condition rated at 60% or higher which entitled me to the higher special monthly compensation or the (SMC) level S pay rate. Combined with my SSD checks this put my family into a decent standard of living, comparable to what I had been earning while working at the Postal Service.
So am I an "average" American or a very "lucky" American. I have basically traded my health for a check, not that I had a choice in the matter, I am what I am disabled, by mental health, my cardiovascular system, my back and sciatica. There is no "job" I can realistically do.
Most weeks I never even leave the house,if I do go shopping with my wife it is at 2 or 3 am at Wal Mart or Bi-Lo. I used to dream of traveling when I retired now the 140 mile trip to the VA Medical Center leaves me exhausted and takes days to recover from.
I spend most days watching cable news, writing letters to the editor of the State newspaper. I am active on 2 veterans boards trying to help other veterans deal with the VA Regional Offices on their claims, in my past decade I have learned that most "Service Officers" from the veterans groups are just people sitting in chairs, they seldom really KNOW what the VA regulations are on what the VA is supposed to do to help the veterans. They do not return phone calls, they will not give you an e mail address for contact and usually all they ever contact you for is to try and get you to sign up for a "life membership" most veterans would be better off processing their own claims paperwork, at least then they would have someone that is interested in how their claim is adjudicated.
Most veterans do not understand the claims process they are afraid of the agency due to all of the horror stories they hear about veterans who are denied their benefits or they get low balled and do not get the proper disability percentage, or how to find the records they need to verify that what happened to them did, through military archives, police reports, hospital reports. Sometimes they will have the records they need in their own attic.
I help online with political campaigns, writing for or against candidates, I can not do canvasing, I can;t even deal with their call groups where they want everyone to go to a large room and make calls, I don't do crowds of any kind. I wish it was different but mentally I just can't do it.
I really dislike my current Congressman Joe "you lie" Wilson, I hope that Rob Miller might be able to finally unseat him this election. This is a long shot in South Carolina, especially in Lexington County where Wilson lives about 4 blocks from me. Nikki Haley also lives here in Lexington County, this is about a "red area" that there is in the nation. But the other parts of SC02 are more democratic, and that is where the hope is, down near Charleston, it also helps that Rob Miller is also a veteran, who served in Iraq.
I don't know what average is anymore, I know my family has been in the United States since 1635, and the Bailey men have all served in the Army going back to Valley Forge, my grandfather was born in 1833 and served during the Civil War, my father was born in Feb 1900 and served in the 7th Calvary from 1914-1916. My step father was in the 8th Army Air Corp from 1942-1944 and then served in the Air Force from 1947-1962 when he retired.
Dale married my mother in 1972 after my father died, so I had a military ID card from then, when I enlisted I turned in the orange dependent card for a green active duty card, and now again as a 100% disabled veteran I again have an orange ID card. Being able to use military stores, recreation areas world wide has it's appeal, I don't know I do feel more secure on a military base and it is easier for me to go shopping during the day, (it's a mental thing I know) my son Kevin will graduate from Basic training on Sep 29th then he will be off to AIT where he should stay until March 2011, then who knows where they will assign him.
I think it is abnormal for 4 generations to span 200 years, most families 4 generation cover 100 years, but I am hoping for my sons sake his service turns out like the rest of the Baileys, yes some have been disabled by their service besides myself, but none have died, given all the wars the family has served in that is a good record I think.
I do know I am lucky to be an American, I have been stationed around the world and have always been happy to return to the US, from Korea, from the middle east, even from Germany. They were all interesting but none of them were the USA, this nation has a lot of problems, but it is still the best place to live.
I am fortunate to have the benefits this nation provides to disabled veterans, the programs they provide and the benefits my state of South Carolina provides, reduced taxes, free car tags, free parking, free hunting and fishing licenses (although I don't do these things I could if I wanted to, free) many states do not have the same type of additional benefits. I will even be buried in a national cemetery free about 10 minutes from my home. How much better can it get than that?
I do know this I think the democratic party as a whole is better for veterans and their families than the Republican party has done. The history shows that benefits for disabled veterans have always been far more generous under democratic controlled Congresses than Republican led ones, the republicans tell some great lies about how much they "appreciate" the nations veterans and show up for all of the photo ops but when it comes to the financial part of it, they vote NO far more often than the democratic Congress do, even yesterday the Senate decided to allow the new Agent Orange provisions to become enacted rather than deny them, Senator Webb and others held the implementation up, but at the end of the day Secretary Shinseki and the doctors justified the presumptive conditions, and many more disabled veterans will now receive benefits for medical issues thought to be related to Agent Orange exposure.
I prefer action to photo ops so I will keep voting for democratic candidates I am a disabled American veteran and that is who I am.