"I know the depression's depressing..."
A New Deal for Christmas, Annie
The cheese paring is getting me down. After buying a house, having a kid, going to grad school, then having another kid, we've been broke for years. We're always paying bills the day they're due (or begging for extensions), scrabbling for quarters for lunch money, and handing out blankets to our shivering guests. I look at my house with the collapsing fence, the leaking roof, the chipped linoleum, and I wonder if other moms worry about sending their kids over here. We drive people in our old, backfiring car (or our ancient van that requires a hand start), and I wince at their expressions. At night, we lie awake wondering: if we miss a payment tomorrow, will our whole house of cards come crashing down? So far, we've been making it...
On the surface, we're OK. New media professionals, busy, hardworking. We live in an nice neighborhood, and own a spacious property with two houses, one of which is our office/ studios. We own three vehicles, and our children lack for nothing. Compared to many people in the world, I know I am unbelievably rich. But being broke for so many years, and having such staggering debt has made me deeply aware of how close the divide is.
I look around at my friends and neighbors and here is what I see:
*half my girl scout troop isn't going to camp, because the parents couldn't afford the $25 fee
*a third of my daughter's class couldn't participate in the spring performance because they couldn't afford the $20 costumes
*two of my friends, both white-collar, two income families, are downsizing their houses & selling vehicles (and they were modest to start with)
*my neighbor mentioned she overborrowed to pay for landscaping and may have to sell her house now
*I know two other families, where the parents were disabled in the workplace/ laid off because of outsourcing, and have are piecing together the most marginal of existences (selling jewelry on the street corner) to take care of their children, and are still suffering. Said one mom, "all I want is to be able to go into the store and buy what my child needs."
*several friends and neighbor families who live more marginally (artists, service industry, blue collar) are taking on roommates, moving in with parents/ grandparents, going into default, and selling plasma
I do believe this is the suburban poverty we saw in the recent report from the Brookings Institute. So it's not just that I'm a fuckup. Great, I feel all warm and fuzzy knowing I'm not alone. But what's going to happen to all of us?
Here's what other Kossaks have to say today....
Be afraid: the Peak Oil News Isn't Good
I just got laid off....
I am haunted by a forum in Harpers I read a few years ago about the coming economic bust, and one of the economists talked about the collapse in Argentina, where you had suburban housewives rummaging in dumpsters. That's where I see this all going, I guess, and it makes me so fucking mad, because all I want REALLY is to pass on to my kids at least as much as I had, like dance lessons and camping trips, and instead...??
I was describing May Day to my daughter the other day & she asked if we were going to a May Day celebration. I said no, workers just aren't as valued here as in some other places. Would that it were so.