in the 80's, this was my time to get in all my good working years and prepare for my retirement.  Of course I was not thinking that much of retirement back in the 80's, I was merely a little over 30 but did want a good living wage.  I had so many opportunities to try and pull those bootstrips up when companies started shutting down left and right.  (snark)  The problem was, they usually gave me no warning of lay off or flat out went belly up. I remember I changed jobs so many times in the 80's I didn't even bother to get to know my co workers.  What was the point?  We would all be going our separate ways soon enough.

I had a husband who decided to do the trucking thing and it really didn't matter if his job went belly up or not, he was away and I was at home trying to bring in the bread and butter because he was riding and not really caring if he made any money.  He was the kind of trucker that spent it on the road anyway.  I remember we bought a mobile home that had been repossessed and it was fairly new.  One of my many jobs was working next door to a mortgage company that had the title on that 14 x 70.  Finally, we owned something....(for awhile), I  already had survived cancer and lost my job over that and insurance going up and I guess I should be happy they paid the hospital bill but they laid me off upon return to work.

Now let me return back to the new purchase of the Mobile Home.  I was beginning to think, well maybe Reagan is turning things around and I will get to hold this new job I have at a Realty company and with the purchase of the home, I feel sure things will be good.  Well, I had just left the job of Corporate office manager that paid  800.00 a month because they shut the headquarters down and unless I wanted to move to San Diego, I had to take my walking papers.  (They were not paying for the move).  The Realty job I landed looked promising.

I now had a home in a nice mobile home community and just purchased 1 acre of land to move the home on.  Big dreams during those Reagan years.  Eventually, we could build a home on that land.
Everything look pretty good, I even saw Reagan in a motorcade while driving in my non airconditioned vehicle and he was waving at the backed up traffic on I-285 heading into Atlanta.  He had been at Dobbins AFB.  I remember leaning up against my car and not smiling but very aggravated that we were having a parade while I was anxious to get home from work.

I had been in that MH for a year and about to make that move to the land.  I found a Mover to move the Home and of course it was reasonable or I could not do it.   I had to take the day off from work because my husband (x husband now) was not there.  I of course watched the approved mobile home mover head up the road and I watched him plow into a huge tree and demolish my home.  I found out mobile homes are not covered under HO Insurance while in transist.  I noticed he never stopped except to back up and then dumped the trailer on the property.  He then tells me he has no insurance.  WOW !
Last I saw of him.  Seems the Mobile Home Dealership I picked out had contracted that job out and they were going out of business anyway..so sorry.

It wasn't long before the septic tank contractor also ran off with my 600 because he was facing hard times and did not finish the job.  Of course the day I went to work after the crash, there was a padlock on the door of the Realty company I worked saying OUT OF BUSINESS.  I felt bad and mad and at this point the only thing I had was my last paycheck which I am glad I had deposited.  Of course it bounced and so did every check I had out.  I had to go to the bank and sign a promissory note in which they would try and find the people who wrote me the bogus check.  They never tried because I ended up declaring bankruptcy on that promissory note some years later.  I also had to call up the Mortgage company and people who owned the land because the county had come out there and demanded the home get fixed complete with water, sewage , etc.   I told the property people the land was about to be condemed...I wanted to sign it back to them.  My husband was in the hospital for pneumonia and I threw up my hands.  I rented a small run down trailer, pulled my furniture out and walked away.  I had had it.

Next stop.....Another job...and on it went.
Slave wages and then shut downs. Time after time after time in the 80's.  It was about this time I decided that politics was having a direct impact on my life.  Contracts with no oversights....Banks with no compassion, and people biting the working poor for a dollar and screwing them at every point.  Yeah, that Reagan sure had a handle on the economy !!!!!  I could not stand that man !  By the time the 1st Bush took over I had fled to Florida and have no clue how many cars got repossessed, how many eviction notices I faced because I was a week or so late and how many jobs I had.

I had a decent job when election time came around in the 90's and was in property management and by now, divorced and married to my present husband.  We could not get a disability from the Bush administration's VA.  I saw cut backs again and started getting nervous again.  I voted this time and I voted for Bill Clinton.  Our life changed 180 degrees.  EVERYTHING CHANGED.  There was no more working for extreme slave labor.  The VA was doing inspections and claims were getting processed.  If you ever say you are a Reagan democrat, I gotta tell you, you must have been one of those folks who were bamboozled in a scam that crook laid on to the American people and with the exception of the Clinton years has snowballed into what we are facing now.  

I got my social security earnings statement and it is pitiful.  If they raise the social security age to 67, I wll only get about 400.00 a month.  Wonder how far that will  take me?  Did the trickle down work for you?
I have no retirement either.  Thanks Mr. Reagan and Republicans.  You did a swell job at screwing the working poor.
Well after 8 years of Bush II, 4 years of Bush I and 8 years of Reagan, I did not get the opportunity to have a great secure job and a retirement to fall back on.  Who are these people who keep voting republican?