Pollgasm: The Economic Meltdown & You

Bob, the vote button doesn’t appear to work. It takes me to the PollDaddy website. I’m sure they are a fine organization, but I really don’t want to create an account there – I just wanted to vote.

Never mind Bob – it’s a problem with the embed code supplied by PollDaddy. Not fully XHTML compliant, so I needed to use compatibility mode. I’ve voted now.

Off topic – but someone needs to share this with Lee:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/01/steele-the-gop-does-not-h_n_162896.htmlYeh. Steele represents change in the GOP.

I saw that Packy, he wants a new contract with America, becuase that worked so well the first time granted, politically it worked for them, but no one else in this country and served to get us where we are right now. But there isn’t anything wrong with tem, it is just their PR an democratic obstructionists, or was the democ”rat”?

Can’t afford bankruptcy.

Let’s see. Lost my job early on. Came thisclose to defaulting on my student loans. Had to move back in with my parents. Started freelancing which was going well until my biggest client, the one who was basically a full time job, informed me that they could no longer pay me and I wouldn’t be getting a final paycheck.

I want CNNnews to see this poll. This puts a whole new label on liberals. If 44% of us are doing OK, than the label,”Free handout liberals” doesn’t hold water. For all of you who are in trouble I am not trying to diminish your suffering. It was just refreshing to see that the people that are the biggest advocates for economic restructuring in the US are the ones that are doing OK.

Hmmm… There’s no option for Male Part of household still working, but hours are down (although this is the usual slow time for the biz he’s in), Female Part disabled but bringing in a pittance from Soc Security and freaking out on a semi-regular basis that we are going the route of many others in this country–worrying that we will be moving in with Jane…

veralynn -I believe that is “contract on America”The ‘Tool’ Steele said “The principles we espoused [in 1994] are still true and good today.”So it’s SSDD from the GOP.Dense as a box of depleted uranium. Voters voted for change, *not* more of the same of what put us in this mess.I’m declaring a contract on the GOP.

absolutely brilliant git!!I was perusing huff po and found this article, note the part about Texas…Not only does NBC not want to show PETA’s ode to chicks erotically frolicking with produce, but they’ve also banned a spot by America’s favorite extra-marital dating website, AshleyMadison.com. Oh, the humanity!But there is some good news for cheaters, the ad will air in Texas. According to Noel Biderman, the site’s CEO, hard economic times have made some local stations willing to accept their tawdry advertising dollars “even in this post-wardrobe malfunction Super Bowl climate.” Miss Jackson, if you’re nasty!–TMZDoesn’t this say everything about bush and co?

The call center put memos on everyone’s desk one morning. They asked us to consider cutting our hours back to part time. Then, as if to punctuate this Monday memo, the janitor and the director systematically pushed a ladder under each bank of overhead fluorescent lights, unscrewed two of every three tubes.Most of us took the hint.BTW, this is a company you’ve heard of and it **thrived** in the Great Depression.

I’m hanging in there, but my daughter got laid off on Friday. One of my sons works part time as a dishwasher after a layoff from a surveying/engineering firm, the other son is doing ok.So yeah, things aren’t as good as they should be.

You didn’t cover all of the possibilities:One of my daughters is graduating from college with an architecture degree at a time when architects are being laid off.Also, I an a Kansas civil servant and the Senate majority leader in Kansas is talking about furloughing state workers starting this summer. Some of us are fine now but see problems in the not too distant future.

I seen things coming a little early

Couldn’t be more timely, I found this article in our local rag about a group called Angel Food Ministries. Checked it out and it seems as if it could be a great benefit to people in need.

Matt, that is closer to my situation. Although the week before I was told part of my job was going to the corporate office in VA, then last week they increased another part of my job. This means I am now the only one doing this particular work for the whole company. I wasnt feeling to safe before they did this. Now, if things so turn around, I should have a job. But they cut our hours about 3 months ago, so my pay has been cut harshly. I still haven’t adjusted and have ended up having to charge things I wouldn’t have had to, so that sucks.But I keep telling myself, “you have an income”, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I keep threatening to move back in with my parents! Who needs a house anyway?

We are okay, but we lost careers under the Reagan economic fiasco so changed our lives then to be able to make it through bad times.Our income is down and has been directly hit by Bush’s domestic policies of the past several years.Will this country every learn that Republicans are awful for the economy and for jobs?

I clicked on the “I’m fine” option but I don’t really feel like it…we have a mortgage, student loans, preschool to pay for, clothes for two small, growing children, and old cars and an old house that are expensive to keep up. Despite being employed, we are a couple of hundred dollars short every month and the savings is dwindling…there isn’t really any more fat to cut from our budget…we had a $1,200 car repair this month that literally sent me into a hyperventilating panic…

I put that I’m OK, but that’s a qualified answer. I have at least 8 friends who have lost jobs since about November. And, in addition to the economy generally, those in L.A. in the film/TV business are also being effected by the shadow of a possible strike from the Screen Actors’ Guild.With all that said, I may be needing a job soon as well. I’m glad that I’ve been saving what I had previously called “F You Money” (as in, “I hate this gig! F You!”) but which I now think of as my _Lifeline_ money.

Well, I’m fine, I guess, because I’ve always been poor, but there’s even less disposable income to go around now, so there’ll be even less people buying my paintings. On the plus side, my local supermarket is doing a 2 for 1 on Jack Daniels.

I’m fine for the moment, but there is a very real possibility that I could be laid off in the coming months. Not sure what category that puts me it.

59% are just fine…..I’m glad. However, a month ago I woulda said that too and today I have to say Lost My Job. Good luck to everyone.

I’m doing fine for now but future may be not so fine. Retired for health reasons mid 2008. Haven’t had health insurance for years since self employment wages just didn’t cover it. We have county health care here based on income so that has been a life saver, not crazy about the sometimes 8 hour wait to be seen by a doc but it sure beats the alternative. My son who generously helps make ends meet got laid off early January but got hired at half his old salary by a vendor of his old company. Both his 401K and my IRA are about half what they were. Actually I haven’t opened my statement in months as I don’t need any more depressing news.

I put that I’m doing OK because I am able to live on my pension right now. However, I had about $25K of medical bills–not covered by insurance–over the last 2 years. I was depending on my retirement investments to take care of me as my health declines, but of course they have taken a nosedive. So, I guess I’m better off than a huge number of folks out there, but I might not have time to recoup my losses before my kids put me in a home.

I do not fit in any category…maybe fine, but that’s not accurate. I really loved my job, but February 2006, my doctor told me I could no longer work. I had back surgery that did not give me the relief I needed; in fact, worse. So, I filed for SS disability, pulled what little I had in my 401k and pension plans to pay bills. Still wearing pain patches, I had to pay $396 monthly Cobra payments. My short term disability ran out after 4 months and long term disability disapproved my claim. I lost my rental home, well, everything. I have a brother who happened to have a house he was remodeling that I was able to move into. I had a bed and lived out of boxes. After running out of money, my family started helping me pay the Cobra premiums. I could not file for unemployment; I was not employable. I was allowed to have $152 in food stamps and a $500 one time payment for utilities…that was it. Finally, 17 months later my claim for SSDI was approved. Oh, but not Medicare; because of a timeline, I did not receive Medicare for 29 months. So, I went without insurance for maybe 10 months. I had now relocated and trying to survive. But there is more to the story…I became disabled in 1984 and after 14 years on SSDI, I went back to work. I was so proud to be able to work again. Yet, when my employer changed my duties, I started having trouble and I told my employer I was disabled and requested an ergonomics evaluation. My employer did not provide one and, thus, I had to have the surgery to keep working. I filed a lawsuit by myself; lost, of course. I suffer with continuous pain; no pain medication now though, just Tylenol, because pain medication only helps me for about 2 weeks, after that it is like taking placebos…but don’t stick a fork in me, I am not done yet.

Given the choices, my situation coutns as “fine,” and since I haven’t had health insurance for five years, that doesn’t count as recession-related but only my fault for living in America vs. any other industrialized country in the world, but it feels very “not fine” to know my rent is covered for February and probably March, but after that, things have to improve or I’m toast.

When people’s retirement funds started drying up and banks wouldn’t loan on second mortgages, my little contractor business started shrinking. I’m fine for now because I fled our fucked up country and went to China where I can afford to live on what I have squirreled away and the money I make teaching English.