Who Says There's No Recession

[lizbud]

A sad & scary story for many people. There's a lot of people just one
paycheck away from homelessness.:( At least this lady has her two Goldens
to keep her company.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/19/homeless.mom/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

[jackie]

OK, out of those women living in the car park, they cannot find a three bedroom apartment between them to rent?

I understand there is a crisis, but there must be alternatives to sleeping in the car.

[Laura's Babies]

The people on social security are the next homeless.. Baby boomers.. People on fixed incomes that are just hanging on by a thread already.. It is only going to get worse.

The profit big oil is making is part of the problem.. Hasn't it been twice they have been called to Washington to explaine their enormous profits they are making? Big oil-Big profit-Big problems for the rest of us!

[Karen]

OK, out of those women living in the car park, they cannot find a three bedroom apartment between them to rent?

I understand there is a crisis, but there must be alternatives to sleeping in the car.

Probably not in Santa Barbara - it is not exactly known for affordable rents. But that is where her part-time job is, so ...

It is sad, but at least she and the dogs are getting to stay together, and it is a safe place for them to sleep at night, rather than trying to find a new place every night ...

[carole]

Yep it sure is scarey, it is the same down under, everything has gone up , the petrol is about 2.00 a litre and then of course your food goes up,etc etc,you wonder how much longer it can go on, i really feel for those on benefits etc, it must be extremely difficult just to feed the family without anything else, we have a budget coming up in June, and the government is talking tax cuts, so that should be a little helpful for us,but does not help those on even lower incomes., I know what it is like to be on the lower end of things and we are still not on a high income, but i would hate to be where i was before right now.

[Freedom]

I like that she kept her 2 dogs, and other woman has her 4 cats. So many of the pets end up in shelters or just dumped out on the street.

Who says there is no recession? Only one I know is "W"

[momoffuzzyfaces]

The people on social security are the next homeless.. Baby boomers.. People on fixed incomes that are just hanging on by a thread already.. It is only going to get worse.



I would have been homeless in 2006 if it wasn't for my sweet brother. When the house I was renting had to be condemed, I had no where to go or any money. To rent another place I would have needed at least three months rent plus a deposit. No way on disability, I could come up with that. Plus, I couldn't find a place that would let me keep my cats. It was the most frightening time of my life!!!

I've known we've been in a recession for a long time. The higer ups never think there is one until it starts to effect them. The rest of us, have been in one for a long time. :(

We are in a sinking ship. Our Social Security may go up 1 and a half % a year, if we are lucky. Food alone has gone up about 40%.

[lizbud]

Yep it sure is scarey, it is the same down under, everything has gone up , the petrol is about 2.00 a litre and then of course your food goes up,etc etc,you wonder how much longer it can go on, i really feel for those on benefits etc, it must be extremely difficult just to feed the family without anything else, we have a budget coming up in June, and the government is talking tax cuts, so that should be a little helpful for us,but does not help those on even lower incomes., I know what it is like to be on the lower end of things and we are still not on a high income, but i would hate to be where i was before right now.

I'm glad you posted here Carole. I've wondered if this was the same in other countries. I know everything from food,Rxs( me & the furry kids)and gas
for the car, has gone up & up & my fixed income stays the same.:rolleyes:

Local State taxs never go down, they only go up.:(

[lizbud]

OK, out of those women living in the car park, they cannot find a three bedroom apartment between them to rent?

I understand there is a crisis, but there must be alternatives to sleeping in the car.

That does seem very practical, but I don't know how good that might be.
Wouldn't you hate to be forced to pick a stranger to be a housemate?

[Medusa]

That does seem very practical, but I don't know how good that might be.
Wouldn't you hate to be forced to pick a stranger to be a housemate?


I think that probably after having spent night after night in the parking lot, they probably get to know each other. Three or four women could join forces and combine incomes and get a place together, perhaps not in Santa Barbara but it's what I would do. It's certainly preferable to a 67 year old woman sleeping in her car w/two huge dogs. It's such an awful indictment of the U.S. and how our govt. promises to take care of its own but, in reality, it turns a blind eye to people like the ones on this video. It's so sad and scary. It could happen to any one of us. One spell of ill health and/or unemployment and we could be in that very predicament.

[Lady's Human]

Regardless of what the economy is doing, on any given day in any given city or town in the US you can find similar stories. Is it right? not neccesarily (I know of cases where people have frustrated everyone who has tried to help them, abused the help, and wound up on the street, hence the not neccesarily). I know of several similar cases personally from the "booming" economy of the '90s. They just didn't make CNN.

It's funny how they only seem to trot these stories out into the headlines when there's an election going on.

[RICHARD]

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_9316198

============

The people who have caused the housing collapse are the same ones working in the industry.

I have a long and pompous rant about some of the shenanigans that went on.

I'll start another thread.:mad:

[Medusa]

[QUOTE=Lady's Human;2014808]Regardless of what the economy is doing, on any given day in any given city or town in the US you can find similar stories. Is it right? not neccesarily (I know of cases where people have frustrated everyone who has tried to help them, abused the help, and wound up on the street, hence the not neccesarily). I know of several similar cases personally from the "booming" economy of the '90s. They just didn't make CNN.QUOTE]

True, but this woman is 67 years old and she is still working. I do believe that there are people who slip through the cracks, regardless of the ones who refuse or abuse all help. I know how it feels to be a breath away from homeless and I was working two jobs at the time, so I'm sure that there are others who, through no fault of their own, find themselves in a similar situation. Yes, "you will always have the poor w/you" but that doesn't make it right. Not all, but some people are indeed worthy of compassion and our help.

[Lady's Human]

My point, very simply, is this. Stories like this happen all the time, and are not proof of a recession.

[Medusa]

My point, very simply, is this. Stories like this happen all the time, and are not proof of a recession.

Agreed.

[lizbud]

My point, very simply, is this. Stories like this happen all the time, and are not proof of a recession.


I disagree. It happens in much greater numbers than it ever has before.

I can't remember another time when prices on EVERYTHING has risen in
record numbers & personal income has stagnated or stopped altogether,
by layoffs or plant shutdowns. All these things plus the mortgage mess,
has led to this. Calling it a economic slowdown if it makes you feel better
but it sounds like full fledged recession to me.

[Medusa]

Calling it a economic slowdown if it makes you feel better but it sounds like full fledged recession to me.

I can't speak for others but I'm not disagreeing that we're in a recession. I am, however, agreeing that situations such as the one on the posted video, have existed regardless of the economic conditions.

[Lady's Human]

I can't remember another time when prices on EVERYTHING has risen in
record numbers & personal income has stagnated or stopped altogether,
by layoffs or plant shutdowns.

Try the late '70s to early 80s? That was made worse by a prime interest rate in the teens, combined with unemployment near 10%, as opposed to a prime rate now around 5% and unemployment around 4%.

Here's a graph of unemployment data:

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/j/jensena/sfp/us/US-UR-50.htm

inflation data:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:US_Historical_Inflation.svg

and Prime interest rate data:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/PRIME.txt
(look at the prime rate for 1978-1982 and figure what your prime+10% charge account would be at those rates)

[Catlady711]

Try the late '70s to early 80s? That was made worse by a prime interest rate in the teens, combined with unemployment near 10%, as opposed to a prime rate now around 5% and unemployment around 4%.

Here's a graph of unemployment data:

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/j/jensena/sfp/us/US-UR-50.htm

inflation data:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:US_Historical_Inflation.svg

and Prime interest rate data:

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/data/PRIME.txt
(look at the prime rate for 1978-1982 and figure what your prime+10% charge account would be at those rates)

I was just thinking of the 70's, the lines at the pump, out of gas signs, and heck even lines twice as long for a single ad saying now hiring. Only good side of it was the money I had in a CD earning a whopping 12% interest!! Sheesh I should be grateful for my one earning 5% because the rest are about 2-3% and going down.

[Giselle]

Well, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel.

It's the business cycle. After a recession, there (should/hopefully) will be economic prosperity. Should be... That's humanity, isn't it? Out of our mistakes and folly come knowledge and solutions. Or at least that's how it SHOULD be :p

[Karen]

Well, there's always a light at the end of the tunnel.

It's the business cycle. After a recession, there (should/hopefully) will be economic prosperity. Should be... That's humanity, isn't it? Out of our mistakes and folly come knowledge and solutions. Or at least that's how it SHOULD be :p

Yes, but here's hoping it comes sooner, rather than later. This country has been through a Great Depression before, I'd rather not have it happen again.

[RICHARD]

SB is so expensive to live in the cops and firemen cannot afford homes in the area.

The housing market and the crooked people who work in it are the reason that there are so many problems.

I don't know squat about titles, mortgages and such, but I do know that the people in the business are ruthless and thieves.

One story I heard was of a woman who bilked a title company out of 1.5 mil and is in Europe at the moment. When we closed out title/mortgage offices, employees still with the company would come in a take piles of folders home.
They would finish the transactions and pocket the commissions, all under the pretense of working for the company.

I can't even start to tell the stories of people bilking (STEALING) from the company. I had to clear out a desk of one of the officers at a satellite office.

He had the pads that servers used in a restaurant. The 'guest check' part of the tickets were missing on three different books in the drawer.

I thought about it for a minute and came to the conclusion that he would tear the GC off, fill it out and turn it in with an expense report.

-----------------

The reason that people are losing their homes?

THey fell for the loan scam. Down payment and 500 dollar monthly installments....after some time the rates and payments go up- some times double- and people get caught.


One of my brother's friends went from a 600 dollar house payment to over 1300 bucks because he didn't so the homework.
-----------------

Some people want to play the "look at me" game. They climb the ladder and when it becomes unsteady, they forget that they are at the top rung.

Those same people took the extra money, went high hog on cars, furniture and clothes....now they risk losing it all.

----------------

I like the idea that GWB, the oil companies and everyone else it to blame for our stupidity.

Back in the '70s we had a chance to really tune our transportation situation in- better cars, more gas mileage and better emissions.

What did we do? Invent the Armada, Hummer and Yukon.

We have done it to ourselves, get over it and let's work on the problems we have now, instead of blaming one idiot that can't get a law passed to get oil out of the ground in Alaska.


We won't let him.:rolleyes:

[Giselle]

Back in the '70s we had a chance to really tune our transportation situation in- better cars, more gas mileage and better emissions.

What did we do? Invent the Armada, Hummer and Yukon.

Ah, such is the plight of humanity.

We never learn. We have zero foresight. Even when we are granted hindsight, we still don't learn from our mistakes.

Not to mention that "green" has been misshapen into a consumer gimmick. Eco-friendly ethanol? Psch. Green my butt. That eco-friendly ethanol increasingly comes from burnt Amazonian rainforests and crops that would originally have been used for food. Thus, gas stays inflated. Food is in shortage. The rainforest continues to die (thus, increasing the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere). And what is solved? Nothing.

It's time for a change. We need new leaders and legislation. JMO. Hopefully, this recession will the catalyst of a renaissance of sorts...

[moosmom]

Lizbud,

I saw it on the news today and realized that I WAS that close to living in my car with my cats. People say "it'll never happen to me". Never say never.

What I don't understand is that the woman's "friends" allow her to shower at their homes. Why not take the poor woman and her dogs in???? If one of MY friends was threatened with homelessness, you can bet your sweet patootie they'd have a place with me for as long as it takes.

[Medusa]

What I don't understand is that the woman's "friends" allow her to shower at their homes. Why not take the poor woman and her dogs in???? If one of MY friends was threatened with homelessness, you can bet your sweet patootie they'd have a place with me for as long as it takes.

I had the same thought, Donna, but currently I've been watching a situation unfold w/a friend of mine. Her friend and husband recently moved from OH to NY and, almost as soon as they arrived in NY, he was w/out a job. Her friend called crying, asking if they could stay w/her for a couple of months until they got back on their feet. My friend said 'yes', that was in late Dec. and they're still there. The woman is working, the husband isn't and they've paid her only $400 in 5 months. So now my friend realizes that, if she charges them rent, they won't be able to save money to move out but she can't continue to support them. She's painted herself into a corner. Another friend of mine was laid off at work, lost her apartment and, fortunately, had a friend that said she could move in w/her until she found another job. She thought that she'd be there for only a couple of months. She was there for a year and a half. I know I must sound unsympathetic and cold hearted and I don't mean to because, if I found myself in such a situation, I surely would hope that one of my friends would help me out but, w/7 cats, it isn't too likely. We just never know what the extenuating cirumstances are w/someone and there could be a very good reason why her friends haven't taken her in. I do know, however, that I would struggle w/watching a friend of mine sleep in her car w/her dogs every night, that's for sure. It's just so sad.