Thing is we have ourselves a domino effect going on and if you “fix” one thing, something else is going to go. I mean so far we have what…people losing jobs and their homes. Losing a home is ruining credit. If they get a job they still are going to have a foreclosure on the books for ten or more years making it so they cannot get credit to get a new home and in some cases they won’t be able to rent either.
And in even more cases, have a mark on your credit and you can’t get a job at certain places. This is a nasty effect. For example let’s say we have two college educated career people in a home, they are a bit overextended on credit (because this is apparently the American dream…to have everything on a payment plan). Then one loses their job. No problem, they can make it on one job in the family for a while…until that 26 weeks of unemployment runs out then the other one also gets downsized. Eventually because of the market neither have a job and they cannot make their payments. Soon everything is gone, credit ruined and they are living in a cheap apartment off of their savings wondering wtf they are going to do. Imagine then…they go to get a job and their disqualifying factor is that they have a foreclosure on their credit. Huh. Now they are highly unemployable. And this is happening by the hundreds if not thousands. So even if someone creates more jobs who is to say people are going to “qualify”.
Meanwhile you have other situations like happened to a family I have known for years. This couple has two children. They aren’t the brightest crayons in the box, but they are very honest very hard working people. He got laid off last year and has not been able to find another job in the area since.
They just got foreclosed on by Citibank, whom they have been trying to contact and work with for six months because they knew that soon they wouldn’t be able to make their mortgage payment which carried a huge 11% interest rate because they were high risk. One of their jobs for the entire month…an entire month’s salary went to make the mortgage payment.
Here’s the one thing that really bothers me. His wife works for McDonald’s. She used to work 36 hours per week, she has worked there for 6 years. McDonald’s started this “wonderful” campaign to teach teens the value of money and a career so they hired about 15 high school students and cut her hours down to 10 per week.
This woman has two children, her husband got downsized and she gets to watch 16 year olds take her job because McDonald’s gets tax breaks and accolades for having some sort of junior mentor program. What is wrong with this picture?
So yay… yay to mcdonalds in creating “new jobs” so their loyal employees get reduced hours and get the chance to lose their home! Did I mention that the county these people live in has absolutely no program or help for the homeless? Do you want to know what the county social services told them when they went to file for benefits and let them know they were homeless? “You should move to X county, they help the homeless there.” Fantastic, isn’t it?
