Monday, December 21, 2009

Desperation Is Setting In...

While you're reading this, think about all of the billions in taxpayer funding that Obama/Geithner/Bernanke have handed over to the banks to keep them from collapsing and to make sure the employees get paid record bonuses this year. 

Serious poverty is spilling into the middle class. 

My significant other - who teaches high school in a  lower-middle income area - and her sister - who teaches 1st grade at an upper-middle income elementary school - are both seeing the severe strains of poverty in the faces and body language of many of their students.  Last Friday, a mother of three elementary school students showed up at the school begging for help, as she had just fed her kids the last can of green beans in the cupboard.  The mother had finally capitulated after losing her job and had been too proud with the false-hope of finding a new job to apply for welfare.  The man she had voted for to be President had failed her.  And now she was desperate for any kind of help to keep her family alive, while she watched Obama hand out multi-billion dollar Christmas gifts to the big bankers who purportedly were doing "God's work," yet  who in reality provide no value to our system and who function as giant leeches sucking the last of the life-blood from the economy before the final collapse.

Christmas was not going to be celebrated by that family.   Luckily, the school helped the woman get set up with a welfare application and my sig-other's sister took her Christmas tree over to the family.  We all chipped in and purchased clothing and some Christmas gifts for the mother to give to her children this Friday. There are several other families who are facing the same abyss just at this one elementary school.  If it's this bad in Denver, I can only imagine how apocalyptic life must be for the millions struggling in other big cities with much worse economies. 

With the disasterous fiscal and financial policies that have been implemented by our Government over the past couple of decades, eventually the system was bound to collapse.  What really makes my blood boil is the fact that Obama, contrary to the platform on which he was elected, has decided to redistribute the wealth, even more than his immediate predecessor, from the middle class taxpayers to the officers and employees of Wall Street's biggest banks (and to Big Pharma and the defense industry).  Obama's blatant disregard for the campaign promises that got him elected is not quite as stunning as is the way in which he has prostrated himself before the Wall Street thieves who paid for his election.

I hope everyone pauses for a moment this holiday season to reflect on the growing millions who will be without joy and festivity over the next 10 days.  And while you're doing that, think about Obama and Lloyd Blankfein and Jamie Dimon stuffing their faces with a feast fit for kings - bought and paid for with your sweat and labor.

"They're buying us with our own money" - Cormac McCarthy, "No Country For Old Men"

6 comments:

  1. Dave,
    wow, thanks for that story. That is a tough situation to face anytime but at Christmas even more so. It was very giving to help the family the way you all did.

    I remember one Christmas my dad had been laid off from the railroad for about 2 months and we kids (4 of us) got IOU's for tax rebate season (March) for 1 present on the tree!

    I do not think Obama was elected under false pretenses, he is doing exactly what he said he would. Econmics wise zero change we can believe in from the previous admin.

    Newest angle to make you puke:
    The buying of healthcare votes and we are not talking small numbers:
    http://tinyurl.com/ya7h555
    300 million a pop! Unreal.

    PS,
    I linked to a story about Georgia making gold/silver coinage acceptabel at prices that diverge from their face value. Weird.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Back at ya on your site about that Georgia Bill.

    Re the pay-for-support pork-loaded amendments article you linked: at least the Senators from the States reaping those huge windfalls are making sure they go down on top of the shinking ship. DC/Wall Street has really become a grab-what-you-can-fuck-everyone-else shit show.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Last night I was reading about Zale Corp--the Jewelers.

    Sales and profits down--they cancelled incoming orders and are saying they should be able to pay what they owe--always an eyebrow raising statement.

    The trickle up to the suppliers is severe and of course affects jobs.

    My daughter works at a senior assisted living center--more and more families are coming in asking for financial assistance.

    I watch and do not see where things are getting better--except for the bankers who seem to do well thru thick and thin.

    All I hear is about (from the so called mainstream) is GDP is going to be strong, housing strong, autos, jobs recovering-yada yada

    Companies need sales in order to increase jobs--inflating prices to create profits will not be too effective without sales.

    I do not see it. So I see your story expanding.

    So what is more real--this perspective or what we see in the media?

    ReplyDelete
  4. The fantasy being promoted by the media becomes more Orwellian by the day, in terms of fabricating and selling a reality that just doesn't exist. Obama is nothing more than the chief story-teller, albeit a very gifted orator.

    I've been predicting that we'll see several large retailer bankruptcies during Q1 2010. We were at the Cherry Creek mall this weekend and, despite nice weather, it was not nearly as crowded as I would have expected for the weekend before X-Mas. And Saks was an absolute morgue. I was shocked at how few shoppers were in Saks, despite its location right in the center of the mall. Nordstrom's was pretty dead too. Even both Starbucks didn't have much in the way of lines, and usually they have long lines on a weekend.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Speaking of this weekend, the most important one in retail next to the weekend following Black Friday, it can't have been good here on the east coast, what with a n'oreaster that closed down the entire Mid Atlantic seaboard from D.C. to Boston.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dave, thanks for sharing. I live in Estonia (which is in Eastern Europe) and I can tell you that the situation is very similar here. Although I haven't had any relatives or friends come asking for help, I've read the stories on the media and it is very sad. The situation is particularly poor in Latvia, which has been taking money from the IMF and the European Commission. It will take them more than 25 years to pay back all the money. In Latvia, hospitals are being closed, pensions have been cut (working pensioners have been hit with a 40% cut in pensions), taxes have been increased. This is global!

    By the way, there's a good video on youtube about the housing collapse in America (it's short): http://bit.ly/3cl0Lr

    ReplyDelete