Today's blog entry is a message to struggling Americans who are wondering how they'll make ends meet, and why the travails of Alex Rodriguez seems so much more important than their livelihoods. Take heart, America. Some people do, in fact, get it.
With all the arguments over the stimulus plan, where the other half of the TARP money will go and with how much oversight, it seems easy to overlook what it feels like to have spent your life working and through no fault of your own, suddenly to be thrown out of a job.
That gnawing feeling in your gut that no medicine can cure comes and goes. You look in the eyes of your children and realize your teachings about the value of hard work are suddenly suspect.
The phone calls from bill collectors come, and you find yourself walking around the house, trying to figure out if there's something you're doing wrong.
The phone calls from bill collectors come, and you find yourself walking around the house, trying to figure out if there's something you're doing wrong.
Why haven't there been more responses to your resume? How will next month's mortgage be paid? Will you have to skimp on needed medication in order to pay your utility bill? Will all the stuff politicians argue about really make a difference?
In these times of economic crisis, it's hard to find reasons to take heart. But understand this.Your economic survival is just as important as that of an investment banker, a hedge fund manager, and yes, even some media pundit. Those folks think they live in a different world than you. They're wrong.
You can find some comfort in the notion that we have a person in the White House who at least understands that a 15% unemployment rate in any American city is a problem for all America. He's promised transparency in the way stimulus money is spent. The nation needs to hold him to it as we believe he means it.
What is important? No, it's not A-Rod, Chris Brown, Rihanna, John Boehner or John McCain.
It's you. Tell me your story...post it here so we can learn from each other?
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3 comments:
For our family right now, treading water in this economic disaster feels like a small victory. We watched our neighbors loose their house to foreclosure AFTER the banks were bailed out, and AFTER someone tried to buy it but could not get a mortgage. Why isn't help coming to families like them?
So what's important? Its staying upbeat and hoping this storm will pass. Its knowing that OUR core values of love and respect for all don't change in tough times. It's helping out our our neighbors if we can. It's being there for each other. And its getting involved at shelters, food banks and soup kitchens.
The most important thing when dealing with the crisis is that we get it right for the long road ahead. I think Obama nailed it when he said first we need to get people working again. But we need to do it in a fundamental way that will pay dividends for the next generation. I get a kick out of my uncle because he doesn't believe in global warming yet he is (somewhat) of a proponent of a green economy. He has seen first hand how this creates positive results at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange where they implemented a new plumbing system that is much more efficient and will more then pay for itself within the 30 years when it will need to be updated.
It's important to me that we recreate our manufacturing base in this green economy and distance ourselves from the stranglehold of a completely service driven economy. IF we can do this and have our representatives actually represent the people it would be icing on my cake.
A great person once said that it doesn't matter how loud you cheer for you favorite team because you aren't going to change the outcome. Fortunately that isn't same when it come to our politicians. Give 'em hell!
Here in the UK its tough too...So many of life's certainties have been taken away and its difficult not to face every day with dread.... Sadly its only now I realise that life before the crunch was actually pretty good. It would be nice to keep that perspective when things get better (when will that be though?). Working in business its amazing
that all the corporate controls, such as sabines-oxley etc...brought in on the back of Enron didn't see this coming. At heart the speculation was like a giant pyramid scheme and eventually had to burst, maybe it was a bubble. Whats really needed is a or a change in corporate expectationd where sustained performance is rewarded and not an impossible attempt to beat the numbers every quarter. A strategy doomed to fail at some point.
Mark Green
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