Talking Heads Need a Dose of Reality

There is a major disconnect between the people in the U.S. who struggle financially and those who don’t. The ones who’ve “made it” whatever that may mean (think plasma TVs) seem to think that if one studies hard, works hard, and “does the right thing” then they will be successful. They preach about being careful with credit cards – paying off your balance each month – don’t buy more house than you can afford. These people are frickin’ clueless. They are also the talking heads on television and radio and often authors of best-selling non-fiction books that spout their expertness … or massively embarrassing lack thereof.

A flyer on the counter at a doctors office pictured two cats, brother and sister, free to a good home because the couple who had them 1) lost their jobs, 2) lost their house, and 3) became seriously ill and could no longer take care of their beloved cats. This is a snapshot of the financial reality for a large part of the American population. Basically, it’s why Obama won the presidential election.

First, the unemployment issue:
I’ve heard people say (repeatedly) if you need a job don’t be picky just go get any job and they point to delivering pizza or being a greeter at Wal-Mart or a janitor. Obviously the people who advise this have never actually been in that situation after having a decent career. If you are a person with a college education and 20+ years solid work experience you are not the most desirable person for the pizza delivery job or whatever lower-pay level job you want to apply for. As long as there are other applicants for those jobs who are not over-qualified you will not be hired. Why should they hire you? They know you’ll leave as soon as you get a better offer, duh. They are not in the business of helping you they are in the business of doing what is best for their bottom line.

I overheard a manager one day fuming out loud about going through the trouble of hiring someone who soon left for a better-paying job. She said she will ask all future interviewees if they are applying for other jobs and if so she will not hire them because she doesn’t have the time and money to waste on training people. This is their point of view. So if you take your double-degreed, mid-profession unemployed self there for a job your application will just get tossed. We who live in the real world know that. I personally have seen several times an unemployed person apply for hundreds of jobs (700+ in one case) – anything they thought they could do (stocking grocery shelves, etc.) – and the only phone calls he received was in regard to jobs for which he was well suited.

Second, losing the house:
The mortgage industry is a demon from hell that steals peoples’ lives. No, that’s not an overstatement. Let’s say you buy a house for $250,000, mortgage it for 30 years at 6 percent interest. After one year you will have paid about $18,000 to your mortgage company but you will still owe $246,930. After ten years you will have paid about $180,000 but you will still owe $209,214. If you lose your job at this point and you cannot pay your $1,500 per month house payment the mortgage company will foreclose your home and you will lose it because they say you owe them $209,214. The $180,000 you paid into your house is gone and so is your house. Sure, you can try to sell it. Might happen. Might not. You think there is someone to call? You think they will “work” with you? If you are unemployed you are a financial pariah and no one (other than maybe your family) will help you. You are not a risk they are willing to take and they don’t give a sweet damn about you.

Once you have lost your home to foreclosure it is extremely difficult to get another house. Your “nest egg” is gone. How do you save money for a down payment when you are financially destitute? Or if you’re sick...

Third, illness:
Just the stress of losing a job and a home can cause a major illness or it could have been the reason for the job loss in the first place. I can’t go into all the points of illness here obviously but I would like to make one point. I was listening to a radio talk show hosted by a famous financial expert. The caller was a married man with two children. His wife couldn’t keep a job for whatever reason – she was often unemployed. (This in itself was leading to a divorce.) The man only brought home $1200 per month in income. Although he worked full time he just wasn’t well paid. He said his rent was $800 per month and they just kept getting into more and more debt. Now, every human with a working brain synapse knows these numbers are very bad, right? It doesn’t take even a 3rd grade education to figure this out. The “expert” said “Well, that leaves $400 for groceries I don’t see what your problem is?” Seriously. In what alternate universe does this idiot live? Since when do people have to only pay for rent and groceries? Does his car run on air? Do they go naked and dirty? Do they not have telephone, electric and heating bills? Obviously a major oversight. But…

How can a family of four live on $400 per month in groceries and be healthy? That’s a whopping $3.33 per day per person. Has this “expert” been grocery shopping in the last decade? What is he going to eat? Generic oatmeal made with water three times a day? Even if he managed on that what about his two kids? This is why many poor people are fat. They are forced of necessity to eat highly processed low-nutrient crap full of preservatives and high-fructose corn syrup. And what does that do? It makes people sick. Really sick. Today, right now, it takes about $800 per month minimum AND a lot of planning to feed a family of four reasonably healthy food. (Healthy food by definition means generous amounts of organic fruits and vegetables.) Been to Whole Foods Market lately? Great stuff. Love it. Expensive. Of course grocery bills also include toilet paper, soap, detergent, aspirin, toothpaste, Band Aids, razors, tampons, shampoo, deodorant, maybe a sponge to wash the dishes, etc.

Then there are other famous idiots of stature on national radio saying things like “well, that’s why we have a food stamp program.” Apparently this nincompoop never tried to get food stamps either. You can literally subtract some people’s bills and be left with $0 for groceries and the chart that determines food stamp eligibility will say they should get $12 for food per month for a family of four. Yes. This is a fact. Maybe if the bills, such as the mortgage, weren’t artificially high because of the greedy bastards who designed the mortgage industry, this wouldn’t be the case. In effect they say “Let them eat cake.”