Psych Lit wrote: They were trying to find a place for her for the night, and couldn't -- every place they called only gave them other phone numbers to try. Clearly, this was a "new" thing to her, and she was a little shell shocked. I was a little angry, because six months ago, I could and would have said "hey, come crash on my couch tonight" but with the circumstances here right now, it just wasn't possible. I couldn't help but look at her and see me ... see how easily it could happen, and I didn't want to think about what she might look like six months from now.
scary stuff isnt it? there is no safety net out there for people aside from shelters and those can be life threatening places for people who dont have any street savvy. its become worse in the last year. rental prices are sky high. also there are far more people looking for rental units due to forclosures. this is especially problematic since many of these are families and with bad credit, kids and pets and finding them housing can be really hard and a lot of family shelters have closed due to budget cuts and things like section 8 vouchers took a hit when the govt decided that landlords dont have to accept them. it sounds like the woman you ment ended up in the senior center looking for access to senior housing? thats really one of the last places where people can go and have a chance but spaces are so limited and waiting lists are often very long. its going to get a lot worse before it gets better. if phoenix doesnt already have a home share program you might mention it to the people at the senior center. matching (screened) older people up with seniors who can no longer live alone can solve two problems at one time.
Yeah, we need jobs, but it really seems to be that this country needs to give some more immediate relief more directly to people like that woman who just needed a place to sleep for the night. These people who are getting these "bail out bucks" have clean sheets to go home to. So they'll have to downgrade from The Hummer to the ... what? I can't even think of an American fuel saving vehicle off the top of my head, although I know there are some. The AIG people are still going to have food on the table in their homes, but next year, they may not have a vacation quite as extravagant. Wah freakin' wah.
yep. unfortunately tho these arent the folks who will suffer its the working stiffs. those idiots at the top will walk with "bonuses." im no student of economics either but it occurs to me that deflation is the natural end result of globalization and everything im seeing points to that, at least as far as wages go. i think prices follow wages tho not in a timely enough fashion. but the days of union protection is over and in the global economy its a race to the bottom not the top. this country had a chance when we first stepped into the world of globalism to set the world standards for what that would look like. things like fair wages, health care and paid vacations and balanced trade should have been a part of the package. instead the government allowed corporations to get away with whatever minimal costs they could negotiate, they kept the bucks and we all got f**cked. if we cannot compete in a global world we are lost and yet we set the marker of where that competition begins. this was never the intended result and yet corporate greed without oversight got us where we are. i hope that one of the things the obama folks do in this first term is investigate all that has happened and figure out where the money trail is and yes, i hope they redistribute it when they do trace it back. if that makes me a marxist too then so be it:) i was watching the closing of the stock market today, yet another bloodbath, and clearly someone is making money out of this and its not just the shortsellers. it sounds sort of conspiracy theory like but honestly i think the timing of all of this is not coincidental. its like one big last rush to grab all the bucks that can be grabbed before the gravy train ends.
or the people who have made a living putting people like that woman in the center on the street, without batting an eye. It just seems to me that the people getting the money would do just fine without it, and there are people who really need some relief right now, who aren't getting it. Maybe we need to re-slice our national budget pie, and make that military slice a little smaller, and not "bail out" wealthy countries like Iraq, and put a little more into bailing out our own average citizen first. (How nationalist of me, I know...) It's just ... it ain't right!
something needs to be done but im not really trusting those in charge to do whatever it is that needs to be done. so far im appalled at whats gone on with this "bailout". i heard today that the bank folks who are receiving funds that were supposedly given to free up the credit markets are investing that money in corporate bonds instead so instead of that money making things easier for small start ups and businesses and individuals and seasonal businesses the banks need only sit there and watch their investments go up. and if that is where the money will make the best investment then it makes sense for them to do this but why are we giving them our tax dollars to do it?
the inauguration? ok, so maybe thats the impossible ticket. i wonder if those amex black folks are on this? seriously, has anyone asked their congressperson for tickets? i was thinking about writing to mine and asking but then again im a little feaarful about actually standing out there with the other 4 million targets.
still what an historic event. not that id get the tickets even if i did write. i am sure the mass congressional list already has a million names...mebbe i could write to hillary:)
and speaking of hillary. what do you all think about her becoming the secretary of state? at first glance i find this very reassuring. i trust her foriegn policy know how a lot more than i do obamas and even if her role is to present obamas policies and not her own, just knowing that shes there to chuck him on the head and say what are you thinking? is fairly reassuring. still id rather see her as either the majority leader or on the supreme court tho she apparently has said she doesnt want the latter.
im waiting for a repairperson to show up...one of those well be there today things and i had someone stay here till 230 so i could get part of the work day in and still no repairperson. but i am catching up on my email and watching the news tho thats scary stuff. the dow has tanked another 400 points thus far today probably on news of the auto bailout. its now at its lowest level since 03. watching the dow of late is sort of like playing blackjack with my retirement funds. im watching it go down and down with the occasional winning day. im thinking ill be working now till the day i drop..sigh.
as for the auto bailout i am inclined to hope they let this go thru bankruptcy before they give them any money. us auto makers really do need to do something to reorganize. the average worker makes 47 dollars an hour with benefits and thats an industry high and unless they find some way to increase productivity to counter that, they will remain unable to compete. and really,they do need to redesign their products to be more forward looking. its time to think about the future responsibly and responsible transportation doesnt seem to go along with the american lifestyle yet. maybe they could be retooled to work on mass transit. i understand that this is a very difficult time for those workers who will be affected but its sort of like nationally funding the edsel or something. the buzz is that if they file hey will not be able to reorganize due to no funding from the banks. thats the point id be wanting to see the govt step in but not before. im a little weirded out by the thoughtless money stuff happening of late. time to think out of the box a bit and solve these problems rather than putting the cartoon bandaid on the gaping wound.
Yanno, day before yesterday, I took Mom to check out a "senior" program at a community center not far from my house. It was close to closing, and there was only one other "non-employee" person there ... a slightly heavy, clean, "sane" possibly lesbian, but not so's anyone would notice, woman in a turquoise shirt in I'd say mid to late 50's. She was there, she told us, and one guy working there told us, because she was, as she put it, "homeless." They were trying to find a place for her for the night, and couldn't -- every place they called only gave them other phone numbers to try. Clearly, this was a "new" thing to her, and she was a little shell shocked. I was a little angry, because six months ago, I could and would have said "hey, come crash on my couch tonight" but with the circumstances here right now, it just wasn't possible. I couldn't help but look at her and see me ... see how easily it could happen, and I didn't want to think about what she might look like six months from now.
I have a vague albeit not expansive grasp of why the survival auto industry is important to the American economy -- why we need to preserve the jobs, etc., but you know? They made the choice to drag their dang feet on fuel-economic vehicles. It was a choice. GM started selling Hummers to the American public in 1992. Started.
Yeah, we need jobs, but it really seems to be that this country needs to give some more immediate relief more directly to people like that woman who just needed a place to sleep for the night. These people who are getting these "bail out bucks" have clean sheets to go home to. So they'll have to downgrade from The Hummer to the ... what? I can't even think of an American fuel saving vehicle off the top of my head, although I know there are some. The AIG people are still going to have food on the table in their homes, but next year, they may not have a vacation quite as extravagant. Wah freakin' wah.
Every day in this country hundreds, perhaps thousands of people find themselves in the same position as that woman in the community center. I daily watch the ever-growing parade of people walking past my home to the church up the road for the free dinner they serve there. Sure, some seem to be mentally unbalanced, but that demographic is slowing being pushed out by people like that woman, and so I can't muster much sympathy for those at the top of the food chain, getting their multi-million dollar retirement packages, for running a company into the ground in the one or two years they've chaired it, or the people who have made a living putting people like that woman in the center on the street, without batting an eye. It just seems to me that the people getting the money would do just fine without it, and there are people who really need some relief right now, who aren't getting it. Maybe we need to re-slice our national budget pie, and make that military slice a little smaller, and not "bail out" wealthy countries like Iraq, and put a little more into bailing out our own average citizen first. (How nationalist of me, I know...) It's just ... it ain't right!
the inauguration? ok, so maybe thats the impossible ticket. i wonder if those amex black folks are on this? seriously, has anyone asked their congressperson for tickets? i was thinking about writing to mine and asking but then again im a little feaarful about actually standing out there with the other 4 million targets.
still what an historic event. not that id get the tickets even if i did write. i am sure the mass congressional list already has a million names...mebbe i could write to hillary:)
and speaking of hillary. what do you all think about her becoming the secretary of state? at first glance i find this very reassuring. i trust her foriegn policy know how a lot more than i do obamas and even if her role is to present obamas policies and not her own, just knowing that shes there to chuck him on the head and say what are you thinking? is fairly reassuring. still id rather see her as either the majority leader or on the supreme court tho she apparently has said she doesnt want the latter.
im waiting for a repairperson to show up...one of those well be there today things and i had someone stay here till 230 so i could get part of the work day in and still no repairperson. but i am catching up on my email and watching the news tho thats scary stuff. the dow has tanked another 400 points thus far today probably on news of the auto bailout. its now at its lowest level since 03. watching the dow of late is sort of like playing blackjack with my retirement funds. im watching it go down and down with the occasional winning day. im thinking ill be working now till the day i drop..sigh.
as for the auto bailout i am inclined to hope they let this go thru bankruptcy before they give them any money. us auto makers really do need to do something to reorganize. the average worker makes 47 dollars an hour with benefits and thats an industry high and unless they find some way to increase productivity to counter that, they will remain unable to compete. and really,they do need to redesign their products to be more forward looking. its time to think about the future responsibly and responsible transportation doesnt seem to go along with the american lifestyle yet. maybe they could be retooled to work on mass transit. i understand that this is a very difficult time for those workers who will be affected but its sort of like nationally funding the edsel or something. the buzz is that if they file hey will not be able to reorganize due to no funding from the banks. thats the point id be wanting to see the govt step in but not before. im a little weirded out by the thoughtless money stuff happening of late. time to think out of the box a bit and solve these problems rather than putting the cartoon bandaid on the gaping wound.
