Heartbreaking Scenes from A Small Business Layoff in Ohio
It just breaks my heart to read about these small businesses, foundation of their communities, cut to the bone or even closed:
MINERVA, Ohio -- Workers at Summitville Tiles Inc. gathered on the factory floor Wednesday morning to hear their boss -- using a bullhorn to pierce the cavernous space -- tell them he was laying off a third of the staff.
To pull through this crisis, owner David Johnson said, the company must "cut to the bone."
Huddled around half-century-old kilns for warmth, some workers masked their anxiety with nervous optimism. "I'll go back to hang drywall," said Dustin Bourne, a lanky 22-year-old, chatting with three high-school buddies. Of course, they all knew the truth: Mr. Bourne took a job here last year because drywall work had disappeared.
Rosanne Dangelo, a mother of two grown children, was stoic at the prospect of unemployment. "I'll get by," she said, then quipped, "I don't need the Internet."
The U.S. is losing jobs at a pace not seen since the 1940s. Monday alone, 65,000 fresh layoffs were announced at giants including Caterpillar and Home Depot.
But tiny firms like Summitville Tiles have an outsized role in employment. For the past decade, small businesses have created 60% to 80% of net new jobs. Small companies of 500 or fewer people employ more than half of the country's private-sector workers.
Many of these small companies are staffed with people who have spent their entire lives in one place, creating tight factory-floor communities, but also making it harder to land a new job.
"That woman's mother was my grandfather's secretary for years," said Mr. Johnson, the third generation of his family to head Summitville, pointing toward a worker packing boxes of tiles.
More and more workers can't get by. What's particularly galling is the 'pundits' like Frank Rich using 'we' to blame consumers for going into debt. Wonder how when gasoline and groceries go ballistic and your salary doesn't, you can get by except by stretching however you can? At least the winger demand to lower taxes on the rich so they can provide for us all has been forever proven wrong, wrong, wrong. Not that they will catch on.
Thanks Hecate and Avedon; http://cabdrollery.blogspot.com/2009/01/acces...
So many are losing their jobs and those who haven't lost a job are holding on to every cent they have in fear that they will be next. We are sort of frozen in place waiting in fear for the next round of job losses. As long as no one is spending, businesses will continue to fail.
I don't think Frank Rich is all wrong. There were many people in this country living beyond their means and I think we can all agree on that.
Debt was like a drug and no one seemed to believe they would ever have to face the consequences of what debt was doing to them. Now the drug dealers have shut down and there are no fixes for the habit we acquired.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
But there is a fix for the drug dealers - TRILLIONS of our own money!
We give it to them in the hope that they will allow us to borrow it from them and pay them for that privilege. How fucked is that?
Can we please close the bogus War of Terror down now? It would save trillions.
forms. I've battled the latter for years of my life, but fortunately, I've been free of debt for at least 15 years.
At least most dope dealers cut your "credit" off after you get in too deep after a pretty short time.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
The offers for easy and deadly credit, had I fallen for them, arrived in my mailbox daily.
The corrupt corporate trained seals in our congress wrote a bankruptcy bill that requires one to continue paying credit card bills even though it means foreclosure on your mortgage.
Thank Joe Biden for that. To be fair, he did have lots of help.
Government by the corporations, for the corporations… and their buddies.
If that changes, I will believe it when I see it.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Debt Man Walking
I never expect a job to last more than a couple of years. In fact, I've had over 25 different jobs and I'm only 42. variety is the spice of life.
If I were to add them up I'd probably be around the same number. And wouldn't change that for anything. Of course the problem today is that thanks to corporate rape of America the jobs to move to aren't there now. But we'll come out the other side of this somehow. And hopefully learn the leason along the way that allowing corporations to control OUR government is a terribly BAD idea.
Curtilingus,
You would not be a guy I would hire. All I need to do is look at how many jobs you had. Why would I train somebody who would turn around and leave when he/she felt like it. I look to see how long a person is in a job. That shows me that person is dependable. You can take your spice and move on friend.
Southern Yankee
Reaganomics goal realized.
Now the car dealers are making offers that remind me of the mortgage companies and their come-ons. No interest for so many months and all that sort of thing.
I remember days when I would sit here at the desk and shred three or four credit card offers a day. Can't tell you the last time I got one of those offers, but it's been a few months for sure.
Another thing that bankruptcy will not relieve is student loans. Those things are monsters.
Thank goodness my husband and I grew up poor. We don't have a lot of "You must have it" items today, but everything we have is paid for. It's like we were trained as kids for what has eventually arrived.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
I wish I had grown up poor. I was raised by upper middle-class parents that constantly cried "poor" but were obviously better off than most around them.
Now that I'm older, me and my siblings have found it nearly impossible to duplicate their success and lifestyle. It brings with it a lot of shame that you didn't make it as well as your parents. the transition from having money to not having money is not easy (see "Arrested Development". I think they captured that pretty well.)
One of the best TV shows of all time, IMHO. I grew up in OC, CA and can relate completely.
The "Burn Bush" scene (can't remember which episode) is a true gem.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
Although I don't really wish I'd grown up poor, I know what you mean -- there would have been some advantages in the long run. I couldn't agree with you more -- I am amazed how familiar your post sounded to me. There is a lot of shame in not improving upon what they were able to do -- failure.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/gallery/20...
And one more thing:
Here's why we are in a Depression right now (a year from now they'll admit it started now, the same way they lied to us about the Recession).
As all these layoffs occur, there are ripple down repercussions to the rest of the economy. None of the ladies above who have lost their jobs will be getting their hair done that often, their nails done etc.
No more running into Starbuck's for a $4 Venti Vanilla Latte, no more popping $1.50 for the NYT (although it does work well for lining the birdcage), forget about going out to dinner. Suddenly cooking's not that big of a deal.
All these other sideline businesses will go under as well.
Out here on Long Island we're seeing practically all of Main Street stores out of business in Riverhead. The only coffee shop there just announced they're quitting. "No more foot traffic." And it's sad, because The East Enders Coffee House also had live music, many people just hung out there and wrote or talked. The article even boasted about all the couples who had met there in past years and fallen in love and married.
There's an old saying: "When your neighbor is out of work it's a Recession. When YOU are out of work it's a Depression."
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Americans can't keep up with unemployment and rising costs for food, utilities and medicine.
Many people are using credit cards to pay high winter heating bills and groceries which haven't come down in price despite the decrease in the price of transportation fuel.
I hope the entire system collapses and we are forced to start over.
from yesterday at Kunstler.com
It deals with precisely this issue and more.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
I'll check it out.
I hope the entire system collapses and we are forced to start over.
Rather hard to when you have recently retired and find out your life just went bye,bye.
The Federal Government doesn't know what it wants us do do.
First they scold us we're not saving enough of our money, savings rates are the lowest ever.
Then they tell us to shop to save the economy, or to prove the 9-11 terrorists wrong,
They spend horrendous amounts of money and lives on unneccessary wars while cutting tax rates for the wealthy,
Then they tell us national debt is bad for the economy
Then they tell us national debts ain't so bad for the economy
Now they tell us national debts are bad for the economy again
And we're a nation of whiners.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
According to Suze Orman, and she hasn't been wrong about much yet, credit card companies are about to raise interest rates, lower credit limits and dump some people all together. Some may try to use their credit card and be told they no longer have a line of credit. Of course they still owe whatever balance they have on their card.
When this happens, things are really going to be a mess.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
It's happened to my son in L.A. He's just a single guy working in the film biz as a lighting guy.
American Express, for no reason, informed him in writing that his credit line had been dropped. And this was with him never missing a payment.
He missed one payment on another card and they raised his rate from 12% to 30% or something really obnoxious. He was livid. There's was no way they would forgive him missing one payment.
He's had a credit score of 700 or better for years and they're hitting him from all sides with at least 4 of his cards.
He had a total of about $20k in credit card debt and he said, "I'll never get out from under this with these interest rates."
He decided to get a bankruptcy lawyer who charged him $2500 to do a bankruptcy. You know where he got the money? He cashed out his winnings on Sportsbook.com for the exact amount of $2500.
Oh, boy.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Oh it is going to happen real soon. Thank the Bush administration. It was their job to see this coming and do something about before it got to this. Of course, like everything else, they failed miserably. The banking industry should have seen this coming a long long time ago too. I think the credit card dump is going to be another HUGE cluster fuck. The government and banking industry should have got people to stop using credit as if it was another income. I know hindsight is 20/20 but these people are suppose to be the experts. What did they think was going to happen when people making $5,000 a month had mortgage payments of $2500 and credit card payments of $1000 and car payments of $500? and Insurance of a $100 and cable and internet and kids and Jesus H. Christ in a pickup truck. These were the people making a pretty good living until one of their jobs was taken away.
laid off consultant here.
I can assure you that within the next 6-8 weeks, IBM is going to lay off approximately 20% of their workforce. I was laid off a few weeks ago because IBM refused to pay my company for contract work we provided for them in Q4 2008. When my company argued with them, they informed us that they have a moratorium... all business units are to decrease spending by 40% this year.
thats the trickle down effect of this whole bastard thing of Lowe's, Circuit City, Intel, HP, Microsoft, etc announcing tens of thousands of layoffs every day...
the current American economic/business model is so much into the concept of "outsourcing" aka using temp/contract workers for long term assignments. every time these kinds of announcements are announced you can bet that its 2-3 times bigger when you factor in all of the fringe employees.
But according to Alliance@IBM the target number for this year is 40% as reported in my local paper here today, as the second round hits our local IBM facilities (I hear the largest concentration left in the US - more than in NY where I worked in the early 80s now) .. well maybe not as of today.
More than one neighbor works for IBM. They made it through round one last week, but ... keeping my fingers crossed.
All this doom and gloom and perma-bitching is starting to wear me thin.
There is the perennial, "wait until X Y or Z and then things will get really bad...." Really? As if things were not bad enough already.
What people need to do is to stop bitching and to start taking action and organizing. The fact that the GOP feels confident enough to play politics during the worst economic crisis in almost a century, speaks volumes about how bad things have gotten in our social fabric. We're a nation of petulant souless selfish assholes...
We need to start organizing. Making sure that the people at the top know that pulling shit like what the GOP is doing today, holding us hostage because they value their own political gain over our common welfare, should be political suicide. They (the GOP et al) need to be made irrelevant, not like "minority party" irrelevant, I mean "OMG they only have 1 seat in the senate" irrelevant. I am sure another saner organization would pup up to represent conservative ideals (I believe that political party diversity is fundamental for a democracy).
Furthermore, the fact that even to this day.... middle class and lower classes would parrot GOP talking points, while shooting themselves in the foot.... is again proof of how much this nation, one of the cradles of organized labor and social struggles, has devolved.
Madoff, has destroyed countless families' savings and futures. And yet he get to chill in his swank mansion in Manhattan... Greenspan and his buddies get to spend their retirement writing books about how they got to rape our collective asses. Credit card companies are destroying families and people left and right with usury, and yet we just gave them money almost at no cost. Yet, get caught selling some plant's seed... and wooohooo.... if you are a poor, unconnected sap, you get to spend half of your life in prison!
And on, and on.... don't even get me started on the fact that some of the main culprits of this shitstorm are walking scott free, even after they got to start a war based on lies which has killed untold innocents.
I am just too damned tired...
But, any of us who had hopes for Conyers 676 "National Health Care for Everyone" bill (or even Obama's watered down plan) will be sad to hear this:
http://www.correntewire.com/dems_pull_heathca...
And here's how lame the thinking of our Representatives is. I attended a meeting with Rep. Tim Bishop a week ago in Southampton, New York. The issue of Conyers 676 was brought up and he was asked whether or not he would be a co-sponsor.
He said, "No, because it covers EVERYBODY, including illegals."
Now, mind you, this was AFTER he went on and on about how businesses out here in the Hamptons are complaining that they need these workers for agriculture, landscaping work ("we have to keep those Privet hedges trimmed regularly by SOMEBODY DAMMIT!!!"), restaurants etc., but that he wants them to go through the process of paying the fines blah, blah, blah.
Well, afterwards, a physician and myself, plus a few more people decided his thinking is not in the best interest of the majority of the American people! These workers ARE here. They get sick! What if they get a serious communicable disease, like TB etc. and CANNOT seek medical care due to the warped thinking of Congressmen like Tim Bishop?? It could lead to a PUBLIC HEALTH EPIDEMIC.
Yes, Rep. Bishop, EVERYONE needs to be covered. It's a PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE!!!
Duh.
But now it looks like any dreams (NEEDS) we had for a health care plan for everyone in this country will probably be put on hold for possibly ten years or more.
I know when I'm getting reamed. And I think all you guys do too.
I'm just waiting for them to tell me all the Social Security they stole out of my checks for 30 years of my hard sweat and labor is, poof!, gone.
Criminals. Inept, irresponsible criminals all.
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
Social Security is a pay as you go system.
Your FICA deductions today and every day for the 30 years you talk about went to recipients that day.
It is a social contract.
It is one the few elements of socialism we have.
Workers today pay for recipients today.
It is not a savings account.
By falling into the rhetoric of saying they have stolen the money from your check, you have fallen prey to the mindset of corporatists.
They talk like that so the can get to have your own private account which they will put in their stock market.
Then they would charge you fees for managing it.
Then when their stock market goes bust as it always does you could sing the blues on your own.
The privateers would LIKE it to be a savings account, then they WOULD steal it.
Here is a series of my previous rants which started with what the Italians found out about privatizing the social contract.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
The Democrats just won an election.
They won the election on the phrases…
'Change you can believe in' or 'Change we need'.
I didn't buy it, I still don't buy it. It was bate and switch as far as I am concerned.
The Democrats bow to the same corporate gods as the Republicans, the Democrats do a hand jive before they get down on their knees.
Before the election Democrats talked about Universal Health.
But before the inauguration, instead of talking about health care, Obama threatened a veto if he didn't get the next $350 billion for the Fat Cats.
The Dems have pulled back the health care football, bait and switch.
Here the claim is made that $4 trillion in bailout money will be needed.
Here in the NYT Gretchen Morgenson says that of the $30 trillion in Credit Default Swaps still on the banks books, $15 trillion are not offset.
That means potentially $15 trillion more will be needed.
That means those CDS will come due as mortgage defaults continue. The Alt A and Option ARM segments are resetting and many many are going into default. The projection is another three million. Here.
We have exchanged on this topic before. Here
You insisted that the CDS losses were not real. They are real.
They become real because 'We the People' - IE the government keep paying them off.
If the government had not interceded, Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie and Freddie, Citi, Merrill etc etc would have followed Lehman into Bankruptcy court.
That is what should have happened.
That is the normal bailout procedure. When you cannot pay your bills, you seek bankruptcy protection. Here
is the latest on Lehman.
The mortgages go into default, the securities they are rolled into go into default, according to their structure, that triggers CDS pay outs. The banks pay the CDS losses until they can't pay any more. Then they should go bankrupt but we won't let them go bankrupt, we bail them out. They take the bailout money and pay off more losses.
Read the Morgenson NYT article. Read all of these articles.
I agree with you that we would likely find fraud in some of these contracts, the place to find that out is bankruptcy court. Not the way we are doing it.
You appear not to understand clearly how CDS work. They are legally enforceable contracts between two entities. The banks and the insurance thought it was free money. They did not correctly profile the risk they were taking.
They were over leveraged. They are still over leveraged.
Because CDS were unregulated there is not a standard form for CDS.
But they are real contracts. They are legally enforceable. Unless the banks go into bankruptcy.
The commercial bank divisions are taken over by the FDIC provisions. The other divisions can seek protection in bankruptcy court. I think they should have. Paul the Plunderer and the rest of our Corporatist Pols wanted to bail their buddies out.
---
I voted Socialist. I am ready to fight on.
But what should I do, go out in the street and impersonate Leon Trotsky?
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
That is not fuckin good!
I'm in the marine diesel business...so far...and if Cat is takin a big hit....then John Deere,and Cummins can't be far behind....great...just fuckin great.
A few of my friends work for a hydraulic hose manufacturing plant in town. One of their biggest customers was John Deere. Deere has now moved to Mexico largely so the suppliers wont be far behind. They have already shed half the workforce there in the last year and the remaining workers are on borrowed time.
I think one of the problems is that large businesses are forced to think only about their next quarter, not the next 10 years.
I'm old enough to remember when people had jobs for life if they wanted them and I think that was because the company wasn't working for shareholder growth, they were working to keep the company profitable the way it was. If they "only" made enough profit to keep everybody paid that was just fine, there was no continual chasing of profit growth - which only really benefited the shareholders.
It's time businesses start working for the workers (and management too, they benefit also) and not for anonymous shareholders. The only way this country can come back is if we start producing things again, not chasing amorphous "profits" for people that don't DO anything for the company.
And this is a huge point. I've seen this first hand at big companies (Glaxo, Motorola). I think Motorola since I've worked there has 100% divested of all manufacturing, not outsource, they contract factories that they don't own for all production.
I remember graduating in the 80s with my thesis making me the only US expert in one area of factory automation. I had industry come to my presentation. They didn't want me, they just wanted to know how to automate their foreign operations. One VP of New Technology for a large umbrella corporation who came, but was also a family friend, talked to me at a cocktail party a month later. His advice, move abroad to use my expertise, or work in the field of my minor. He was right. In over 20 years, I have worked 2 of those years in manufacturing.
He also set me up with interviews at a company under his corporation, who did technical engineering and would be keeping the jobs in the US. It was a defense contractor. I didn't take the jobs, but it says something about the economic trends even then.
We absolutely can't fix the economic woes without more manufacturing here. And good, well-planned operations which make sound fiscal decisions, not emergency strange decisions to "not miss this one analyst's outlook for next quarter".
GM in Canada has said "no thanks" to the gov't loans. Begged for a handout, and now say no thanks. The union thinks it is because GM is going to shut down the Canadian production completely in order to do the politically correct thing.
Well its about fucking time. Its about time that we in the good ole U.S. of A. stop paying some canuck to make out cars and trucks for our consumption here. ;^)
According to the stats (whether BS or not) the unions of both Canada and the US autoworkers did a study, and the vehicles made in Canada were better made, and 11% cheaper made. But, who knows if that is accurate or not. It might be just trying to extend the marriage.
that goes along with every thing. I was in a sports store It starts with an S A. all most every thing I looked at was MADE IN CHINA. The music store, amps and most of there shit,Made in China. Do we make any thing here.
.
And they're selling like hot cakes.
but GM in Canada doesn't pay health insurance.
The only reason there was any talk in the US about Universal Health Care was because of GM.
We are the only major industrial country without it.
But it isn't going to happen because it was bait and switch.
So GM USA will go bankrupt, break the union contracts and stop paying health care here.
Then you will have your cars made here with workers making $10 an hour and no health insurance.
They won't be buying the cars.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
A little off topic; right now they're debating S-chip in the senate.
Tom Coburn, idiot from Oklahoma just now said a truth. He stated we spend 2.2 trillion dollars a year on healthcare, and 30% of that doesn't cure or prevent anything. However, he stopped there, not finishing the real truth. The real truth is that insurance companies siphon off the bulk of that 30%, but of course he couldn't say that, being in the pocket of big insurance.
surcharge for insurance companies.
A powerful lobby and the reason the Democrats didn't talk about single payer.
This is a country that has spent $600+ billion destroying Iraq and wasted another $100 billion in a phony program to rebuild it.
Yet refused a few tens of billions for health care for our own kids.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
Banks have been doing what they have been doing when Our Leaders gave away our goverments right to make and control the money. The US Treasury was the dept that made and controled the money. Banks had to barrow money from the US Gov with interest. These assholes bought some senators and reps and got them to vote on the Rederal Reserve Act (Just private owned BANKS) over chritmass break. Now the banks loan money to the US Gov at interest. What a dipshit law. The name was perfict, people still to this day think the Fed Res is part of the US Gov. Look at how they have controled the money,housing and any thing that has anything to do with money, there money. Look at the histroy of this country. Homes go nuts, every person is buying a home. banks are giving out loans like candy.Then along comes the control of money. They cut back money, make it short. there people get there orders to sell,sell,sell. this makes the money dry up. the rich stick there money is safe places because they know what is comming.The working people don't.I know there are people who do not like the movie ZEITGEIST, but it has some question that the rich do not want to answer. If any of you think a home loan is the American Drean, you have bought there bullshit. Look at a home loan. on a loan of $175,000 @ 6% for 30 years( the US has not ever gone 30 years without a recession)You will pay in the first 15 years about $150,000 in interest and only $30,000 on your loan. that is a Bankers deram not the workers dream. It is set up for the ave working person to fail and loose there home to the banks. Just look at the shit they came up with about 7 years ago. Interest only loans. what a wonderfull way for people to get a home and pay for 5 years for nothing. Its all bullshit.the rich get away with what ever they can.this asshole who F-ed people out of 50 billion is sitting in his nice home, where the worker cheats on his taxes for $200 to $300 goes to jail. There are about 300 million people in the US and most of them are at wall-mart. grow a pare and do something. call your senator, your rep and keep calling them. We need loans that give us a chance to keep our home. not pay the banks more money in intrest than the home is worth.
Was this economic down-turn planned in order to make life in the military more attractive?
After years of struggling to meet recruitment quotas, the military is now doing much better.
(To Tim misses Japan regarding military recruitment and the economy):
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail.aspx?id=83196&se...
"The US has an army of 90,000 soldiers in Afghanistan and is spending $100bn a year, but has still been unable to defeat 20,000-25,000 Taliban who receive no pay at all." - Patrick Cockburn
The Military Industrial Complex has always been a jobs program.
Every once in a while they need a real war to test systems, train personnel, use up inventory and drive up procurement requirements.
It is a very inefficient program for jobs though.
When the real wars start lots of people get killed, most of them innocent.
It is a racket.
Q - Was the down turn planned?
A - No
Q - Were all bailouts planned?
A - Indirectly: Government by the corporations, for the corporations… and their buddies.
It is all built into the system.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
this is only for the poor, rich kids have money.
Bernie Marcus, home depot founder:
"If a retailer has not gotten involved with this, if he has not spent money on this election, if he has not sent money to Norm Coleman and these other guys," Mr. Marcus said, apparently referring to Republican senators facing tough re-election fights, then those retailers "should be shot; should be thrown out of their goddamn jobs."
home depot HATES organized labor...
and caterpillar? i can see palestinians rejoicing over caterpillar's trouble. After all, maybe caterpillars trouble will slow down the israeli govt's destruction of palestinian homes and lives. doubtful, but there is hope.
the loss of jobs is effin terrible, but the fact that these corporations are having trouble doesn't make me cry. maybe their downfall would allow more socially responsible businesses to take their place...
they are employes at will. just say the word UNION and you are gone.
Senator Boehner of Ohio says he will block the bailout for the American people because things are great. We should wait and discuss things before just handing out money. He feels the American people don't wont to spend a Trillion dollars on jobs, food, homes and other things. He feels money should be given to banks and tax breaks for the rich that will jump start the Economy. He expressed the fact he has the support of the voters from his great State of Ohio. Now who do you believe the article or the Senator? Today Senator Boehner called on all the Republicans to vote no for the Obama/Biden bailout plan for the taxpayers.
bought and payed for by the good banks of the USA.
befor.Back in the 70's I worked at firestone. GE was next door. around I think the late 70's or in the 80's GE closed down because of japan. there were about 1800 people who were put out on the street. then after 12 years at firestone they put about 40 of us in quality control out on the street. with no jobs, I had no money for my house payment. What hit me was I found out this house I bought 6 years ago had been repoed 4 other times befor I bought it. I lost my down payment of 7 grand. I also payed about $15,000 in interest and only about $3000 on my loan, and now ther doing it again.some American dream. for the Banks
Just wait for the Employes Chose Act. the repugh will do every thing to make sure this goes down. god damn, working people with rights.
There's no bigger sucker than a blue-collar worker who votes for a right-wing political party in any country at any time. For some reason, these dimbulbs actually think that they will benefit -- typically financially - by voting for such a party. Of courese, just the opposite happens. A recent example is the election/appointment of the Fuckhead Bush who very soon enacted tax cuts for the very wealthy. These sorry ignorant dupes deserve no sympathy.
"Secular humanism -- a fearless, realistic world view replete with doubt and scepticism that attempts to attain an unachievable state of equilibrium between and among the human qualities of reason, intuition, imagination, memory, ethics and common sense.
http://blogs.jobdig.com/wwds/files/2008/08/ar...
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
is the blue collar worker who votes for the near right wing party (Democrats) thinking they will bring universal health care et al.
In other words, 'change you can believe in', or 'change we need'…
only to watch them bail out the Fat Cats to the tune many trillions.
As far as I am concerned the Republicans and Democrats both worship the same corporate gods. The Republicans fall straight to their knees. The Democrats do a little hand give first.
statusquObama, change you can only pretend in
At base, I abhor all political parties that are controlled/beholden to special interest groups (in most cases, corporations) as that form of governance is straight ahead corporatism/fascism. Because of my social democratic leanings, I sometimes go for the "head shot" when pointing out the selfishness and mean-spiritedness of the conservative right wing. IMHO, the Scandanavians have got it right. Canada to a lesser extent. And the EU has finally decided to stop slaughtering each other.
"Secular humanism -- a fearless, realistic world view replete with doubt and scepticism that attempts to attain an unachievable state of equilibrium between and among the human qualities of reason, intuition, imagination, memory, ethics and common sense.
Did anyone see the 60 Minutes story Sunday night about DHL laying off thousands of people in Wilmington, Ohio? Quite sad.
As far as my job is concerned, I got lucky by not being on the chopping block, but my pay did get cut. I'm fortunate not to join the millions on the unemployment rolls, but it's still a hard pill to swallow.
You're a pharmaceutical lab tester?
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
Seems to me the people who are REALLY getting screwed here are the self-employed. The Electrician, carpenter, plumber, shopkeeper who has NEVER had a "regular" paycheck, who has to pay DOUBLE Social Security and "self-employment tax"...now there's no work, but WE can't collect unemployment because we weren't "laid off"...we get NO COBRA benefits, no severence pay, no NOTHING...we "don't qualify"...and there are millions of us!
movie that brings home reality. It is what happens when you lose your job and economy.
Our Brand Is Our Crisis
http://quicksilverscreen.com/watch?video=49037
There will be alot more tears shed before this is all over am afraid. I have a son that works in a resturant. He has had work hours cut back. He works at Applebees. They are praying to hang on. They are paying high health care and they had to lose one week vacation time. He has worked there a long time and was getting 2 weeks. I told him to be happy to have a job right now. We live in a small rural town. Everyday I worry about people. Not just my family but everyone's family. I wish I new what to do to help my fellow neighbor. We are retired and we already have to help my son pay some of his bills. I don't mean like direct tv, or fun stuff. He stopped that a long time ago. He doesn't have tv. He has a lot of old movies we collected through the years and sometimes we buy them when they go on sale. But like alot of families somehow we all will make it. God bless everyone who is feeling the pressures. We somehow will do what we have to do.
Southern Yankee
How many of these same Ohioans voted for W in 2004? How many are gonna be rolling back to their foreclosing home with a W sticker on the back of their SUVs?
Welcome to the triumph of neo-conservative, Ayn Rand economics.
Frankly, I don't want to hear one goddamn word out of any stupid motherfucker who voted for Dummya, or supported the "Republican Revolution".
You lubed up your own asshole, now bend over and take it you stupid fucker.
Isn't it in the movie Sicko where a British pundit talking to Michael Moore says that in the US people fear the government, and everywhere else in the world the government fears the people?
In addition to all those job cuts that are announced, there are slews of companies that are laying off thousands of workers in "stealth" mode. IBM has laid off 4,200 in the last week and they are not done - and they have made no announcement. Nice.
Obama needs to be alerted to the practice of US companies cutting thousands and thousands of good paying US jobs, and hiring workers in the BRIC countries. Congress needs to do something about this.
Just ask him. He'll tell you he wants to talk and talk and talk and do nothing. Just as he and the other Republicans have done for years. I live in MN where the road have turned into Swiss cheese with all the pot holes. It's so bad they don't even talk about the pot holes anymore. You just try to avoid the pits and steer from oncoming traffic. And do we put money into our infrastructure as Obama would like and to create jobs in the process? No we need to talk about it. Beohner doesn't want to have to raise taxes on the crooks he's help make rich.
Jeanne
Please, someone google this guy and his company. He is the biggest Republican in Columbiana county, Ohio. Trust me, if you didn't think like him, you didn't work for him. I laughed when I saw the article. David Johnson, like GWB, never worked a day in his life. Never lifted a finger to help anyone that wasn't a right wing nut job like himself. Ask him the name of the guy that has worked there for years... I guarantee he doesn't have a clue. His family has fought against anything that would benefit the working man. If you lived here, you would know.
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