In the comments, I mentioned some friends who have worked hard their whole lives and hit a serious patch of bad luck in the current US economy. They used to own a business in rural America and hired me when I was just starting college. They were the best employers I've ever had and the sort of people that would give you their last dime. When we went down to see my mother, we tried to visit, but they weren't home. We left a note and I got an email from them today. I'm going to post some heavily edited excerpts, removing specific identifiers and personal matters, because I think their situation is not entirely unique in the US right now. Here goes:
Dear (Rufus), it was so nice to read your note that you left on our front door it meant so much to me to know that you stopped by to see us... Things are rough very rough I could side step that and say all was fine but it isn't.... Closing the business and the current economic times have put us into a tail spin of our life...we can not seem to sell the house and that has drained us financially and emotionally....I had major back surgery last year and had to have rods and screws put in my lumbar spine that surgery coupled with the Doctor finding out that I needed bilateral hip replacement has disabled me....I started collecting disability in May of this year....
we applied for disability for (my husband) as well and he has been denied 2 times now and we are going in front of a judge for an appeal....it's hard real hard; (his) balance system being destroyed when the acoustic neroma was removed from his head was a devastating thing for (him) he just managed to cope with it but now not owning his own business he is not a good prospect for anyone else because of his balance issues...so we are just praying that the SSA sees this and grants him disability....we will see if our system actually works who knows....
when we closed the business down (our son) was very very sick they finally found out he had crones disease so he has to be very careful with what he eats and how he takes care of himself but all in all hes just trying to get by... if we are lucky enough to hang on long enough for the house to sell we will move up with (our daughter) till we can build up some funds to do something else...who knows what is coming our way I must admit I'm praying for an angel to build us a modular home out in the country near the kids so that we can survive on a lot less and just be comfortable for a change its just been real rough yanno....
our story is no different and no more painful than anyone else's in this rough time all across this country its just trying to hang on long enough to get relief....I play the lottery twice a week I feel like well hell I got just a good a chance as anyone else :-) but I know that the chances are slim to none but oh well....I have to dream....its all I got left....I'm due and so (are the rest of the family) for some really good luck we have gone long enough with crappy luck....Thank God we do not have cancer and we can still walk and talk and love our family and friends and we are all still here on this planet to make a difference somewhere....I feel like I could write a book about what this economy has done to people like us but no one would believe it nor probably care...
Note: You might have to hear this in her voice- she's got a sardonic, hard-bitten sense of humor that might not come across if you don't know her. But, if you've ever known rural Americans, you've known people like them. And she's right about what the economy has done to people like them.
4 comments:
What Chris says is at the core of what's been bugging me about this since I read it.
Because....
'bad luck' my ass.
Hit by lightening is bad luck. Run over by an economic tsuanami? Harder to see that as being luck related. The people who AREN'T on the skids because of it might shrug modestly and say, "Just lucky, I guess" but that's not true.
Holly: It's the wrong word probably. What I was getting at was the argument Brian was detailing in the last post, although not exactly endorsing, wherein people are alleged to generally become poor because, when they had the chance to work hard, they chose not to, and so it's their fault. Sort of the grasshopper and the ant argument. In this case, what I was getting at was simply that I know tons of people who have been impoverished through nothing that I would call their own damn fault. I mean, I just can't see what these people could have done differently. So, definitely, it's a result of the severe incompetence of others at a higher level- but on their part I don't think it was the result of poor choices. Hope that clears that up.
Chris: Yeah, exactly- people below suffer due to the reigning economic idiocy above. And things haven't radically changed with the new administration. It's essentially the same econimic idiocy that has reigned for the last three decades, at least, and which really only replaced another brand of idiocy. That region of rural Virginia got smashed about three years ago, but nothing's improved since then. Now, the leadership is doing what's been done before, just moreso, and expecting different results. I'm expecting a repeat of the econolypse within the decade.
See, I didn't really mean your use of the word luck, I meant in the letter where your friend mentions her bad luck... as if it's something she's coincidentally experienced.
I guess it beats the alternative, going around enraged all the time at the asinine unfairness of it all...
She's keeping a positive outlook, while trying not to be overwhelmed with depression. She does recognize that a lot of external factors are making downward mobility the norm in the US (for the last three decades actually), and says she's thinking about writing a book. I suspect a lot of people could relate.
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