Punishing The Poor Has Been Very Productive For Us, So Pat Yourself On The Back America!
When you are down and out, wealthy Americans are there to kick, and knock you about.
In mid 1974, seven months after my father lost his job, we were all a few weeks away from living in the street, Dick and Dot, myself and my four sisters. Thankfully, dad did get six months of severance pay, at 60% of his salary. Yes, that was better than nothing, but getting your pay cut 40% overnight will dramatically change your current, and near future perspective. Few Americans are able to continually save enough of their take home pay to cover such a deficit for very long. Luckily, dad was able to get a loan from his aunt. Shortly afterward he also found a job, or just into the eighth month of joblessness. Sadly, he was never able to regain the same financial footing; he died in debt 33 years later.
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My birth family’s full story was not a terrible one. It came very close to an all too frequent tragedy, and never was the clean, ever-rising American dream afterwards, but compared to where millions of other Americans end up, my parents led decent lives, and so did their kids, me included. The trip up that put my parent’s dream on a downward path was my dad’s own damn fault. He had many very incompatible business ideas and beliefs. In corporate America, he…
