Hi. It's Joe again. I wrote a piece on how the economy is affecting my family last October. Bob wanted me to do a follow-up, so here goes.

To re-cap, I work in the technology sector. It's a good living and I'm pretty much bullet-proof as far as keeping my job. My wife was in a long term layoff from her job in education. We have three kids and own a home. We play by the rules and don't ask for anything other than to be able to provide a comfortable life for our family. We aren't looking for a handout or a bailout, just the ability to make a living. It shouldn't be a hard thing for two educated people to be able to support a family in this country. Yet, that isn't happening.

When I wrote the first piece, we were moving from okay into trouble. Things haven't improved. Matter of fact, they've gotten worse. Our home, which was purchased at a bargain price, has lost more than half of it's value. Our neighborhood has as many foreclosures as occupied homes. Funny how I don't see anything about that in the news. Guess that it's not a priority.

We still owe the full amount, and we still pay the mortgage. We can't refinance because the house isn't worth the loan anymore. The bank is willing to work with us if we come up with another $100K. If we had the $100K we wouldn't need the refinance. Obama and the federal government talked a good game about helping people in our situation, but there are no federal or state programs to help us. Guess it's not a priority

My wife was working, briefly. She signed on with a start-up, and after a couple of months they couldn't get financing to continue operations. Gotta give credit to anyone who wants to open a business in this environment. It's economic suicide. Still, it's the people trying to earn a living who are bearing the brunt of this. I thought there was some funding for small business in one of Obama's stimulus bills. I guess not.

I seem to remember that Obama wanted to do a "laser-like focus" on jobs, jobs jobs after he got his health care reform passed. Guess that didn't work out. The official unemployment number is holding near 10%. In California, the official number is 14%. Of course that isn't counting a lot of people. It just counts the people on unemployment or waiting to get it. My wife is unemployed and is not counted. I imagine there are a lot more like her. Laser-like focus my ass...

Speaking of health care reform, that is another situation that has gone to hell. My health care package was my one saving grace in the last article, the one thing that let me sleep easier. The law of unintended consequences has taken over here as well, though I don't know how the geniuses in the Congress didn't see this one coming. The projections are that costs for my employer based health plan will increase by at least 30%, and possibly more. And that's just for the HMO. The better plans that allow more freedom of choice in doctors are expected to rise more. If they are offered at all. That's the other shoe dropping. Since the company can't pass along all of the increased cost, they are looking at limiting or not offering coverage. Gotta thank the folks in Washington for that one.

The savings are gone. The 401K has been fully borrowed against. The credit cards, what's left of them, are maxing out. The interest rates on all of them have gone up. Hey, wasn't there some credit reform bill to protect us from that? Guess that didn't work out as planned, either. Thanks again for caring.

But I still have a job. That's good, right? There have been no layoffs, but people who leave are not being replaced, so the workload is up. My annual raise has been wiped out in furlough days. For those of you not familiar with the term, furlough days are the company saying "don't come to work, and we're not paying you". It's better than being out of work, but it still translates out to a pay cut. I can certainly afford that. Glad that the government report shows the economy chugging along.

While we are on the subject of government reports, they say that there isn't any inflation. Still, gasoline is up about 30 cents a gallon from last year at this time. That's a big difference. Food prices are up. Ground beef is nearly double what it was a year ago. Chicken is almost triple. An ear of corn is 50 cents in my local supermarket. It was 25 cents last year at this time. The year before it was 10 cents. Oh yeah, they don't count food or gasoline in the inflation index. Guess that's why the government isn't aware of any inflation.

That's the stuff that can apply to everyone. On top of all of that I have the honor of living in the failed state of California. California once again is leading the nation - this time as it swirls around the bowl and down the toilet. Our representatives in the state government are either corrupt or inept. In a bold move, the people of California rose up in 2003 to replace an inept governor with an action hero who mangles the English language worse than Bush did. He quickly partnered with the legislature in pushing California off the cliff. Thanks Ah-nold. So glad you're in charge.

The last time around I wrote that Obama hadn't done jack for my family. I need to revise that opinion. The policies pursued and pushed by Obama and the Congress have harmed my family. The examples above are all the result of the good intentions of our Federal government. It hasn't worked out all that well. I wasn't a big fan of Bush, but we were able to live a comfortable life with him in charge (at least until his bank bailout). Ditto for Clinton. He's the one who came up with "It's the economy, stupid". I think we need to tattoo that to Obama's forehead so that he is constantly reminded. I'm not saying that he created the economic crash - there's a lot of blame to spread around on that, but the policies he is pushing are making things worse.

I'm long past angry. Now I'm just beat up and want it to stop. My family is under siege, and as I look around all that i can see is my own government standing against me in my fight for economic survival. I don't want a handout. I don't want the government to save me. I want the government to get the hell out of my way and stop throwing roadblocks in my path. I thought that our rights were to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I have my life, but now my health care is threatened. My liberty is hampered because my economic liberty has been attacked. My pursuit of happiness has been replaced by a pursuit of survival.

Obama promised a lot of stuff. He gave great speeches about how important the middle class and small business is. He's right - we're the ones paying for all of this nonsense that is doing nothing to fix any of the problems in the country. The Republicans are no big heroes either. Obama and the Dems care for the poor. The Republicans care for the rich. Both parties reach into my pocket and steal my money in the form of taxes, and give it to their favorite groups and causes. There is no one in government who represents me and my family. I doubt that I am alone. I know that I vote. I am not going to vote for more of the same. I'm going to make damn sure that the change that I vote for is actually change that I want. This isn't it.

Joe

Joe's original  article can be found here:

http://blog.thomaspaineproject.org/2009/10/06/economic-reality-a-voice-in-the-crowd.aspx