It Is Not Strictly Business - It Is Personal Now

Last summer and fall America was enthralled with the election and pretty much ignored what was happening all around us. Oh sure we were not happy with that bank bailout but it was strictly business, right? And who really understands that? Not your average citizen, especially when terms like derivatives and bundles and subprime are thrown around. Besides nobody paid much attention to what Bush was doing; he was leaving soon anyway. And yes the market dropped but hey it has done that before but it was costing less to fill up our SUVs, so life wasn’t too bad, right? So the summer flew by as summers do and the fall was exciting and historical as the country elected Obama as our president. Then came the winter…

Maybe at a Christmas party you first talked to a neighbor or friend or somebody’s spouse and you realized that people around you were losing their jobs. Perhaps you cut back some on your holiday shopping, and even if you didn’t, you discovered that favorite stores and restaurants were disappearing overnight. Suddenly the holidays seemed a bit more muted this year; more furtive looks, more dipping into the eggnog, scared people heading to church on the Sunday after Christmas.

In January, when it seemed as if everyone on TV was rejoicing Obama’s inauguration, no one you knew was celebrating. Life was actually turning more stressful. The harsh winds of winter were beginning to creep into your house.

Year-end results were announced at work making this recession, depression whatever it’s called start to hit home. If there hasn’t already been a reorganization or downsizing in your company, you know one was coming. Maybe you’ve worked hard and climbed the corporate ladder but you’ve never been given a million dollar bonus or flown on private jets to sun drenched “meetings”. No, in fact, you’ve worked harder than ever spending late nights and weekends, seeing less and less of your family while your employees resent you as they believe what they see on TV about management. And now all employees are told of wage freezes, no bonuses and no more matching 401K. But worst of all, you might have lost your job or, if you’re in management, you might have the gut wrenching task of having to let people go. Your job, if you still have it, has become even more stressful. But what can you do? There are no jobs out there so you stay put, if you can, but hating every minute of it, and you seriously begin to worry about strokes and heart attacks. But you will do whatever it takes because you need that job for the bills are beginning to accumulate like the snowdrifts against your house and car.

By February, you’ve already received the credit card statements and you’re scared. You know that after paying your mortgage and electricity and everything else that there isn’t much left over to help chip away at your MasterCard and Visa and Target and all the other credit card balances. Then you start to go through the paperwork to fill out your income taxes. You worry how you are going to be able to pay Uncle Sam, but unlike some states, you never once question if you will pay, of course you will find the money, sending in that check, somehow, someway.

No matter how difficult, you still manage to pay your bills, your taxes and yes, your mortgage. You may go deeper into debt, you may have to stop buying nice things for our spouse, you may stop putting money into your child’s college funds or your pension plan but you’ve always been told that you have to pay your bills, especially your mortgage. And it is depressing to know that you can no longer do more for your family, that the dream you’ve worked for all your life is gone through no fault of your own and you can’t fix it any more. In fact it hurts, really hurts, deep down inside you. And you realize that what is happening all around you isn’t strictly business or economics or even politics anymore. It has become personal, very very personal.

Then Obama tells us he will help us with his recovery plan. But what do we get? Out of the billions and billions of dollars, the hardworking taxpayer gets only a few lousy bucks more each month and nothing for the struggling small businessmen and women. Instead Obama promises handouts to people who bought homes we never could afford so that they can stay in their homes. Lowlifes who never worked or saved or earned the right to buy their homes. Yet we are told we have to give them our tax money so they can stay in their fancy houses; while we struggle to quietly pay our mortgages on our small homes every month. It just isn’t right and we are hurt and angry. So now, it is no longer strictly business. It has become personal.