The American Dream—Only This Time in Reverse

People with a full belly always knock union and good wages.

Then when they are looking for a job, they search out and embrace them .

Try affording your home on Mexican wages or Chinese wages.
People are not being paid in those countries.

Then look at your 20% medical insurance increase.
You probable didn't even get a prescription last year and it still went up.
Did you know your neighbor was laid off.

So this is the Union's fault., not Maddoff's, or AIG, or Enron.
Those people are worth 600 million dollars.
The guy earning 40,000 - 60, 000 k with benefits working 2 jobs is to blame.

I get it. You have a job. Blaming others.

Lured by the wonderfully magical American Dream, Americans tend to over-dream nowadays, especially after the very prosperous and successful decades in the second half of 20th century. Dreams are just dreams, they belong to a different world, virtual and unrealistic. Reality can always be extremely harsh, ugly and painful.

Even the incoming president indulges in the beautiful dreamy arena of change. Perhaps it is time to WAKE UP.

Enough BS...we need to do what is right for the USA. The Unions are not to blame for this...so enough childish ranting against good USA workers. Companies love to bust-up Unions and begin offering unlivable wages and unaffordable health insurance to its workers...then they can begin boasting of billions in record profits while the workers cannot even afford to live normal lives...right here in the good ol' USA. Frankie, where is the solid evidence to say that 98% of their money is going to Dems...obviously this is a GOP backed website...so how do I know if they are telling the truth? You can be as mad as you want, but I question the integrity of this supposed true information. This fact may piss you off...but, so what...when Clinton left office, we actually had a surplus...not in debt. How much debt are we in eight years later because of the idiocy of the Bush administration blunders...isn't our national debt in the trillions at this time? Let's put blame where blame is due, shall we?

frankiescoffey, even further back were Daddy Bush and Reagan who were also instigators in all this mess.

John G., one thing is clear...if our economy is going to survive, we have to help our USA based automakers. The Big Three will not close their doors if we USA people support them in every way possible. I have no clue where you are getting your information that they are making bundles of cash overseas...maybe from the Republican right? Whatever the case is, if the Big Three go down, more than likely our entire economy will collapse...because all the suppliers for the Big three will go, also. This is not economic warfare waged against the electorate...this is about doing what is right for the USA. How about more misleading BS from right wing nutjobs...closer to the the truth, wouldn't you say?
Oh, by the way, I am still bewildered as to why Bush OK'd 700billion to corporate crooks...why didn't he do what is right and put these worthless worms behind bars where they belong??? To **** with doing the right thing...so they quickly hand over this gargantuous amount of cash to idiots who show absolutely no honor or fiscal responsibility and misused shitloads of the bailout money for vacations and undeserved bonuses...and yet they are still walking free...funny how they didn't catch much, if any, flack for their unethical BS.
REMINDER: all of this economic crookery is still under the BUSH administration...we shan't forget this fact, shall we?

Jamma, how in the h-e-double hockey sticks are any of we USA workers supposed to be able to afford to even think of purchasing a home if all of the livable/family wage jobs are increasingly becoming outsourced...and the jobs that are left are poverty level wages (at best) for working families? Millions of good, honest hard-working Americans have been laid-off, locked-out, outsourced, screwed blue by the GOP idiotlogical trickle-down BS that has only trickled into the paws of the greedy/wealthy liars...yes, I mean IDIOTlogical!! And to inform we working peans about the wonderful way that Wal-Mart has cost the USA economy millions of USA jobs and taken away billions from our economy...by blackmailing the good USA suppliers for Wal-Mart stores to OUTSOURCE their companies to foreign countries...either do this and put millions of USA workers out of work OR not do business with these suppliers any more. Yes, that is right America...the one and only Wal-Mart that once bragged how they were 100% for the USA. And, God forbid that anyone should know about the inhumane way these outsourced laborers are mistreated...and, according to Wal-Mart, it's all for the customer...and they are correct about that, seeing that they have no moral or ethical conscience the way they mistreat their workers (or workers from outsourced suppliers). If the original owner of Wal-Mart, Sam Walton, would be seeing how the "Clean and Pure" Wal-Mart conducts their business; he would be turning in his grave more than once. So many have lied and BS'ed the USA public for so many years....I am not sure if they know how to tell us the truth with a good and moral conscience.

ARM's have been around since the 80's and so have layoff's, divorces and illeness. People have been
loosing their hiomes to foreclosure for decades, but this generation of morons seem to think they are the first.
ARM's were not good in the 80's and I would not recommend them today. What I would recommend is that people do their homework, never take out a mortgage more than 34% of their gross income, save for a down payment and only use a 30 year conventional fixed rate mortgage--just like they did before.

Super J:
I'd start with the CEOs of Fannie and Freddie, and their closest political allies on this matter. Franklin Raines made $100 million, much of that "bonus" pay, during the very period that Fannie was spiraling in the dirt.

Quote:
"You can imagine the heartwarming scenes of family life that once played out inside, but now you're left with only a dwelling that's been trashed by an angry foreclosure victim."

That imagination is warping your view of reality.

Normal people don't allow pools to mold over, or paint their home interiors with graffiti.

The fact of the matter is that the overwhelming majority of those in trouble with their homes would have still been renting if the sub-prime mortgage industry had not been spawned by the government.

Here in the Phoenix metro area, we understood years ago that you didn???t want to buy in certain neighborhoods despite how new they were. In fact, the newer the development, the worse it was unless it was priced above $450K.

Now the neighborhoods like mine ??? built in the early 90s ??? have far fewer for sale signs, and none of crime, while the subdivisions built in the last 6 to 8 years are awash in foreclosure trouble with tell-tale signs of urban blight setting in already.

Super J, you are a person who speaks the truth...keep up the good work...we middle-class people have heard and seen enough lies and BS from our government and corporations.

What abot the CEO 's???? Why to they get buy with murder?????????? WE bitch about this and this and that. The bottom line is, the CEO's getting bonuses that belong to working class. But our goverment doesen't contest that. Always blame it on labor. If GM & chryliser want ot survive, tell the CEO's to divie up, tis is their company. Where is their donation??? Will thet still get their bonuses???? CEO's is where the problem is. And every middle class working ameican knows it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What is disgusting, hypocritical and bewildering is how the Republican Senators and Bush are blaming the economic crash and burn on the UAW...as well as other Unions being falsely blamed for our economic woes. The Republican right counts on an uninformed USA public that generally believes everything they say. Wasn,t it the Republicans that have degraded and stonewalled the middle-class worker from livable/family oriented wages and good healthcare? Yes it was the Republicans. Their never-ending lust for more drove the GOP right wingers to deregulate almost everything, outsource livable/family oriented wage USA jobs and mislead an uninformed USA workforce that they are the true patriotic political party. Many Republican politicians have financial interests in foreign-owned automakers...and they give them bigger tax breaks than our USA originated Big Three automakers. How soon these same GOP politicians want us to forget that it was the Big Three automakers that gave 20-30 billion for the 9-11 relief efforts. Most of the foreign-owned automakers that have shamlessly set-up shop in the USA gave $0.00 for the 9-11 relief efforts...hey, they nosed their businesses here in the USA...they had a responsibilty to help after 9-11. How many times has the USA bailed these foreigners" asses out in previously fought wars??? Too many times. How many times have they done the same for the USA...ZERO!!! Even though it was the sole responsibilty of the good old GOP for getting us in this economic quagmire...every time they screw things up, they point their crooked little fingers at USA oriented companies and the good USA Union workforce that is the backbone of our economy. Why these politicians are treating foreign-owned companies better than our own is QUESTIONABLE. that is why it is of vital importance for all USA workers to put the heat on Washington and let them know that we support the Employee Free Choice Act...this would give we USA workers the right to form Unions without threats or coercion from companies. Passing the EFCA is a necessary stepping stone for getting the middle-class workers back where we belong...livable/family oriented wages and affordable healthcare...and actually feel proud to show up for work, once again.

option arms are not a new product they were available in the late 80's....just an FYI.

I am surprised that a problem created by humans needs god's will for resolution. I did not expect that Newsweek would be blind enough to call for God to assist in ensuring that certain Financial Products are not sold to customers.

HEY, NEWSWEEK!

What happened to the two articles about where the bailout money went? You pulled those pretty damn quick, didn't you?

LOL.

sharkman, I think that what you did is pretty amazing. Although building your own home isn't feasible in all areas, it really pays to take some initiative and be creative. There are plenty of ways to save money on housing if you have the skills and ambition to do it. I think it would be a very positive thing if more people learned practical skills so that they could do maintenance and repair themselves rather than hiring out for it.

If you are serious (sharkman) about what you did, then kudos to you. My grandfather built his own house, in the city, no less, back in 1959. He learned most of it as he went, working on weekends and nights over the course of a year while he worked during the day at a factory. He built a lovely small brick home, with two bedrooms for a family of 6. Why, you may ask? Because back in the 50's, if you didn't have the money for a 20% down payment, you simply did not own a home. Most of the lower middle class did not actually own homes at the time, despite what Bush and the rest may be selling you about our "ownership" society. If you owned your own place (and trust me, a starter home back in the day was modest) it meant you had a lot of money saved and a very reliable income. The American way, and the American dream, has been distorted over the past decade into something quite ugly, and while its a shame that people are losing their homes, home ownership will not make you any happier than being house free and renting.