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Stamping out the Vintage
By David Glenn Cox
I live in Georgia and according to the economic statistics, Georgia is somewhere in the middle of the pile between, not great but not so awful, such as Michigan or California. Of course its all relative, a bad storm that shuts down the airport is terrible if however you’re stranded inside that airport then it becomes the worst storm you’ve have ever endured in your life.
I travel the city of Atlanta calling on customers, through neighborhoods with cars motorcycles, boats, ATV’s anything of value stacked in the front yard. Their volume alone paints a stark picture of just how relative bad is. I ask myself, if we are in the middle of the economic pile then just how bad is it in Michigan or California? The fact that wrong way George has even noticed the problem says something. But on every corner handmade signs, “will clean gutters” or “carpet cleaning.” I turned the corner off the highway up a hill and into a rural neighborhood and painted with spray paint on a 4 x 8 sheet of plywood was this message, “Desperate, make any offer, 3 bedroom home on 1 acre lot.” If this is the middle of the economic pile then they’re probably practicing cannibalism near the bottom of it.
I have never seen such a sign before; it was the type of sign you see after a hurricane or a disaster. Two years ago a house like that on a 1 acre wooded lot would have gone for 150 to 200K and probably sold in 60 days. Today the owner is desperate enough to waste a sheet of plywood and a can of paint. I have houses in my neighborhood that have stood empty 2 years, I can’t remember the last time I saw a “sold” sign. They are drowning, millions of us, millions of Americans in a rising tide of inflation unacknowdeged, unemployment under reported and compensation undervalued.
Our politicians of both parties, who close their eyes and stick their fingers in their ears singing, la,la,la,la,la its not my problem if we pretend that there is no problem. Only the question remains, is it deafness or callousness? Maybe if someone shines a light on the problem then perhaps they can see. So far this year I have seen 3 houses burnt to the ground, amazing how hard times makes houses so flammable isn’t it? Maybe the TV programs can reflect on this new trend of our times, from “Flip this House” to “Torch this House.”
There are still jobs available for those who want to work, I know that. I’ve had two of them myself; the want ad pages are full of jobs for commission sales, insurance sales, waiter and waitress. Can you imagine a country that has a minimum wage for a waiter of $2.00 an hour? Coolie labor, or trying to sell to those who have the same as you. Or in the case of insurance sales, spending $200.00 to get a license to sell insurance to the elderly in your car and with your gas but with promises of great commissions. Pizza hut no longer takes checks, I wonder why? What does that say about the state of the economy? People writing bad checks for food.
As I said, I’ve had two jobs in the past six months, the first, I was a representative for a private ambulance service. Medicare owed them over 300K so they had to lay me off. I felt sorry for them they were their battling creditors just like I was battling mine. I tried to explain to one of my creditors about my financial situation, “Then you won’t pay this bill!” he insisted. “No, its not that I won’t pay it, I can’t pay it.” You see this isn’t a drive by editorial, I live here in the middle of this maelstrom. I’ve seen people put out of their homes and wonder, where did they go? Where do they go?
I’m living a conflicted existence, trying to succeed in a new job but at the same time hating the system that has created it. Driving by entire shopping centers that are empty while they continue to build new shopping centers a mile down the road that are also empty. While the pundits ponder, could we be slipping into a recession? Holy Mary mother of God I feel as if I’ve become Newlie’s ghost from “The Grapes of Wrath,” just an old graveyard ghost, waiting for the folks to come back, but they ain’t commin back, they ain’t never commin back.”
It becomes increasingly harder to be patriotic or feel positive about the political process. One party, ignoring you under representing you, the other blaming you, despising you but both parties agreeing that if we ignore them maybe they will all just go away. I sometimes catch myself rooting for the devil, For if the shiny side of America doesn’t care about me and mine why the hell should I care for theirs. But I know better, that’s just the emotional side of me talking. I don’t want anyone to suffer, which is what separates me from them; I don’t wish them no hard times even as they don’t give a shit about others.
I wonder about the cold Michigan winters and about the size and volume of a Los Angeles at the bottom of the pile, about where are they going to send rebate checks to those made homeless. But as I drive this city, each for sale or for rent sign is like a drop of rain and the cars for sale in the parking lots and the sudden appearance of adults on bicycles tells me the storm is getting worse. There is a sense of rage but also a sense of disbelief that a government could become so clueless / careless as to allow a Katrinazation of America.
An ugly bitter vintage of the trampled, the abused and the unnecessary. Those no longer economically viable who add to the vintage what they subtract from the bottom line. A generation of the innocent sacrificed on the high altar of economic foolishness to satiate their god of greed. We will all drink from this vintage, come let me fill your cup!
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