What Mid-terms? It’s All About Paying the Bills

[IndianaGreen]

Published on Sunday, August 15, 2010 by CommonDreams.org

What Mid-terms? It’s All About Paying the Bills

by Donna Smith

Seems hard for elected folks and think tankers and others in the upper crust to imagine or recall, but most Americans aren't spending a lot of time thinking about the subtleties of political gamesmanship or strategy for the mid-term elections. Most Americans are thinking about paying the bills. The insistent bills that never stop - the mortgage or rent, the food, the gas or transport to get to and from work or looking for work, the utilities, the medical insurance or costs. It's about the bills and staying alive.

Over the past two years, I've marveled as I watch folks on every side of the political spectrum and those who see themselves as pristinely distant from the political parties argue passionately about the issues of the day. Wall Street vs. Main Street, some used as a battle cry. Yet millions of this nation's people are so entrenched is just keeping their financial heads above water that even that distinction aimed at somehow creating the illusion of empathy seems empty and foolish.

Watch the media offer up personal finance experts who act ever so concerned about the unemployment rates and then advise those facing unemployment to use their "emergency funds" carefully and slowly. Laughable. It isn't that most American workers don't hear the advice to keep some emergency funds for those sure-to-come rainy days. It is simply impossible for most families to sock away much if any money during such stressful times, much less months of living-expense reserves.

The reality most Americans live with is a paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle of necessity filled with worry about getting paid something, anything before the next round of bills come due and then past due. Unemployment benefits provide some relief for some, but in reality few people can support families for long on unemployment benefits. You pay one bill one month, bargain with the other creditors for time and then reverse the process the next month. You juggle. You worry. You splurge on a modest meal somewhere because the family hasn't gone anywhere for months and then worry about who to short in the next round of bills. You feel guilty. The phone calls are increasingly from creditors reminding you of past due payments and then threatening more collection action as you beg and barter for time.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2010/08/15