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Poor... It's The New Rich
With Thanksgiving around the corner, I thought it would be a good time to take stock of the stockless. To check in with the realities of a crippled economy and how we are coping with this big ole reality check.
I have talked to friends from all over the country and all over the financial map and it is getting really tough out there. Things are not going according to plan. That money we had so carefully put away for retirement? Gone.
The real estate we purchased because real estate is such a good investment? Not. The annual pension statements which used to make the future seem all warm and fuzzy?
Ice cold. The new plan is that there is no plan.
Many of us are learning the hard way that our upward mobility was subjective. We invested our way up the ladder and it gave way beneath our feet. We counted on institutions which were "solid as a rock" and "strong as a bull", only to see them brought to their knees by regular old greed and stupidity. We worshiped "Rich Dad" who created his own wealth and felt contempt for stupid old "Poor Dad" who just worked for a living.
A good friend of mine finally packed the two kids off to college, just in time for her husband to get laid off from his job on Wall Street. It is important to remember that not everyone involved in the markets is a robber baron or some mustachioed villain. Most of them have never seen the inside of a private jet. They are just folks trying to raise their families and pay the note on their home. My friends had most of their money invested on same said street and took a big hit there as well .So this couple who had it all figured out now get up every morning and wonder how the hell they are going to pay the mortgage much less 75,000 dollars a year in tuitions.
Another friend in Real Estate is having a terrible time of it. He has had six deals fall apart in the last three months, plus his investment properties went upside down and took his nest egg with them. So at 43, he is seriously contemplating a seasonal; stint on the sales floor of Macy's.
Still another couple finally finished restoring their beloved brownstone in New York City only to discover they can no longer afford to live there. It is for sale now and that makes me sad.
I live in a modest neighborhood which is surrounded on three sides by housing projects. Everyone here works their tails off. One fellow across the way rises before dawn each day and gets behind the wheel of his Super Shuttle bus. Another starts his trucks at six AM and head off to tend the lawns and gardens of the Beverly Hills set. I walk my dog past the projects every night and there is one young man who arrives home at 5 PM and rushes inside to change out of his auto mechanics uniform before hitting the streets pushing an ice cream cart. He does this with a smile. On Sundays there is a bent mostly toothless old woman who roams the block selling home-made tamales out of a rusted red wagon.
These folks do not lie awake at night wondering how to pay outrageous private school fees. They could not dream of it. Many have never been inside Macy's and could never conceive of working there. Most will never own a one bedroom condo, much less an entire brownstone. Yet their lives are rich in many ways and so will ours be. We will thrive with or without our 401Ks. We will have to work harder and longer than we planned, but so what? Come on admit it ... golf is boring and there are only so many times a person can snorkel. Plus if things get worse we can all take up smoking again on the grounds that we can no longer afford to get old.
So as we gather around the table to give thanks, let us remember what richness lies in the soil and the soul of this nation. Let us give thanks for California artichokes and Florida oranges, for Chesapeake crabs, New York cheesecake and Boston lettuce. Let us give thanks for ball parks and concert halls and 10 dollar bottles of wine. I personally am very grateful to whoever invented Scrabble and to my sister for always agreeing to play it with me even though it drives her batty. Finally I am very grateful to be an American and I am in love with every single person who stood in line at the polls this year. Maybe we are all going to the poor house ... but we are in good company. I have no idea what the future holds but I am grateful to be alive at this moment in history. I have a lot less money these days, but, maybe for the first time ever I am feeling pretty rich.
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I remember as a kid many of us aspired to be middle class. I guess we have come full circle.
Thank you Beth, you spoke the feelings of many of us, we just don't have the words or the vehicle to express it. Life hasn't changed much for those of us who see the world as a place of both good and evil, sometimes more one than the other. But we don't focus on rich or poor, because in the end, both can be temporary, and neither can truly make anyone happy. As long as we have enough will, health and each other, we have hope.By the way, I hope your friends come to their senses and have their college kids get loans, part time jobs, and consider a state school...it's never too late to grow up a little, they will be better for it.
It's all well and good to say we don't need material things to make us happy but most Americans have been brutally and repeatedly raped by the banks, credit card companies, insurers, utilities, and oil companies to the point that we can not afford our homes, our kids are neglected because both parents have to work if they are lucky enough to have a job that pays a pittance and offers no benefits, our sons and daughters have been sacrificed to kill other innocent men, women, and children in Iraq, and it just keeps getting worse and worse. I'm hoping Obama will put a stop to this rampant corporate and political greed and corruption because this legalized stealing and lawful torture that we have been forced to endure is nothing to be thankful for.
Beautiful.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, holidays make us look at life with rose colored glasses. I still believe the majority of people would sell their soul to be a millionaire/billionaire. Cynical? Maybe.
But a strong sense of entitlement can actually help this country rebound in the way many people are hoping for.
Let's not fool ourselves the way we judge others based on what they "have" and what we measure as success. Because in this country if you want to live a simple life in a simple home i.e. a mobile home this country considers you low class, trailer trash or unsuccessful. Just a fact. It's easy to get all "we are one" when you are scared. But judging people based on what they have is as strong as it ever was. And no matter how much I dislike that, that is not going to change.
someone gets it. let's hope everyone in the usa does.people matter. money is just a mechanical part of life. image and stuff doesn't count . goodness does count. be good. do good. think good. it makes life a better place in your soul and in your home..
It doesn't matter if they have no food or heat. They'll be all right, because they have each other.
They may be poor, but they are rich inside. Why did it make me think of this old Onion story?
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/34159
This is such a great article. We had become such a greedy nation with no thought about tomorrow unless it involved our 401K's or investments and now we are forced to reexamine what is truly important in life. Now we kind of have an idea what our parents and grandparents went through before the days of credit cards and actually having to save for what we wanted. It's about time and I can honestly say that I'm kinda thankful that the financial crisis happened because now we can at least have a place to start to get on sound financial footing rather than relying on bubbles. Thanks Ms. Broderick for a timely and great article.
It's so true that we lost sight of the true richness of our lives. We not only have a great country but great opportunities abound for those willing to work for it. This election proved that beyond a doubt. The work of many changed the direction for all to a better more substantive future. For that I give thanks.
Beth Broderick, what a great post! Agree, when you don't have much, you can't lose it either and although I am very sad to see my sons lose half of the 401K, they don't really have to be unhappy since their children are well, their houses are built, their children are either through college or way far away from going. I'm not going to be able to go to their homes for Thanksgiving or Christmas, mostly because I don't like driving over a thousand miles and I won't fly: the stipulations for flying are ridiculous. So we will exchange phone calls, cards, emails, and be glad we are dry, warm and not hungry. Yours was a terrific list of the thanks we should feel. I would add one more: George W Bush will be out of office in a little less than 2 months. True, he will leave a horrible mountain of problems but with any luck Obama and company will be able to solve them given a few years.
When I was a kid, my family was struggling while my father worked two jobs and went to college at night to earn his degree. After that he was very successful and we went from struggling to affluent. We had so much more fun when we were broke but it was also nice not to have worries when my dad finally made it. maybe it is good to experience both situations so people have a healthy respect for things.
The seeming empty space surrounded by the drinking glass makes the glass useful. It keeps the liquid in place, in space, allowing one to drink. We focus much attention on the sparkle and size of the glass and very little attention on the empty space that is always there. Glasses break and they can be replaced. If there is no air, not only can you not drink from a glass, but also, rumor has it, -- you are dead.
The old saying is there is no need crying over spilled milk. Crying does not clean up a mess only a focused effort to clean up a mess does. When liquid becomes a spilled mess on the floor of a nations’ life, spilled from the mishandled glass of faulty financial strategy...that came crashing to the floor to become a million pieces..., that which is important remains.
If you retain vision to see the mess, voice to express momentary exasperation at the clumsiness of dirty hands that fumble broken containers of financial well-being, and most importantly, you possess a will and an outlook that allows you to proceed with not only cleanup, but better glass design and handling. Then, you are alive and that means that you still breathe the air that is the space of glasses.
If you can breathe it, then you can perceive it, then you can believe it, and with hard work, perseverance, and opportunity, you can achieve it. Recovery is but air in a glass.
Nice work, Beth, as always.
A relative of mine once told her son, "As long as I can afford a room not too far from a good used bookstore, I'll be fine." I think that, with greed put in perspective and animosity abandoned, we can make it through the hard times to come an even better nation than before. Which is, as I understand it, just what you're saying. Happy Thanksgiving.
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I tried to write something about Thanksgiving last night, and just couldn't get my brain past my fury at the Wall Street hot shots and my horror at the terrorist attacks in India. I am indeed very grateful at the election of Obama, but imagine what he might be focusing on if the Bush years of greed-and-deregulation (and the years before him too, in fairness) had not metastasized into this will-chemo-work-for-it? financial disaster. So I just couldn't feel grateful.
I felt grateful though reading your piece. You did a great job, and I thank you for sharing your thoughts. I also just looked at your past piece on Sarah Palin, which was accurate for sure, but also extremely thoughtful in your description of who she is and how she represents a true dead end for the Republican Party if they should be so foolish as to end up following her.
Anyway, thanks for what you wrote, and Happy Thanksgiving.
Well done Beth. I know of many of the good works that you have done in your personal life. How you have leveraged ( the good kind) your professional connections.
You should have highlighted some of it in your essay.
"Rich" is when we are part of a "community." The real kind, not some new fangled "virtual" BS.
Financially, I grew up "poor." The other guy's definition, not mine. Today, I'm labeled "rich." The other guy is still confused. Nothing really changed for my family, past or present. We are still reachuing out to try to be part of a "community." It became harder and harder as 30 somethings chased the illusion of wealth and set asunder the true fullness of life.
I've got the feeling that we are on the other side of the coin ( there is nothing new under the sun) and I just hope that more people remember what we learned in kindergarten:
"When you go outside, hold hands!"
You mean a newfangled BS virtual community like the one you're using to make this comment? Next you'll be telling us where the real America is. Beth's message was very positive and in the spirit of it I almost let your dig go, but I had to say I think any kind of community in this world's got to be a good thing. Virtual or not. It was a virtual community that helped spread the word for and elect Barack Obama. Happy Thanksgiving.
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