How are people who cannot find work in the current economy able to make ends meet financially? (employees, unemployed)

[borregokid]

The people in my family have found work but its not like 1998 anymore is it? In a typical month I will spend $400 or more for stuff or maybe just send some money. Like I helped pay for a roof, pay phone bills, buy groceries, etc. Nobody calls me for help but since they are family I know what they need. Last month someone needed $600 for school and someone needed $2,000 for a roof. This wasn't welfare because they had to pay a lot also but I remember at times in my life someone was there to help me. There was probably a time in your life where someone helped you, don't forget it.

[cocaseco]

Originally Posted by YaFace

This doesn't happen, anywhere. Please stay away from daytime TV.

Umm hate to break it to you in your perfect world bubble, but it does. It happens every day. Sometimes you have to take the glasses off to see whats really happening.

[tatare]

Originally Posted by sware2cod

This is why you save money your entire life....they used to call it "Saving for a rainy day". Now it's called the "Emergency Fund" or "Emergency Savings".

Basically you save and save and save while working so if you lose your job, this money is used for basic living expenses. You always make sure there is enough money in that acct even if you don't think your job is at risk. Never borrow from it, never spend it until your rainy day comes. Then only take the minimum necessary and replenish it asap. If your rainy day never comes, then you have more money saved for retirement.

What you are saying makes sense if you are laid off for a 6 months to a year, but some people have been out of work for a couple of years now. You must be pretty old to be thinking with that mentality. I know plenty of young people that have nothing and are heavy in debt and they never could get that head start to saving. You say replenish it, but with what, the money that is growing on trees?

[macluffy]

Originally Posted by Ted Bear

You spend your savings.

Then you max out your credit cars.

You sign up for food stamps and any/every imaginable sort of government assistance.

You cash in your retirement plans.

You borrow from family and friends.

You sell anything which will generate any money....$2.00 for a used baseball bat; $1.00 for a used gasoline can; $10.00 for a wedding ring.

You scrounge bottles and cans and you return them for the deposit.

You find a temporary part-time day laborer job which has six hours of work a week.

You apply for Social Security.

You visit the local food pantry.

You get a couple of meals each week from the soup kitchen at your local church.

You get through one day at a time. Today I 'made' five dollars, and that bought meals for my family. Tomorrow if I can raise $7.00 I can buy a bag of potatoes and that will be three days worth of meals.

There is no next week, or next month. You do what you have to do in order to get through today. All that crap that you thought you needed? You don't. What I wouldn't give for a warm shower.

And then a miracle happens. You find some/any employment, or you die. Either way, the pain is gone. It doesn't matter.

Spot On!! This was ME a year ago. 10.00 for your wedding ring- Tell me about it!

It was rough. I had savings - thank God - then little by little, things got more bleak. I "lost"many beloved things by pawning: not being able to make up the pawn payments some very valuable jewelry, a gun that I paid a lot of money for during a boom time, and some other things- some replaceable, some not. The thing with the jewelry is you NEVER will replace some nice pieces by buying them for yourself ever again. It's very sad. You have every intention and belief that you will be able to bail out your pawned things soon, but those payment times come up a lot sooner than you think. You end up pawning something else so you can have money to pay on another pawn ticket, and debt snowballs. You lose everything!

I got on food stamps (EBT, those free food debit cards) but I canceled/cut up the food card when I really needed it but got too fed up with the whole system, and the fact I felt like a thief using it. I didn't starve! What really made me cut it up was going to Walmart and seeing all the people that had EBT.

I ate a lot of potatoes cooked many different ways. I learned how to make dinner out of just about anything.

Family helped out a lot. Family got judgmental, too- never knowing or will be knowing what it feels like to be truly broke.

One day, when you think all is lost, you find that job. It's not elation, but relief you feel. Little by little you repair all of the debt you collected while you were so broke.

I have no idea what people do who don't have family, or really poor families. Maybe a lot of the homeless are in the spot they're in because they have no relatives, or they've been so awful to people (theft, drugs, generally disgusting behaviors) that they burned their bridges. If you are a decent person you will not have too hard a time finding help when you need it.

[tijlover]

Originally Posted by sware2cod

This is why you save money your entire life....they used to call it "Saving for a rainy day". Now it's called the "Emergency Fund" or "Emergency Savings".

Basically you save and save and save while working so if you lose your job, this money is used for basic living expenses. You always make sure there is enough money in that acct even if you don't think your job is at risk. Never borrow from it, never spend it until your rainy day comes. Then only take the minimum necessary and replenish it asap. If your rainy day never comes, then you have more money saved for retirement.

Oh, if we could only talk to the dead! And I'm sure there's a way of doing so, but the Government found a way to stop the communication long ago!

Next best thing to talking to the dead is talking to the happy, smiling, spendthrift heirs, who are going to ignore this advice, because they don't want their heirs to get all their unspent, hard-earned savings that their parents foolishly accumulated for a rainy day!

Oh so sorry! One month away from getting that first SS check and they were traveling thru the wrong intersection!

[sware2cod]

Originally Posted by tatare

What you are saying makes sense if you are laid off for a 6 months to a year, but some people have been out of work for a couple of years now. You must be pretty old to be thinking with that mentality. I know plenty of young people that have nothing and are heavy in debt and they never could get that head start to saving. You say replenish it, but with what, the money that is growing on trees?

If you think that you will never have enough money to get ahead, then you will never have enough money to get ahead. You will create that self fulfilling prophecy. If you think you cannot save enough, then you will not save enough, because your brain already made the decision.

You make the choice. Then you take the actions based on that choice. I think some people are savers from very early in their life. These people always save 'first', and they will make lifestyle choices when working to 'pay yourself first' by living below their means in order to save. When 'life happens', these folks have their rainy day fund all set. Because this is part of life happening. You can plan for it, or not.

[bUU]

Originally Posted by sware2cod

If you think that you will never have enough money to get ahead, then you will never have enough money to get ahead. You will create that self fulfilling prophecy. If you think you cannot save enough, then you will not save enough, because your brain already made the decision.

While there is some merit in what you're saying, there is a reality that overlays the situation that will have at least an equal role in determining whether someone will be able to make ends meet. The reality is that help and luck sometimes combine to overcome someone's depression-driven defeatism, and quite often, and increasingly often, even the most optimistic view will be overshadowed by the structural impediments for those less affluent in our society to get ahead. So for anyone who may think that it is, often it is not, "all in your head".

Poverty in our society is to a great extent similar to cancer: There are things you can do, yourself, to improve or degrade your chances, but it is also possible that externally-driven measures (the medicine, on the upside, the cancer itself, on the downside) could end up ruling.

[YaFace]

Originally Posted by cocaseco

Umm hate to break it to you in your perfect world bubble, but it does. It happens every day. Sometimes you have to take the glasses off to see whats really happening.

Still waiting for a link to an actual news site showing the rampant straight male gay sex rings, and the "many" suburban brothels right under our noses with husband pimps. Pretty sure I will be waiting a loooooooooooong time. Funny how when you ask for proof, people just ignore you.

[marilyn220]

Originally Posted by YaFace

Still waiting for a link to an actual news site showing the rampant straight male gay sex rings, and the "many" suburban brothels right under our noses with husband pimps. Pretty sure I will be waiting a loooooooooooong time. Funny how when you ask for proof, people just ignore you.

If you don't want to believe it, then don't. It's not a big deal or life or death thing.

The bottomline is that no one is above doing 'unsavory' things to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads. I'm not going to search for any current news articles, but if you're incapable of believing that men will sell themselves sexually to survive, then you're very naive as to what this current economy has forced people to do.

What exactly do you believe the millions (not thousands, but MILLIONS) of longterm unemployed who have not worked in years, because of their LONGTERM UNEMPLOYED status are doing for money and food right now?

Twiddling their thumbs? Waiting on the generosity of family and strangers to give them a helping hand?

Anyways, I'm going to find the links to some that have been in the news lately and are not aberrations:

- Dr. Phil had a NY suburban mom on his show who was running a brothel in her home

- An ex-olympian was selling herself for money

- A zumba or workout instructor was selling herself to her hoity toity male clients for money

- A soccer mom was busted for selling prescription drugs to other soccer moms

I know either 20/20, 48 hours or Dateline did a story of suburban soccer moms selling themselves for money and a few whose husbands were well aware of what was going on.

Do you believe that many straight men won't sell themselves as GAY FOR PAY to keep a roof over their heads either?

You probably don't believe that male drug addicts sell themselves to other men to pay for their habits either? People would rather believe that men commit crimes to pay for their habits, while women will prostitute themselves. No, it's about equal for both. Law enforcement will confirm this.

[Wartrace]

Originally Posted by Ted Bear

You spend your savings.

Then you max out your credit cars.

You sign up for food stamps and any/every imaginable sort of government assistance.

You cash in your retirement plans.

You borrow from family and friends.

You sell anything which will generate any money....$2.00 for a used baseball bat; $1.00 for a used gasoline can; $10.00 for a wedding ring.

You scrounge bottles and cans and you return them for the deposit.

You find a temporary part-time day laborer job which has six hours of work a week.

You apply for Social Security.

You visit the local food pantry.

You get a couple of meals each week from the soup kitchen at your local church.

You get through one day at a time. Today I 'made' five dollars, and that bought meals for my family. Tomorrow if I can raise $7.00 I can buy a bag of potatoes and that will be three days worth of meals.

There is no next week, or next month. You do what you have to do in order to get through today. All that crap that you thought you needed? You don't. What I wouldn't give for a warm shower.

And then a miracle happens. You find some/any employment, or you die. Either way, the pain is gone. It doesn't matter.

I think a lot of people have taken the social security disability route. (the numbers support my theory)
Disabled-worker statistics

I have a neighbor that is on it after losing his job in his late 50's. I think a lot of "disposable" older workers are getting on disability because nobody will hire them.