Fellow DUers,I just feel depressed and whipped now...

I went into town to do the weekly errands. Since I was there last week, almost everything on my list has gone up at least 10-25 cents per item. I don't buy lots of extras anymore. The only treat type items I bought was a bag of Twizzlers. My grocery bill hasn't been under $110/wk for the past 2 months...that's for two people. I cook 2x a week and we clean up the leftovers. There are no fancy cuts of meat here, no exotic fruits or veggies. Winter is here and our gas costs for the furnace we've been told will go up at least 10% this year. We don't go anywhere. There is no entertainment budget.

Now, we're making it on my husband's salary alone. I'm unemployed again after having worked on a temporary job all summer and am looking for employment again. I know I'm getting rejections after interviews because of my age, and it makes me angry. I feel like we are actually to losing ground rather than just treading water. If something happens to my husband, I won't be able to get health insurance that is affordable. I'm a cancer survivor. I need to have annual tests and to take medication daily. He has a chronic health condition that requires medication and regular testing too. We're fortunate to have no real credit debt beyond our mortgage.

Anyway, when I was coming home, I just started crying. I don't feel optimistic any more. I'm frustrated beyond words at how Congress is making it harder and not better. At how * and Cheney are allowed to get away with these policies that genuinely hurt people. I'm sick of the freewheeling freetraders who treat the nation's welfare as a crap shoot.

You know, the working class of this nation doesn't ask for much in this world. Just fairness and to be treated with a little decency. What has been happening over the past several years is obscene. I'm tired of fighting and dealing with an outrage with each new day. I'm tired to the bone and sick of the empty promises and hollow hopes offered up to us by these people who buy their offices. I find myself getting angry at fellow voters who insist that we need to go along and continue to put these people in office just because the other side will offer worse. I'm sick of the endless rigged game with everchanging rules. It feels as though the earth is constantly shifting beneath us and a hole can open up and swallow us all.

and by that I mean working class people. The one's with $$$$ have a hard to getting how hard it is for the rest of us!

:hug:

I don't know how, but we'll all get through this together.

:hug: :hi:

There are a lot of people (myself included) standing right here with you. :hug:

I also feel like my family and I are sinking into an economic and political hole.

My mom was single parent and a waitress at a diner when I was a kid and we had lots of struggles, but she kept us afloat for the most part. My wife and I are college-educated, have professional jobs, don't live extravagantly at all, and struggling.

Like you, I also feel that people like us have no effective leadership in this country anymore. We've all just been left wide open for corporations and politicians to exploit, manipulate, and use us up and toss us aside when they've sucked us financially dry.

And I'm damn tired of feeling like all I am is just a fucking revenue source for these corporate bloodsuckers.

Sigh. My thoughts and prayers go out to you in your situation. They're not much, I know, but if we have solidarity in our situations we can at least try to keep each other from sinking too quickly.

I don't have any good answers for you. So much of the system is screwed up now. Everything is going to be harder for a long to come.

It's not your fault.



:hug:

written by practically anyone in my family (just not written as well). You are the salt of the Earth. You are the backbone of not just our nation, but of all nations. You may not realize it right now, but we need you. We need you now more than ever. And when we start kicking ass (and you know whose ass we will kick) you need to be at the front, with great big boots on!

:hug: :pals: :hi:

in similar situations. I'm also losing ground and dreading the winter as costs go ever higher and facing big heating bills. :hug:

It seems each group has a "one issue" and that is all that matters.

At the present it does seem at times both parties tend to neglect
the average working person. The GOP at least are honest they do
not pretend to be for working people.

It seems to me it would be so simple for some party to look at
each issue and consider its impact on the Middle Working Class.

Today they will pass a Free Trade Agreement with Peru. The Dems
will pay their dues to Corporate America as they kick Middle
Class in the teeth.

This issue is not even being discussed here at DU. This issue
will impact all Americans.

Will be thinking of your plight. Bless you.

boomers start to retire...any day now. It truly will be an employees market in the near to mid future. So you have that to look forward to.

It will be okay.

Take care of you.

Tend to forget the human cost of having to pick the lesser of two evils.

That pisses me off more than anything else I see here.

"No impeachment/removal/revolutions! I don't want my comfortable life to go away!"

I am wondering how I am going to pay for gas to get to PT appointments that cost $1.75 in gas per trip, adding an extra $16 in expenses for the month.

PG&E broke the shut-off valve to my natural ga heater (most likely due to old age) when I had them shut it off in the spring.

I will not have them fix it as the $25 a month that PG&E cost all summer is the max I can afford (survive 100's weather during summer w/out a/c) . I plan on wearing lots of long johns this winter. Luckily weather is still in the 80's here during the day...

My biggest expense is internet, but that is my lifeline so I will not cut that out.

I will just have to keep borrowing more from my BF until I can get out of this house and get a home where I won't have to say to a potential roommate that the property had a former meth lab on it. So far all have turned down the opportunity to live in a possibly contaminated environment.

Crying every day is normal for me lately.

To Australia, specifically. Lucky me, my company wants me to go there (with my family) for several years, which will get me out of the quotidian quagmire that our government-industrial complex has created.

I may have to fake some European accent and lie about my origins (much like our own country, Aussies do not agree with their government's Iraq policy), but at least I won't have to live under Schimpanski's shadow.

I too have no job and after over a year and a half nothing . Even interviews I used to get are not coming anymore . I know lot has to do with my age .

We buy nothing , we have cut back to just basics to survive .

It seems the reps toss out some sort of hope but this evaporates in seconds . The economy is shot and those doing well don't care .

I wonder about the people who once supported this horrific war who now claim they don't . are they changing sides because they were finally affected and are playing it safe , this is what I think .

People who are for a war or attack as was the case with Iraq don't suddenly have a change of heart .

I have no idea how things will ever change for the better now that the US is hated and the corporations have the control as does the military and medical industrial complex . Free trade killed us , how does one change this back to fair trade now . How do jobs suddenly pop up and fill the gap we have now .

Heart-felt, beautifully written and true to the bone. Any chance you can submit it as an op-ed somewhere? You're talking to the believers here.

I know that doesn't help much, but there are more of us then there are of them.

Change is inevitable.

Hang in there.

Let's face it, you -- and a whole hellava lot of other American -- are up against a wall right now, and we don't have an FDR who is willing and able to do what is necessary to get our country back on track.

Who the hell wouldn't be depressed and angry? The gods know I am. :shrug:

What can we do? I dunno. I used to believe that all we had to do was elect a good Democrat and all would be peachy -- I could give a sigh of relief and rest knowing things would be fairly okay.

I think the last few years have popped that particular bubble. With a vengance!

We are alway left with three essential powers: our vote, our voice, and our wallets.

I want you to do something for me: I want you to print out your post and fax it to all of your representatives -- local, state, and national. And I want you to write in big, black marker on the top "What are you going to do about this?" Guess what, I am going to do the same. I am going to be sending it to my Reps -- I am going to tell them, "This is from my friend -- what are you going to do about it?"

And I hope other DUers will do the same.

And then, come election day, I am going to vote only for candidates who I truly believe will do something to help us.

And then, come spring, I am going to talk to my neighborhood association about starting a communal "victory garden" where we can all grow and share food. I would love to start eating at least 50% of my food from such a garden. Fresh fruit and veggies -- especially good ones -- can be impossibly expensive to buy. I am buying a used bread maker to start making my own. I have rescued my Mom's yogurt maker from the back of a cupboard and will start making my own. It is my goal to become even more self-sufficient in every way I can, be it food, clothing, or energy. I feel the more self-sufficient I am the better I can weather the storm around me.

I wish I had a magic answer for you, but I don't. I sincerely hope that the next President has the courage, the insight, and the strength to do what needs doing -- be that person a Democrat or a Republican -- but I am not holding my breath. :(

and I know what you are saying, we are all stretching as much as we can

can help out? I know it is difficult to ask for help but darn it people need to. If you lived next door to me I would ask you and the husband over for dinner - if I knew about your situation. Is there someone like me living near you that would do the same if they knew? Remember that it makes people feel good to help people out. There is no shame in it.
Some churches have fellowship meals once a month. That's one meal you don't have to pay for if you attend a church that does that (you don't have to join). Bring one simple and cheap dish to share with everyone else. Or not if you can't afford it. No one is going to notice or care if they do. Take advantage of free stuff - free meals, free entertainment, etc. Your best bet for making your life better is not government - it is your friends, relatives, neighbors and mostly yourself. You are beaten down now but take some time to reflect on what you have going for you. If you have access to a counselor who can assist you, great - a pastor, a friend, whatever.

On the income/job front - keep trying. Think hard about what you can do and keep looking. Can you substitute teach at a school? A lot of schools have trouble finding substitutes. If you have the temperment for it it can pay fairly well. Is there anyway you would be eligible for social security? Or disability? Food stamps? Do you have some skill or hobby that could be turned into income? Do you have a place to grow your own vegetables in the summer time to improve your diet with little cost - or perhaps even sell some for income? Obviously I don't know your situation but I have to believe that you have some inner resources that you have not been able to tap for one reason or another.

You have a lot going for you. Most people in your situation would be up to their necks in credit card debt. So you are doing something right. You must have some good coping/management skills. Build on that.


On edit: HellHathNoFury has some good ideas - are there people in your neighborhood you can join together with - maybe have a communal garden or even a food buying coop - buy food in bulk or directly from producers and divvy it up. My wife and I have belonged to several food coops along the way when money was tight. It can really work. It doesn't have to be anything formal. It can be as simple as several families joining together to buy a beef cow and storing it in a communal freezer.

My partner has been out of work forever and I've been supporting the both of us. Haven't had a raise in years, although I work 50-60 hours a week (salary of course). I don't dare even think of looking for anything else in this job market.

Grocery and gas more every week, I am actively terrified at what it's going to cost to heat the house this year, keep putting off needed dental work and eye exam as I just can't afford it now.

My depression just keeps getting worse. I keep hoping that things will improve, but the last 7 years, things just keep getting worse and worse.

A thought that cheers me from time to time as I watch my fellow
Americans, the ones that voted for this mess, drown beside me.
Just think, some of them voted for their own demise!

Not that it helps US any, but still, I feel a smug
satisfaction knowing they now KNOW they've been screwed
by the people WE TRIED to tell them WOULD screw them.

On edit- hear that freeper trolls?
YOU ARE SCREWED TOO, and YOU voted to fuck YOUR families over.

Just sayin'
BHN
:hug:

and STILL finding it impossible to make ends meet.

:hug: Skidmore - you certainly have an empathetic ear with me and I hope your hope can spring eternal - just a year left of this jerk and his administration and perhaps we can vote in more progressives, too.

It really seems the only candidate I hear speaking to these issues in JE. I'm not religious at all, but Mathew 25 was always my favorite. When during that debate, when they were asked that wacky question about favorite quote from the bible, I was hoping someone would come up with that answer and when JE did, that cemented my support. Power to the PEOPLE.

And Skidmore - my sympathies. This is so dreadful and entirely unnecessary that you and too many other hard-working, honest, deserving Americans are suffering so. It's just so UNNECESSARY!!! All that money we are throwing away on the neoCONS' wet dreams - so UTTERLY unnecessary. It's a disgrace, and it's a sin.

I was listening to Thom Hartmann today, and he was talking about an Arizona journalist's columns - one of which, in particular, was based on a phone machine message this columnist received from a distraught woman at the end of her rope - illnesses and job layoffs and other setbacks that were not their fault or their doing or their negligence were pulling them under. And this woman wanted to tell SOMEBODY in the media who might report or write about it that she existed. That she was here. That she was in this horrible predicament. And that she knew there were millions like her in the same trouble. And her lament was that this was SUCH a huge problem and SUCH a great crisis afflicting legion upon legion of Americans - and NOTHING was being reported about it, NOTHING was being discussed about it, NOTHING was being investigated in public about it, and certainly NOTHING was being done about it. She felt alone, isolated, invisible, forgotten, even though she knew (as we all do) how many millions of others in this country are in the same boat. And as her phone message continued, her voice gradually grew sadder and more desolate, more desperate, and more choking with tears. This woman wound up crying into the phone - into some reporter's answering machine.

It's a FUCKING OUTRAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:grr: :mad: :banghead: :nuke:

it's not fair. You deserve better. :hug:

that we should have bankrupted a few years back when we were living as the working poor. Then, they cut hubbys hours for this week and next so now I'm feeling anxious about the coming holidays. When I went shopping for a few things earlier today, I was so NOT in the holiday spirit and doubt if I ever will be this year, not just because of money concerns but because I'm freaked out by what's happening to this country I love so much. I would really like to skip Christmas or at best, just phone it in, but that won't work for our kid who loves the holidays.

Then to top it off, I just found out that Rosie O'Donnell will NOT be on MSNBC and people on DU are posting utter crap that they are happy because the didn't want to see her back on TV. Like WTF?! Is this freeperville? Are the freepers behind Rosie getting the axe by MSNBC? I wouldn't be surprised! Do people really not understand how dire the situation this country is in? Rosie is like one of the LONE voices for the people! Who in the hell else is speaking out right now?! Olberman?! He's great, but people don't identify with him like they do Rosie-she is one of us. We are so close to living in a dictatorTOTship and people not only want to stifle the few voices we have out there but they want to gloat about it too! Fuck!!!
:argh: :argh: :argh:

:rant:


p.s. To the OP: Sorry for the downer post. Just know you are not alone. :grouphug:

:hug:

but at the same time, it reminds me to be thankful for what I have...Most of we working people never wanted to be rich or have things easy....we just wanted the means to make ends meet from one month to the next...something is seriously wrong, when so many people are in a spot like you are, at the same time we realize that we could all be where you are, tomorrow or next week...Nothing is guaranteed anymore, nothing...

I wish you luck...and I hope things change for all those having problems....sometimes we just have to sit down and cry...then pick ourselves up, and go on....try to take each day as it comes....and please try not to lose hope...

oh, and I so agree with your thoughts on the political scene these days.....we must not put the same kind back into office that is there now...no matter what party they represent.... :hug: wb

So many of us are. Go to the second hand bookstore and get the books "Tightwad Gazette I, II, and III". I got mine for $1.00 each. They should help you some. I get depressed with the way the economy and administration are. I think things are only going to get worse...even with a Dem in office. I will pray for you tonight (twice). Hang in there.:grouphug:

:scared:

However, I do think things will improve when we elect a Democrat. I hope it's the "right" Democrat.

And, I am sorry Skidmore.

You and others like you. I know there are many and will be more. But we're okay, for the moment, and I was counting myself lucky for that and thinking about those who aren't so fortunate at this point. The idea of it getting even worse scares me most for all the little ones out there. They surely don't deserve what's coming. The only ones who do are the ones who created this mess, and they've ensured they won't be touched by it.

Why the Dems are playing along is incomprehensible to me. If they're hoping to be viewed as saviors, they've pretty much burned their bridges. They've let this happen with their silence, and they won't be able to pull a Clinton and dig this country out the way he did, after election '08. Yes, I fear it's going to be that bad. It's going to take a major coming together of communities, unseen since WWII, to get us all through this.

If knowing you aren't alone in your dismal thoughts gives you any solace, then remember there are others of us out here who are feeling the same.

I'm a college educator myself and what gets me down (in addition to the constant gnawing of a chronically inflamed esophagus) is the deadness in 90 percent of our students' eyes.

Is anyone in your area hiring for the Holidays? Target is in my area and I was thinking of applying at their Job Fair tomorrow. That would be maybe a couple of months of pay.

It just makes me want to go steal something from Walmart...they say they're not stopping people if it's less than $20.

I am so anti 'da man.'

This too will pass :grouphug: