I remember watching films in high school, about the depression when bankers would go out and kill themselves over the money they lost. I thought, what an idiotic thing to do. It’s only money. Now that I’m in that situation I understand why they were jumping off buildings. You work your entire adult life to accomplish something and then find that someone else takes control of your life and screws it all up. You think that all will be fine, then you figure out that no amount of praying, begging, or even cussing God will get you anywhere.
The truth is that banks won’t work with you. Employers won’t hire you if you have financial problems. You can’t get health insurance, car insurance, life insurance, or find a place to rent. The talking heads blame it on you. It is your fault. It’s not the banks fault, or your former employer’s fault who laid you off when they moved your job overseas. It’s your fault. If you were a better person, you would not be in this situation.
Three years ago I had no debt except my house and $250,000 in investments and savings. My employer decided that they could save a nickel if they moved the entire company…that’s the entire company…to Ireland. You see…the Irish government picks up 60% of the salaries for IT workers. This program, oddly enough, is funded by my own United States government to promote High tech jobs in developing countries. Evidently Belfast is developing. And the Irish work for pennies on the dollar, it didn’t matter that their work in this area is worth the same. I’m not saying the Irish aren’t hard workers. I’m saying that there is no way you can move a company to another country based entirely on the bottom line. It doesn’t work.
So for the last three years I have been doing contract work for different companies. Their are no jobs where I live. I would imagine that 100,000 jobs have left the community. Intel, Hewlet Packard, Agelant, Verizon, and many others have abandoned Colorado Springs. Verizon (who was once WorldCom) employed thousands, and now barely has 800 workers. So there are no jobs to be had. When I explained this to my creditors, I was asked why I didn’t prepare. Prepare? I made it three years unemployed, how prepared did they want me to be? Then when they asked why I didn’t just sell my house. That’s when I had enough.
OK…here’s why numb nut: In the last three years my house has declined in value to less than I paid for it eight years ago. I live in a small community west of Colorado Springs with over 1000 homes in foreclosure. I can buy four times the house for what I owe right now. I can’t sell a property that is worth less than I owe. I tried that; you won’t let me. Since that is the case, and there is no work I have had to live on savings. Because of companies like AIG, and Goldman Sachs the value of my investments declined 60 percent. In addition each time I took money out of my retirment I was dinged by the company for ten percent of the investment. You see, for IRAs and 401ks the companies that caused your financial ruin get to take another 10% of any funds you remove for letting them destroy your nest egg. So to paraphrase King Henry, I was screwed by the banks, employers, and the government all at once and at the same time. And to top it off, since I had been actually paying my bills, I qualify for no assitance what so ever.
So…when people tout that I, and others, are only in this situation because we didn’t prepare, I get a little irritated. I didn’t create this. I prepared. I saved. Still I am now about to lose everything I worked for.
And I now understand why people jump off buildings.