Isn’t this heartbreaking? The country is now even more starkly divided into haves and have nots, and most of them are people who followed the rules but got screwed, anyway – and if that’s not a recipe for social upheaval, I don’t know what is:
In Forsyth County’s rolling subdivisions near Atlanta, Easy Street seems to run forever. What recession? The average household here earns $88,000 – the highest in Georgia, 13th highest in America.
But for more families here, prosperity is a pretense. The job’s lost, the savings are gone, and the big house is either in foreclosure or on its way. And just keeping food on the table is a struggle.
So Forsyth’s newly-needy file into local food banks.
Yesterday’s givers have become today’s takers.
“People lost their jobs and went from great incomes to no incomes,” said Sandy Beaver, Sandy Beaver leads The Place, Forsyth County’s biggest non-profit center for social services. She calls those who visit The Place “the new poor.”
The Place’s main mission: Feed the hungry.
“Who are the new poor in this county?” asked Strassmann.
“The new poor could be you, me, your neighbor, your church member, somebody who has been affected by the economy,” she said. “Many of our people who have come for assistance used to be our donors. And they’ll say, ‘I never thought I’d have to do this, never in my wildest dreams.'”
“People who two, three four years ago, the hunger would have been unimaginable?” asked Strassmann.
This underlines the chant by the OWS movement that income inequality in this country is a huge problem. As is the obscene accumulation of wealth by the 1% over the last 30 years—-since Reagan. Cutting the military budget by $600 billion dollars over the next ten years as the failure of the Supercommittee will have us do is waaaay too little. The military budget should be cut by at least $3 trillion dollars over the next ten years.
After what I’ve been through these past five years, I’ve got no sympathy. Empathy (understanding), yes. Sympathy, no.
Since Forsyth county keeps electing hard right wing politicians, they get what they deserve. Without Atlanta, it’d be another backwater, but they sure don’t want to help the town that feeds them. (400 north miraculously narrows at the county line, yet the continue to complain about traffic). No sympathy here.
Well, that’s always the unspoken subtext in these stories, isn’t it? As someone once said, the chickens are coming home to roost. But as we know, hardship is never real to the conservative mindset until it hits home.
Well, I hope they receive sympathy and support from their far-right neighbors.
Most of us will be there soon if something isn’t done (which, barring the complete breakdown of civil society, i don’t see happening). What was that saying?: If your neighbors lose their jobs it’s a recession. If you lose your job it’s a depression.
Besides the great income disparity, don’t forget climate change is about to get worse too as the years go on and we do nothing to change our ways.
I saw it coming in the 90-s………………………………….DeLay, Feith, boner, ……………2000 was the coup de etat that started with the 1%ers who LOVED their good friend, HITLER!!!!!!, and didn-t want FDR to go to war against their GOOD FRIEND HITLER, because it would cut into their profits!!! Gen. Smedley Butler turned them in, but since prosecution doesn-t happen to 1%ers, they had families, like MF Geo. who carried out his father-s dream.
I-m living comfortably enough in Mx. That is the only place someone like me can live on SS.