Sums up the unemployment "lifestyle"....

[n2doc]

[MNDemNY]

1. That dude does not look too bad off...

He's still OPENING the envelopes!

[imdjh]

5. Wow. That really captures it.

I've been in financial trouble before, but not to the point of not opening the envelopes. Your comment reminded me of a friend in Baltimore. He was showing me around his flat: "... and this is my dining room", turns and points to a pile of unopened mail on the table "and those are my bills".

[FirstLight]

2. there's more in between the lines...

Between Health Premium & food... lets see: Heat, Electricity, Phone, Car gas, (car insurance long gone), kids clothes, school supplies, paper & ink (for printing resumes), the list of things we gave up to SURVIVE goes on & on...

and those of us who have been working poor or 'on the brink' of poverty have lived here for YEARS

[HughBeaumont]

3. Just the unemployed?

There are more than a few EMPLOYED people that have this same problem.

Obviously not to discount the problems unemployed people face; I was unemployed for five months in 2001 . . . during the FIRST Bewsh recession . . . and it was scary. I don't know what we would have done if we were a single earner family.

But it's painfully evident that due to offshoring, downsizing, career devaluation or just plain stinginess, wages simply haven't kept up with the cost of living these past three decades. That problem has very little to do with "runaway consumerism" and more with "necessity profiteering" (housing, education, transportation, food, etc). Prices on everything have soared, unlike our salaries.

[truedelphi]

10. +10 n/t

[The River]

4. I'm Almost There

and I just found out my med insurance just went
from 500+ to 800+ beginning Nov 1. It's a 56% increase.

[Carni]

9. I wonder if people would be better off quitting going on medicaid

I say this flippantly, but I have often wondered!

[Walk away]

11. You don't get to "go" on medicaid if you don't have a job.

You might if you are completely indigent. Medicaid is a dream for most people on the edge or in poverty unless they lose everything.

[truedelphi]

12. If you don't have anything, then you can get County paid medical benefits

However, if you still have your house, or a savings or retirement fund, you probably cannot. (I think if
your house is worth less than you paid for it, you might also have a shot at it.)

One good thing Obama has done is to declare ALL the Counties in the USA as emergency counties. So that the system cannot say, "Well you are over fifty and no one will hire you, but since the County itself has 6% unemployment, you need to look for work and quit your whining."

Right now, if you have exhausted everything, your County social workers will help you out and it's a big relief.

[The River]

13. I'm Already Laid Off

UI will end soon.
Maybe then it's food stamps and ?

[Walk away]

6. But they're not counting me. Self employed and not eligible for...

unemployment or medicaid when my leg was crushed during an accident last year. Four months in bed, in pain and praying everyday that my crappy health insurance would hold out until I could at least get around on crutches. Then the "economy" hit and things went from bad to worse. I borrowed over thirty thousand dollars from friends and relitives to keep up with the mortgage and the medical bills.

I am clawing my way back twelve months later. Hurting everyday and now without insurance. I am going to make it somehow no matter how much it hurts.

There are so many of us out there who work and pay taxes and own homes and there isn't any safty net at all out there. I was lucky to have some generous people who were able to help but even that ends at some point.

[bvar22]

7. Thats OK. The Democrats are going to fix it.

The Health Insurance Premium will become mandatory, so you won't have to agonize over the next thing to scratch out.

[Walk away]

8. If they can find the money in my budget they can have it. n/t