Chief
01-11-2008, 04:28 PM
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-econ11jan11,1,4127932.story?amp;track=crosspromo&coll=la-headlines-nation&ctrack=1&cset=true
Table talk among average Americans mirrors the anxiety reflected on the campaign trail and in Washington: Times are getting tougher.
By Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 11, 2008
SEDALIA, COLO. -- The numbers stopped adding up some time ago, and every month, Shane Covelli gets angrier.
He sells heavy equipment on commission, and construction firms aren't buying. Covelli has sold his Corvette, stopped taking his wife out to dinner, pulled his son from the ski team. He has withdrawn nearly $50,000 from his retirement accounts and started taking extra work, laying carpet and pouring concrete evenings and weekends. Still, he owes more than he earns, and he can't seem to fix it.
"It'll take the country four or five years to dig out of this," said Covelli, 44. "By then, I'll be bankrupt."
*SNIP*
In Atlanta, Bernadette Smith, 31, has watched her credit-card debt climb to nearly $40,000. That's more than her annual take-home pay, though she works 13 hours a day at two jobs. Once obsessed with the latest style of designer jeans, Smith now shops for clothes only at Wal-Mart, or maybe Target. She has come to consider a dinner at Ruby Tuesday a splurge.
*SNIP*
The faltering economy costs Leslie Garza, 18, nearly an hour of sleep each morning; her mom won't spend the gas money to drive her to downtown Los Angeles for her job scooping ice cream. So she sets the alarm early and takes the bus. Garza recently canceled her cellphone service to stretch her $450-a-week paycheck.
**SCHNIPP**
:eek:
Does anyone else see the problems with this that I do?
to be fair, Rush was all over this very article on his show today, and I thought it was worth mentioning here. Go re-read the red parts again, and let's talk...
:rolleyes:
Table talk among average Americans mirrors the anxiety reflected on the campaign trail and in Washington: Times are getting tougher.
By Stephanie Simon, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
January 11, 2008
SEDALIA, COLO. -- The numbers stopped adding up some time ago, and every month, Shane Covelli gets angrier.
He sells heavy equipment on commission, and construction firms aren't buying. Covelli has sold his Corvette, stopped taking his wife out to dinner, pulled his son from the ski team. He has withdrawn nearly $50,000 from his retirement accounts and started taking extra work, laying carpet and pouring concrete evenings and weekends. Still, he owes more than he earns, and he can't seem to fix it.
"It'll take the country four or five years to dig out of this," said Covelli, 44. "By then, I'll be bankrupt."
*SNIP*
In Atlanta, Bernadette Smith, 31, has watched her credit-card debt climb to nearly $40,000. That's more than her annual take-home pay, though she works 13 hours a day at two jobs. Once obsessed with the latest style of designer jeans, Smith now shops for clothes only at Wal-Mart, or maybe Target. She has come to consider a dinner at Ruby Tuesday a splurge.
*SNIP*
The faltering economy costs Leslie Garza, 18, nearly an hour of sleep each morning; her mom won't spend the gas money to drive her to downtown Los Angeles for her job scooping ice cream. So she sets the alarm early and takes the bus. Garza recently canceled her cellphone service to stretch her $450-a-week paycheck.
**SCHNIPP**
:eek:
Does anyone else see the problems with this that I do?
to be fair, Rush was all over this very article on his show today, and I thought it was worth mentioning here. Go re-read the red parts again, and let's talk...
:rolleyes: