“My God, America’s Heart Is Bleeding!”

I read a very thought provoking, if not sad article today. It’s about the great ‘American dream’ falling apart. There seems to be nowhere to run, nowhere to hide and nowhere to sleep thanks to the mismanagement of those who ran the economy aground.

This is about Santa Barbara, with posh multi million dollar homes nestled between the Santa Ynez mountains and the serene beaches of the Pacific Ocean. But for many here, the great American dream has turned sour and now seems a distant mirage.

Here’s an excerpt from the article written in the Hindu that describes the pain the American middle class is going through today.

In a car park across the street from luxury mansions, the evening brings a strange sight. A few cars arrive and take up spaces in different corners. In each car, a woman, perhaps a few pets, bags of possessions and bedding. Across the street from homes with bedrooms to spare, these are Santa Barbara’s car sleepers. Homeless within the last year, they are a direct consequence of America’s housing market collapse.

In this woman-only parking lot, Bonnee, who gives only her first name wears a smart blue dress and has a business-like demeanor. A year ago, she was making a healthy living as, ironically, a real estate agent. But when people stopped buying houses, her commission-based income dried up, and, like many clients, she too was unable to pay her mortgage. Soon she found herself with nowhere to live but her 4x4.

Piles of blankets are in the back of the vehicle. Personal documents are stuffed into seat pockets. Books litter the back seat. A make-up bag and gym membership card (she washes at the gym) are in the front. With her constantly, are photos of her former life. She can’t quite believe her situation. “My God, America’s heart is bleeding,” she tells me. Tears fill her eyes. “I know it’ll get better. But it feels sad. I really fought hard.”

A medium-sized 4x4 pulls into the parking lot and 66-year-old Barbara Harvey gets out. She opens the back door and two large Golden Retrievers jump out. Barbara begins her nightly routine. She moves a few bags from the boot to the front seat and takes out pyjamas and a carton of yoghurt (her dinner). She then arranges blankets in the back of the car.

Since April, she and her dogs, Ranger and Phoebe, have spent every night in her car. It’s cramped, but she says if they sleep diagonally they can all fit. The car park lets the car sleepers enter from 7 p.m., local public toilets close at dusk. As a result, Barbara says she doesn’t drink any liquids after she arrives. In the mornings, she showers at a friend’s house.

“Being poor is like this cancer, and now this cancer is filtering up to the middle-class,” she says. “I don’t care how strong you are, it’s a breakdown of the human psyche when you start to lose everything you have. These people have worked their whole lives to have a house and now it’s crumbling and it’s in ashes and how devastating is that?” she says. “It’s not an American dream, it’s an American nightmare.”

It’s sad, but there’s always light at the end of the tunnel. The question is, how long before they get to see the light again?


Shouldn’t those CEOs who’ve grounded the economy with their greed and
their non taxable multi-million dollar pay checks be sleeping here instead?

Read the full article here… Car sleepers, the new U.S. homeless

Isn't it odd how our attention has been pulled away from all those intriguing topics many of us have been interested in for so long? (UFOs, exotic technologies, paranormal, etc.) I think that says alot about the magnitude of what's happening here. That article is indeed sad - what's even more sad is that it's only the beginning.

I fear we have seen it throughout history. When a superpower falls, it falls hard.

Could this be the decline of America? Who knows... after all, they got through the Great Depression so maybe things will pick up again after a while.

And no, it shouldn't be CEOs with high paychecks who are homeless- they were merely paid market rate for the top talent that they have.

It should be the tyrannic Federal Reserve, JP Morgan et al who surreptitiously control the American money market that should be homeless.

Yes a real change of pace is going to happen to alot of people. Alot of people are going to get a taste of what its like for those who have lived this way for a long time.
Maybe this will help others have a little empathy for those with less.
Prehaps the blood that spills from the heart of America will show those that have had so much, take a good look at those who have always had less.
Why bail out these people who are already so rich, they could live well within reason, and still have a great quality of life!
Why not bail out the American people for a change? Its our money!
We worked for it!
I think anyone who has payed in atleast 10k a year in taxes should get that money back! Just 10,000$ dollars to help with the pain! Thats not asking for much back, when they expect each of us who work our jobs to pay them, and bail them out.
If they where really concerned with us, they would propose a plan like that or something along those lines.

But those of us who have been bleeding all our lives will keep on trucking.
We will get by.. We always have. Its never been easy, and its not going to get any easier.

You see when I was young I grew up in a middle class home. My parents seperated, and my mom took us kids to Florida.
We lived in a Van for 2 years of that time.. No AC, barely enough food to eat.. And never did go "school shopping". I got a job when I was 13 to help pay the bills and helping my mother get a home.. Which she still lives in to this day. And now I am back living at that home.. 31 years old, and I am forced to go back home, because I can not make it on my own.
I think we all have our bleeding heart tales of woe and saddness.
But I want to make a point with this.

Theres alot of people out here with nothing else to lose.
If everything comes crashing down.. Those with nothing, lose nothing. As they already lost it all a while back.

Its those middle class families, and those families on the brink of being poor that are going to hurt the most.. While the rich fence themselfs off from the blood filled streets.

Will they care enough to Bail us the people out when we need it?
Or will they just let us bleed to death?

$700 billion! To bail out erring FIs and their CEOs? From the tax dollars ordinary Americans are paying? That’s obscene, to say the least! Thank God, good sense has prevailed and it's fallen through.

If the treasury could cough up the $700 billion to bail out the very institutions that have grounded the economy by greed and rampant corruption, why couldn’t it have spent this amount on:

* Infrastructure,
* Health care,
* Stabilizing green house gasses,
* Education?

And let’s not forget the almost $1,000,000,000,000 spent on the war in Iraq for its oil!

I am sad for the people suffering, but USA had this comming for some years now. It has all been planned, its so sad to see these damn elites doing what they want and treating the rest of us like sheep.

They do not want prosperity and welfare for the people, that would empower them. They want people to suffer and be poor, so that they can control them easily.

Earth has more than enough for all of us, but the way we rape her is a willing act to destabilize the whole world. Around 1000 people of this world (the elite) earn more than all Africa. This is who we are as a society.

The next revolution will destroy the current society from its bones.

I sure hope the next revolution is a revolution of non-compliance, instead of us killing each other while the rich people sit back in their estates and play both sides. Sad, isn't it? all these foreclosed homes, all these empty condos and lofty apartment complexes, all these rich people with large houses with many rooms and few occupants, also with several large estates which stay vacant for most of the year. I reckon there's plenty of space for people to have shelter, but... the banking cartels would rather have people rotting out in the streets than to live in the homes which they STOLE FROM US because we aren't able to pay their ridiculous property taxes or pay back the mortgages we were forced to apply for... even if we've been living in the house since it was built in the 60s.... doesn't matter. All that matters to those evil goddamn criminals is oppression of the ignorant masses... well they made the masses ignorant in the first place. It's all about power and control. POWER AND CONTROL! We need to show them what suffering is. If we can't beat them with force, maybe we'll all just have to stop complying with their fear tactics. I would be willing to starve to death in protest if I knew it would damage them permanently.

I don't know what to do. I don't know if people have hope, having been reduced to mere savage animals by all the garbage we've been programmed with since birth.

It makes me so sick to believe it really is this way.

She has a 4x4, two golden retrievers, and won't get another job?

Well, if you say so.

Originally posted by Johnmike
She has a 4x4, two golden retrievers, and won't get another job?

Well, if you say so.

I think that there is a syndrome going on in CA where people just can't separate themselves from the lifestyle and neighborhood to which they've become accustomed. They'd rather sleep in their car among the rich than face reality and take a lesser job in a poorer area. If they'd look ahead and begin to rebuild now, they'd be much better off when the real collapse comes, the dollar collapse.

reply to post by Johnmike



In light of your obvious compassion, perhaps you know of a job she can apply for ? Shouldn't be too difficult to locate her. Then you could help her out. Lot's of jobs being advertised where you live ? Gee, then you know how to help out the needy. Don't waste time posting .. hop to it, huh?

Thanks for posting this.

The whole world needs to see what is realy going on in he US.

The US is trying to rule the world but refuses to take care of their own people.

A true sad story.

Originally posted by Johnmike
She has a 4x4, two golden retrievers, and won't get another job?

Well, if you say so.

Hmmm...Can she? Are there any? 12 million Americans are now jobless. The 'Q' is growing and she's toward the end of the line. So it would probably take her another year to land one. In the meanwhile, food stamps it is! But then she's got her pets too. Are they authorized food coupons too?

On the plus side, the US still manages to find housing for the 30+ million immigrants, legal and illegal, who have come here in the last decades.

reply to post by mikesingh


I strongly feel that the spening habit of U S people is the cause of all turmoil. If only they had saved if for a rainy day they will bot in in the osition they are in. Why should husand and with with 2 children have 4 bed room house with a pool. None in India can afford to have luxury of 4 bed and pool. If onlythe couple had planned to stay in one bed rook apt without pool the money could have been saved for them to fall back upon on a rainy day.

I agree with the poster a couple of notches up.

Americans have a tendency to just remain fixated and disbelieve this... too many years of being spoiled.

It's been 15 months since I was divorced I gave away my Car, my house, all my belongs but a computer, some clothes and a few books, my credit was ruined, I was at... 0

and in that time, I have made it back to being in business, live in a very wealthy part of town and am going to pass a 6 figure income next year despite the recession/depression...

and NO

I didn't get a Loan, no one helped

So how did I do it?

I didn't hold onto my old life...

#1 I got rid of my Pets... sorry, sounds mean, in Vietnam... those two dogs would be food... Homeless in your old neighborhood with 2 dogs... is self induced homelessness

#2 Roomates... find a ROOM, 300.00 to move in... Roomates rarely do credit checks...

#3 How can I get a Job for the 300.00? Get a Cell Phone pre paid... 40.00 at circle K you can answer job ads...

How do I get that... I asked for it on a corner... took 2 hrs... I had a phone

#4 There are no Jobs!!!! BS, get over yourself, go to a telemarketing agancy, go to fast food... 2 jobs at a McDonalds and a burgerking will keep you inside and with enough money

#5 I can't find a roommate...

use your feet, get on a bus... go to a College Area...

That's what I did... it was FUN, like Old School... I had a great time, hung around with optomistic youth that knew every trick in the book... Dinner at Happy Hour, free booze and etc... great roommates... everyone just as poor as you lol... at 38, I had more fun for 6 months on no money than I had when i actually was undergrad...

plenty of cheepo jobs available too...

and

If nothing pans out well... you can always ride out the few years of the depression by getting financial aid and student loans...

#6 Don't excpect your old job back

#7 start a business... for a time when I needed real money and the judge was after me for child support... I did yard work, and you'd be suprised how many 10's and 20's you can make... knocking on doors if your clean and present yourself well...

#8 But I can't work because i'm not clean and I can't sleep

2 answers... from experience

YOUTH HOSTEL + Gym Membership...

24 hr fitness gave me no money down for 30 days and 30.00 a month, shower, locker, health and well being

Hostel was 15.00 a day

#9 But I can't even afford 15.00 a day until I get paid...

Sleep in the park... in the Am work afternoon and eveng shift...

Been there too and... you can't sleep outside at night, but no one bothers a person on a towel at the park or beach during the day...

Remember it's 300 for a room, your talking about 3-4 weeks not a lifetime


The rest?

Get that room, work 2 jobs and Turn on the Internet to offer additional service...

took 6 months for me to be back in action from that point... Actually only needed a job for a few weeks... tons of ways to make money on the net

and that's it...

Do what you HAVE to do and have fun doing it

there is no... place you have to be at a certain age, you don't need money to have fun... every 18-25 year old knows this... it's adults that sometimes forget

Homeless is a great time to... swim, jog, exercise, meditate, read at the library... tons of ways to meet people, get hook ups solve your problem

Only YOU can allow depression and a sense of despair to fit in...

a Tent... is 25.00 at a sporting goods store...

The economy might stink but there are tons of moronic jobs and with a few bucks...a ton of business you can create...

I'm sorry, but if you need to work 2 months and buy yourself a hot dog stand... do it, more than one person fresh off the boat has bought a home and lived the american dream that way



All i'm saying IS:

I have done this... and it wasn't business skills, or charm or credit or loans

it was attitude and being very frugal

and I made it FUN

38 years old I was...running around with and dateing College Girls, going to parties for 5.00 for a cup and a keg lol... honestly more popular than when i was undergrad... I worked at a really stupid job with stoners on a phone lol...

and REMEMBER... you did this once before when you were in school or first moved out... if you have to do it over again...enjoy it and learn from the mistakes you made in round 1

and

go to a college and then when you can don't because your poor... move to the ghetto, move to a rich neighborhood... you don't need depressed people when your depressed...or crime or malaise, or the wrong kinds of dope in your vicinity

the difference in rent in a nice community and a poor one is negligable... especially if you SHARE the expense

Churches give food on the weekend

Crappy jobs are still jobs...delight, in the first booger you put in a burger lol, get stoned or have a drink to deal with it...the kids will be also lol

If worse comes to worse...

heck steal a camera and go on a 2 year photo taking Journey across america and document something for a coffe table book

J K Rowling wrote Harry Potter One on Welfare

I got well off in under 18 months in horrific economic times... with an angry woman out to destroy my life and a justice system that has no mercy not helping matters one bit...

Is being a Bum bad?

No...

It depends how you do it

I followed the dead when I was 18 for 6 months I was a Bum

I also learned how to make 400.00 a day selling bracelets ... on the street

I met Bums who... made enough money for a 2 bdrm apt on manhattans upper west side

Interesting huh?

What is a Bum? Only a person who has lost hope...

a guy who showers at the beach in San diego and works nights isn't a Bum... I know, from experience, he's a Surfer

Why not be a Surfer? Ride the wave literally?

If you work nights and surf and slep on the beach by day are you a Bum... or a Rad dude who actually has girlfriends and a semblance of a life...

and surfing taught me alot...about rideing waves

The main thing is...

You g-d damned don't control the wave, you ride it... that's all you ever can do!!!!!

Or you choose to drown...

There's always Alaska...unlimited jobs and room and board in every cannery there is... nothing to spend your money on but beer and a place to sleep...



Why do I know al this?

Because I take advantage of being an American... it's a great thing, this is a cpaitalist country and if you play the game you will go broke sometimes...

I don't feel bad for America, the companies should NOT be bailed out and I never was homeless for more than a few days...

I have been a surfer, I have done the canneries, I have worked some really dumb jobs, I have been a student...more than once on Uncle Sams dime...

and I have mostly been rich

Because when I have hit the street... I saw it as an opportunity for an adventure...

and that's all this is...

so if anyone is broke and reads this...

Diego is nice this time of year... a surf board is 35.00 on sale and... the drive through needs night staff I promise you... a depression can't last very long and... the ocean is nice and the dolphins say hello to you and it's beautiful...

The peace core could use people... Alaska has Jobs... grab a Camera... get a Laptop... Tempe AZ is warm year round and has city wide Internet on the streets... lots of money on the net

there's tons of options

and anywhere you are... there are young people who...haven't been spoiled yet doing bong hits in houses that will let you grab a room for a few hundred bucks if your cool and not an angry bum about the whole thing...

But me... being a surfer was best, ended up a surfer when my print business went down after digital printers became available...

Best year of my life

aside form this past year

Don't worry... being free of possesions is...the greatest thing that can ever happen to you... if you let it happen to you


I feel Great for America! Many of us will know how to be happy with Nothing again! It will... reinvigorate us... make us better from our illnesses

Walk the Earth... it's beautiful...

mopusvindictus! A super post, but what I was impressed more with was your positive attitude! But how many would even contemplate doing what you have done? How many possess that attitude to get their hands dirty in order to get back on their feet again?

I feel Great for America! Many of us will know how to be happy with Nothing again! It will... reinvigorate us... make us better from our illnesses
Walk the Earth... it's beautiful...

The question is how many will be happy with nothing again?

Cheers!



[edit on 2-10-2008 by mikesingh]

and USA will continue to bleed , till it collapses like Rome


USa has destroyed several nations and murdered millions, so now god is destroying USA

Mike I believe there wont be many who will be happy with nothing, with none of their possessions.

If anything maybe this will bring us back to what is important, family, little things not plasma TV's and SUV's.

My grandparents were depression kids, I have watched them my whole life scrimp, not waste a thing, and it always made me laugh. I had plenty and didnt understand why grandma would hang ziplock bags on the clothesline and reuse aluminum foil. I am not laughing anymore, and I am sure glad that I watched and put all the frugal ideas of my grandparents in my mind. We will have to learn how to deal with less, and do more with what we have.

We are spoiled, if..IF we can make it through this I think our country will return to the greatness that our grandparents and great grandparents made it.

I am sorry but it is very hard for me to not tell all the people that have been saying all this time, the economy is fine, we arent in a recession, on and on. It is hard for me to not say I told you so. However we have to band together, be good to eachother, be peaceful not violent. Otherwise the engineers behind this will get what they want.

im sorry but can someone help me understand?? From what I read she wears a blue dress. she is not crazy she is just homeless. It did not say she was jobless, it said she was homeless. If im wrong correct me. She expected to make X amount of dollars for 2008 instead she made y amount of dollars. so homeless doesnt mean jobless and thats the problem.
I have a great idea why dont we make the irs give back all the money they stole from her. for her whole life??? if we did that she wouldnt be homeless any more. do you get it? and I am disgusted that you blame hardworking law abiding citizens a dog lover at that, c'mon man we dont eat dog we train them. I made my point in the first sentence im just rambling cause im so pissed off that you all have the "answer"

wow this is really making me pissed off, the whole thing stinks. someone is effing us over, and you all need to quit blaming hardworking americans.