This is what happened when I drove my Mercedes to pick up food stamps

[mfcorey1]

Sara Bareilles played softly through the surround-sound speakers of my husband’s 2003 Mercedes Kompressor as I sat idling at a light. I’d never been to this church before, but I could see it from where I was, across from an old park, abandoned in the chilly September air. The clouds hung low as I pulled the sleek, pewter machine into the lot. But I wasn’t going to pray or attend services. I was picking up food stamps.

Even then, I couldn’t quite believe it. This wasn’t supposed to happen to people like me.

* * *

I grew up in a white, affluent suburb, where failure seemed harder than success. In college, I studied biology and journalism. I worked for good money at a local hospital, which afforded me the opportunity to network at journalism conferences. That’s how I landed my first news job as an associate producer in Hartford, Conn. I climbed the ladder quickly, free to work any hours in any location for any pay. I moved from market to market, always achieving a better title, a better salary. Succeeding.

2007 was a grand year for me. I moved back home from San Diego, where I’d produced ‘Good Morning San Diego.’ I quickly secured my next big gig, as a producer in Boston for the 6 p.m. news. The pay wasn’t great, but it was more than enough to support me. And my boyfriend was making good money, too, as a copy editor for the Hartford Courant.

When I found out I was pregnant in February 2008, it was a shock, but nothing we couldn’t handle. Two weeks later, when I discovered “it” was actually “they” (twins, as a matter of fact), I panicked a little. But not because I worried for our future. My middle-class life still seemed perfectly secure. I just wasn’t sure I wanted to do that much work.

The weeks flew by. My boyfriend proposed, and we bought a house. Then, just three weeks after we closed, the market crashed. The house we’d paid $240,000 for was suddenly worth $150,000. It was okay, though — we were still making enough money to cover the exorbitant mortgage payments. Then we weren’t.

* * *

Two weeks before my children were born, my future husband found himself staring at a pink slip. The days of unemployment turned into weeks, months, and, eventually, years.

Then my kids were born, six weeks early. They were just three pounds each at birth, barely the length of my shoe. We fed them through a little tube we attached to our pinky fingers because their mouths weren’t strong enough to suckle. We spent 10 days in the hospital waiting for them to increase in size. They never did. Try as I might, I couldn’t get my babies to put on weight. With their lives at risk, I switched from breast milk to formula, at about $15 a can. We went through dozens a week.

In just two months, we’d gone from making a combined $120,000 a year to making just $25,000 and leeching out funds to a mortgage we couldn’t afford. Our savings dwindled, then disappeared.

So I did what I had to do. I signed up for Medicaid and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children.

It’s not easy. To qualify, you must be pregnant or up to six months postpartum. I had to fill out at least six forms and furnish my Social Security card, birth certificate and marriage license. I sat through exams, meetings and screenings. They had a lot of questions about the house: Wasn’t it an asset? Hadn’t we just bought it? They questioned every last cent we’d ever made. Did we have stock options or pensions? Did we have savings? I had to send them my three most recent check stubs to prove I was making as little as I said I was.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/07/08/this-is-what-happened-when-i-drove-my-mercedes-to-pick-up-food-stamps/

[NeoNerd]

1. There but for fortune go you or I

[calimary]

17. Welcome to DU, NeoNerd!

Glad you're here.

Ahh... Phil Ochs.

Thanks for posting that! I discovered him later than this (1964 - I was barely sentient in 1964, pretty much everything I knew was Beatles-related), but it still counts!

[nomorenomore08]

27. Damn right. But some folks are in serious denial of that fact.

And I second the welcome!

[duhbyas pet goat]

44. Not many remember ol' Phil anymore...

Thanks

[PatrickforO]

50. American exceptionalism!

America is truly exceptional at two things:

1) Punishing the poor
2) Killing lots of people really fast

I'm very sorry about how misfortune can take a couple well into the middle class and deposit them none too gently in the grinding and unrelenting world of American poverty.

You know what I think heaven is?

Enough.

Enough for everyone.

[Live and Learn]

52. +1 for you and Neo. And a belated welcome to you and a more timely one to Neo. nt

[FSogol]

2. "Poverty is a circumstance, not a value judgment."

More people need to realize this statement as the truth.

[tecelote]

11. A Liberal's goals are to help good people.

A Conservative's goal is to punish bad people.

Do most people want to work to improve their lives or do they want to cheat the system.

It's a matter of perspective.

I know a lot of people that think everyone is out to take their tax money.

---

I once asked a friend how another friend could imagine we all cheated in a game. His reply was... "Easy. Since he would readily cheat, he thinks everyone will".

[nomorenomore08]

25. And they need to realize that scapegoating makes it easier to screw *all* of us over. n/t

[1StrongBlackMan]

33. Actually ...

I would say, Liberals' goals are to help those in need, sans the value judgment of good or bad.

Conservatives' goal is to help as few people, good or bad, as their conscience will allow ... and the value judgment, just allows them to make good bad and bad worse.

I doubt any liberal think that anyone is out to take their tax money ... except maybe the wealthy.

[DeadLetterOffice]

51. +1000

[ms liberty]

28. That quote said it all, IMHO. n/t

[Live and Learn]

55. Although, a lot of poverty is imposed and perpetuated due to value judgements.

Finding employment is hard for many based upon value judgements.

[Demeter]

3. Why the F didn't she sell the Mercedes?

Does she think she can

1) afford to fix it, insure it, drive it?

2) wait for Congress to actually do something for the 99%?

AND she should have walked away from the house.

Face reality, baby! You are poor, and likely to stay that way for a good long time.

[uppityperson]

4. I bet you did not read the article. Exhibit A, right here. eom

[truedelphi]

7. That lady's Mercedes reminded me of a client I had,

One of the few disabled people I worked for through a County agency. (County Agency paid very little, and often the clients were more demanding than people who paid better.)

Anyway, this poor woman had been a young successful executive, I think in insurance. Then in her final years as a thirty something, she found out she had ALS. As her illness took over, she sold off her house, and her car, and many of her belongings.Her lovely stereo was soon replaced by a boombox, and so on.

She was smart, kind, funny and altogether wonderful. She was also dying.

But every time I came, my visit with her coincided with at least one visit from someone from the County Department of Social Services. They came there to see if she really needed food stamps, or really needed disability payments. And her two thousand dollar mattress, the only thing that she had left from her years of working as an exec, that was almost all the social workers would discuss.

"You could sell it" "You don't need it" and on and on. As though anyone interested in the purchase of a $ 2,000 mattress would buy a used mattress.

One day the social worker who had been on a rant about the mattress left early. The client and I watched her from the balcony, as she passed below us. I nudged my client and softly whispered, "Or we could avoid keeping it by hauling it out here and dropping it on her head!"

This made her laugh, but I still can never forget the lack of respect and indignity heaped on this poor sick woman.

[Kelvin Mace]

5. From the article

That’s the funny thing about being poor. Everyone has an opinion on it, and everyone feels entitled to share. That was especially true about my husband’s Mercedes. Over and over again, people asked why we kept that car, offering to sell it in their yards or on the Internet for us.

“You can’t be that bad off,” a distant relative said, after inviting himself over for lunch. “You still got that baby in all its glory.”

Sometimes, it was more direct. All from a place of love, of course. “Sell the Mercedes,” a friend said to me. “He doesn’t get to keep his toys now.”

But it wasn’t a toy — it was paid off. My husband bought that car in full long before we met. Were we supposed to trade it in for a crappier car we’d have to make payments on? Only to have that less reliable car break down on us?

And even if we had wanted to do that, here’s what people don’t understand: The reality of poverty can spring quickly while the psychological effects take longer to surface. When you lose a job, your first thought isn’t, “Oh my God, I’m poor. I’d better sell all my nice stuff!” It’s “I need another job. Now.” When you’re scrambling, you hang on to the things that work, that bring you some comfort. That Mercedes was the one reliable, trustworthy thing in our lives.

[klook]

12. Probably should go to the junkyard and buy a Kia hood ornament

to stymie the ubiquitous Judgment brigade.


Sheesh -- I guess I should study up on acceptable forms of poverty, in case I have to go through those dark days again. I'm (knock on wood) out of practice, but I'm no stranger to the condition.

Thanks for your perspective on this.

[Tetris_Iguana]

6. Thank you, Demeter Downer!

[Kelvin Mace]

8. The question is addressed in the article

and I posted the answer above. I also ran the numbers and a car of that type would be worth $6000-$8000 depending on mileage and condition. Why would you sell a car that is running and reliable for another used car which may not be as reliable?

[Tetris_Iguana]

10. I know, right?

[eridani]

56. In my low income childhood, our family drove a series of used Cadillacs and Lincolns

In the 50s, nobody, but nobody, was in the marked for used luxury cars. The whole point of owning one was to have a new one. So my father paid $75/$100 cash for our cars, and when they were beyond being repaired, sold them to the demolition derby people for $15-$20.

[Kelvin Mace]

67. In today's market some higher end cars go for a song

because of fuel and repair history.

When the 2007-2010 Great Recession was going on, used high end SUV were a steal, whereas used, reliable, fuel efficient Toyotas were commanding premium prices

[Raine1967]

13. You clearly did not read the article.

your response is appalling.

[frylock]

15. an 11-year old c-class mercedes will fetch you a whopping 5 grand..

and then what do they do? buy some $2000 shitbox off of craigs?

[nomorenomore08]

26. +1

[Hugin]

58. Unless it has reached that magic blue book 70K miles and is worth 800 bucks.

Doesn't matter what type of car or condition, really. It's all part of the car dealer scam.

[rickyhall]

20. Having read the full article, I agree

I'd've sold the Mercedes and bought a few year old Honda, they're just as dependable and much cheaper to insure and drive. No car is perfect and if something does go wrong with the Kompressor you ARE fucked. Nothing is cheap to repair on that car. I drive a 26 year old Acura and it let down once in 5 years and all it needed was a $50 battery.

[Demeter]

21. Thank you Ricky

I've been comfortable, I've been poor.

What I haven't been is insanely proud and stupid. Nor as eminently unemployable as this family. Oh, and the expensive, chronically ill child? Been there, done that, too.

[F4lconF16]

29. "As eminently unemployable as this family"

My mother has 3 bachelor's degrees and a masters. She worked for years as an electrical engineer designing circuit boards and has significant technical expertise. She was layed off during this last depression, and can't find a job. For you to go and pass judgement on this family is so wrong. Poverty isn't representative of a person's value. That a democrat on this board perpetuates the republican meme that the poor are poor because they deserve it is disgusting.

[laundry_queen]

42. Yep, totally disgusting

and doesn't belong on this board, period.

[truedelphi]

79. I have been noticing since around 2005 that so many jobs that take

Multiple degrees and a ton of experience are now over in Pacific Rim nations.

Meanwhile, Obama says that education is the way out of the mess.

Really, Obama? And why do so many children of those parents who do have degrees with even Masters and PhD's after their names then pursue classes in art? Has that got anything to do that when you grow up inside a home where mom and dad's degrees are only good for lining the parakeet cage, you really do not want to invest years of your life in getting a degree that only someone in New Delhi would find helpful.

Right now, science and computer degrees are good for the newly graduated. But by the time that person is forty, there is a strong likelihood they will be in a heap of trouble in terms of finding a job.

[cali]

31. unemployable? bzzzt. you fail. big time, d. her husband is well employed

and she's off to grad school.

try reading the article before making your oh so grand unjust judgments.

[rickyhall]

73. I've been there. Not bein' mean. We're on the same side.

[frylock]

37. she has a honda. she was using the mercedes because the honda had broke down.

[eridani]

57. On what planet can you sell an 11 year old Mercedes for $8000 max and

--and buy a three year old Accord for $9900? (Price cited below is from 2003--it would be a lot more than that now.)

Market Conditions May 2003
http://www.galves.com/archives/may03mkt.asp

large quantities, primarily three year old cars and trucks on 33 to 39 month leases, were a bargain last year and are even more so today. A three-year-old Honda Accord LX was in the book last year for $11,150. Today a three-year-old Accord LX is in the book for $9900, or $1250 less than a year ago

Is the weather decent? Do the unicorns bite?

[mercuryblues]

65. except

the day she drove the Mercedes it was because her Honda had broken down.

[quakerboy]

85. Youve been lucky

Ive also been very lucky with the cars Ive owned. Ive never had any major malfunctions either. But thats not usually the case on 26 year old cars.

I wouldn't sell a $5000 car with a known history in solid working condition to buy a cheaper used car with an unknown history. Unless you are mechanically inclined, you would be daft to do so. My personal experience and observation watching others buy cars is that once you drop below the $4k mark, its really a crapshoot.

As to insurance.. I just checked the actual numbers for my policy. Adding a 2003 Kompressor to my insurance policy would cost me approximately $100 per year. I just asked the same question regarding an old CRX that I was considering buying (you know those things can get upper 40's for MPG?), and that was going to cost me $60 per year. Once you own a car(no payments), and as long as the value is under 10k, most of the cost of insurance is the Driver, not the car itself.

[1StrongBlackMan]

34. And her TV and Cell phone ...

and every other luxury item, right? The poor MUST appear poor.

IMO, her decision to retain a reliable vehicle; rather than sell it, just to get one of indeterminate reliability that comes with a note was, a financially astute decision, as opposed to the short-term, less financially astute decision that your question implies.

[Orrex]

63. Maybe she can sell her plasma? And what kind of snob needs two kidneys?

[Ikonoklast]

41. And then...what? Walk everywhere?

You didn't read the article, did you?

They sold the house.

As for the car, why sell something you need that would help in an employment search, being able to go to a place of employment public transportation doesn't reach?

That’s the funny thing about being poor. Everyone has an opinion on it, and everyone feels entitled to share. That was especially true about my husband’s Mercedes. Over and over again, people asked why we kept that car, offering to sell it in their yards or on the Internet for us.

-snip-

But it wasn’t a toy — it was paid off. My husband bought that car in full long before we met. Were we supposed to trade it in for a crappier car we’d have to make payments on? Only to have that less reliable car break down on us?

And even if we had wanted to do that, here’s what people don’t understand: The reality of poverty can spring quickly while the psychological effects take longer to surface. When you lose a job, your first thought isn’t, “Oh my God, I’m poor. I’d better sell all my nice stuff!” It’s “I need another job. Now.” When you’re scrambling, you hang on to the things that work, that bring you some comfort. That Mercedes was the one reliable, trustworthy thing in our lives.

And her husband got a good paying job, and the author is now going to grad school. She is no longer poor, and they still own the Mercedes.

[pnwmom]

46. An eleven year old Mercedes.

You seem almost gleeful. No doubt you'll be unhappy to learn that their circumstances took a change for the better.

Thanks to a law passed under Obama, they were able to short-sell their house. Her husband was able to get a higher paying job and she was able to go to grad school.

It's good they held on to a car that runs well, even after 11 years.

[LynneSin]

70. Here's a thought - it's a 2003 vehicle

So there is a good chance that the car is completely paid off.

Yes the bills associated with it are higher than normal cars. But this family now has in their ownership one car that is completely paid off that they have probably taken good care of the vehicle so they know it's reliable.

Why should this family have to take on car payments (something they probably can't afford) or take a risk on a used vehicle that might not be as reliable?

[IronLionZion]

75. Exactly what I thought

my family has tended to buy new cars and keep them for a very long time. That's worked out well for us. Stick with what you know.

The one time I bought a used car, it turned out to be a real money pit with lots of important stuff breaking in the first year. And that was a Toyota Camry, supposedly one of the most reliable cars.

[LynneSin]

81. It is a risk to buy anything over the age of 5 years

It's a bit better thanks to Car Fax. I bought an 8 year old car but only because I saw that without a doubt this car was well maintained. But to have a family trade in a reliable older car that they have a history with and buy another older car they have no history with - that's just whack.

[Uncle Joe]

9. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, mfcorey.

[Raven]

14. Until we all realize that bad things like this can happen to

"people like us" we are never going to have a decent society. The problem is that many "people like us" have no empathy and no capacity to understand the plight of others until it actually happens to them. I hope you have learned this lesson and will carry it forward when you get back on your feet.

[Barack_America]

40. Not only that, but we should all realize how precarious our situations are...

...before we continue to march along like good little consumers. Live your life like you won't have a job tomorrow, that's our sad new reality.

[frylock]

16. i just bet she has tattoos and an iphone as well..

why can't she sell the iPhone, and use that money to buy steel wool to remove the tattoos?

[laundry_queen]

43. Oh my fuck

was not expecting that.



It's not really funny, but what you say is probably what some people actually think. I mean, there's even hints of it on this thread, on a democratic board ffs. It was the kernel of truth and the absurdity of that opinion (that you so aptly described) that made me laugh.

[tekriter]

18. I've been there.

Laid off after 13 years at a good job. Better pay than most jobs. Not much in the savings account because I was paying child support on top of my own bills. Not complaining, just a fact.

I was using food stamps one day in a grocery store near my house when the woman behind me in line asked me - loudly - if I bought my coat with food stamps too.

I turned, looked at her, and not really sure I heard correctly, I asked her what she was talking about. She said "that's an awfully nice coat for somebody on food stamps".

[Hekate]

19. That practically made me cry. "Poverty is a circumstance, not a value judgement."

And everybody and his brother felt entitled to tell them to sell the paid-off reliable means of transportation because it was a symbol of better days, and they were not entitled to keep that.

[heaven05]

22. wow

welcome to reality for millions. Glad you're getting back on your feet. Good luck and I hope the children grow, healthy, wealthy and wise. Been there, had a spate of bad luck, forced to retire and less income and lost my house. Was too old to hire anywhere. But just gave up the house and am renting a pet friendly house now, 4 cats and a dog companions. We're not rich on SS and a small pension, but relatively happy.

[LoisB]

23. Good article.

[RebelOne]

24. About 15 years ago, I was staying with a boyfriend

in Miami who owned a restaurant. My mother had recently died while I was living in Georgia. I went back to Miami for a while. I had to go to the grocery and pick up a few things. He would buy food stamps on the street cheap. He wanted me to take the food stamps. I did not have a car then, but he had brand-new Cadillac El Dorado. I told him there was no way that I was driving a brand-new Cadillac to the grocery to purchase food with food stamps and to give me cash instead.

[Jerry442]

30. I'm not unsympathetic, but the Mercedes was a problem.

One thing you learn in life, especially when you're down on your luck, is that the nail that stands up gets hammered down. Even if keeping it was a practical choice, that Mercedes made you stand out as a target when you sought public assistance and you really needed not to be a target then.

[AllyCat]

48. None of my business. Not a problem

Not my business

[Live and Learn]

53. +1 nt

[pnwmom]

49. An 11 year old Mercedes. n/t

[Luminous Animal]

60. Target to assholes.

[Romulox]

71. I read the story, and the author wasn't made a target. She felt guilty. That was it.

To this day, it is the single most embarrassing thing I’ve ever done.

No one spoke to me, but they did stare. Mouths agape, the poverty-stricken mothers struggling with infant car seats, paperwork and their toddlers never took their eyes off me, the tall blond girl, walking with purpose on heels from her Mercedes to their grungy den.

I didn’t feel animosity coming from them, more wonderment, maybe a bit of resentment. The most embarrassing part was how I felt about myself...

[randys1]

32. How about Koch bros and Limbaugh and Hannity and Oreilly sell everything they have

and help the poor

assholes

[Warpy]

35. People tooling into the welfare office or cheap market that accepts their EBT card

and WIC vouchers in a Lexus or Mercedes are people who spent their money and paid cash for their cars and big TVs and other luxury items before they got mommy tracked or laid off in favor of some green kid right out of school or a hungry guy from India who will work for less. Poverty is poverty and it sucks even if you've got a big house full of neat toys you bought when you thought that big paycheck would last forever.

I know people who look at that stuff every day and wish they'd gotten something smaller or cheaper or done without just so they could buy some meat and a bottle of wine for their anniversary instead of eating a protein poor, starchy casserole like they always do.

And when something gets old and breaks down, it just goes unreplaced. After all, that big TV is a lot less fun when all you can afford are the broadcast channels, the cable being the first thing that got cut when the money stopped coming in.

Worse, there is just no way to make up this lost time and they're looking at retirement funded by Social Security, only, unless they work a patchwork of minimum wage jobs to supplement it because their savings went to keep their houses.

You can spot the new poor because they're the ones having garage sales on the weekend, in utter shock that a lightly used designer label handbag is only worth five bucks, less if it stinks of cigarettes they can no longer afford to smoke.

People need to wake up. The suburbs are now statistically poorer than the inner city. The New Poverty could affect them next because no one is immune from it.

[AllyCat]

47. Good post/reply

[Live and Learn]

54. +1 nt

[eridani]

59. Still, it's a privilege to have the resources to outlast periods of poverty

My husband and I have endured them. Some things we had that people who have been poor all their lives don't have--

1. A reliable car for job searches. (Selling the Mercedes would have been massively stupid.)
2. Some savings, enabling us to stock up on sale items.
3. An extra freezer to keep food items from sales, and plenty of room for the 32 packs of cheap Costco toilet paper
4. A Costco card. And credit cards with pretty high limits.
5. A washer and dryer, so no walking or riding a bus to the laundromat and sitting around for hours while your clothes dry.
6. Appliances and utensils enabling large batch cooking

Etc. The really terrifying thing was always the possiblity that poverty would outlast our resources.

[Jamastiene]

61. Good point.

Having those types of resources very well could make the difference between staying in poverty or getting back out of poverty.

[Gormy Cuss]

66. And there's the difference between being temporarily poor and starting from poverty.

Being cash poor after a long period of having enough to live on still sucks but it's better than a lifelong struggle to get anywhere. And again, being poor sucks either way.

Each of the items on your list would go away eventually if your income didn't improve. Each of those would garner little in resale value and would cost you a lot more to replace when your finances improved. Meanwhile, they're making life a little easier in the lean times. You understand, some others here apparently don't.

[Warpy]

78. Those of us who have been there agree about the Mercedes

A reliable, paid for car is a great thing to have, especially when you've outlived most of your resources and are contemplating living in it for a while (been there).

[sheshe2]

36. Thank you for the thread ,mfcorey.

[Gormy Cuss]

38. Should've sold the babies.

I just thought I'd be the first to say it since everyone else got everything else on the shoulda list covered.

I'm so glad that this is a board of like-minded Democrats.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

39. I hear you

I'm not sure that Congress is hearing you

[AllyCat]

45. The poverty rules.

They welfare queen driving the Cadillac. Paid for, reliable vehicle...why would she want a payment on something older and crappy ( even if she was a real person)? I used to knock my step mother for continuing to drive a Jaguar after losing everything. But it was paid for. What was she supposed to buy instead?

[Enrique]

62. has the Washington Post ever posted a story

"this is what happened when I walked in to get my food stamps, because I've never owned a car"?

[WinkyDink]

64. I know all about the financial scrutiny; went through it for a county nursing home this year. And a

female rep from my retirement organization (PSERS, PA educators) the other day said to me that maybe my house is too big for me now (husband just died in April).

Age may be nothing but a number, but empathy is nothing but a word.

[Romulox]

68. Being poor in grad school isn't the same thing as generational poverty. Story was bs, imo. nt

[MoonchildCA]

80. Now she's in grad school.

At the time she was getting aid, her husband had been unemployed for some time, they had an underwater mortgage they couldn't pay, she had premature twin girls, and she was working for $25,000 a year.

They have since recovered. I agree it's not the same as generational poverty, but I doubt the story is bogus.

[samsingh]

69. kick

[aikoaiko]

72. I'm glad she didn't suffer to point she needed to sell her mercedes

But let's face it -- if you're still paying your mortgage and can afford two cars (even gas and insurance alone), you haven't hit the financial bottom yet.


And many people receiving Supplemental Nutrition have. Probably they would too in time.

The new poor still have options. Holding onto a Mercedes was risky. If that started to break down, the repairs would be huge.

[Gormy Cuss]

74. WIC is a targeted nutritional program with eligibility to those up to 185% of the poverty line.

It does not require that participants hit their financial rock bottom. The threshold is generous enough that working families may be eligible. This family of four, two preemies requiring formula, met the eligibility criteria. AFAIK from the Post article, all they were receiving was WIC --not SNAP or other assistance. That tracks with not being the poorest of the poor, but eligible for some relief.

[4Q2u2]

77. It is also Money to big Agri

The true beneficiaries are big Agri with Government guarantees of steady yearly income, but we bash the poor for using it.
A lot of nutritional programs in this country were instituted to make American Males more healthy for the draft and military service, but we bash the poor for using the program.

[Gormy Cuss]

82. That is why the Food and Nutrition Service is under the USDA

The purpose of the programs is to benefit both farmers/producers and those with food insecurity -- and I agree, we feel the need to criticize the poor and nearly poor but not question the farmers/Ag getting more because of these programs.

[liberal N proud]

76. Most Americans are just a paycheck or two from this very situation

The car thing always blows my mind, you have an old Mercedes or Cadillac and probably paid off when things went from bad to worse, how dumb would it be to trade the old car? How dumb people must think everyone is, when they key on the car people drove to pick up food stamps.