The Society of the Owned: The Rage of a Middle Class

[marmar]

from OurFuture.org:



The Society of the Owned: The Rage of a Middle Class
By Terrance Heath

March 6th, 2008 - 11:30am ET


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Part Five of a series.

Something's happening out there. It's happening quietly in some places and not-so-quietly in others. It's happening around kitchen tables and in living rooms across the country, as Americans come to grip with new — or, to them, newly-revealed — economic realities. For some, it's just impossible to deny or ignore what most have known for weeks about the economy. Even the Bush administration — famous for simply ignoring reality (see part two of this series), as the president himself recently demonstrated by denying we're in a recession — is showing vague signs of concern.

Maybe someone in the White House has been reading the news over the last several days, and maybe even reading them to the president. (Though until a reporter asked about it, Bush hadn't heard that gas might soon cost $4 per gallon.) But even the president might not have needed his news predigested this time, because even a perusal of the headlines in the last few days indicates that something — like that middle class anger in the last post — is building, and it's getting a point where more and more people have nothing else left. And, it follows, nothing left to lose.

Every other day, it seems there's a report on just how bad the economic news is, and particularly for precariously perched members of the middle class, who are landing on the ground of their new economic status with a resounding thud. First came the news that foreclosures were up 57% in January. That was followed news that last month bankruptcies reached their highest level since 2005, driven by (surprise, surprise) the huge increase in foreclosures

Personal bankruptcy filings climbed last month to their highest level since 2005, when Congress enacted laws aimed at discouraging such filings, and experts predicted more than a million Americans will seek bankruptcy protection this year.

...The numbers highlighted the rising toll of the U.S. housing slump and the credit crunch it precipitated. Those developments have brought the economy to the brink of recession and led to a surge in home foreclosures. In response, the U.S. central bank has cut interest rates at the fastest clip in more than two decades, but the economy has remained sluggish.

..."I don't see a problem reaching one million," said consumer bankruptcy attorney Brian J. Small of Thav Gross Steinway & Bennett in Michigan. "I would be surprised if...we don't exceed it."

Small said home foreclosures have been "the leading impetus" for the increase in personal bankruptcy filings. That's because by the time homeowners face foreclosure "they've already borrowed every penny that they could; they already spent everything in their savings. They're at the point where there's nothing left," he said.

What's interesting is that the profile of the borrowers Small describes doesn't fit the profile of the "typical" subprime borrowers who are in some areas at least partially blamed for the crisis. Small goes on to describe people with "credit card debt between $30,000 and $50,000," who've "borrowed every penny that they could," which doesn't sound like people who can't get a loan that isn't a payday loan and couldn't get credit before subprime loans. (Though, when it comes to credit they may have more in common with those subprime borrowers than they know or would care to admit. That's something we'll explore a bit later in this series.) .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/society-owned-rage-middle-class

[LSparkle]

1. BFEE and their buddies are turning us all into WAGE SLAVES

and we ain't happy about it ...

[Warpy]

2. The revelation will occur when they get ready to turn in

that gas hog of an SUV as soon as it's paid for and take out a loan on a new but more economical vehicle. The revelation will be that their net worth has evaporated along with their paper profit and probably their down payment on the house they're living in, they're in a negative equity situation already, and there is no way they can get a loan for a new car or even a used one. They are going to be stuck unless they can arrange a swap with a guy who regrets getting rid of his penis extender and is in the same boat in getting a loan.

I have a feeling we're going to see a lot of swaps going on, up to and including swaps of homes as people try to live closer to work so that gas hog doesn't eat up so much of the money left over from servicing their debts.

We're also starting to see people cashing out their 401K plans just to survive for a few more months.

People only thought they were middle class. In fact, they've been destitute for a very long time.