Friday, December 19, 2008

2/3 of Americans Lives Upside Down

I was driving past a local mall and saw a new type of cardboard sign from a homeless person. This man obviously was well dressed and new to being destitute. He reminded me of an accountant. His cardboard sign said, "MY WIFE HAD A BETTER LAWYER THAN ME". This said it all. When you see this kind of sea change in the types of people with cardboard signs by the side of the road you know most people are hurting in a way unseen at least in my lifetime.

My parents saw things like this in the 1930s but since I wasn't born until after World War II in 1948 I only heard about the Great Depression and World War II myself. The worst I have seen was from the Arab Oil Embargo in 1973 until the Clinton Administration.

Of course, there are still 1/3 of Americans mostly upper middle class and outright rich who aren't affected as much by all of this than the majority. For now, they have enough money socked away(not on credit) to withstand the initial barrages of economic downturn at least. So, for at least the first few years of this most of them will be okay. It will only seriously affect most of them if this goes on more than 3 to 5 years.

Another thing to remember is that the PRIMARY reason and cause of divorce is not infidelity or anything else. The Primary reason people get divorced is money. Either not enough of it or fighting over how to use it or one hoarding it over the other. This one thing is the primary reason divorces happen worldwide.

Like my ex-wife said to me when we broke up 15 years ago, "Love is not enough!" Money was what broke us up at the time too. We had 4 kids we were raising and didn't have enough money and she needed to divorce me at that time in order to get her rich father to help her. Sick but true. She chose money over love like most people do in the end either for their children or themselves.

Though I'm wealthy now I wasn't then. Life goes on. So I'm saying all this as a caution to all of you now. Life is really tough and sometimes love isn't enough and it is a killer. I barely survived all this but I have a new life now and all my biological children will be with me and my new wife and daughter for Christmas this year.

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