by I_Like_Plants » Fri 06 Jul 2007, 13:58:57
That's quite a read Rocc.
I'm just one person, but one person with almost $100k in debt and NO assets. As you all know, my small biz is cratering. Ebay is dying, the head-end just doesn't know it yet - the sellers, who are situated more in the ass, do know.
Bear Stearns and all that stuff, what's it have to do with me? Well, probably the way this stuff is all linked up, essentially I've been carrying part of all that big important debt on my shoulders. And happy to, I really thought if I worked harder I could pay it down, get over the hump, etc.
I was frankly hoping to get ahead enough to get rid of the car and get something cheap which would save like $500 a month, then do caricaturing on the side (or some hobby) and see if I could make $500 a month doing that, hey presto that's an extra grand a month, dedicate that to paying down IRS or whatever.
Instead, the squeeze has come so fast, I'm like Wile E. Coyote when he runs off of a cliff, just now realizing there's nuttin' but air and hard mesa underneath me.
I don't have the money to pay down my debt. I don't have the money to KEEP UP with my debt. Chances are I never will, even though hot-shot caricaturists are supposed to make good dough, it takes a few years to get there.
Good paying jobs are rare here, and they tend to go to people who have been on that career track since they were about 8. I've finally realized this. Yeah, I've done high-tech, but frankly the people who are like fish in water in it, were geeks already at age 8! I didn't get the tech bug until I was about 18. At age 8, I was the artist. That, and unskilled labor, are what I've been given for skills. I'm lucky to have a skill most ppl don't have.
But the point is, I will probably not make huge money again, and the debt will go Pfft. And so will the US economy because you can multiply my case by millions.