Before last year, I was starting to see some ridiculous figures for rents. Rental properties were largely for mobile people, the young and the poor right? My cousin’s neighbor had a house go up for rent across the street. It was a two bedroom, one car garage home. I mentioned it to someone who was looking to rent. I figured five to six hundred dollars. MAYBE seven hundred. Eleven hundred dollars! A month! About a year later the house was sold, but who would pay that much in a market where the average worker makes twelve dollars an hour? Insanity to be sure.

However, I do have a lot of sympathy for many throughout the Midwest who have been hedged into ten dollar an hour factory jobs. I know it sounds ridiculous, but there are many who had no support from family and had to truly live on their own out of high school, some before hand. Many of these people took jobs in factories as it offered the best pay. One of my good friends was one of those people. He made eight dollars an hour starting out and then worked to ten. It is a common salary where I live. Trying to work a second job was impossible as there was a lot of mandatory overtime. The rent just kept going up and up. They had a contract negotiation and took a pay cut to eight and some change. Of course, eventually they went out of business. He did have some savings, which had to be used on a new deposit, moving expenses, and to personally continue his health insurance so his “pre-existing” condition could be covered when he found a new job. He found work within a few months, but starting back with no insurance, base pay, no vacation or similar. That was three years ago. Now the job he is at (another factory) is looking at the same situation.

I had recommended a while back that he just take loans and go to college, but many of the people I know that went to college are just as unemployed as everyone else, except they have student loans they can’t get rid of till its paid.

While many of us complain about the salary union workers used to make at GM, there are a great number who wouldn’t work for what most factories pay. That in itself is fine, but there are many who really have little other option than to work those jobs. There is always luck, but I try not to count on that.

Yes, there are many who are victims of their own greed, but there are many that are victims of other people’s greed, that simply want to work for their daily bread, but due to market competition from countries that like to effectively use their people as slave labor, are unable to do so effectively.

Just a view from the other side.

Kelsi: Maybe the Forsyth’s will Google themselves, find my post, and hear the hard truth.

Personal accountability has taken a vacation.
Some of us have it, some of us don’t – and the ones that don’t, paint themselves as victims. It’s kind of embarrassing really.