http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com
http://albertpeia.com/scenesofdespair.htm
‘Sometimes it can be easy to forget that
behind all of the horrible economic numbers that we hear about are millions of
real people that have had their lives absolutely devastated by this
economy. Elderly couples are being brutally evicted from their homes,
young families are living in their cars, terminally ill people are dying
because they cannot afford medication that they need and millions of parents
can't sleep at night as they wrestle with anxiety over not being able to
provide for their children. Often those that lose their jobs or their
homes discover that people start looking at them very differently and that
there is very little compassion out there these days. As you will read
about below, one major U.S. bank is even kicking an elderly woman with stage 4
breast cancer out of her home because she cannot make her full mortgage payment
each month. When the next major global financial
catastrophe happens, we are going to see a whole lot more economic
despair. Will society respond to that crisis by becoming warmer and more
compassionate, or will the world around us become even more
cold and even more cruel? As bad as things are right now, it truly
is frightening to think about what the world is going to look like after the
next major economic downturn.
Many
of the stories that you are about to read are truly heartbreaking.
Unfortunately, they represent thousands upon thousands of other stories that
never make it into the news....
Foreclosing On An
Elderly Woman With Stage 4 Breast Cancer
Wells
Fargo is threatening to evict an elderly woman
with stage 4 breast cancer named Cindi Davis from her
family home in North Carolina....
“They
want us to make a house payment of almost $900 a month,” Cindi
told the station of their lender, Wells Fargo bank. “We can afford maybe half
that. I pay $1,100 a month in prescription medications.”
The
couple says they have tried to work with Wells Fargo, even sending notes from Cindi’s doctors explaining her condition, but haven’t been
able to come to a workable solution.
“They’re
just going to put us out and it’s like, we are willing to pay what we can pay,
but it’s not enough,” Cindi said.
Her
cancer is in her lungs, lymph nodes and on her liver and she’s gone through a
double mastectomy and multiple chemotherapy treatments, but Cindi
has handled her disease like a fighter.
Cindi and her husband say that if they are
evicted they may have to move in to their pickup truck.
Can
you imagine living your last days in a truck as you try desperately to battle
stage 4 breast cancer?
Crushing Poverty In
Greece
As I
have written about before, Greece
is essentially experiencing a full-blown economic depression
at this point.
There
is a severe shortage of medicine in Greece right now, and many doctors
are essentially volunteers at this point because so few people can actually
afford to pay their bills. The following description of the chaos in the
Greek healthcare system comes from a recent Natural News article
....
The economic situation in Greece is only
continuing to worsen, as reports indicate that hospitals and care centers
throughout the nation are running completely out of medicines, and many
healthcare workers are now voluntarily providing care services without pay.
Strapped with spiraling debt, the Greek
healthcare, which is government-run, has had to receive gobs of international
financial aid just to keep operating with some semblance of normalcy. There has also been plenty of IOUs issued, and desperate patients
quietly forking over cash "gifts" to doctors to receive treatments.
All in all, the healthcare situation is in utter chaos, save for those that
have sacrificed their own time, often free of charge, just to help those in
need.
But it is not just the healthcare
system that is deeply troubled.
Economic conditions have gotten so
bad in Greece
that some parents are actually abandoning their children in the streets
according to the Daily Mail....
Children are being abandoned on Greece's
streets by their poverty-stricken families who cannot afford to look after them
any more.
Youngsters are being dumped by their parents who are
struggling to make ends meet in what is fast becoming the most tragic human
consequence of the Euro crisis.
Could you ever do that to your children?
Sadly, it looks like things are going to get even
worse in Greece.
It is being projected that the unemployment rate in Greece will reach 30 percent by the end of the
year.
Economic Shutdown In Portugal
Greece is not the only European nation that is
going through an economic nightmare right now. The truth is that much
of southern Europe is virtually shutting
down right now.
Simon Black has described what he witnessed during a recent visit to Porto - the
second largest city in Portugal....
Excluding the city’s still-bustling
tourist areas, it’s very quiet around the city.
Street-level retail shops and
restaurants are either devoid of customers or have been vacated. On many
blocks I’ve seen more “for lease” signs than operating businesses.
Officially, the unemployment rate is
15.2% in Portugal,
and the economy will contract 3% this year… yet the clear lack of economic
activity suggests the real figures are much greater.
Without doubt, reality has set in.
Locals have capitulated ‘hope’ that the good times will magically
re-appear and have adjusted their habits accordingly.
American Families Living In Their
Cars
In some areas of the United States
you would never even know that an economic crisis is happening, but in other
areas things are clearly falling apart very rapidly. There is a very serious shortage of decent jobs in
most parts of the country, and we are seeing clear signs of societal breakdown in many of our major
cities.
During the last recession, millions of Americans lost
their jobs. Because a lot of them did not have much money saved up, many
of those unemployed Americans also quickly lost their homes.
In the end, some of them ended up living in their
vehicles.
And living in a car can be absolute hell. The
following is from an ABC News report....
Three children -- one suffering second-degree burns
-- were taken into protective custody Monday after they were discovered living
with their parents in a "filthy" car in a Walmart
parking lot.
Police were called to the parking lot Monday morning
in Mount Dora, Fla., where they found the family of five
living in a 1987 Cadillac Coupe de Ville full of clothes and garbage. Police
told the Orlando
Sentinel that days-old chicken bones were strewn about the car, along with a
spoiled carton of milk and a bottle of tequila.
Other families try to make the best of it that they
can. The following is one touching example from a recent 60 Minutes report....
This is the home of the Metzger family. Arielle, 15. Her brother Austin, 13.
Their mother died when they were very young. Their dad, Tom, is a
carpenter. And, he's been looking for work ever since Florida's construction industry collapsed.
When foreclosure took their house, he bought the truck on Craigslist with his
last thousand dollars. Tom's a little camera shy - thought we ought to talk to
the kids - and it didn't take long to see why.
Pelley: How long have
you been living in this truck?
Arielle Metzger: About five months.
Pelley: What's that
like?
Arielle Metzger: It's an adventure.
Austin Metzger: That's how we see it.
Pelley: When kids at
school ask you where you live, what do you tell 'em?
Austin Metzger: When they see the truck they ask me
if I live in it, and when I hesitate they kinda
realize. And they say they won't tell anybody.
Arielle Metzger: Yeah it's not really that much an
embarrassment. I mean, it's only life. You do what you need to do, right?
Could you imagine being 13 years old or 15 years old
and living in a truck?
Unfortunately, during the next major economic
downturn a whole lot more families are going to end up living like this.
Desperately Hoping For Rain
Yesterday I wrote about how corn crops are dying all over the United States
right now.
For most Americans, this will just mean higher prices at
the grocery store.
But for corn farmers, a lack of rain can be absolutely
devastating. The following are some recent comments from farmers about
this crippling drought on agweb.com....
I am a small farmer, but my crops in Wayne County,
Ill., are the
worst I have had sine 1952-53. Corn will be lucky to make 10 bu. and beans are
going downhill. It’s been over 100 degrees for 11 straight days. Bad crop.
----
Dryland corn is done!
Some people in denial need to walk in field. Later corn tasseled and
pollinating with no silks! No rain in seven days or low humidity 90 degrees and
warmer by weekend. Yield range for corn on our farms...0 to 0 bpa. Soybeans...if it rains which is a big if may have some
hope, not holding my breath!!
-----
This is my 50th year of grain farming, so I think
that I can say that I've seen it all. This is worse than 1988-Much worse for
corn. Beans could still be fair if it starts to rain soon. Sat.-Sun. rains
totaled only 1/4 inch.
-----
This is worse than 1983 and 1988. Corn yield will be
30 to 40% of last year's yield. The jury is still out on the beans. $10 corn is
likely, because there will be so little of it relative to demand. Very sad...
You can see some incredible pictures of the drought
in the middle part of the country right here.
When the economy falls to pieces, the politicians and
the big banks get all the air time, but it is average hard working people that
feel the most pain.
As the economy gets a lot worse (and it will) there is going to be a
huge need for more love and compassion. The government is not going to be
able "to save" everyone, and even now way
too many people are falling through the cracks in the "safety net".
Instead of looking down on the homeless and the unemployed, don't be
afraid to give them a helping hand up.
You never know, you might be the one in need of some assistance someday.
