The economy.
In the last ten days of our trip, issues surrounding the economy have really come to the surface, especially with the government’s multi billion dollar pay out, It seems fear has really started to kick in. In our first few weeks, we drove past half finished subdivisions, and empty houses, and we saw for sale signs and mortgagee signs and we talked about it, but it seemed everyday Joe Blogs was unaffected. By this last week the everyday Joe Blogs we were staying with were personally affected! Our hosts, just hours before we left for the airport were inviting their son home for the weekend to talk about his application for medical school. They’d just lost his college fund and he might have to consider applying for a different college now. Another host, her son was about to buy a car. The car yard at the eleventh hour said they were unable to loan any money. Student loans might even be affected for the following semester.
As I sat waiting to go to the airport I read an article about the new homeless. Apparently tens of thousands of Americans are now spending each night sleeping in their cars in covered car parks. One woman stays in her 4WD with her dogs each night, up until a few months ago, she owned two properties, both about $2 million each. She was unable to sell them, and unable to make the $10,000 month mortgage repayments so she declared bankruptcy. Now , while she still has her job and her gym membership, she sleeps at night in her car, gets up goes to the gym in the morning and then to work. Her work mates are unaware of her situation. She is one of about 10others in a similar situation staying each night in the car park.
And then there are the 25,000 foreclosures in Chicago City alone and just in the last few months. And the worst thing is, that its affecting tennants, regular rent paying families, who are getting kicked out of their homes with one hours notice and left sitting with all their belongings on the sidewalk.
As someone in Sector One said, and they were in the real estate industry, ‘History isn’t going to be guide this time’.
All this contraction in the economy just makes the political situation more important.
People I talked to said ‘People are really frightened, what if McCain does get in. He’s not a well man. That could mean Palin becomes President. If Obama doesn’t get in we could be on the brink of civil war. The blacks will be upset, the educated liberals will be upset, those with any intelligence will be up in arms. This is an incredibly important election.'
Apparently Jefferson once said: “Every Election is a mini revolution.”