I have to agree with Jerry on this one - unfortunately. There are many, many families today who do not have enough to eat, who do not have adequate heat and electricity, who can no longer make their mortgages or their rent payments and who are either grossly underinsured or not insured at all. They know that while they are not homeless yet, the possibility is but one paycheck away. All it's going to take is one illness or one accident or one more unexpected bill to show up and the American Dream is just that - a dream.
And as for the old people - don't even get me started. Both my own mother and Dan's mother were left what they considered to be "well enough off." Both of our fathers worked their entire lives, saved their money, invested their money and had "safe and secure pensions." Both of our moms are widows - and we are now in the position of having to either forego our own retirement savings or let them lose their houses due to rising taxes and the cost of living which has far outstripped their pensions.
So no, unemployment is not 51% or better - but it doesn't need to be - during The Great Depression the unemployment rate was 25-30% and we all know how that worked for most people. We are now at a high of 6.1% - up dramatically from 5 years ago.
1.6 million people spent time in homeless shelters between Oct. 1, 2006 and Sept. 30, 2007. That's a whole lot of people - and "homeless" does not take into account people who have been forced to move in with family or friends. Nor does it count those who do not seek shelter or who do not fit the criteria for shelter - in other words, we have no accurate count of who doesn't find a bed each night, we can only count those who do.
Do these people vote? I dunno. I would image mere survival takes precedence over voting.
Are there still "idealists" who vote with them in mind?
I certainly hope so.
Because no matter who you are or what you think you've got - I do not understand how anyone can forget the phrase, "There but for the grace of God, go I."
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