11:30pm - running late again...

I have been watching videos about retirement issues on YouTube tonight... several.  I think I started with titles about the Middle Class... struggling in some, having too many things in another.  It was very interesting, most were a bit dated, from the years following the housing crisis in 2008. 

We have a lot of problems in America, and I don't know if we have any way to solve them. Crisis seems to be the "opportunity" the government likes.

I don't know if I will be around for the crash of the Social Security program. I hope not.  What happens between now and the estimated time of bankruptcy is the real issue.  We never know what the future will hold.  Who knew we would have a global shutdown, which has become a death toll for business and jobs... increased the debt beyond reason so we are now looking at higher taxes again.

PBS News Hour, which I only watched in segments for today's report, talked about the increasing number of retail stores that are ending in bankruptcy or quitting the effort to stay open. I watched it twice, at least.  

In some of the other videos I watched on related topics, the loss of work with no hope for new employment was changing the dreams of many people.  I was struck by how many years some of the example stories worked for twenty, thirty, or more years before one day seeing their company go away.  One person had the company she worked for disappear twice (two jobs went away) and was looking for work again.

Millions of people... no work.  The older people, still needing to have income to meet their current expenses, could not find work. The devastation it had on families was included in the interviews.  Blaming someone was the answer for one family, and it was the dad without the big wages anymore. The kids not understanding what was happening, and fearing it would happen again.

It's strange how crises affect family dynamics.  It's the money that seems to create your value.  I don't think that is a good value system.  In families with addictions, the person who gets blamed for everything that happens is called the "scapegoat."  In crisis, I suppose that is how we seem to see the world... we need to find someone to blame. 

These financial issues are high on my list of things I'm thinking of these days. The debt, the stability of Social Security, life challenges, hopes for the future.  My life has always been poor, so it is always hard to see the effects of economic disasters on people who have always had large amounts of money to live on.

One woman had a salary near $100K each year... yet she had no savings for an emergency.  It was just spending money.  I think she went on food benefits, but I can't remember for sure, I know they went from a large (nice) house (a rental, not a mortgage!) to a basement apartment.  It is hard for me to even think about wasting that much money in their lives.  We think life will always be the same.  She said she planned to retire from the company that died.

I didn't learn any money lessons in my childhood, I had to learn them on my own.  I never had that much to budget so I don't know what I would have done if I did have a lot of money.... then.  Now I would be better able to deal with a large amount of money. 

When you have nothing, or just a little, and you see pictures of the lives others lead, what they have compared to what they need, it is a serious problem.  We are a consumer driven economy, and that is why our nation is falling apart.  The News Hour segment, or maybe it was another video on retail, said that our consumer spending is down by half and that the normal level of consumer spending as part of our economy was 70%...  Imagine if your monthly budget depended on what people spent... I guess that is why retail is being devastated right now.

What will replace those jobs?  I have no idea.  Food, shelter, and work-related necessities... those will need to survive.  Shelves and shelves of toys, clothes, and other things we consume will go away.

This might be a good thing.

Change is hard... it will be painful... but the President is right when he says we will get through this.  It will pass.  That is what life is.  We suffer through hard times and find a way to the future.  My personal saying on the process is something that helps me remember everything goes away, eventually. 

I have shared this before, but it is a good thing to share again.  I was watching a river one day, as a homeless person, and I realized that life is like a river... no matter what happens, it just keeps going.  Whether we like it or not, it just keeps going forward. 

I hope this won't be a long hardship.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin

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