2008, The Middle Class, and Hunger

~ Laura

2008 was a huge transition point in my own family’s economic situation. My three-year appointment at a local college was nearly finished, and there were no prospects at other local colleges. Unable and unwilling to move, my academic career was essentially over. At the same time, my husband’s company was faltering. A major investment bank that we thought was unsinkable was sinking. As I sat in my office at the college, I watched his company’s stock ticker plummet  one morning. Would his company still exist in the morning?

It did survive, but the pain increased over the next five years. We sold a house at a big loss. (The whole saga is here, here, here, and here). After round after round of layoffs, my husband was swept up in the last round of layoffs in late 2011.

And then things got better. My husband found a new job.  All around us, we’re seeing baby steps of improvements. Other friends are finding new jobs. The line on the chart on Zillow is moving up. The contractors are hard at work on homes up and down my block.

But we’re in the middle class bubble. What’s going on outside this bubble of privilege?

The good news is Obamacare isn’t totally bombing. I think. I need to see more numbers.

The bad news is drugs, poverty, and hunger. The middle class recovery isn’t trickling down. A few articles over the weekend hinted at a dire situation. A dire situation that needs more attention.

The problem of rural poverty is sadly neglected. The New York Times has a great article about the situation in Appalachia.

49 million Americans have limited — or uncertain — access to enough food to meet their daily needs.

Minimum wage workers struggle.

These stories should be front page articles.

Published by Laura

9 thoughts on “2008, The Middle Class, and Hunger”

  1. I dunno that I accept your premise: what is middle class? What’s the income range for middle class where you live (see how I’m including cost of living there)? What does, say, $80,000 per year buy in your area for housing, transport, food, clothes, medical care?

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  2. I had a similar thought to Kai’s, that I’m not sure that I see things the “middle.” Things are certainly getting better for those higher than that, though that started happening earlier, as measured by booked restaurants I Hawaii, construction in upscale neighborhoods, the money private schools can raise, . . . .

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  3. Sorry. This wasn’t a great post. Just trying to pull together some various observations. The construction on the homes in our area is amazing. Three houses on the block are going from 50’s era homes to McMansions with turrets and three car garages. (Not us. But we will get a new roof this year. Yay.) None of those people are truly middle class. They are probably in the UPM to rich levels. But I do know people in the $80-100,000 range of middle class who are starting to see some upticks as well. Of course, this is all observations. The beginning part of the post was too long of a digression. I really wanted to talk about the problems with hunger in this country. I’m going to keep coming back to this topic, btw. I think it’s not going away.

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    1. If there is one thing Pittsburgh taught me, it’s that “necessary maintenance” is way more subjective than I ever thought possible.

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      1. I have seen that kind of damage fixed with some flashing and left for years. My neighbor has freaking holes clear through the siding.

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      2. I remember as a kid, we lived in a rental house where my parents would literally set out buckets indoors under problem areas when it rained.

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    3. In our case, because the existing roof was 21 years old and our sellers told us that a new roof needed to be in our house deal. We talked to several roofing companies about our options, thought about just doing patches, and then the house inspector pointed out that there had been water coming through the roof into the attic as well as pointing out a number of bare spots on the roof where the roofing material was peeling up.

      Our local climate really toasts the flexibility out of the roofing material and then periodically hits it with marble-sized hail–not a good combination.

      I’ve since noticed a number of old water stains indoors and am very happy we did a whole roof rather than a patch.

      I’m still kind of kicking myself we didn’t do a skylight repair at the same time as the roof, but we didn’t have the cash for it, and I don’t think we could have strongarmed the sellers into covering it. Hope it’s OK.

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