Weekend Reflection #29 How is the Economic Bailout Going to Help Families Like Us?

Yesterday President Bush signed into law a $700 billion financial rescue package. This package will allow the government to purchase mortgage-related investments and other assets from troubled financial institutions. The government hopes that the bill will restore confidence in markets and make credit more available to businesses and individuals. Some businesses depend on credit in order to make payroll. People like you and I need credit to buy a home or a car.

So if the government is helping out banks with this massive bill how will it help us? My family is suffering major hardship during this economic recession and housing crisis. In January of this year we received a letter from our bank stating that we had 30 days to move out of our house because the mortgage was behind and going into foreclosure. Having just had a baby the previous July, I was only working part time and my husband left his full time job for one that paid less and gave him less hours. We were barely making it. Our choices were clear we could move into my parents basement which was only an hour away from where we were living, attempt to apply for low income housing (which probably would have resulted in us being placed on a waiting list), or take his [my husband] parents offer to help us move out to California and live in his elderly grandmother’s empty house rent free. In February we chose to leave our part time jobs and head to the Golden State.

Here I’ve had three different jobs and my husband just one. In August we found what we thought were promising jobs with Crossmark. We are merchandising in Home Depot stores. Due to the economic slowdown Home Depot’s sales are down which resulted in our hours being cut. We thought that wasn’t too big of a deal because we were told that our company had a two year contract with Home Depot and this would only be temporary. On Tuesday we all found out that due to budget cuts Crossmark was eliminating more than half of the jobs in their home improvement west coast division. The employees that lost their jobs were picked randomly and only one person on our team was able to keep her job. Our last day will be October 31.

Jobs in California are very hard to find. When I did a search on a popular employment website for jobs I am qualified within a 30 mile radius of Sacramento I only found 31 jobs. I am scared to death. So I am going to ask the question one more time. How is this economic rescue bill going to help families like mine? My husband and I desperately need good jobs to provide for our family. Does this bill help create jobs? Or our we going to be stuck without work for a long time? How long?

We need leaders who support business and economic growth. The government needs to stop regulating business and industry and give them the tax breaks they need to help create jobs. I am not looking for an individual handout from the federal government. All I need is a good job with benefits. With this whole economic crisis and credit crunch employers can not afford to hire and provide good benefits for their employees. If the government continues to raise taxes on business and industry and give them more rules and regulation they will move overseas. When companies leave the United States they take their jobs with them.

When I look at the current polls on this election it scares me to death. I have jokingly mentioned moving to Brazil where jobs are abundant… maybe I should think more seriously about moving there.

Cascia