As someone who works frontline in the healthcare-The stories would break your heart..Even people with insurance-all it takes is one castrophic illness, injury or disablity-and next thing you know your filing bankruptcy...and downhill from there.
The untreated mentally ill, familes living in shelters (who once were solid middle-class and didnt live above there means)The people on social security who have to decide between paying bills or buying meds..I could go on and on...
And here in Cali-we got all kinds of over-qualified people who would to love to flip burgers to get a paycheck-but there are NO jobs...
Even in my field-the medical field-where one could pick and chose where one would work-Not anymore...People in my field looking allover the country for jobs-and even then its taken some months or more...
Yes-many people have dug their own hole-and so no surprise when they're sitting there in it ...But more people than ever who have done everything right are also in that hole-and there just seems no kind of saftey net or tow-rope of help out there..
Gets pretty scary when the unemployment (if you were lucky to get that)runs out, your emergency savings is gone, family cant help anymore, the rent is coming along with other bills ,their car is now gone (cant afford ins,gas,repairs)so even just to go out and look for a job is even more difficult..and then if you or a fmaily member gets ill or injured....
Lets hope 2012 is a better world for all....