economic crisis suicides

[rm]

I have a morbid fixation with the suicides that are being reported as due to the economic crisis.

I'm not sure why, other than as a measure of how bad it is -- not just in terms of the economy, and not even just in terms of consumer sentiment, but in terms of how our economic structure enforces for so many people the idea of no options, and, in terms of support systems, often provides no options.

Anyway, there was the old lady who was foreclosed on who failed in her suicide attempt; and the guy who got laid off from a tech company and then killed his wife and son at Stanford before shooting himself. There's been a couple of hedge fund guys (at least one of which was related to Madoff's ponzi scheme), and now this which is hands down the most horrifying one I've read about.

And chances are, there are a whole bunch more out there that none of us know about.

This is the measure of what's happening out there to people who, by and large, aren't that different from us. And sometimes it feels like Katrina (the only thing that's ever forced me to stop watching news coverage for even a day because I couldn't take it) happening in slow motion.

Comments

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and with states like California being unable to issue tax returns and, last I heard, even unemployment and other benefits checks (I'm on International news this week, so I'm a little behind), things are about to get a lot scarier for anyone on the margins.

[don-negro.livejournal.com]

I'm still getting my unemployment checks from the State of California - hopefully they won't have to go to IOUs. If they do, I'm thinking about leaving town for a while. The last time they did that, we got the Rodney King riots.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

To the best of my knowledge, CA UI checks are not yet threatened. Yet. For UI, there is a Federal fund they can tap for a loan to keep paying those checks, at least. It's general assistance, Medicaid, and the like which are in the most danger (and coincidentally go to the most needy). State workers are in a bind; the governor wants to furlough them without pay, the union and comptroller say he doesn't have that authority.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/01/26/state/n154624S56.DTL

(Thank goodness my disability check is Federal.)

[rm.livejournal.com]

Yeah, my understanding is they are shifting a limited amount of debt around to keep paying UI and similar benefits, but that's only going to work for so long.

Sentiment is key in this mess, and I hate to be an alarmist, but our whole country is going to start to feel like NYC in the 1970s soon, and that is not a good thing.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

State-only benefit checks which don't have anything else to back them up or borrow on are scheduled to run out in February. I have no confidence in the crazy state legislature passing a budget before April, or of Schwarzenegger helping very much. THey've talked about sending a budget to the voters, which is so many different kinds of crazy - but the average resident has a lot more confidence in his own ability to do so than in the Legislature. (Someone suggested we stop paying the Legislature first, especially if we have to do their jobs.)

And yes, sentiment - state, national, and international - is scarily dismal. I need to go read the Economist's special report this week, but I'm scared of it.

[darkrosetiger.livejournal.com]

(Someone suggested we stop paying the Legislature first, especially if we have to do their jobs.)

This.

Part of me wants to see the voters of CA pass a stupid budget and then have to deal with the consequences, but too many people would get hurt by that--including many of the people who don't want to pay a cent in taxes but expect all of the usual government services.

Meanwhile, I'll be over here being glad that the UCs don't fall directly under the governor's control.

[ladyofthelog.livejournal.com]

our whole country is going to start to feel like NYC in the 1970s soon

:| I have been doing a research project on NYC in 1970s of late, and that is indeed quite scary.

eta: man, I think this comment comes off as totally OMG LOOK IT'S IN A BOOK WOW, but really, all I mean is, NEW YORK WAS FULL OF FALLING APART TENEMENTS PEOPLE SQUATTED IN, wut.

[rm.livejournal.com]

Did you see this: http://yuki-onna.livejournal.com/417489.html

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Credit's actually not what it used to be. I have, technically, a great credit score. However, these days, that isn't enough; they (sensibly) want to see your income as well, and if you don't have much income, you don't have much credit. (I'm on Social Security disability as my sole income.)

I've seen news and plenty of anecdotal reports about people having their credit limits reduced (in some cases forcing them into automatically being over the debt limit) as a result of new credit rules.

[chite.livejournal.com]

Actually that happened to me. One credit card company reduced my credit limit, thus changing my used-to-available credit ratio. In turn, other credit companies reduced my credit limit, citing that I did not have enough available credit. It's insidious.

[amberite.livejournal.com]

I'm optimistic, overall, about how things are headed from here, but I sort of had a mini-breakdown last night because I have no idea how I'm going to pay my taxes.

I described to my partners, "It's like that sequence you see in movies - you know the one, where someone's trying to land a spaceship or a plane and bits are falling off of it, sparks are flying, and you're just like, if we make it through the next hundred yards everything will be OK! come on now!"

I've been aware of how disposable we are for a long time. People used to laugh it off and say I was being a pessimist, or not trying hard enough, or whatever. I've done a lot more posting in the last few months about the state of things than I used to do, largely because people are more receptive, but I've known things were heading this way for years.

And I actually feel like there's more hope on the horizon than there was for a long time - we're actually hitting bottom now instead of deluding ourselves into thinking we can go on this way.