via A View From Your Recession | The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan.
One of Sullivan’s readers captures the angst of many in the middle class:
…We’ve also been helping out my wife’s parents quite a bit. Her father’s contracting work completely dried up a year ago and they are facing destitution having used up most of their saving. She has three siblings that also want to help out, but one is out of work, and another is in financial shambles due to a disastrously bad home purchase a couple of years back. Between the other sibling and us we pay their rent so they can live on their social security money. ..
…I had hoped to provide more for my daughter — she should have a nursery, a yard to play in, a better neighborhood. Instead I come home to our little apartment and whisper my apology to her on the changing table we’ve crammed into our laundry room. She smiles back at me, all jolly, innocent, and happy just to be alive and well, oblivious to our stresses and insecurities.
The American Dream, lost to many. I know how they feel.
As a society what kind of world do we leave behind? Will it be a better place for our children and grandchildren? I fear not. It seems so unecessary in this land of plenty. It seems clear we’re leaving both a financial and environmental disater for then next generations to live with and attempt to clean-up. The sad part is that’s it’s all a result of crippling short-sightedness and didn’t have to happen. As I’ve said before, in American politics there’s no constituency for tough choices, everyone wants some other group to pay. Well, we’ve chosen our group, our children.
