These? The faces of the "ailing economy"?

A school bus driver with two kids who was so dumb she thought she could walk into an 800 THOUSAND dollar house? Who would think that? What made her think she could ever afford such a thing? We bought our house (in great need of repair I might add) for under a hundred grand, under 1000 square feet, one ancient bathroom and one gutted addition - and when we had to take out some equity to get essential repairs, it became necessary for me to take on full time work in order that we would have enough to pay for this MODEST house. If I'd been so stupid as to try for an 800 thousand dollar house, I'd be blaming no one but myself for a foreclosure. Instead she tells "Obama! Stop the foreclosures!" Are you KIDDING me?

And another subset of the people suffering under this heinous depression we're supposed to be in - the upper-middle-class, unemployed and loving it! Excuse me while I break out the world's tiniest violin for these people. Now which is it, because I could have sworn we were supposed to be talking about people who are forced to live in roach-infested hellholes in overcrowded cities, breathing smog and getting sick while all the doctors refuse to treat them, and instead I'm treated to morons in McMansions they (and I) could never afford, and rich people who have it a hell of a lot better than I ever have living it up on unemployment (they USED to make you look for a job while you collected; but I guess not anymore!)

The one story is supposed to, I suppose, garner sympathy but engenders more of a feeling of "You IDIOT" while the second could never have taken place under George Bush, because anything "bad" that happened under him, like someone losing their jobs, could never be reported as a positive. I also take it that the mom in that relationship, who *willingly* gave up her job, isn't going to go back to work and let dad stay home, eh? I mean, considering she's a lawyer and could probably go back to work anytime, but he keeps saying how he's going to have to, going to have to go back! Nice.

Or maybe we're supposed to be thinking of these folks, an entire family where all the siblings, spouses, parents, - every adult there is - just doesn't work, and are having a hard time making the car payments on welfare. Without that car, how is one of them (the only one even looking for work among those who never have) supposed to "keep" a job. She had "several" last year - which is always a good sign of someone who shows up on time and works hard at their job. Apparently they can't even buy as many groceries anymore on the stingy payments they get from Uncle Sam, courtesy of assholes like me who keep killing myself to work and pay my goddamn taxes so I can maintain a standard of living below what these people have. (Car payments? I've never been able to buy a car that was new enough to have payments - how did she get a loan anyway? I always had to save up a grand or so and buy a junker, then hope to hell it could be made to pass inspection. And with only liability insurance - apparently when you have car payments you have to buy full insurance. Cry me a RIVER. Maybe it's time for me to give this "system-sucking" thing a try - everyone I know who's ever done it lives better than I do, and they don't have to kill themselves.) By the way, in reference to groceries and the fact that they're fat, I don't want to hear it. Fat is not the issue here; lazy and an insistence on being worthless probably is.