|
Just wanted to point out the President Regan did not just create a larger homeless population, but he effectively started the process that eventually has led to the almost total elimination of the middle class.
I can remember before he was elected, being given a bonus at Christmas of $1200 based upon my performance. At our year end, another bonus was received by me for an additional $1200 and my annual raise was also $1200. This was in addition to a thing called "supper money" in the amount of $3 to $5 if you worked past 7 p.m. on a night. I also remember travel advances. My husband received similar bonus and raise amounts.
Our mortgage interest on our home was only 71/2 percent.
When President Reagan left office, I worked 12 hour days with no supper money. I received no end of year bonus, but the officers of the corporation received no less than $15,000 for the lowest. This end of year bonus was to go into my retirement, so in essence I received no retirement compensation. The husband of a fellow manager asked his wife what she received and when she said "nothing", he wanted to make her quit working. But, no one could quit because the cost of everything was going up so rapidly, (inflation) that she couldn't. She was near retirement and had to work until she had a heart attack because there was nothing in her retirement account with which to retire.
The biggest "kick in the pants" was that I was now working for 4 consecutive years in a row with no salary increase! People were told "be thankful you have a job", and I was truly thankful that I was only one step away from the "park bench" as I often referred to as being homeless. I used to joke and tell my husband that if I died, take off my ring and leave me on a park bench for the city to clean up and burn me at the morgue because there would be no money for a funeral.
Eventually, I lost my job because this was the beginning of the era of mergers. Retirement and hospitalization were now a thing of the past because the great era of "Cafeteria style benefits" was hitting the business world. You received your annual bonus, but it had to be spent to pay for your hospitalization, your life insurance, your disability coverage and if there was any left over, then you might have a pittance that you could put into your retirement fund. You were instead, encouraged to open up and IRA and pay for it with the little money that you received.
The wage scales were now being cut back also. A person with a college degree could expect to begin employment at 13 to 14 thousand dollars. There was no 6 month increase, that was gone. You had vacation time, but I had not been able to take a vacation in all the years since Regan was in office because you had to do more with less people. And, the people who were out there were less skilled and less educated, so I was literally doing half of the work that all of my subordinates should have been doing.
Business large and small continued to be "gobbled up" or fail and I found myself out of work 4 times during his 8 years of "caring". Thank God I was able to be the top one of over 350 applicants to one job. But, this time, I had to take only $12,000 annually, and no insurance benefits because my husband had insurance so I was told that he was to put me on HIS plan.
Before Regan took office, many women didn't want their own medical coverage and would like to have had the money in their pay check, but the companies told them that it was "a violation of civil rights" not to give them the insurance. Gee, what happened to the civil rights of women now who are made to go on their husband's coverage. It made me want to divorce my husband on paper just to get lousy insurance benefits.
Oh, and a new trick of business was to move the location! This got rid of a lot of people who were at high salary ranges and then they could hire people in another area at lower wages. But, those of us who were considered as "key" employees were asked to move, if possible. Well, that move entailed our mortgage going up to 11 1/2 percent! Just to put this into perspective, take a percentage point and multiply it by $20. Now, the difference between our 7 1/2 percent mortgage and our 11 1/2 percent mortgage was: 4 percentage points. That came out to an additional $80 per month that was not going toward the principle. What was happening with this increase in mortgage money? It was going toward the higher interest earned by those who were affluent, who were in the age bracket of already having their homes paid in full and having money to invest. These were the people together with business who were also investing and getting very great returns. But, the common average working person was hardly getting along. I can remember giving up milk and going to drinking black tea just so I could pay the gas bill which was now at a whopping $90 per month when it used to be about $35 or $40. That didn't count the electric bill which was also more.
And, forget the auto and credit card interest charges that you were once able to claim on your income tax. All of this was now disappearing. And, not all of your mortgage interest was deductible. And, mortgages now had something in addition to closing costs called: points. Thousands of dollars in processing fees for items that cost a few dollars.
Just try to sell a house when you have to move when mortgage rates are at 12%! Our home was on the marked for 5 years. By the time we sold, it was so beat up from renters, it cost us $7,000 to sell it.
Big deal, I could take it off of my income tax. Not if you are not working and don't pay any income tax. For the first time in 30 years of working, I had to go collect food stamps as neither my husband nor myself was employed. The first time I used them I only went shopping at midnight so no one would see me. A college grad, a professional who had worked for the largest companies, taught at the college level, totally unemployed. I cried every time I had to use them until a kind clerk told me that everyone was using them! Even if they are working, everyone is so "underemployed" they need food stamps to help make ends meet.
Yes, RWR really changed things. He didn't give a care about the common man or woman or child. Nor did any of his Republican successors. But, he and they certainly taught us a new vocabulary!
My revenge. Since I have no retirement to speak about: $25 a month from working. I plan on living till I am 94 like RWR so I can collect a lot of Social Security. And, they cannot kill this tough old bird as I have survived hepatitis, being hit by a truck, 2 different cancers and a myriad of small illnesses. I am finally immune to their "bullshit". I do continue to pray for the many people who live in their cars, on the street, in churches. And, when I can, I do give them rides, buy them groceries, lunches and pieces of happiness that only we have lived through the worst of times can understand.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(264 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
