May 19, 2011
I’m writing because my family and I were affected by the economic collapse of 2008, which should never have happened, and which should never happen again as long as the banks and the SEC are kept in check.
My mother, depending on her supposedly safe investments, entered an expensive retirement center where she and her husband would be taken care of for life, because she didn't want to end up being a burden on her children. Thanks to the crash, they may not be able to stay there for much longer, and because they don't actually own their apartment, may end up poor and a burden on their children after all, and none of us have enough resources to help them.
One of my brothers has the severe form of MS and cannot afford the treatments he needs which would lesson his pain and discomfort, and which Medicare will not pay for. I myself am disabled and suffer similar circumstances. I had a part-time job which kept me from being totally impoverished, but because of the crash I was laid off 16 months ago and have been forced to max out my credit cards because of the scarcity of Section VIII housing vouchers. Now I finally got a voucher, but am told that I can "only afford" so much, which is not enough to rent the kind of place that I desperately need because of my special needs as a disabled person. I cannot find another part-time job that I'm physically capable of doing because jobs are so terribly scarce. Some of my basic needs continue to be unmet.
Wall Street greed and outrageous pay practices were a major cause of the collapse. One way to change the incentives so they don’t collapse our economy again would be to delay the bonuses for three, five or more years. That way, we’ll know if the loans they made in year one remain good. In the bad days, bankers paid themselves on the volume of loans (mortgages) they generated, not on their quality.
Please understand that our "democracy" is in a shambles thanks to corporate influence, that the banks and other large corporations don't care about the citizens of the United States (as has been amply demonstrated by their actions in the past and since the bailout), and that we must do everything in our power to keep them in check. Right now THEY OWE US--not the other way around.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Amy Anderson