[[~Beautiful Disaster~]]

wearethe99percent:

I got my first job mowing lawns when I was 13. I went to work for the Federal government, laying fences, when I was 15. At 17, I left home and put myself through college and law school, without my parents’ help. Yes, I had student loans, and yes, I paid them.

I lost my job in 2009. Despite hundreds of phone calls, resumes, and a few interviews, it seems I am now “overqualified,” at age 50, to be employed. I am coming to grip with the fact that I will never earn what I took for granted, just a few years ago.

I have run through my savings, my investments, and my retirement accounts. I lost my house. My wife left me a year ago, and cancelled my health insurance. My heart medications, insulin, and related supplies, not to mention ADD meds for my teenager, total $3500 a month. I don’t have $3500 to spend on meds, so I take a daily aspirin, and my kid is suffering in school. I’m waiting on the word that I have renal failure. A vial of insulin, that used to cost $15 a few years ago, now costs $80. Big pharma is gouging.

Now, I am facing eviction. My two children have never seen daddy without money. I am facing the grim fact that my life insurance policy and social security death benefits may provide my kids better financial security than I can. Like George Bailey, I am “worth more dead than alive.” I AM THE 99%

Jack
Austin, Texas