Over the years, I've struggled to up lift myself and family with every nuance and turn of the economy. I went back to school twice, retrained and still jobs ended and are now illusive. I've no insurance, no pension, no 401K, and I can't get relief from my obligations. How can a person buy and sustain payment for a home with no job? Oh, by the way, I've been turned down for decent jobs, over qualified you know. Or I've been asked to work for half what I'm worth. I feel for young auto workers. The cost, even for a 50+ year old modest home is not affordable. Homes should depreciate if you truly own them. We don't really own them though we are told we do. A homes value is rubbed in our faces while the value of the dollar declines. It would be preferable that banks would give us property rights at reasonable cost, tied to the strength of the dollar. We live there, keep it up, even improve it and when it's time to move on, up or out, we can negotiate. Today I have few options.

I think my situation is common. Many of us went to school with no expectations other than "a job of some sort". We were not groomed or pushed toward college because we were not exceptional. We've managed because there were jobs. Every job was a training experience we were not prepared for and learning meant we had a future. After doing a few years of grunt work, I got a job as a draftsman. My high school exposure came into play but I was over my head. Of course I learned and grew. Then a wind swept through, computer aided drafting came to Cleveland. All businesses struggled to get off the board and onto the monitor and mouse. Funny thing happened, with the computer they didn't need so many draftsmen, the same happened with secretaries. The competition went through the roof and you couldn't be general any more, but more focused. I was Electrical, most friends were Mechanical. Meanwhile in the background the profit motive was at work in manufacturing. Profit at the expense of sustainability, doing more with less workers, making things cheaper, and finding pools of cheap labor or less regulation. At least I didn't have to train a Chinese counterpart and watch my job disappear. I've seen the greed that takes profit where ever it is. Sting wrote a song about energy fresh and clean, grimy faces are never seen. Business owners should care about the plight of their workers. Out of sight and out of mind does not make us go away. In Africa they are learning the lesson, who can buy the products if not the workers who made them. Here, we are told just wait, wealth and opportunity will trickle down, while new workers are paid half of what old workers started off with. Then, they want me to cry over a guy sitting in front of his $200,000.00 home, can't pay his bills. They called him middle-class. My home is half that, if that, I 'm sitting on my porch also and I am the real middle-class. If all the financial institutions fix all their problems, I still have mine. No job, the seeking for global gold has made industry go away. I am older now though not old enough to retire and not minded for leadership everybody claims they are looking for. I tell folks to quit looking for the diamond in the ruff, you churn the common butter and the special cream rises to the top. We look for prodigies, reward everybody for everything and look down at the common man. The common man is sustainability, look in any town. We have to change what capitalism means because it has become as bad as communism. I'm guessing somewhere in the middle our needs are met. Patriotism is a core value, not a merit badge for soldiers or ex-soldiers. It's a belief and a faith in the people who make up this country. And it's acting out of those values to sustain those values for everyone. American workers, most of us are not clawing our way to the top. We just want to work, pay our bills, invest our beings into what we believe in. It is said that home ownership is the American dream, why is this a nightmare? The banks can demand I pay to keep my commitment, I can't demand I have a job to be able to. Banks and business hold my life and true freedom is an illusionary tale. I am like an indentured servant only I have a right to refuse to work, yet I want to work, I am obligated to sustain myself and my family, we were born here and we love this country. Are we marginally middle-class folks the new Indians, will we be gathered onto reservations? Why not, there is no welfare any more and the burden to sustain us is better cared for if we were all together like a refugee camp. Hummmmm.......refugee, refuge.

So America, I have needs that trick-ling down is not meeting. I have dreams that make sleep uncomfortable. I am awake to tomorrow and held back by debts of the past. This time I can't throw money at it, my dollar ain't worth 37 cents. Yet you demand I keep my commitments as written. Since all the parts of America rely on each other, shouldn't I also be bailed out? Maybe you upper-class folks can be forgiven for financial apartheid, financial genocide, no fault financial manipulation, I live with the legacy. I don't want your lower interest, I don't want your tax relief, if I am to pay off the same debt with a dollar that can't cover it any more. It is speculative and imaginary worth that drives the value of the dollar these days. Us common folk can't manage on the whim dollar. Maybe we all need a trip to Hale Farm, mix in the going green movement and some high technology and at the same time lower the cost of living, forgive some debts or a portion of debts and start a new chapter in the American experiment. Experiment?!? When every jot and title of the American Constitution is believed and practiced by every American, then the experiment is over and we are a real America in reality. When a citizen can work and his dollar can buy at reasonable cost, goods and services, raise family, help friends, neighbors, save some, invest some, that's a good dollar.

 Thanks Norm for the platform, my resume is available upon request at rnojonson [at] centurytel [dot] net. I am an Electrical Drafter schooled in AutoCad. I worked on motor control projects and did a stint at NASA Glen as a contractor. I am also a PC Support Technician with A+ and Network+ certifications and an Associates degree. I have worked in manufacturing and engineering companies, banks and a school. I am just a regular guy with some skills and a desire to work. I am not a star, prodigy or exceptional person seeking to make your company No.1 in the global economy. But, I know you can't make a tribe out of an army of chiefs and I am the best darn average "Joe" you will ever find. 

But are you a six-pack Joe??? (I am especially incensed that Palin maligned the good Joes of the world.)

Perhaps, it is her way of acknowledging *wink* that we all have to be good and drunk to want four more years of Bush-McCain-Palin!!

Welcome aboard RealNEO!

I don't smoke, drink or chew or dance with lip-sticked pigs or pittbulls that do. I think mavericks are not heros in the long run and the word hacker has been misappropriated and villainized by victims of bad commercial software because they refuse to call those cyber-psychopaths criminals.  I don't get soccer, have 6 cats that don't wear lipstick and believe both oil and nukes feed the greedy and power hungry at the expense of common folk made dependent upon them, yet I have never hugged a tree. I say all this with great humor and seriousness. You use the tools and talents you have.

Norm, I would love to work on Linux and FOSS projects with folks like yourself, do computer support, etc, etc,. I fully believe in grassroots, not grass lawns.  I am in active job search mode and welcome the opportunity. RealNEO is very cool! I have 2 desktops, one which I built and has XP (for laughs and gov web sites) and an HP for Ubuntu only Linux bliss. I will have to hang my shingle, get business cards, Tux teeshirt, Tux car decal, Tux coffee mug and a cell phone with Ubuntu start up music. Keep me in the loop.