Add to that, a serious of medical problems; heart failure and I found myself homeless at the age of 60!  I found myself living at the VA Medical Center, where there were 15 other homeless veterans living; I was a patient in the hospital for over 3 months; and after discharge from the hospital and 28 cents in my pocket, I went to live in a homeless shelter and eat in a soup line for over six weeks! 

When I got word from the VA, that my disability pension, had been approved...and later Social Security followed...I was jumping for joy...it felt great! 

Since August, 2006 I have been writing, and during that time I have written about 190 articles of many different subjects.  That includes articles I see in the newspaper, that I paraphrase or quote directly from the article, so I can get the information correct.  I've done this with many important topice including homelessness; losing weight; quitting smoking; bed bugs; aging and now this piece having to do with jobs; the recession and poverty!

The piece was written by Anne D'innocenzio and Dena Potter of the Associated Press and the piece was published by the Albuquerque Journal on October 10, 2010.  The piece is entitled;

"Midnight grocery runs capture
economic straits"

The article reads as follows:

"Fredericksburg, VA; Once a month just after midnight, the beeping checkout scanners at a Walmart just off Interstate 95 come alive in a chorus of financial desperation. 

Here and at the grocery stores across the country, the chimes come just after food stamps and other monthly government benefits drop into accounts of shoppers who have been rationing things like milk, ground beef and toilet paper and can can finallystock up again.

Shoppers mill around the store after 11 PM...killing timeuntil their accounts are replenished.  When midnight strikes, they rush for the checkout counter. 'The kids are sleeping, so we go do what we/ve gotta do.  Money is tight, Martin Young said as he and his wife pushed two carts piled high with ground beef, toilet paper and other items. 

The couple said they need food-stamp benefits, which are electronically deposited onto debit cards, because his job as a restaurant server doesn't quite cover expenses for their five children. 

'We try to get here between 10:30 and 11 because we know we've got a lot of stuff to get.  That way by 12 o'clock (midnight) we're at the line cashing out and done.' he said

More than a year after the technical end of the Great Recession, millions of Americans still have a hard time stretching their dollars until the first of the month, or even to the next payday.  One in seven Americans lives in poverty, and more than 41 million are on food stamps, a rocord.  Last year the figure was about 35 million. 

As a result, there are more scenes like the one last week at the 24 hour Kroger in Cincinnati.  As the final hours of September ticked down, about five dozen cars were in the parking lot.  It's much slower on normal weeknights.  'This here is emergency bread,' said Melinda Patterson, 36, who has been without a full-time job since the recession began and had started shopping 20 minutes before midnight.  That's when $435 in food stamps kicked in to help feed her six children. 

The same night, Sharon Smith and her four young children were loading up on meat, fruit, bread,water, tissues and cereal at the Kroger's Food 4 Less store on Chicago's west side.  Those staples had begun running out more than a week earlier.

'Tonight, they were tired and hungry, so I said, 'Let's go ahead and do it now, said Smith, who had $600 in food stamps electronically deposited to her elecctronic debit card at midnight.  'They can go to the fridge and get whatever they want in the beginning of the month, and we have bigger meals,' a reprieve from the rationing that is the rule for the rest of the month, she added.

Stores have always noted swings in spending around paydays...a drop-off in buying in the days before shoppers recieve paychecks or government subsidies, followed by a spurt of spending onec the money is available.  The recession and ist aftermath have taken the trend to an extreme.  Tight credit is a factor, too.  When cash runs out, many can no longer fall back on credit cards to buy what they need. 

There is no broad data on the impact of this shopping pattern, known as the paychech cycle.  The timing of government assistance is different from state to state and when payday falls varies by employer.  But stores have learned how to adapt to the surges, which typically occur on the first and the 15th of the month, when many people get their paychecks.  They monitor the pay schedules from big employers in the towns where they operate.

Walmart, Kroger, Kmart and others have worked with their suppliers to stock more gallons of mild and supersized packages of toilet paper and detergent at the beginning of the month.  Smaller packages and store brands are given prominence leading up to payday. 

Walmart is collaborating with vendors to offer even smaller sizes for under a dollar to win back customers who are heading to dollar stores to buy mini-size laundry soap and other items because they only have a few sollars left until the next payment.  Earlier this year, Kmart began pushing $1 items on snack packs and other food items, timed a week fefore the 15th of the month to help customers stretch their budgets.  

'This is the new normal,' said Richard Hastings macro and consumer strategist with Global Hunter Securities.  'This is going to be like this for many years to come.'  Not counting Social Security, one in six Americans now recieves some form of government assistance, including food stamps, Medicaid, and extended unemployment benefits.

These government payouts now account for about 20 percent of Americans' total after-tax income, said David Rosenberg, an economist at investment firm Gluskin sheff.  The average over the past half-century is 13 percent.  Americans relying on government benefits are doing their homework to stretch the payements.  The vast majority interviewed by The Associated Press as October dawned were carefully scrutinizing prices and had a game plan of what to buy where. 

In Harlem, shoppers were running back and forth from Target to Costco to compare prices just after 10 am., the time most of the stores open, on the first day of the month.  Sandra Bennerson, 66, who is retired and gets
Social Secruity on the first, was in the detergent aisleat Target, expaining to a reporter why Costco had a better deal on Tide.  Costco was offering 20 more ounces for the same price.  'Every penny counts,' she said.'"

END OF ARTICLE...

How could all this happen in the wealthiest country in the world?  Who's at fault for all this"  The answer is simple...

The U.S. Congress and the White House for letting corporations move out of the country...instead of making them stay in American...to keep American's employed, etc. 

From: All about challenges.org:  What are the effects of a job loss on a family?  Job loss is one of the greatest trials we can endure.  The effects of a job loss is often long-lasting.  This is largely due to the fact that society trains us to identify ourselves by how we provide for our family.  A job loss can lead to the loss of one's own identy, which can result in the loss of purpose in life.  Without a purpose in life, we tend to feel as if we are no longer in control.  Also, a loss of self-worth and self-confidence is common with people who have suffered a job loss.  These are all natural and ordinary feelings. 

*                     *                      * 

As of 2010, I now live on Social Security...on the money I have earned for 48 years in the work place and a small pension from a company I worked for over ten years. 

Today, I am so glad I am not out in the work place looking for a job...I have enough to worry about that Social Security will remain solvent.  Because of my job layoffs, I could have never imagined myself saying that I was so happy when I climbed out of destitution...and found my way into poverty!

"It can't happen to me!"  Keep that attitude, and you'll find yourself in the soup...trust me! 

SITEMAP; 350+ Links For Your Convenience;
Copyright; 2010; Jerry Aragon/The Humor Doctor
Website name; humordoctormd