But I Bet Phil Gramm Can Still Afford to Buy a Clue

by Shaker Faith of That Is So Queer

[Following up on Mustang Bobby's and Zuzu's posts, here and here, about Phil Gramm's latest nonsense...]

Thursday, Phil Gramm said, "Thank God the economy is not as bad as you read in the newspaper every day."

And for Phil Gramm, the economy is not so bad. For the rest of us out here, I
only have my experience to share.

In my life I have done fairly well for myself. I came from a dysfunctional working class family who wanted to believe they were middle class. In so doing they ran up credit card bills in their names and when that trick got old, they started working on opening them in the names of the cash cows known as their children.

When I moved far, far away at 17, I got a bunch of scholarships (thank you Imperial Court) and a bunch of jobs and tried my best to make it on my own. Along the way, I met my future husband. When I met him we assumed he was dying of AIDS and so we bought every stupid electronic device (laser disc player anyone?) that Sony put on the market. Then protease inhibitors were discovered and it turned out that he wasn't going to die and in 1998 we turned around, looked at our very scary bills and paid them all off.

Ten years after all that drama, we have awesome credit scores, excellent health insurance, we started and sold a business, bought a house and have a retirement plan. So what could possibly be the problem?

This week, my husband became another statistic on the unemployment lines as he was laid off from his excellent and well-paying job as an executive in the limousine industry. Between the writers' strike, rising gas prices and decreased luxury spending, it was going to be someone but honestly, I didn't see it coming. That is all about privilege. I got soft.

I remember my dad being laid off from job after job in the 70s and 80s, losing accounts left and right and looking forward to breakfast for dinner (a fine and fun cost-saving tip, btw). I didn't quite understand the money situation, but I knew well when it was not a good time to need new jeans.

Today, debtless and firmly ensconced in the middle class, last week I was only feeling a pinch as I commuted to my job and tried to lay off the gas pedal without getting shot by the guy behind me for going too slow. I saved my pennies and dimes and nickels for emergencies but I wasn't afraid to buy apricots, which are fairly expensive, or an extra treat on the weekend. Today, I can't quite say that. I've had my apricots and there will be more next summer and hopefully this will be short-lived.

Meanwhile, I am lucky. We have a financial cushion, and I have a good job at a university with incredible benefits that paid all but $250 of my husband's recent hospitalization for a burst appendix. My grant has been renewed for another year, so I'm pretty safe until March 2009.

Things might be tight around casa Queer for the next couple of months but husband is already out on the hunt and he's super employable. There are those out there who are not so lucky.

Last week's Labor Department reading showed 438,000 jobs lost in the first half of 2008 with 62,000 jobs lost just in June. That is 62,000 families who lost the ability to pay for their groceries. 62,000 families who because the cost of gas is so high, will not allow them to go visit gramma this summer. 62,000 families who are finding it increasingly difficult to find enough to pay their insurance co-pays.

Phil Gramm does not belong to one of those families.