"There basically isn't a middle class here...It's like going into a Third World country."

[Amerigo Vespucci]

DISAPPEARING MIDDLE CLASS: 60-Year-Old Couple Lose Their Jobs And Home

First Posted: 07-12-10 03:58 PM | Updated: 07-12-10 04:53 PM



The LaRochelles' mobile home in Plains, Georgia.

In 2008, David LaRochelle and his wife, Debbie, owned two houses: a single-family home in Southern Florida and a double-wide mobile home in Plains, Georgia, near her parents. They both worked at a resort hotel in Islamorada, Florida and earned a combined income of $100,000 a year.

Two years and a recession later, the 60-year-old couple are both unemployed, have drained their savings and 401Ks, are depending on Social Security, unemployment benefits and COBRA health insurance to stay afloat and are in the process of losing their Florida house in a devastating short sale. Their dilemma is an increasingly common one: they can no longer afford to make their mortgage payments without an income, but they can't sell their house because they now owe more on it than it's worth.

"It's been such a nightmare," LaRochelle told HuffPost. "I tried to work something out with Wells Fargo, but they wouldn't even talk to me until I was 30 days past due. We tried a deed in lieu three times because they 'lost the paperwork' twice, and then they turned it down because they said we hadn't advertised our property at fair market value. I had no idea that our property had dropped in value from 139K to 49K, and I didn't see how we could have advertised it for less than the 120K that we owed on it."

The LaRochelles are two of the nearly 2.4 million Americans who are seriously delinquent on their mortgage payments, thanks to plummeting property values and lingering unemployment. And according to the Center for Responsible Lending, a nonprofit research and policy group, as many as 9 million homeowners could go into foreclosure in the next two years.

Luckily, the LaRochelles still own their double-wide mobile home in rural Georgia, which will keep a roof over their heads for the near future while Debbie takes care of her ailing parents full-time and David searches for a new job. But he says the loss of their former middle class life hasn't been easy.

"I'm living about as cheap as you can live," he said. "I was used to stopping at the grocery store and buying whatever I wanted to buy, walking into hardware stores or Home Depot and getting whatever I wanted to get. We're definitely not middle class anymore. There basically isn't a middle class here -- there's wealthy landowners that were raised with it, and the poor people who do everything. It's like going into a Third World country."

Despite his frustrations with Wells Fargo and the pain of losing his house and job, LaRochelle says he and his wife are just grateful to be getting by.
Story continues below

"We're out here in the middle of the country, but we're making it," he said. "All our credit cards are paid off and we have nothing to complain about. We found out just how incompetent one mortgage company is."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/12/disappearing-middle-class_n_643352.html

[reggie the dog]

1. They lost their home but they have nothing to complain about?

what has to happen before americans feel they have something to complain about?

[miscsoc]

8. +1

[HughBeaumont]

19. Probably when the jackboots start dragging us out and shooting us in the streets.

Maybe then Americans will wake up out of their Reality TV/iThing slumber and fucking start revolting against the Old Man Cabal.

Or not.

[Javaman]

23. Naaa...

They will just say, "oh look, those nice men from the ministry of love are at it again, they're such good boys".

The slow and purposeful degradation of society. It waters everything down to the point where horrible things become the accepted norm.

Does anything surprise us anymore? Is anyone really aghast at any of our governments actions on anything?

[liberation]

26. And that is the sad part... America has always and will always be a marketing machine

we love to talk about the "can do" and "revel" attitudes until the cows come home, but in the end the sad part is that for the most part Americans make the mythical "good Germans" look downright anarchic in comparison.

[truedelphi]

52. The part of the Third Reich they don't teach in School is that for the

Average Non Jewish German, things got better under Hitler.

The working person was treated with respect. No longer required to stand and bow to whoever came into the cafe from a higher station in life.

The Germans finally had two week vacations. The Volkswagon was affordable. Employment was on the rise, and the government encouraged every family to have more babies. Things stayed good until the USA entered the war, and then the writing was on the wall. (That writing and the notice from Stalingrad and Moscow that the German Army was not going to have any victories.)

Whereas we are accepting the bankruptcy of our lifestyle without any perks. All so that our military industrialist defense contractors can bleed the nation dry with few if any benefits to ourselves. The regulatory agencies that the Democrats boast about then go and rubber stamp any of the Big Players needs, (thus we have the BP Oil Gusher) while the average person walks a tightrope over the heads of the many sharks that can bring about doom at a moments' notice.

Governor of California asks Geithner for a 20 billion dollar loan, so that the state can remain on its feet. Basically Geithner was asked to loan our money back to us (Californians only see a 73 cent return on the money they send off to Washington DC.)

But whereas the Banking Buddies Geithner has at AIG and at Goldman Sachs were very well taken care of, during his tenure at the Federal Reserve of New York and now with him heading the treasury, Geithner could care less about the thirty seven million people residing in a state that used to be the fifth largest economy in the world.

[Knight Hawk]

54. So cynical

Geithner,Paulson,The Clintons ,these are all good people.Geithner paid his taxes right,well not actually.And poor Paulson and the Clintons they are buying homes for 25 million and 11 million respectively.How can a former president and one term senator and current secretary of state afford an 11 million mansion?I guess just great investment advice.It is beyond pitiful.

[bergie321]

51. As long as we get our

2 minutes hate at whatever the hate target du jour is.

[Javaman]

58. Exactly right.

As long as the public is allowed their vent from time to time, it prevents us from coalescing.

This is where I find the internet a detriment.

Before, people would scream out in public, now they do it on the net.

[Subdivisions]

25. Not. Unlike the Greeks; the Ukrainians; the French...Americans are cowards. n/t.

[whathehell]

39. Speak for yourself.....I'm no friggin coward and neither is anyone I know.

[Subdivisions]

41. The French protested an increase in their version of social security from age 60.

I think I read somewhere that the government wanted to raise it to 62. But just the idea of raising it at all was enough to raise up the people of France in national protests that got contentious in places.


...

France reduced the minimum retirement age to 60 from 65 in 1983 under Socialist President François Mitterrand. The move is seen by unions as a major social victory, ranking with five-week holidays, a minimum wage and the 35-hour workweek. Most union leaders, including Mr. Chérèque, say the 60-year mark is "non-negotiable."

...

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/07/should_we_raise_the_social_sec.html

But, when rumors began flying that our age of eligibility for Social Security could be raised to 70, what have Americans done?

MOST Americans are cowards. They would rather put up with the bullshit than sacrifice anything to defend against those things that are against their own best interests. "I can't engage in civil disobedient activities because I'm afraid I'll lose my job." or "I don't have time to attend that protest," when what they really mean is they don't want to miss America's Got Talent.

I'm actually otherwise occupied today but I just wanted to address this. I'm searching for a word that better describes than "coward" this apathetic tendency of Americans to resist bad policies but it's not coming to me at the moment.

[defendandprotect]

42. I'm not sure that most Americans understand what is going on . . .??

I'm watching C-span -- Jon Stewart -- Olberman, Schultz and Maddow --

haven't heard a word on all of this -- and this has been out there for months.

And, the Commission is pretty much anti-Social Security/Medicare Nazis --

[whathehell]

50. Yes, you really should think of a more ACCURATE word or words..

the entire situation is really more complicated than "bravery" or "cowardice".

The French may have protested a proposed change in their retirment age, but as a nation, they weren't very "brave" during the Vichy regime when the Nazis moved in.

[JDPriestly]

38. People who haven't worked in months remind me that

"We are still the richest country on earth." Of course, this is the only country they have ever been in, but they still think that we are the richest country.

I really don't think that average Americans as individuals are still the richest on earth. That was the case after WWII, but I don't think it is true any more. Maybe we are wealthier in terms of dollars, but not in terms of standard of living. We buy more cheap junk than any other country, but you can hardly find quality goods at affordable prices in ordinary American stores any more.

I would say that we are now living about at the level that people in Eastern Europe lived in before in the 1980s. Except we are on the way down. They were on the way up.

We do have more space per person in the US, therefore many of us live in larger houses, but not better housing.

[defendandprotect]

43. I think when we talk about the wealth of the nation... we mean natural resources . . .

manpower, not really the wealth of the citizen -- but I could be wrong!!???

:)

[JDPriestly]

62. People mean the wealth of the citizen.

People who are barely hanging on assure themselves that after all the poor people in Haiti and Africa are much poorer. Of course, they are. But the belief that Americans are OK when in fact Americans are probably doing worse than they have done in my lifetime is like saying, well have congestive heart failure and cancer of the pancreas, but I'm still breathing. It's idiotic. And I am hearing that all the time from Americans who should be furious and out there talking to their members of Congress and others.

By the way, I asked one of my friends who made this crazy assertion about how American is still the wealthiest nation who his congressman was. He did not know. He did not seem to have ever thought about finding out the name of his congressman. That is the kind of apathy I am railing against.

I know my congressman. I talk to him every chance I get. I assume you know yours personally also. If not, this is a good time to find the opportunity to get on his or her mailing list and get invited to events, call-ins, etc. Check out the website of your congressperson. Many of them make opportunities to talk to constituents.

[defendandprotect]

63. Yep . . . been rattling my tongue at them over the last days . . .

tomorrow as well re a lot of issues -- unemployment benefits --

after both sides Dems and GOP --


Filibuster has to go --

Stop attacking Social Security and Medicare -- stop hiding behind the Cat Food Commission!

Need to stop funding Israel and giving them weapons --

Fair Elections Act -- did you sign the petition I put up?

Real financial reform -- reregulating all of capitalism - Glass-Steagall

More anti-corporate agenda --

Overturn DADT

Overturn tax cuts for wealth -- Reagan and Bush tax cuts for wealthy --

Stop attacking unions and public education --

Global Warming --

Capitalism is over --


I could use Whitehouse and Grayson for the 2012 ticket . . . ???




:)

:evilgrin:

[happygoluckytoyou]

44. can anybody spell CLASS WARFARE... it is and always be THE ONLY THING

[KakistocracyHater]

2. the Banksters are the same as the 1930s, with the same puffed up chest

& arrogance. I keep saying to outlaw CEOs because I see them as a threat to Presidential power, I hope saying it this way helps explain better. They have already outranked Presidents & Prime Ministers in Third World nations, & it seems to be the thing to do now, to bring those practices home.

I noticed the Banksters are playing bureaucratic tricks, by "losing" the paperwork. I've read they do the same with our returning veterans. My best advice is to keep a copy of everything that is sent & even record/video your phone calls with the bureaucracy.

[Chulanowa]

7. I would think that if they lost the paperwork, then I can tell them I don't owe them anything

That's the hazards of sloppy filing, assholes.

[KakistocracyHater]

12. unfortunately, it's the papers filed for claims & that is

how it helps them deny Americans many things: benefits if you're a veteran, healthcoverage if you qualified(yet they somehow can't seem to find it), BP, etc.

[vssmith]

31. This time we dont have a President that welcomes their hatred

[Warren Stupidity]

3. It isn't like going into a third world country.

Unless that odd pervasive aroma of shit is present, third world it isn't. We are transforming into something different. Not quite sure what to call it, as I don't really think we have had the modern equivalent of this sort of decay.

[smoogatz]

15. We're becoming post-communist Russia.

Huge nuclear arsenal, but otherwise crippled militarily. Economy destroyed by corruption, favoritism, blind adherence to ideology and excessive military spending. Crumbling infrastructure. Rampant organized crime that happens to be indistinguishable from and interconnected with mainstream banking and investment concerns. Breakdown of social safety nets, crumbling infrastructure, and so on. It's the classic post-imperial meltdown.

[marions ghost]

17. Societal Breakdown-- yes and it is

accurate to call it post-imperial (we only wish it was actually "post" at this point)...

We have all the means to fix this society. But greed and corruption rules. I doubt those of us who know how good it could be in this country--if the people were truly respected--will ever be heard.

Things will continue to decline, and the rich will continue to pretend like there's no problem, while all around us is misery. Even those of us who are getting along (for now) are depressed and affected in some way.

Americans are so willing to accept exploitation. So many don't even recognize that it's being done to them deliberately, and there's always a lot of denial around betrayal from within. People are protecting that, not wanting to feel the victimization, just like when it occurs in families.

[Flatulo]

35. Car and Driver once called post-USSR Russia 'Upper Volta with rockets', and that phrase

always stuck with me. I think it will apply here sooner rather than later.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

36. A friend of mine has gone to Russia several times to help Russian health care workers

learn to deal with AIDS patients. Her pictures show a seriously dilapidated country. Even the doctors in the smaller cities live in rundown, junky-looking houses.

[Flatulo]

55. I work with a few Russian engineers. As a people, they are quite used

to hardship. They still feel that things are quite a bit better here even in these dark times. Of course, they're highly educated professionals who are gainfully employed, so they're not feeling the kind of pain that this society can dish out.

[closeupready]

40. That's a very astute observation.

Sad that it's true.

[smoogatz]

16. Dupe

[awoke_in_2003]

29. with the way our infrastructure is decaying...

the shit smell won't be far away.

[JCMach1]

59. It's not third world until you see women and children breaking rocks by hand

for cash on the side of the road... or living in a UN refugee tent from the 1970's (in 2005)... or a 5 year old begging you for money on the street with tell-tale glue and dirt circle around his mouth... Just a few of the things I have seen in the third world...

So you are right, the hyperbole doesn't help

[madrchsod]

4. wells fargo is the lower than snakes in the grass....

thank who ever wells fargo turned us down for a mortgage. we took our 33% equity in the house and we went with a local savings and loan for the rest of the loan.

[autorank]

5. Here's how this happened k*r

The Money Party

[applegrove]

6. These are the "ants" the GOP talks about.

[Rex]

9. Well if they had huge amounts of narcotics, Wells Fargo would have listened

seems like all the mega-banks are becoming criminal empires.

[laughingliberal]

10. K & R nt

[Johonny]

11. or Victorian England

where there was a gentry class below the uber rich. Some had money while others existed on the appearance of money they family once had. The middle class these days exists mostly on appearance of being well off, while most clearly have slipped out of middle class status. But as long as they can keep up appearances society can pretend to be ok.

[1776Forever]

13. This happen to us in FL in 2008 - Our lender was Ameriquest & it was about the same story.

They wouldn't even try to work with us. We gave it up and moved back up North which actually hasn't been such a bad thing. Sometimes you just can't look back and have to move forward. We were one of the lucky ones that made it through with a rented roof over our heads. I count my blessings but can't forgive those who put our country through this terrible ordeal! It was a "planned wreck" by Wall Street I can tell you that much!

[TBF]

14. Looting is what it was -

and for Wall Street that is business as usual.

[gratuitous]

18. Mission Accomplished, baby!

And the LaRochelles have the proper attitude of gratitude for the crumbs that they can pick out of the fat cats' shit.

[Greyhound]

20. K&R for more of that "change".

[SOS]

21. To the LaRochelle family:

Please follow this example, set by our ruthless ruling class.
Leave the keys in the door and tell Wells Fargo to sell it for 49K.

"Morgan Stanley to Give Up 5 San Francisco Towers Bought at Peak"

Dec. 17 (Bloomberg -edit) -- Morgan Stanley plans to relinquish five San Francisco office buildings to its lender two years after purchasing them from Blackstone Group LP near the top of the market.

“We are going to give them the properties to get out of the loan obligation.” said Alyson Barnes, a Morgan Stanley spokeswoman

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aLYZhnfoXOSk

[femrap]

22. I, too, am a member

of The Former Middle Class.

It was nice while it lasted...as was our nation.

[blindpig]

24. They took the wrong lesson

It was not the incompetence of a mortgage company, it was the rapacity of capitalism.

[sandyd921]

33. You got that right!

And it's time for these accepting folks to wake up and get a clue about what's really going on.

[paparush]

27. The destruction of the middle class is one of THE big aims of the ruling elite.

This pesky, well-educated middle class, people with enough wealth to have real influence, is being strangled into extinction. They don't want us educated. They don't want us to have enough resources to be independent. I'm convinced they don't want us to travel to other countries.

An educated, financially independent middle classed forced changes like ending the Vietnam War, helped drive Civil Rights, helped drive Women's Rights, demanded government oversight of the environment, demanded Worker's Rights.

No more. We are being beaten into a serf class too tired, too poor, too frightened to rock the boat, all while being fed a nonstop stream of lies and distortions.

It sickens me.

[peace frog]

30. +1

Well said.

[awoke_in_2003]

32. and it all started

when Nixon went to China.

[DesertFlower]

28. i don't know what to say. nt

[keepCAblue]

34. My next door neighbor and now a good friend are both losing their homes...

Both have lived in their respective homes for nearly 10 years. Both bought at the height of the market, before the dotcom bust. Both are under water, owing more on their homes than they are worth at present market value. Both had adjustable rate mortgages which kicked in after the first five years or so and have been struggling to make the ever increasing monthly payments. Both have seen 3 or more increases in their monthly payments over the past 3-5 years, to the point where now they cannot afford them. Both have tried, exhaustively, to work with the banks who hold their liens to try to refinance under fixed rate terms or otherwise bring down their monthly payments to an affordable level in order to avoid foreclosure. All to no avail. In both cases, the banks have been blood-sucking, heartless, soul-less machines, refusing to work with these homeowners, and the so-called assistance program Obama and Congress created to help homeowners during this mortgage crisis has been worthless. Both have applied and both have been turned down because they don't qualify under the income requirements. In fact, only some 10% of all who apply for Obama's program have qualified for assistance.

My next door neighbors, an older husband and wife, are both civil servants who work with the county adult probation department; the other homeowner is a single woman who is a deputy district attorney with the county DA's office. They are all good, decent, hard working people who are now drowning in despair, financially, due to the predatory lenders who were less than forthright in disclosing the terms of the home loans they were qualified under. My next door neighbors "for sale" sign went up just yesterday. Now, when I see them each morning as they climb into their cars to head off to work, their shoulders seem slumped with the weight of the world; their faces, no longer bright, cheerful, hopeful. They are broken souls.

My friend, the deputy DA, just recently conceded defeat in trying to save her home -- she lost a week's worth of work last week due to the illness wrought by the emotional stress of losing her home. I see her nearly daily and through this, I have seen a once bubbly, proud and vibrant woman dissolve into a ragged, tearful mess.

I hope those big banks are enjoying their billions which Obama and Congress gifted them which we, the taxpayers, have paid dearly for. Yes, enjoy yourselves as you party on your yachts, scarfing down caviar and champagne, you filthy, corporatist, pig-faced mother fuckers.

[bdamomma]

37. too bad the elitists (rich) have no idea without us they are

crap, but then again, they don't care.

[SILVER__FOX52]

45. I'm so tired................

I just don't know why our Government doesn't help us.

[DesertFlower]

46. my husband says when the salaries

are down low enough the jobs will come back.

[Liberal In Texas]

53. And they'll be find jobs indeed.

On par with what a Mexican factory worker makes. Maybe.

[DesertFlower]

56. probably what they pay the H1B workers -- less

than 1/2 of what they pay the regular workers.

[meowomon]

47. Maybe it's just me...

but $100,000 a year is a lot of money and they probably shouldn't have had 2 houses to begin with. I can't be sorry for people who can't make it on $100,000 a year when I do just fine on less than half that and I live in the same area. Third world country? They have indoor plumbing and electricity. They have access to health care (such as it is), food and clean water. Their children can go to school for free until college. It is not nearly a third world country. Maybe Americans are used to having and using more than they deserve. I'm just saying...

[provis99]

57. maybe you're not making the money you deserve, either.

I find a whole lot of people are willing to settle for what they believe is an adequate lower-middle class income, without asking themselves if they really deserve a bigger salary. That's the fatal flaw in America's workforce: willing to settle for less than they are actually worth in their jobs.

[meowomon]

61. Of course I'm not making what I deserve...

I am a nurse.

And also, comparing anywhere in the United States to a third world country is insulting to those who actually do live in those really impoverished areas of the world. Even the poorest here in the US has a lot more than those who work and barely survive while watching the flies buzz around the eyes and noses of their malnourished babies in third world countries. We have WIC, Food Stamps and AFDC. They have the Earth, a few seeds and sometimes some water.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

48. Most Americans have been so brain washed and beaten down they

can't begin to image how well we could all be living. They've lost all perspective and are willing to accept the crumbs that are thrown to them.

An abundance of jobs and opportunities, state of the art healthcare and social services, beautiful, well preserved public places and environments,
affordable well designed housing, healthy, regional food. These simple things could be available to everyone if we just had the political will to
demand it and accept nothing less. But, American's are willing to sacrifice all of it for war and nation building. Build the Empire at the cost of our own
quality of life.

I think many are cowards. They have no problem going into third world countries then bombing and manipulating their economies until they bend to
our will. If there was ever a war fought on our shores, if our women and children were murdered, our cities destroyed, we would be a different country.
We are immune to the realities of war even when it is destroying us from the inside out.

The couple in the article above live in areas that supported Bush, support the wars. I have no sympathy for them. Let them suffer if only economically.
Let them suffer until they finally wake up and say "enough."

[datasuspect]

49. what? you think yachts run on air?

sheesh

9-11

[JCMach1]

60. America is a hugely rich country and it is time for some good old-fashioned REDISTRIBUTION