The white picket fence and manicured flowerbeds outside 1 Paradise Lane are straight from a picture postcard of idyllic suburban American life in the 1950s.
But its walls are no more than canvas. Its porch overlooks smouldering bonfires and scrawny hens scratching at dirt. And mail never arrives in the letterbox that was hand-painted by Marilyn Berenzweig.
Mrs Berenzweig, 61, used to make $100,000 (£63,333) a year as a designer in New York’s garment district. Now she and her husband Michael are down and out in ‘Tent City’ in Lakeland, New Jersey. There is no electricity or running water and racoons steal their food. “It’s not an easy life,” she said.
She and Mr Berenzweig, a former radio producer, are two of the 27 million Americans out of work or under-employed as recession stalks the US once more.
New census figures this month showed that more than one in seven is now in poverty, surviving on less than $11,139 (£7,054) a year each or $22,314 (£14,132) for a family of four.
[More]
How long did this woman make 100,000/yr and what did she do with the money.
And how much did her husband make. And if she is so hard done by, how can she afford cat food. Did she not have a pension, or savings.
Savings? LOLOLOL
Not this generation.
Since the 1980′s the cost of living has risen much faster than the increase in wages. Consumers generally had 2 well-accepted choices:
1) Lower their standard of living
2) Find a way to make more money
Instead they took choice #3 – exploit the cheap credit that flooded the market during the 80′s and maintain/enhance their lifestyle. As a result, income means nothing – making $200k a year doesn’t make you rich if you’re spending $400k a year.
By the start of the housing crash, only 2% of homes were paid for and the average home was being resold with 90% of the mortgage value remaining. Nearly half of Americans hadn’t saved more than $10k for retirement and many of those retirement savings went into “AAA” rated securities that are now of course long gone.
A sad situation. I blame Barnie Frank. He promised his country the world and delivered nothing. These days he is very quiet and the media won’t touch him with a ten foot pole.
Maybe Fox News should pay him a visit.
That would be highly entertaining.