Why is affordable housing a bad thing?
The Huffington Post has an article detailing the economic problems in Stockton, California. The problem, mainly, is that Stocken has one of the worst foreclosure rates in the country.
From the The Huffington Post
At the height of it, about 1 in 10 houses fell to foreclosure. Houses that sold for more than $500,000 before the crash now go for $200,000.
So what exactly is the problem, that homes in Stockton once sold for $500,000 or that they are now going for $200,000?
Are there many jobs in Stockton that allow people to afford half a million dollar homes? I’m guessing not. That means anyone wanting to purchase just such a home had to resort to creative financing, just the type of financing that got people into trouble.
For years now wages in this country have been stagnant, while the cost of housing has skyrocketed.
Something has got to give. Either people need to start making a lot more money or the price of homes has got to get a lot cheaper. With unemployment now over 10 percent, don’t expect wages to go up anytime soon.
Who knew you could make money by not paying your bills?
The Consumerist has a story about a guy that was going through Chapter 13 bankruptcy that was continuing to receive calls from Sallie Mae about his student loan payments even though evidently when you begin filing for bankruptcy, creditors aren’t allowed to contact you.
“Jeff” wrote:
I have recently gone through Chapter 13 bankruptcy and had an experience that might enlighten others. After the filing, during the mandatory stay period, Sallie Mae continued to contact me about my student loan payment. I documented each call — time, number of origin, and person I talked to if I could get the information. I mentioned this to my bankruptcy attorney, who made effort to stop the calls. He finally filed an order that stopped the calls. He then asked me if I wanted to file a suit against Sallie Mae. I assented.
He filed suit for $14,000 – a grand per call. Within DAYS, the Sallie Mae attorney offered a $4,000 settlement. I had my money in hand several weeks after that. The whole process took about a month.
I don’t know if my case was unique, or if Sallie Mae illegally harasses everyone who files Chapter 13. Just wanted to let you know.
It’s worth pointing out that unlike most debt obligations, bankruptcy protection does not protect you from repaying a student loan. If that was not the case, I imagine every student upon graduating college would run to the nearest mall lawyer and seek bankruptcy protection.
No matter what the bankruptcy judge ordered concerning Jeff’s debts, he was going to pay every penny back to Sallie Mae. That being the case, why wasn’t Jeff paying Sallie Mae? You’d think that since he wasn’t paying any of his other debt obligations, the debts that could be restructured with bankruptcy protection, he should at least have the money to pay his student loans.
Jeff just rubs me the wrong way. I don’t know what caused him to seek bankruptcy protection, but it seems kind of scummy to make a profit for being a deadbeat. So someone from Sallie Mae called him about his student loan obligation. Big deal.
Me finding a job makes the news in a major newspaper
I was interviewed by two reporters from the Los Angeles Times for an article on unemployment numbers. I get mentioned as one of the success stories when it comes to finding a job in this jobless economic Apocalypse we find ourselves in. I was contacted because of something I posted to Twitter about getting a new job.
I was interviewed over the telephone three separate times. The most difficult part was trying to convey to them exactly what I used to do for a living. What’s so difficult to understand? I was an electronics technician that troubleshot and repaired high voltage, variable speed AC drives used to control and operate 3-phase electrical motors in various automated, industrial environments, including water and wastewater processing, paper mills, tunnel boring, oil drilling platforms and mining. I also provided telephone support to customers, assisting them in programing and operating their AC drives.
What’s so hard to understand?
I think my inclusion in the article demonstrates that if a boob like me can find a job in these difficult, trying times, anyone can. My story should be inspirational to unemployed people everywhere.
Only in America
Thanks to an old Google Alert I had set up at least a year ago, I read today that my former employer, the company that laid me off nearly two months ago because they wanted to “lower the head count,” received $282,000 in job creation tax credits from the state of Pennsylvania this past December.
This company didn’t create any jobs. They did the complete opposite of that. In the name of cutting costs, they eliminated jobs. How on earth do they get a tax credit for something they clearly never did?
Even before I was laid off, the company in an attempt to save money, was forcing all employees to take one week off each quarter without pay. How can they be allowed to do this when they are receiving tax credits because they are supposedly creating jobs?
I find things like this to be extremely disappointing and more than just a little demoralizing.
Hagerstown Waldenbooks is closing
The Waldenbooks in the Hagerstown Valley Mall is closing. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised in that Hagerstown has a Borders and Borders and Waldenbooks are owned by the same corporate overlords. I guess in this economy, the Hagerstown area cannot support two corporate book stores. Compounding this problem, a massive Books-A-Million store just opened down the road in nearby Martinsburg, West Virginia.
The store is located in the mall near the food court and the multiplex movie theater. When a comic book movie would be playing in the theater, someone from the bookstore would put a display of trade paperbacks pertaining to the movie near the store’s entrance. People walking by would see these trade paperbacks. Maybe some of them stopped and looked at the trade paperbacks. Perhaps some of them even bought a book or two. It always seemed like a smart move.
I’m going to miss Waldenbooks. Before Borders opened, it was the only real bookstore in town. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to the mall without visiting Waldenbooks.
Unemployment rose to 9.8% in September
The Labor Department announced that the official unemployment rate rose to a whopping 9.8% last month. That number is based on how many people are currently receiving unemployment benefits. That means that if you are unemployed, but you are not receiving benefits, you and the fact that you don’t have a job, is not factored into this total number.
I’m part of this 9.8%. As I blogged earlier, I was permanently laid off by my employer on September 15 and I’m now receiving unemployment benefits. Though I live in Maryland, I worked in Pennsylvania. Because of this, I’m receiving unemployment compensation from Pennsylvania, not Maryland.
I’ve got nothing but praise for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. Because of where I worked, I’ve been going through the Lancaster UC Service Center. Take everything you’ve ever heard about government bureaucrats and throw it out the window when it comes to these people. They’ve been nothing but helpful and exceptionally nice. I’ve called them on two different occasions and both times the person I spoke was totally helpful. When I submitted my first biweekly claim over the Internet, a person from the Lancaster office walked me through the entire process over the phone. It made the whole process a lot less stressful.
Take it from me, when you are jobless, less stressful is good.
Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one
I’m trying to have a positive attitude about my recent layoff, but when I read stories such as this one, it makes me wonder what the future holds. From the New York Times:
Despite signs that the economy has resumed growing, unemployed Americans now confront a job market that is bleaker than ever in the current recession, and employment prospects are still getting worse.
Job seekers now outnumber openings six to one, the worst ratio since the government began tracking open positions in 2000. According to the Labor Department’s latest numbers, from July, only 2.4 million full-time permanent jobs were open, with 14.5 million people officially unemployed.
You don’t have to be a mathematical genius to know that 14.5 million doesn’t go into 2.4 million very neatly. We as a nation have more people than we have jobs. What’s even worse is that our population level continues to increase by 150,000 people a month. That would mean we need to create at least that many new jobs each month just to stay even.
Obviously, that’s not happening.
Why doesn’t the cost for an oil change go up with the price of crude oil?
Gasoline is currently hovering at around $4 a gallon. I heard a talking-head expert on CNN say that it may climb to $6 a gallon before the end of summer. Normally I’d say he was just making it up, but he was wearing a tie and a tweed blazer. He obviously looked like he knew what he was talking about.
Why does gas cost so much? The experts say that it’s because of the price of oil. The price of a barrel of crude keeps rising to astronomical levels. Oil futures climbed all they way up to $143 a barrel this past Friday.
One of the things I don’t understand about this whole process is why gasoline fluctuates, but motor oil doesn’t. Gasoline isn’t the only thing derived from crude oil. Motor oil comes from crude too. It costs around $25 bucks to have my car’s oil changed at one of the national chains. That’s what I was paying ten years ago. Why has the price of an oil change not risen at the same exponential rate that gasoline has?
With gas at $4 a gallon, why doesn’t it cost $80 for an oil change? All things being equal, you would think that it would.
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