These current times have left people struggling financially. The economy is changing, and in the process, it has left many people with very few options. Growing up, we had everything we needed. We were not rich or anything, but our needs were covered. I never really needed to wonder where the next house payment was going to come from, or if we were going to have light for that month.
My father worked at a factory, and he did everything he needed to have everything covered. I did have a couple of neighbors that were in some serious financial straits. One of them was a guy who owned a copier distribution business. He worked with what were then ‘fancy copiers’. Back in the 80’s, copiers were an essential part of business, unlike today.
Today, everyone can scan any document with their smartphone as their cameras have gotten a lot better. So, this guy ended up making some huge investments hoping to strike it big and they didn’t work out. He had to start closing the many branches he had opened, and very soon he was left with nothing. He had always been used to living comfortably and taking expensive trips around the world, but that was all about to change.
His children, who had been attending private schools, were suddenly changed to public schools. All the eating out stopped, and he started facing divorce. His family could not recover financially from that blow, and he ended up claiming Social Security benefits. His children started to work as soon as they could and held part-time jobs to help with school expenses.
They went from being at the top to be in the bottom. But the most dramatic cases are not the ones they go from riches to rags, but the ones that always seem to be in rags. There are many people out there who have no idea how they are going to make rent. Their credit scores look very bad, and not many employers want to ‘risk’ and hire them which makes their situation worse.
They claim unemployment benefits until their weeks run out, and they are sometimes evicted and end up living in a park. Such was the case of a little girl named Ariel. Ariel had been seeing her mother pack and unpack for the longest time. She saw her mom would be worried and not sleep countless days. She was only 9 years old, but she knew there was something she could do, and she did it!