U - United?

United? How can this country call it's self the United States of America when we're so divided?!

Rich, poor.  Working class, privileged. Our country was founded on the thought that we all, with hard work and determination can achieve greater things and have more opportunities available to us than what was available to our founding fathers and ancestors at the time in their 'home' countries.  Which is why to this day many people choose to come here. 

That said with the election approaching, our primary is today.  If you have followed our previous posts you may have got the idea that we are prideful middle class Americans.  Who have both Republican and Democratic views.  If you are following our election you would see that according to polls the country is at an even split.  We as a country are very divided on the issues.  "United we stand and divided we fall" how many times have we heard this quote?  We cant help be see that as long as Americans remain divided so extremely on issues we will fall again.  We need to not be selfish as to not just think about what is good for one we must consider what is good for ALL.

One issue that jumps out at us among many is the incredibly high cost of food now and qualifications for food stamps. 

We are not talking about the people who abuse the system and thus take advantage of every hard working American we want to address the concern for the same hard working Americans that pay taxes and CAN'T qualify for benefits.  There are many people who desperately need assistance now not because they don't want to work and provide but because circumstance has been put on them that restricts their ability to properly provide for their families.  Are these cases and families not exactly whom welfare assistance is meant to help. 

We saw this article, Food Stamp Challenge that states there are government officials who are currently attempting to buy and live on $35 a week for a food allowance.  We applaud them, we can't appreciate that they (people we put in office) have a genuine understanding for the needs the voters have unless they have experienced our daily struggles for themselves. We hope that this will prove that there is no way possibly to eat, let alone eat healthy on $35 a week.

This country is in crisis - the government needs to put a freeze on food costs and give breaks to farmers on gas & shipping costs , feed etc...; in order to give the the American middle class a chance to catch up. maybe then so many families that have been hit by the financial breakdown wont NEED food stamps. Perhaps another solution is to guide the American public with incentives to but direct from their local farmers. Better still local governments should support and influence their communities to create their own gardens to help with supply and demand.  Trust us a salad made fresh from your own garden tastes much better and is much better for you.  Salad should not come in a bag.

As long as our government insist on throwing crap on top of us well never dig out! Hope this experiment yields the results expected!

O- Oh say can you see?

The American dream or really the American myth? We are brought up to believe that anything is achievable, we can do all things. It's this hope that leaves us complacent and willing to work harder and longer. We grow up thinking that we will do better than our parents, have more, not have to struggle with life and living life.

The truth is that the rags to riches story is a one in a million scenario.  Unless you are born into a life a privilege, the odds are completely stacked against you.

What is the dream?  To own your home, be able to comfortably pay your bills, provide all that your children need without having to struggle, feed them healthy food (not just what can be afforded) have a steady job where you are appreciated at, go on vacation once a year.  These are all things that can be done through hard work and determination.  Or can it?

How many hard working determined people have now lost their jobs their homes all they have worked for in achieving this dream? Is this just bad luck? Too often it feels like no matter how hard you try to get your family to the next level, how good your idea is, that you play cautiously, your still doomed to fail.  Your social class, your credit rating prevents you from being able to hold onto that 'dream' or even from achieving it. 

Everyday, people fall on hardships, things that they have no control over or had no hand in creating. For example a sick spouse, the housing market crashing, loosing your job, things that no amount of planing can prepare you for. Now you find yourself in a situation where you are stuck, you can't get a job, you have medical bills, and can't get a loan to pay anything off because of your credit score & house having no equity. No one person is immune to these things, but the American dreamers the ones who have attained the unattainable, they are the people who seem to be hit hardest in this time of economic distress.

Our hard earned tax dollars were used to bail out banks from their mess. Yet the same curtiousy is not being driected back to the people who worked hard to bail them out.  Really, if you use the same scale to which "WE" are deemed fit for a loan the banks themselves should have been denied the bail out they were given.  "They" being, the banks and goverment officals have made bad decisions that have cost us being, the American people dearly.  And for us making a bad decision or falling on hardship now feels like an almost forever burdon.  We do understand that the bank bail out had to be, that said, it would only seem fair to lower in some respect the qualifications to be approved for a loan. The banks Should not hold you to a standard that doesnt exist anymore!

In the end we suppose, the only thing that matters is a loving family, respect and admiration. Not what you have or didn't have. But, that doesn't mean we all wont try and all shouldn't have equal opportunities to achieve the American dream!

M- Mitt Romney/Mom's

So apparently some democratic analyst made a stupid remark about Mitt Romney's wife, saying that she’s never worked a day in her life because she’s a stay at home mom. Now we can see both sides of this coin. If you've read back to our intro post, you know that there is one of us from each party, and we have some views that cross party lines (really we're just American). We are middle class stay at home moms, one who happens to have the privilege of working from home at her discretion, and has also worked out of her home for several years before that blessing was bestowed on her.




Stay at home moms work very hard we don’t sit home all day and watch talk TV. Now I don’t know the woman personally but I would bet that based on Mitt Romeny’s wife’s social class she did how ever have a bit more help in her daily routines then most average stay at home moms. But none the less that doesn’t mean she didn’t do anything. The other side of this argument is that it wasn’t meant to insult (stay at home moms) as if we have no idea about economics. I think almost every mom & wife knows plenty on the subject because whether we stay at home or add working out of the home to our daily activities we ALL have to be the house chef (so we know all about the rising cost of food), we all are the banker (so we know that there is not enough money to cover expenses and need to balance the funds that are available somehow), we are the caretakers who have to run the kids to the doctors or ourselves (when there is no health insurance and cry that there’s no money to pay for this visit or script) oh and the small matters of mortgage modifications, foreclosures and qualifying for welfare cause someone was just laid off. These are just some examples of what today’s mom/wife has on her plate.




Young or old, no matter which party you are a part of, if you’re of the middle class you know these hardships whether you are a stay at home mom or not. We can’t imagine for one minute that Mrs. Romney ever had to worry about if the electric was going to get cut off cause they had to choose to pay that or the water bill this month. Perhaps she did have these difficulties we are making an assumption, we don’t know where to find her life story, but this comment this analyst made doesn’t affect our votes one bit. The media is a bunch of shit stirrers.

I just Don't Get It, Mortgages, Forclosures, and Homless

I am very passionate about all things; on the front burner these days is the housing market and the foreclosures happening all around us. It really makes me sick, I just don’t understand how the banks don’t see the ripple effect that this is having. In my small part of the world alone, there are so many homes vacant that no taxes are being paid, that means no money for hmmm let’s see, the police and fire budgets, the school districts, roads and snow removal the list really can go on and on. No wonder the government is broke and wants to raise taxes. Would it not be smart to try and make it work with homeowners, I’m sure they want to keep their homes. Now please understand I don’t understand a lot of the inner workings of the financial system but wouldn’t the banks rather be getting paid for a home rather than have it sit there vacant? I just don’t get it, right is right.  Now we’ve bailed out the banks after they caused this whole housing mess and still these SOB's won’t return the favor to so many Americans facing foreclosure.  It’s unbelievable really! They will settle for less then what’s owed on the loan through a short sale to put people and children out of their homes, but won’t work out new loans for those looking to make good and keep their homes! I have heard stories on top of stories all sounding too similar all from different people from different areas dealing with different banks.  They’ve tried to work the mortgage company who claims they DO want to work something out. All to have hours of phone calls logged with no progress.  Mortgage companies claiming lost paper work, things not being followed through properly, different stories each time, no consistency,  can’t talk to the same person twice, they always have to talk to someone else... its a mess of nonsense. 

                                      

Mean time you have people who CAN who WANT to pay their monthly payments but the mortgage companies refuse payment because its less than the amount due.  REALLY? Why take a loss of nothing rather then something? It’s fueling the mess.  I was always taught something of something is better than nothing. Here is our take on an Easy solution to STOP people from losing their homes. Insist these banks work with homeowners so people will want to spend money on renovations and pay their property taxes.  Does this seem too easy of a solution here? There must be something more right? Why else would this problem be persisting? WHAT IS THE PROBLEM? If you’ll take less on a short sale then take the same loss on rewriting a contract with homeowners reflecting the new value of their home and everyone is happy.  Sure the mortgage banks take a loss but they would have taken that loss anyway.  Mean time they’ll be less people and children displaced and more money being pushed through the government. I’m sure almost every one of us knows someone who is on the verge of losing their homes. I think we need to put a face to this problem, it is the face of children having to be uprooted, women in the dream homes be it a one bedroom or five, seniors who have lived, loved, and laughed in their homes, have raised children.  The greed of our banks are taking our memories and our security and sense of safety away, and I’m just not sure they get it.