The Human Face of the Great Recession

Bill,

Here are a few passages from the comments section of the article on increased suicide rates among baby boomers in the wake of the Great Recession. There are 967 comments,

From Jen D in New Jersey

 "My brother committed suicide last July. He had just turned 60. He lost his IT job in the Great Recession in 2008. Despite hundreds of resumes being sent out, and a lifetime of IT experience, he got few interviews and no job offers. He spent down his 401(k) and when he died the only thing he owned was a beat-up car. We later found out he had a lot of credit card debt, with which he had tried to keep himself afloat. After four years of no job offers, unemployment running out, having no health insurance, etc., his dignity was shot. He had lost hope of ever working again. How I wish he had not committed suicide; how I would give anything and everything to have him back. I consider him one of the casualties of the Recession and when I read of the fat bonuses the banksters award themselves, I shake with rage that they have continued to prosper while people like my brother lost all hope and people like me lost a loved one."

From Leilani Karp in Los Angeles

"I don't dare think about it. I'm all my kids have (husband is dead, bless his memory). I have been called for many, many interviews-- my keying speed and experience look really good-- but I don't get even the courtesy of rejection letters. We have run through the college CDs and are living on my husband's 401(k), which makes us ineligible for SNAP or Medicaid, or maybe it's just my fault that I could not bear to fill out the applications which ask for your car's VIN and for copies of your bank statements and any cash in the house, etc. I know that safeguards are necessary to keep out the cheaters, but the process seemed too humiliating and I gave up. When the 401(k) money is gone, then I will have to try again. I don't know how to navigate "the system" and the other system that I thought I knew, where you demonstrated your skills, proved your work ethic, earned certificates and degrees, then applied and got hired-- that system is apparently gone. I do not know what we are going to do."

Yes I often have considered the value of my life insurance policy, the opportunity to give my wife a "nest-egg" to go back to school..and the awareness that my Social Security benefits, will go a lot further for one than two. Additionally ,my wife has a much much stronger family safety net than I.

I weigh all of this against the lifelong grief I would saddle upon her. Always wondering if there was something she could have done or said. Or why I never told her how I was feeling.

I am (at 60) in a very lucrative "medical contractor" job,w/o benefits,w/o insurance. In 2010 I had less than 12 weeks of work and fell below the Federal poverty level, as Scrooge-ish as it is.. Two years later we are back on our feet,for the moment.

In someways it's mostly our love that keeps me going..because I have the means and the willingness to trade my used up pointless life, to try and get my wife a fresh start.

It's only the hurt that it would cause her,which makes me feel so selfish, that kept me going in 2010.

From Ridem in Wyoming

"Yes I often have considered the value of my life insurance policy, the opportunity to give my wife a "nest-egg" to go back to school..and the awareness that my Social Security benefits, will go a lot further for one than two. Additionally ,my wife has a much much stronger family safety net than I.

I weigh all of this against the lifelong grief I would saddle upon her. Always wondering if there was something she could have done or said. Or why I never told her how I was feeling.

I am (at 60) in a very lucrative "medical contractor" job,w/o benefits,w/o insurance. In 2010 I had less than 12 weeks of work and fell below the Federal poverty level, as Scrooge-ish as it is.. Two years later we are back on our feet,for the moment.

In someways it's mostly our love that keeps me going..because I have the means and the willingness to trade my used up pointless life, to try and get my wife a fresh start.

It's only the hurt that it would cause her,which makes me feel so selfish, that kept me going in 2010."

From Lee in Houston, TX

My uncle committed suicide in December. He was in his fifties and his mother, my grandmother, had passed away two months before. He had spent the last six years taking care of her as her health slowly declined. He did this full time and was unable to work. As a result he had no job and felt no one would hire him and he gave up.

People want to talk about how money isn't important, well it is important when you're facing the loss of your house, being kicked out on the street, living homeless in the last years of your life when you've spent all your life having a roof over your head and food on your table. The people in this article claim they don't know why suicide rates have risen but the answer is obvious: people are losing hope because our government continues to destroy everything for their own interests.

Eli