My family's life has not changed much from the economic downturn. We still don't have cable. We still eat home cooked meals most of the time. We still plant a large garden and work toward food independence. We still rent movies rather then go to the theater. We still read a lot, play board games, and refuse to buy expensive video games. Our most expensive extra would be our cell phones, but nothing fancy. We have internet, but refuse to buy satellite just to get high speed. That works out fine consindering my tween can't download You Tube videos with dial-up connection. Both my spouse and I have kept our jobs thankfully, so we continue to save about 30% of our income. We continue to pay a little extra toward our small, ranch style house in order to pay it off faster. No, not much has changed for us. I hear a lot of changes from my friends though who wish they would have lived a simpler life all along. I wonder if they will still say that after the economy gets back on it feet?

How is the economic downturn changing our life? We're sharing our home again with our college graduate who hasn't been able to find a job in over a year. We are constantly concerned about whether or not we ourselves will be let go from our current long-held positions. Both of our employers are replacing retiring full-time workers with part-time employees. How can anyone establish a life based on part-time wages with no benefits? Thankfully, we own our home. A saving grace. But we worry about being able to afford the necessities--transportation to our jobs and health care. So let's be honest here. Has any legitimate hard-working American's life really changed for the better during the last four years anywhere in this nation? I'd lke to know where that is happening.

I've been living my life within my means buy purchasing a small house five years ago, driving modest used, efficient vehicles and never running up any credit card purchases that can't be paid for within a month or two. I've saved by contributing to my 403b retirement account and keeping a small amount of precious metals and appreciating liquid assets. My house payment, taxes and insurance are less than 30% of my take home pay, there are no government programs to help me out even though I'm $50k underwater.

The housing crash swept the financial rug out from under me. While I have employment that is allowing me to have the mobility to move from Detroit to northern Michigan to be with my fiance, I can't sell my house without taking a huge loss that I simply cannot cover. In less than two years I've gone from positive net worth to negative between retirement account losses and the housing fallout. I'm now faced with walking and tossing away a near 800 credit score and crossing my fingers that the bank does not come after me in the next ten years or renting the house at a monthly loss while still being liable for an asset that continues to depreciate and will take years to return to positive equity.

There is huge focus to help those who foolishly bit off more than they could chew while those of us who did things right have been saddled with debt created by horrible government housing, monetary and banking regulation policy. The next chapter in my life begins with me being a slave to a bank and I have no idea how many years it's going to last. To be fair lenders and the government need to step up to the plate and write policy to give options to *all* underwater home owners, not just the ones who signed up for mortgages they could not afford after the rate changes begin.

The downturn has eaten up 3/4 of my 401k, I will be laid off permanently by the end of May, my car is on it's last leg, can't afford to repair it, or buy a new one, I have disabilities which means when I lose my insurance, no way to pay for prescriptions or doctor appointments. Yeah I'm scared and depressed, so it is changing my life dramitically.

Worse, definitely worse. I remember Professor Fusfeld, UM Economics Professor, saying that he was concerned about us, as we were going to have to face many problems, one of which would be the collapse of the auto industry in Michigan, the banking system, and inflation. Well, weathered inflation, but the other two have really got us into trouble. We moved out of Michigan, where I had lived since birth, because of the economic conditions, the predatory lending problem with our house, and my not being able to find suitable work.

I have been President of THT,Trojan Heat Treat Inc. (see www.trojanheattreat.com) in Homer, Michigan for the past thirty years. I have seen this business go from 100 employees in 2005 to 21 today. I have seen revenues drop from 5.5 million to 1.5 during this same time period. Currently the credit crises has trickled down to Michigan and our customers are not paying invoices in a timley manner. Soon I will have to go to our local bank and borrow funds to meet our current obligations and hope that our receivables will eventually come in to repay the note. This current economic dowturn has presented additional challenges and has put a new level of stress on me. As President of this company I will continue to lead and meet these challenges head on with a positive attitude. When people are down mentally I think a good song can help get them through a tuff time. I've recently composed a song that is very appropriate for all of us in Michigan and the USA. I wrote this song to help myself get through this difficult period with a smile on my face. Below are the Lyrics. If anyone is interested in singing/recording this song and getting it to the public let me know. You can reach me at @517.250.7908. In addition to running THT I am a recording artist,composer,pianist and teach music at Kalamazoo College. You can hear some of my music @ www.deltadiatonics.com

Hang On Till the Turnaround
Lyrics and Music by Ron Di Salvio, Copyright 2009 Meadow Run Music ASCAP All rights Reserved

Read the latest Paper? Recession or Depression?
Million’s, Billion’s, Trillion’s lost.
Turn the local news on, oh just another layoff,
A hundred thousand jobs or more.
Toxic Assets mounting, Tim Geithner loves accounting,
Default Swaps, Derivative woes.

Chorus

You gotta,
Hang on till the turnaround,
Don’t let the Gloom and doomers get you down,
Barack Obama’s higher ground,
Is gonna lead us through the turnaround.

Merrill Lynch was thieving, the SEC was sleeping,
While Bernie Madoff just fooled them all.
Many banks in trouble, while Bears and Stern in rubble
JP Morgan Chasing the storm.
I just took a pay cut
Gas is on the way up
Bush and Cheney mortgaged our souls.

Chorus 2

GM in a quandary, the Escalade is floundering,
The Bailouts digging deeper holes.
Chrysler catastrophic, was everyone myopic?
Ford stands tough and goes it alone.
Tata makes the Nano built just like a can, Oh!
Where did manufacturing go?

Chorus 3

Global politicin, China holds the ticket,
Buying up the U-S-A store.
Deficits are mounting, Bernanke keeps on counting,
Iran is getting ready to blow.
Our 401K’s are shrinking; seems everybody’s thinking,
It’s looking like the end of the road.

Chorus 4

Although touted as such, the stimulus was never meant to come close to helping people affected by the total run-away of the banking system in this country. Scare tactics, out and out lies and criminal behavior was a systematic, planned reversal of or, conditioning of the American worker. Designed and put into action years prior to the present down fall of the economy, starting with the slow denigration of our security during the first Bush dynasty, through the Clinton era, leading to the fall of the twin towers. Direct causal? No. Orchestrated? yes, with intent to instill fear thus, conditioning the masses to accept new legislation to limit and take away constitutional rights. Today, big business has wrested all control from the government leaving us with the oligarchy we have today. These are sad days and, will only get worse for the bulk of Americans while the obscenely wealthy continue to use that wealth to repress. Jobs are still being shipped overseas as much or more today allowing the wealthy to use the dirt poor people in other countries to bring us down to their level. America has become the banks big garage sale. And, I can't even get the weather report on TV without being bombarded with psychologically engineered, sensationalistic, patriotic swill, intended to make me feel better about being raped by the Oligarchy. Lets all sign up and fight for the supremacy of the American bank. Let's all be an army of one for thieves that make laws to accommodate their schemes to enslave three quarters of our population. Steal small, go to jail. Steal huge, live in opulence. Lets all watch the sensationalistic tripe on TV. The new evangelist, the new Reverend Dollars, I hear rhetoric but I see no change.

I began my family in the midst of the downturn so nothing has really changed for us. We didn't have any money to start with so we didn't lose a bunch. We bought our home with a 0 down, 90/10 adjustable rate mortage & were able to refi (althought it took almost a year to get financed) and while our payment is high compared to the value of our home, i'm nothing but thankful that we can afford it.

I guess what's different for my family are my expectations. I expected that with a Master's Degree i'd be making more than $30k, instead i am thankful to have full-time employment with excellent benefits. I expected that i would be able to save a little money with each paycheck, instead i've invested in my son's by paying $1400 a month for child care. I guess some people might see those things as disappointments but i can see past the parts that look like failure. It's different than we thought it would be, but it's still okay.

I no longer buy cold cereal. It is too expensive. I get oatmeal and either cook it or eat it as if it were a cold cereal. I get a combination of store-brand and name-brand bathroom supplies, instaed of only name-brand. I check in with the resale shops in town before heading to the Family Dollar or Dollar General for kitchen supplies. I stitch a rip instead of buying a replacement garment; and I only buy clothing on sale or clearance. And as this gets worse and worse, I try all that much harder to buy as locally as possible, whether it is food, resale, or local talent. I try my hardest to drop coins in the Have a Penny Leave a Penny, as well as at the food pantry. It is the old Karma rule: what goes around comes around. What I cannot afford, I know that the food pantry can stretch my money better than I and help me to make ends meet for groceries. I plan on getting a bike into riding condition so that I don't have to use a car so much.