Response #3 In a Dark Financial World

In a Dark Financial World

     Homeless people walk along the streets and no longer fear losing their belongings, but fear that they have lost their independence. Our rigid economy pushed these people out of their jobs, out of their homes, and into lives foreign to them. Dale Maharidge, author of Someplace Like America, traveled across our country studying and walking in the shoes of the modern day labor class to question the effects of the economic downfall of their everyday lives. America is in a second depression but the working people will not let a broken economy take away their pride and strength.

     Dale Meharidge and photographer Michael S. Williamson witnessed an upper-class woman fall to accepting charity and working multiple jobs just to scrape by and care for her family. They also interviewed a legal Latino man that constantly fears being beaten, yet again, by police because they assume he’s undocumented. Both Meharidge and Williamson could see strength though the cobwebs of sleep-deprivation and dismay in the eyes of the working citizens they interviewed. Despite how harsh the economy is, people who have lost everything, find something to fight for. Hope. Those who are suffering from the economic downfall look forward to a brighter time of a better financial future.

     American companies are downsizing causing people to lose jobs. Many people in our country are losing jobs that they’ve depended on for many years which in turn are causing them to lose other important aspects of their lives. Families are forced to live together and pool their last bit of income to survive. Food prices are going up, taxes are rising, and jobs are diminishing. This is much like the depression of the 1930’s. Dale Meharidge emphasized “We are survivors. We emerged from the hard times in the 1930s. We will do it again…”
     America is in a depression. Experts won’t call it that, but the modern people know it. American people are optimistic for a better future despite all the losses the times are throwing at them. This economy is denying the majority of the people the structure and the foundation of a financially stable country. Dale Meharidge and Michael S. Williamson capture this in the story of the human lives in today’s economy. People of the labor class today feel this is a depression. Depression is merely a word, but it is a word that needs to be said. It is a word that is greatly felt.