Wall Street's Impact on "Main Street" in "Small Town America" is Harsh and Fast

10-20-08, Middletown New York.

The news on "Elena's" voice mail was not good. A hiring freeze at Occupations, a local foundation dedicated to helping the mentally handicapped find jobs, had destroyed her hope of working for this employer as a case manager, a job that a mere two weeks ago had been as good as hers. The interviewer had told her that she needn't continue to look for work and that it was all a matter of paperwork and formalities.

As the weeks passed, Elena's anxiety increased. A call to the human resources director on Friday October 17^th was reassuring; her hiring was in all likelihood held up as the result of a slow moving bureaucracy and excessive paperwork, and that there was nothing to worry about. Then on Monday morning, the voicemail was waiting for her when she returned from an early morning errand.

47 years old, college educated, and with an extensive background in social work and public health, Elena still fears for her own future.

"I have a feeling that this is only going to get worse, it's really freaking me out," she said, even as she prepared her resume for more yet another intensive job search.

Jobs in Middletown are scarce. Latino day laborers congregate at the corner of North Street and Wickham, but more walk off disappointed in the late hours of the morning every day it seems.

I received a "conditional offer of seasonal employment" is the same county; unloading trucks in the predawn hours at a respectable 10.00 per hour, 1.50 per hour more than this company's usual rate, due to shift differential. I too wonder if I will ever get called in to work. Have the Wall Street Grinches stolen Christmas? I guess we'll all know the answer to this soon enough.

Using the terms of the mainstream media and major political parties, the woes of Wall Street have now afflicted "Main Street," in "Small Town America." The consequences of the "crash" have hit hard and fast, but little in the way of damage control via the bailout is detectable at this level of the economy. Whatever is it that's trickling down, it's not prosperity. What it smells like is generally believed to flow downhill.

Without reverting to radical, Ayn Rand-style capitalist theory it is still possible to find numerous rational grounds for condemning the practice of corporate bailouts. The term often used by libertarians of both left and right-wing persuasions is "corporate welfare."

If the well being of the economy and American working families was an actual concern of our elected officials, they would have just given 2000.00 to every man woman and child in America without regard to economic class, which would have been cheaper, and more stimulating to the economy. Even the large percentage of these funds that would be spent on hookers and beer would still work to the benefit of all in the long run. Such a stimulus package would not be "class warfare," or even socialism, it would just be a calling in of a long standing debt; it's our government, and our money.