Close to home...

Close to home...

Sigh. Yesterday I got news from a friend that her husband was being offered voluntary severance from his job. Twenty-seven years gets you one week's notice.

I had heard over the weekend that there were layoffs at his company, and, I see in retrospect, I blocked the idea that he might be one of them.

Part of what bothers me is that his company was doing all the right things. They are even one of my customers. A good customer. I've been personally involved with them and I'm proud of the work we've done for them. We've helped them compete world wide. Most companies in their space shut down US manufacturing years ago and shipped it to China. This company was shipping their products to China and keeping the jobs here.

Up 'till now.

They are a victim of something bigger than themselves: the credit crunch hit them with a hard right to the solar plexus. It is hard not to rail against the system that allowed this to happen. The lack of regulation. The seeming failure of the $700,000,000,000 bailout. (It looks bigger when you put the actual number there, doesn't it - instead of $700B?) The greed and corruption that made it possible.

And even though my friend is also a victim of this particular brand of trickle down economics, she seems to know that one can't stay there:

We're doing okay, after the initial shock and awe. We're far better off than those with young families, trying to put kids thru college, etc. We're looking forward to new opportunities for simple living and creative wage-earning :-) .