The recession has been really hard on a whole lot of folks, and let me say straight up that I have been more fortunate than most, I don't have a family to look after and have otherwise ordered my life so that I can hunker down and hang on in bad Times. I've always been a blue collar type and was injured on the job (buggered up but did not totally ruin my back) some nine years ago and received a workman's comp settlement of about 20k; not a lot of dough but - one eye to the future at 45 years old - I bought a mobile home in a nice quiet park and so my monthly bills are manageable.
In January of 2009 I got laid off from a good - by my area's standards - blue collar job: there was politics involved, both domestic and familial, and I'm quite sure, but can't prove it, that my active involvement in the 2008 campaign was the reason I was sacked. Anyway, it was pretty clear I wouldn't be coming back...so I went on the dole.