Weeeeelllll. My furnace is broke, my washing machine is broke, my 27-year old car is damn near broke, but I own my house (and as an American, 8% of my mortgage company Citigroup) so...looking up, then!?!
Honestly I was poor before the "crisis" so I guess status quo.

I'm a single mom, so the stock market chaos didn't impact my piddly little savings too much. One good thing about not having a lot - you don't have a lot to lose. My main concern is more about the future. I work for a non-profit which is dependent upon the gifts of others. Right now, I am still employed, but if giving continues to fall off like it is, my situation next year could be very unstable. There has already been talk about cutting salaries unless things get better. So I answered C: I will be doomed soon unless things turn around.

And on a side note, this was my 4th fucking try signing in to fucking TypePad. Fuckity fuck fuck fuck.

I haven't worked since 2001. Prior to that I had worked 33 years with 2 weeks off - total - in a variety of jobs. Even though I'm technically deaf, I never lacked for work.

And then Bush hit. Suddenly everyone treated me like a leper.

How that for that stupid poll?

KatinWilm:
Thanks for the reminder: fuckety fuck TypeFuckingKeyFuck.

Have to say, I've had no problem in Firefox. And I only went back to FF cause I fixed the video problem (huge drawback during Palin hunting season). Flash 10. Gobbledy gook. I've stayed logged on though. (I know, shut up already.)

test? fuck type keypad whatever fuck?

Nice showing off, Jane. :P I use Firefox too, and didn't have too many problems until recently. Fucking computer geeks at TypePad are all bored and just fucking with us. Bastards. They probably just need to get laid. (no offense to any and all computer geeks out there - I love you all...as long as you don't work at TypePad)

Sitting at the bottom I don't have far to go or much to lose. But I would still hate to lose it, and at the rate we've been going or if an actual depression hit, I'd be sharing my dirt poordom with everyone else. So I answered "C" relative to my situation.

and today I only have to log in like it used to be, every 20 minutes or whenever I come back to the site (Firefox). So far not repeatedly to post one comment. Knock on wood. And copy. I fucking take it back. Two tries now to make one comment.
Fuckity fuck Typewad.

I accepted Bob's cookie (ahem), but not the Circuit City cookie or whoever was advertising that day. If it matters.

Damn it, open thread. I can't wait for you. Here is a really big dog:

http://ihasahotdog.com/2008/11/20/funny-dog-pictures-see-i-can-be-lapdogz/

Open thread indeed. My kid has kept me in LOLdogs for months. I has trouble speaking afterwardz.

I have accepted Bob's biscuit and third party communion wafers. I still have troubles.

How much worse can it get for some of us?
Me - I work 3 jobs. I was working about 47 hours a week (for more than 4 years), but one of the jobs is at a furniture store, so...that job has been cut from 25 hr/wk to 12. That's over $13K a year gone. I was married to a guy who made 6 figures a year & I was a stay-at-home mom for many years. His job was shipped overseas & he decided to move to Nevada with his....whatever she's called...so I've raised 3 kids on my own for the past 7 years. I don't know from month to month if his support payments will come....
My house was foreclosed in 2004. I was able to stave it off for a couple years by declaring bankruptcy - which makes me ineligible to get a PLUS loan from the gov't for college tuition for the kids. The bankruptcy included only the mortgage - I had no credit card or other bills - and the amount required to pay the trustee was too much for my meager income, so after using up all my savings, the foreclosure was reopened & I lost.
I have no health insurance - haven't been to a doctor more than in 6 years, except for a less than 15 minute visit to check a changing mole. ($356 - I'm not kidding) I have no life insurance. One job does pay me sick time, vacation time & for holidays, so there's that.
My economic stimulus check last spring was $300 - all the kids are over 18 now so they weren't considered dependents in figuring the amount of the check.
My car is 11 years old & has 157K miles on it. Buy a new one? Not bloody likely.
I have over 30 years of accounting experience but my degree is in History, so prospective employers aren't hopping on my resume.
I'm glad that people who are now entering the foreclosure process will be getting help - I don't want others to go thru what I did - but for people like me, I don't see anyone offering anything to help us out. Truth is, I'd be better off quitting 2 of my jobs & going on welfare, but pride is preventing that.
You can't imagine how humiliating and irritating it is when people refer to those like me as lazy or needing more education or just stupid. The implication is that we're in the positions we are because we just didn't care enough or try hard enough or whatever. I worked 47 hours a week for 4 years & I've lost everything. On the brink of financial collapse? No - I fell off that cliff long ago. At this point, if I break a bone, I'm completely screwed.
Welcome to 21st century America and Merry fucking Christmas.

Ceu - The outgoing President thinks that you having the opportunity to work three jobs is a great thing, uniquely American!

Omaha, Nebraska, Feb. 4, 2005:
DUBYA: Mary is with us. Mary Mornin. How are you, Mary?
MS. MORNIN: I'm fine.
DUBYA: Good. Okay, Mary, tell us about yourself.
MS. MORNIN: Okay, I'm a divorced, single mother with three grown, adult children. I have one child, Robbie, who is mentally challenged, and I have two daughters.
. . .
DUBYA: There's a certain comfort to know that the promises made will be kept by the government. You don't have to worry.
MS. MORNIN: That's good, because I work three jobs and I feel like I contribute.
DUBYA: You work three jobs?
MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.
DUBYA: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doin' that. Get any sleep?

See, Dubya feels your pain!

PS - I wasn't trying to make light of your situation, so I really hope you didn't take it that way.

I don't take it the wrong way, Packy. :) I heard the clip of Bush saying that and smacked my head against a wall. And I'm better off than that woman - my kids are all incredibly bright (2 of them got 800s on parts of their SATs!). She has one who is challenged. I can't even imagine dealing with that.
I made a huge mistake back in 2004. I shouldn't have fought the foreclosure - but at the time I thought I was doing the right thing.

I shouldn't have put it out there - but when I voted in the poll, everything just came pouring out. There are so many people who are much, much worse off than I am and I hope that this country sits up and takes notice of them.

My husband and I are both in steady fields and have tenure but we still have cut back and started more aggressive savings. Our problem really lies in trying to help everyone else we know and then dealing with the emotion that follows the reality- we can't help everyone and it sucks.

NEVER STOP READING THE INTERNET!

That's all I'm saying, and I'll be good.

P.S. Absolutely no problem with TypityFuckFuckPad. FireFox, you delightful minx.

Law school has a way of leaving those of us foolish enough to undertake it many thousands of dollars in debt.

So it's kind of a trade-off. On the one hand, the inflation that's sure to result from all of the interest rate cuts that the Fed keeps making will actually make the loans that I take out much easier to pay back. On the other hand, like most professions, the job market has taken a significant hit in pretty much every area (unless you happen to have a desire to work in the area of bankruptcy).

I went for 'I will be doomed soon'. I'm a nanny, currently working for two families. In this climate, things are constantly changing, because one mom was laid off (on the day she went to the hospital to have her baby - 3 months ago) and the other family is moving out of state in order to stay employed. We're hoping to find another family to take their place soon.

Overall, nothing has really changed yet. We have little savings, and I'd only just started a simple IRA plan with my previous employer. I imagine that's all gone now!

My husband is disabled and receives $614 per month in Social Security benefits. By the time he's paid for the portions of doctor bills not covered, there's not much left. We do okay, because we live quite simply: our cars are old and paid for, we don't have cable TV or cellphones, we rent a modest apartment and we don't go out a whole lot. I wish we could save more, I worry about retirement or serious illness. Mostly though, I'm just grateful. Things could be a lot worse.

I found out yesterday that I worked all last year for nothing. That's how much my investments have tanked in the last two months. My mother, who is 85 says she has lost over $100,000. She has made herself sick over it. I know this is nothing new but somehow it doesn't seem real until its everyone around you that its affecting. I live in Canada and our Prime Minister is still pulling a "W" on us by telling us the economy here isn't that bad and we aren't nearly in as much trouble as the Americans. I think Bob should start doing a Canadian version of his blog for us.

I'm not bragging or anything, but somehow my husband and I are better off than we've been in years right now. After years of un- and under-employment, my husband finally has a job that's a match for his skills and experience and pays twice as much as his last one. I'm in IT in the healthcare industry, which is pretty recession-proof. We aren't trying to sell our house, our 401Ks have 15 years to recover before we have to use them and we have no credit card debt. Although we haven't put any money away for the kids' college, it's seeming like a very smart move right now. Even if one of us got laid off, we'd still make the mortgage, car payments and put food on the table.

Obama better not screw this up for us! (LOL)

My financial world is falling apart right frickin' now.

Has been, actually, for the last three years since I got laid off from the Fortune 500 job I'd been at for 16 years. I was a Senior Accountant, great at my job -- my old boss has been trying to sneak my job back into the budget every year since then in the hopes of hiring me back, but it keeps getting shot down by the same people in a far-away city who put a black line through my name three years ago.

I used to make great money, enough so that my hubby could be a stay-at-home dad, self-employed part-time.

I've been trying to find a new job since then, but have discovered that I am under-qualified for any job like the one I did so successfully for all those years because my college degree (MIT -- Architecture) is not in accounting. (Sounds like your situation, ceu.) I am also OVER-qualified for any job that DOESN'T require a degree in accounting because I had worked my way up to Senior Accountant. In this job market, I am apparently useless to any employer, despite being really really good at accounting.

Meanwhile, hubby has also been trying to find a full-time job, any job, and is running into the "over-qualified/under-qualified" thing.

Right now, we are trying to save ourselves and my hubby's parents, who are small-business-owners desperate to retire, by trying to buy their business (and buy ourselves jobs in the process). We have no money left -- no savings, nothing but debt -- so we are trying to find financing. But the financial market has seized up, so it has been like banging our heads against a brick wall talking to bankers/lenders/SBA loan brokers/private investors etc. The 'rents would love to give us the biz for free if they could afford it, but after forty years of making a good living out of this automotive repair shop, the last few years have given them losses, and they are on the brink of losing everything to the IRS and various banks that they owe money to.

So yeah, even with ability, experience, and opportunity on my side, my financial world is falling apart right frickin' now.