The human face of economic uncertainty [View All]

[babylonsister]

By Jim Kavanagh
CNN


(CNN) -- The crisis in the financial industry is all about huge banking, insurance and investment firms, but the general economic slowdown is hitting regular people right where they live.


Deborah Walker and son David are struggling amid the economic slowdown.


Deborah Walker of Vista, California, 47, a widow whose sole source of income is Social Security disability payments, said she couldn't afford clothes for her son, David, 13, even before the crisis hit.

"For a while there he was actually wearing my clothes to school," she said. "And now he's pretty much outgrowing my jeans even, so he's actually wearing clothes that are too small for him and pretty worn out."

David is mainly home-schooled but takes some classes at a nearby school, where the other kids make fun of his attire, she said.

"It's hard enough to go through those years as it is," without having to endure that kind of teasing, she said.

Even thrift-store jeans at $5 to $7 are beyond her means most of the time, Walker said. And the future doesn't look much better.

"You just have to keep thinking, 'OK, what is the one thing we have left that we can live without the most?'" she said.

Walker said that she often skips meals so there is enough food for her rapidly growing boy, and her weight has dropped from about 120 to 94 pounds in the past nine months.

She learned Saturday that a $350 annual assistance check from the state would not be forthcoming.

"I usually use this to purchase school clothes and tuck the rest away for Christmas, but now, David won't get either one," she said.

"I don't understand why, every time there is a crisis, it's the poor, disabled, children and seniors who end up having to pay for it."

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http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/09/27/bailout.real.people/?iref=mpstoryview