As economy sinks, officials fear violent solutions - CNN

[steve2470]

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/10/13/economy.violence.ap/index.html?eref=rss_latest

(AP) -- An out-of-work money manager in California loses a fortune and wipes out his family in a murder-suicide.

A 90-year-old Ohio widow shoots herself in the chest as authorities arrive to evict her from the modest house she called home for 38 years.

In Massachusetts, a housewife who had hidden her family's mounting financial crisis from her husband sends a note to the mortgage company warning: "By the time you foreclose on my house, I'll be dead." Then Carlene Balderrama shot herself to death, leaving an insurance policy and a suicide note on a table.

Across the country, authorities are becoming concerned that the nation's financial woes could turn increasingly violent, and they are urging people to get help. In some places, mental-health hot lines are jammed, counseling services are in high demand and domestic-violence shelters are full.

"I've had a number of people say that this is the thing most reminiscent of 9/11 that's happened here since then," said the Rev. Canon Ann Malonee, vicar at Trinity Church in the heart of New York's financial district. "It's that sense of having the rug pulled out from under them."

more at link above

[coalition_unwilling]

1. I'm surprised and dismayed that this post is sinking to obscurity

here with no comments.

[Beausoleil]

2. Trickle down social services

Who needs a safety net when you can have guns?

(not criticizing guns, or responsible gun owners; just the quick-fix, solve-all-your-problems-with-one-clean-shot culture)

[marmar]

3. Kicked and recommended ..... with sadness.

n/t

[mopinko]

4. add this to returning vets with ptsd and no mental health care.

ugly. really really gonna get ugly.

i have no money woes, but sometimes i wonder how i have survived these years. sometimes the weight of trying to be a citizen, and doing the right thing, is like those thousand ton weights they drop on people in the cartoons.

[OhioChick]

5. K&R

:kick:

[devilgrrl]

6. "and they are urging people to get help" - Oh yeah? With what funds should they use to seek help?

Are these the same assholes that booted the mentally ill from institutions in California? The same ones that mocked Michael Dukakis for seeing a shrink when he was in the army. NOW they want people to seek help? What a joke!

[raccoon]

21. Exactly, if only the US had a national health plan like other civilized and

industrialized countries.

Get help? Pay counselors and for antidepressants and other meds when you have no income and no health insurance?

And my state--and undoubtedly others--have been slashing the budget for the mental health agency to the bone.

[gratuitous]

7. People are killing themselves now . . .

But wait as the evidence piles up as to who is really responsible for the financial mess we're in. After all the economic violence done to the populace, the outright theivery of our production, and the attitude of the overrich that Marie Antoinette would find snotty, I'd say the folks in the gated communities might want to be sure their security rent-a-cops are fully paid. And even then, they'd better be sure the personal helicopter is fully fueled and in tip-top repair for a fast getaway.

[Azlady]

8. K&R This is important.....

We need to be in touch with family, friends, co-workers, talking to them. Sometimes just providing verbal support can go such a long way.

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. For those who were wishing some folks at Wall Street would ahem jump

to their deaths a la 1929... well you got your wish... this is what it looked like back then as well

A few of the top will commit suicide. (We had a president of a british bank get in front of a train two weeks ago, iirc) but most of the suicides and attempted suicides come far lower in the economic ladder

Oh and this is but the tip of the damn iceberg

[Initech]

10. I'm envisioning a future similar to "Mad Max".

It's really disheartening to hear the bad news over the economy... but it's only going to get worse.

[Dr Fate]

11. Cool- I wanna be the guy with the little helicopter & the snake. n/t

n/t

[Initech]

19. I want to drive the car with the huge shot gun on top!

Outta my way, jerkass!!! :rofl:

[RedLetterRev]

12. Afternoon kick

There's so much to say and so much sadness to relate, I can't fit it into a succinct post. Tent cities blooming on the landscape, cops telling me stories of veterans finding no help and no hope so suicide by cop is on the rise, old folks being turned out... so this is "ownership society", huh. Looks like the top couple of percent own it all and the rest of us are footing the bills until we can't foot any more. Then we're just discarded.

It's a wonder there aren't a million people lining the Mall with pitchforks. That alone amazes me.

[Bake]

13. Kicking because this is important.

I believe we are going to see a lot more of this in the near future. People are feeling desperate. Hell, they ARE desperate. And if jobs disappear at an accelerating rate, more people will simply be overwhelmed.

Bake

[onethatcares]

14. dammit, when you take away the jobs,

and you raise the price of everything from food to homeowners insurance, you damn sure are going to see the violent end to many people. Meanwhile, we give fucking millions to asswipes that do nothing but know other asswipes that do nothing.

Where is the justice in that? Just what the hell can you buy or what the hell can you want that 500 million dollars won't buy? A soul? A sincere friend?

[hankthecrank]

15. k & r n/t

[psychmommy]

16. this is so sad.

how many of us are one paycheck away from poverty. i know i am. i have a lot of family support, i feel for those who don't.

[katty]

17. K&R

[magellan]

18. Get help?

Yeah, find someone to talk to about the fact that the gov't is willing to spend trillions bailing out the financial industry but won't do anything about the unemployment rate and the families who no longer have a home. Brilliant.

[Stand and Fight]

20. Kick because this is too damn important to sink.

This is a warning sign folks. Stark and clear.

[Liberal_in_LA]

22. Another pre-eviction suicide. Pasadena, CA

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-deadwoman15-2008oct15,0,7392943.story

Pasadena woman facing eviction is found dead in burning home
Firefighters discover the body of Wanda Dunn, 53, in a back room of the house, which was in foreclosure. Police say she had suffered a gunshot wound, and a gun was found nearby.

By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 15, 2008

A series of financial setbacks left Wanda Dunn facing eviction from the house in Pasadena where her family had lived for generations.

Dunn, 53, told neighbors that she would rather die than leave.