Scraping the Bottom of Humanity

If you're looking for those who are to blame for the economic recession, start with folks like Mark Cooper:

Nine months ago he lost his job as the security manager for the western United States for a Fortune 500 company, overseeing a budget of $1.2 million and earning about $70,000 a year. Now he is grateful for the $12 an hour he makes in what is known in unemployment circles as a “survival job” at a friend’s janitorial services company. But that does not make the work any easier.

Or like Ame Arlt:

She ascended to vice president of brand development at the On Command Video Corporation and was making $165,000 a year...Her new job at HometownQuotes pays $10 to $15 an hour...[S]he has parted ways with some friends because she is no longer in their social stratum...Her new paycheck covers her mortgage but not her other living expenses. Recently, she cashed out what was left of her retirement portfolio, about $17,000.

Both of these individuals earned a decent salary and had a decent amount of responsibility. Yet, they didn't have a long-term financial strategy, an appropriate amount of conservative investments, and a savings account of at least a year's salary? They were that clueless? Give me a fucking break. This sort of financial short-sightedness furthered the spectacular failure that is the subprime loan market.

And they have the nerve to feel sorry for themselves. Cooper: “There were times I broke down...I broke down thinking, ‘This is what I’ve become.’ ” Arlt: “It has been the hardest thing in my life...It has been harder than my divorce from my husband. It has really been even worse than the death of my mother.”

Cry me a fucking river.