California’s furloughed state workers are suffering too
The Los Angeles Times on August 30 ran an article that puts a face and a dose of reality on the 200,000 State workers that have been furloughed from their jobs, purportedly to save the State money. The article says 22 other States have also implemented furloughs.
The article features a State employee named Rochelle Johnson. Her job as an appointment scheduler with a California Department that takes disability applications pays $ 38,000 a year. The furlough cuts her pay by 14%. She has turned to payday lenders to try and get by, but even so has experienced her utility service being cut off due to delinquent payment.
Carrie and John Quintos lived in Chino. Now only Carrie and their 4 kids live there. Carrie and John both work for the State and are furloughed. Based upon their combined $70,000 a year State pay, they had a home with a mortgage of $ 3200 a month. With a 3 day a week furlough – 6 days a month less income into the home – they could no longer make the payment.
They tried renting the house and living in a townhome as renters themselves, but when their tenant failed to make the rent one month, they could not make the payment and fell behind. They gave up their townhome, John moved in with his mom in Moreno Valley and Carrie and their 4 kids with her aunt in Chino. Economics has driven this family into living 30 miles from each other.
What’s the point of this story? Just to suggest that perhaps the next time you hear someone whining about the pay and benefits of government employees you should tell them about this Los Angeles Times article and Rochelle Johnson and Carrie and John Quintos and their kids. You might also mention that the perception of high pay and the job security of government jobs is pretty much a myth.
And, throw in that the furlough of Rochelle Johnson is not saving the State of California any money at all, as her job is 100% funded by the Federal Government.
To think that life is so manipulated by the very wealthy- these economic cycles are aweful on families. I think most ppl have been affected one way or another- and if you haven’t been–keep stashing your cash-save save save- and store some food because a gallon of water and a gallon of milk will soon be worth more than 1 gallon of gas- in its peak days. You can not store milk, but you can store other stuff which will also go up in price— so offset your extra expenses by storing rice, beans, canned goods, water,etc.
and buy your 12 gauge shotgun for home protection because ppl will do anything for food.
Just imagine:
water= $6.00 a gallon
milk = $6.00 a gallon
these two stories are but a few of all that is going on in this country- and it is global!