Recession woes

I've been keeping a wary eye on the mortgage crisis, as we are attempting to get a new one. However, my hopes have been dashed, as we have poor credit. Mistakes made a long time ago are still giving us trouble, and there's not much I can do about it. I'm about ready to run into the mortgage brokers office and cry. I'd love to get out of this tiny apartment, and back into a house, but I feel that that day is a fair way off. We are not a huge money making family, so therefore, we aren't going to be able to get a mortgage. I don't understand how hard working folks like us are getting the shaft so bad. Oh, wait a minute, now I remember, we are in a republican era. Since I don't have more than 80k in the bank, we are non-entities. However, I am still a consumer, and I really don't believe any of the claptrap that the government puts out about consumer confidence and the like. I am actually living it, they sit in their offices analyzing data. Just because you report the data, doesn't mean you comprehend what the ramifications are. NOBODY I know is doing better than this time last year. Even those who make considerable wages. Now, I've been saying for weeks that we are heading into a recession, and I don't sit around watching Bloomberg, or MS NBC all day. I talk to the people I work with, and I guess how much they and their spouses make. I'm not stupid. Nor is the rest of the public. We know what's coming, I've know it for a year. I could've told the fed this was going to happen, after all those AR Ms 2 years ago, man...are they stupid. People are always trying to keep up with the Jones'. There is no getting around it. Coming from Arizona, and having sold a house at the end of the boom, I knew it was going to happen. I don't understand how the "powers at be" could have missed it. I don't have a PhD in finance, nor do I need one to see the problems that lay ahead. Greed, (one of) the Green Eyed Monster, has screwed the working man again. Damn the investors! Damn them all. There should be a rule, written or unwritten, not allowing people, not companies, to have more than 2 full mortgages at a time. (Re-fi's, and 2Nd's OK) That is what has destroyed this market, not the people who were well informed consumers. Everybody seems to be forgetting that fact. It wasn't my best friend and her family defaulting on their loan (which they didn't), or the people across the street defaulting on theirs. It was John Doe, and the fact that he owned a dozen houses all on 2/28 AR Ms, and when the rates started changing, he couldn't keep up! He rented out all the houses, thinking that he would be able to cope when the time came, but everyone else he knew was doing the EXACT same thing. Now, all dozen or more of his houses sit empty, rents way out of a normal working persons league, and he can't come up with the payments. So, guess what. He defaults. On all of those loans. I know that there are still folks out there that have a hard time coming up with their standard mortgage payment, but you want to know why? Because employers are paying less, and expecting more. There is no more loyalty in this country. I work for a small-ish grocery chain, and man are they crazy. I make $10.75 an hour, and what they expect me to do is outrageous. I am a florist. I can make my own arrangements, and create beautiful displays. However, I am asked to cut fruit for produce, and scrub their floors at night. I've heard of multi-tasking, but this is insane. I used to work for a large grocery chain, and they treated me much better. I used to think, working for the old company, that I had it bad. I regret ever thinking that. I am compelled to run every decision through a person who has no clue about what I do, and required to run to a manager for every decision. Then, I am constantly told to cut hours out of my department. I only work 20 hours a week. It's total rubbish. Then, they brought someone else in from a store that closed, to work 6 hours a week for me. Taking away those 6 hours from me. Now, it doesn't sound bad to the boys in HR, but taking away 6 hours from me, is almost 1/4 of my pay. Then, they have the audacity to tell me I can work in produce to make up the hours. Now, if I can pick up hours in produce, why can't I work in floral. All the hours come from the same department, since floral is a sub-department under produce. Or, why can't the other person work produce for the 6 hours they want a week? More productivity in less time, with less pay. I understand the need for a profit, but if companies keep cutting from the bottom, they will topple. There is only so much you can take from below, before your entire workforce is filled with illiterates and degenerates working for poverty level wages. You get what you pay for. When you offer a cashier $7.00/hour, then tell them they have to scan 25 items a minute, all the while asking the customer for their loyalty card, if they found everything, bagging and scanning items, calling them by name, and asking if they want help out, man are you completely unrealistic. The sad part is, we as job seekers, do it. We don't try for more, or hold out for the best offer. With the way things are now, we take what we can get. I was looking for a new job, on one of those websites that list jobs all over the country, and they all want some kind of degree. To be a mid-level store manager, they want at least an Associates in something. Retail managers don't need a degree. If anything, a degree would not be beneficial, because it doesn't teach you how to earn the respect and loyalty of your employees. Nobody thinks of that anymore. All they are concerned with is customers. They all seem to forget, that we, the employees are customers too. Just because I get my paycheck from you, doesn't mean I am loyal. Especially when you treat me like dirt. The meanest customer gets more respect than the lowest employee. It's sad. It hurts me to think that I cannot count on my managers to take care of me in a time of need.
When our daughter died, I was working for the large chain grocery store, and it was my fellow employees who did the most for me. My store manager, a good one, got me some help from the company, but did you know that the people I worked with, who in a lot of cases made less money than I did, bought my family food, and provided for the entire wake? They gave of themselves in my family's time of grief, and I will never be able to thank them enough. The company, and most all, only provide 3 days off for the death of an immediate family member. I took a week, because I only had a few more hours of vacation to supplement that. They all took care of me, let me cry when I needed, and didn't punish me for not getting everything done. The new company I work for, called me at home on the 2 year anniversary of her death, and bitched me out. I couldn't believe it. I told them everything, and was very upfront with them about why I wanted that day off, and still they called. I don't know, maybe my expectations for respect are too high. Remember, I don't have more than 80k in the bank, so I'm a non-entity. I don't matter to anyone except my family and friends, but I don't want to give up on finding an employer to will respect me, and pay me what I deserve. Man, I wish this wasn't a right to work state...