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Do we even trust our leaders to help?
Retiring old ideas about retirement
Social Security more solvent than most Americans realize
Focus group participants discuss retirement
Series looks at middle-class angst
Insurance misery has no easy cure
Health-care matchup finds Ohio falls short
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Man robbed at Tallmadge Avenue eatery
Another winter punch heading toward Ohio
Four teens restrain man, take items from his Akron home
Complaints against officer keep coming
Police: Ohio girl dies after fall into snow bank
Region makes way for latest batch of snow; cancellations rise
Cuyahoga Falls residents come home to find burning couch on balcony
Blogs:
First Bell - On Education:
No City of Akron basketball tonight
Pets:
Pet telethon re-airs
The Heldenfiles:
Chipmunks "Squeakquel" on DVD/BD March 30
Akron Zips:
Late surge gives Zips ugly road win
Tribe Matters:
Blogmail response on Hafner
Cleveland Browns:
Stallworth's contract terminated
Balanced Ledger:
QB in Browns future: another mock draft
Kent State Sports:
KSU Notes – February 9
Cleveland Cavaliers:
NBA Power Rankings from Around the Internet
Buckeye Blogging:
Buckeyes grab 18 players on signing day
Varsity Letters:
Garfield at Buchtel basketball
All Da King's Men:
Palin At The Tea Party Convention
Blog of Mass Destruction:
Republican Pre-Conditions
Akron Law Café:
Law, Love and Chocolate
Car Chase:
Collector Car Hobby Loses One of the Best—Jim Roll
Let's Talk Real Estate:
Decisions Decisions: Credit Cards or Your Mortgage?
Ohio Travels with Betty:
Loucile is looking for a Lake Erie getaway in June for three kids, ages 1, 3, and 5.
Sound Check:
Talk of the Town – Top entertainment picks for the weekend
HRLite House:
OFCCP Report
Akron Gamer:
Makers of 'Castle Crashers' unveil 'BattleBlock Theater'
See Jane Style:
Do IT this week: Layering
POSTED: 11:24 a.m. EDT, Mar 16, 2008
After publishing findings that show Americans are earning less than their parents, the Beacon Journal invited readers to participate in focus groups. Here's some of what they said:
Jimmy Taylor, 58, of Cuyahoga Falls: ''No matter how much money you accrue, all you need is one health-care catastrophe and you're wiped out. So there's no amount of money that will make you feel safe. What's happening in our country is indicative of every major nation in the world. You have the rich and the poor; the middle class is unique in the Western world. Most other countries have the rich and the poor. So in the future, that's probably what it's going to look like for us: rich — and poor.''
Brenda Cook, 47, of Uniontown: ''Look at your paycheck, and it looks pretty good until you do your bills. It sounds like a great living. And it's not even always the huge (expenses) — the mortgage, the car payments or whatever. It's the little stuff. Little stuff meaning groceries. Gas in your car. Clothes for whoever needs them. Senior pictures. Surprise repairs.''
Robert Caetta, 56, of Ravenna: ''I always thought the American dream — success — was being able to support your family. Like if the washer broke tomorrow that you wouldn't have to think, 'Oh, my God, what am I going to do now? Now I have to save for six months to buy it.' To me, the American dream is that if the washer broke on Monday, you went to Sears on Tuesday and said, 'That's the one I want. Deliver it.' That you could do that and provide that type of security for your family. When you got to that point, that to me was the American dream.'
Sue Kelewae, 58, of Massillon: ''The politicians come from the wealthy. Most of us here are in the middle class. The politicians have no clue of the people in the poverty class. And pretty soon, (with) that gap between the middle class and them, they are not going to understand. So yes, I do firmly believe as a democracy that we have a grass-roots obligation to not let (the middle class) go away.''
Sharae Smith, 30, of Akron: ''When you look at years ago, people worked at Goodyear or Firestone and the moms got to stay at home. They had three or four children, those children went to college. And the wages were lower 15 to 20 years ago. You think, 'Why can't we do that today?' We are the children of those people. We went to college and then we come out and find out we can't even make the $26, $27 an hour that they were making. Even though we have degrees.''
Tom Fuller, 61, of Akron: ''I think that in a global society we hold a privileged position in this country. And those folks who live at subsistence level, who can move up the chain a few notches, may do so at our expense.''
Elizabeth Wilkerson of Akron: ''I'm pretty sure I'll be all right. Our house is paid off; my husband's at retirement age. He has a pension; I have a 401(k). We have other property, and we have investments. I think we'll be OK, I just hope my kids will be OK and don't end up living with me. . . . I worry about them, I don't worry about us.''
Bill Jelen, 43, of Uniontown: ''My father worked basically in a sweatshop. His dream for us was to go to school and do better. I worked at the same place for 12 years and figured I would work there for 30 and out. . . . Now I'm self employed and running my own business. I'm my own boss, so I will never get fired.''
After publishing findings that show Americans are earning less than their parents, the Beacon Journal invited readers to participate in focus groups. Here's some of what they said:
Jimmy Taylor, 58, of Cuyahoga Falls: ''No matter how much money you accrue, all you need is one health-care catastrophe and you're wiped out. So there's no amount of money that will make you feel safe. What's happening in our country is indicative of every major nation in the world. You have the rich and the poor; the middle class is unique in the Western world. Most other countries have the rich and the poor. So in the future, that's probably what it's going to look like for us: rich — and poor.''
Brenda Cook, 47, of Uniontown: ''Look at your paycheck, and it looks pretty good until you do your bills. It sounds like a great living. And it's not even always the huge (expenses) — the mortgage, the car payments or whatever. It's the little stuff. Little stuff meaning groceries. Gas in your car. Clothes for whoever needs them. Senior pictures. Surprise repairs.''
Robert Caetta, 56, of Ravenna: ''I always thought the American dream — success — was being able to support your family. Like if the washer broke tomorrow that you wouldn't have to think, 'Oh, my God, what am I going to do now? Now I have to save for six months to buy it.' To me, the American dream is that if the washer broke on Monday, you went to Sears on Tuesday and said, 'That's the one I want. Deliver it.' That you could do that and provide that type of security for your family. When you got to that point, that to me was the American dream.'
Sue Kelewae, 58, of Massillon: ''The politicians come from the wealthy. Most of us here are in the middle class. The politicians have no clue of the people in the poverty class. And pretty soon, (with) that gap between the middle class and them, they are not going to understand. So yes, I do firmly believe as a democracy that we have a grass-roots obligation to not let (the middle class) go away.''
Sharae Smith, 30, of Akron: ''When you look at years ago, people worked at Goodyear or Firestone and the moms got to stay at home. They had three or four children, those children went to college. And the wages were lower 15 to 20 years ago. You think, 'Why can't we do that today?' We are the children of those people. We went to college and then we come out and find out we can't even make the $26, $27 an hour that they were making. Even though we have degrees.''
Tom Fuller, 61, of Akron: ''I think that in a global society we hold a privileged position in this country. And those folks who live at subsistence level, who can move up the chain a few notches, may do so at our expense.''
Elizabeth Wilkerson of Akron: ''I'm pretty sure I'll be all right. Our house is paid off; my husband's at retirement age. He has a pension; I have a 401(k). We have other property, and we have investments. I think we'll be OK, I just hope my kids will be OK and don't end up living with me. . . . I worry about them, I don't worry about us.''
Bill Jelen, 43, of Uniontown: ''My father worked basically in a sweatshop. His dream for us was to go to school and do better. I worked at the same place for 12 years and figured I would work there for 30 and out. . . . Now I'm self employed and running my own business. I'm my own boss, so I will never get fired.''
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