We've all heard an endless amount of rhetoric about the economy. An infininite number of well-paid pompous talking heads have poured forth from the media machine to pontificate, analyze, scold, and explain to us the sheeple about why exactly it is that we're being kicked in the teeth, and why exactly it's really all our fault.

"Gol' dang poor people borrowed more money than they could from the well to do banks and now everything's in the crapper because of it" At least that is the dumbed-down, easily digestible dribble that we are spoon-fed by the 24/7 neon news outlets. Last year alone, nearly 3 million homes in America received a foreclosure notice of some kind (and interestingly enough, nearly 3 million people lost their jobs..... I dunno about you, but I see NO link of any kind between the two)

With all these massive numbers thrown around, 20,000 laid off here, half a million losing their homes over there and so on, those in misery have been turned into a faceless mass- the disaffected.

Are we really to believe that when a manufacturer lays of 20,000 workers in one fell swoop that all of them really deserved it, that all of them were slacker leaches that got their comeuppance? Likewise were the 3 million homeowners that were foreclosed on last year solely to blame for their poor financial decision-making?

Well let's take a look at one of those who was foreclosed on. Let's zoom into the faceless mass and actually examine an individual situation. We find that the reality is often very different from the official sanitized 30 second sound byte on the evening news.

One such case is that of Ray Vargas. Last year his home was foreclosed on. Interestingly enough, he also had previously paid it off and owned it in full since 1988. Allow me to explain.

Ray is a WW2 vet- he served in 3 different theatres and was one of those who landed on the beach on D-day. After the war he settled down, started a family and a succesful business and came just about as close as anyone could to living the American dream. He worked hard, made sound financial decisions and when he retired he was completely in the blue- no debt, no mortgage payment, a healthy savings and good retirement fund.

Interestingly enough, the reason why Ray joined the ranks of those "deadbeat poor people who ruined it for everyone"?

Medical costs.

In 2000 his wife got Parkinson's disease and required round-the clock medical care. Now you may think he was a sentimental old coot, but he refused to put her in a home. If you've ever spent time in a long-term care facility and you're familiar with couples that have been together for decades and only have each other (since the rest of the world has passed them by) then you understand his decision. So he opted for in-home care. For 3 years, he was able to pay the exorbitant medical costs all on his own. Then he went broke. In 2003 he did what many folks were doing- to pay the ongoing bills he did a reverse mortgage on his home. And did the banks ever take him to town! The deed to his house was passed from one financial institution to the next all so they could get their slice of the pie that was Ray Vargas' clearly frivolous desire to spend a little more time with his wife. How dare he!

Fast forward to today, and he's in court against a third party financial company that's trying to foreclose his home. Because of the public outcry regarding Ray's circumstances, the good news is he's probably gonna be ok, albeit completely broke. The truth is that in this case, he clearly was the victim of predatory lenders who openly lied to him (when he signed on the dotted line he was expressly told that he wouldn't have to make any payments while he was alive, and after he deceased THEN they would get his home to peddle on the market as they pleased) But his story illustrates the fact that there are good people out there who were preyed on in the name of making a quick buck.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29198366/

The bad news is that foreclosures and job losses in 2009 are projected to be the same or worse as 2008 which means a couple million more will lose their homes and their jobs. Perhaps if we can stop grouping millions of people into the "loser" class of the disaffected and actually see the human toll of what's going on, we'll be more inclined to change our flawed version of capitalism for the better!