I’m going to do my best to be careful here. I could easily strike a nerve somewhere.

CNN Money is a great resource for personal finance, business, real estate, and all other types of news. Being a former subscriber to Money Magazine, I’ve enjoyed their resources for years. I canceled to save a few bucks, but its a pretty good magazine. However, every once in a while, even the best media outlets have a miss. I’m one of the worst bloggers out there, and I’ll have misses too, maybe this one. You’ll tell me I hope.

So I’m poking through Money’s website and find a little gallery of “typical” Americans that appear to have been affected by the recession or credit crunch or meltdown or whatever you want to call it. I prefer “The post 2000 credit crunch”, because this all started around 2001. What I’m about to do could be out of line and completely wrong. It might be profiling, generalizing, or prejudice. If that’s the case I blame Money for not revealing all the details.

This slide show was meant to generate sympathy and put faces on those that suffer in America these days. Its a glorious failure, and makes those featured look bad. As previously stated, the families presented did not include details on expenses, which I would question. I’m going to pick just a few families, and I apologize if this comes out wrong.

Stephanie:
We’ll start with Stephanie, in her late twenties and providing a wonderful service to her community. It’s a shame that public service jobs don’t pay well. But there is a reason they aren’t If a first year cop made $60,000 a year, I would have joined the force. I would have joined for the money, and you don’t want a cop like that. The concept applies to all kinds of public service. If you are going to work in public service, be prepared to not make good money. Only guessing here, but upon getting out of college, paying off loans was not a priority for Stephanie. A motivated teacher can pay off their loans in a few years, so I know it can be done. Stephanie also appears to be single and without children of her own. I would like to be wrong, but her budget and spending probably don’t reflect a correlation with her income.

Jon:
This guy entered in the mortgage industry at a time when money was easy. He took a risk and had some good years. Upon losing his job, he did the right thing by cutting spending. Life never follows a linear plan, I have confidence he will adapt. That’s the golden gate bridge in the background, San Francisco has a great banking industry. Jon, in the one in a million chance you’re reading this, contact me. My bank is expanding in the bay area and I would be happy to submit a referral.

Lisa
Lisa is the saddest story of the bunch. A single mom, a truck driver, Katrina victim, and trying to live closer to her aging parents. However, its unwise to move anywhere and then look for a job. Doing something for all the right reasons does not always pay the bills. It was an emotional decision we might all make.

Billie:
Not much to say here, I went to a public school and turned out fine. It was a public school well below the median in quality of education too. I have no sympathy for people that can’t afford to send their children to private school and choose to anyway. Rich or not, my unborn children will go to public school.

Shannon
We started with gas prices and will end with gas prices. My biggest beef is with this couple. The last words of their story tell it all “CUT FUEL COSTS NOW”. They blame the failure of their business on the price of gas. Its easy to get attached to your dream of owning your own restaurant, but you have to be able to weather the bad years. They took a big risk by both running a company highly dependent on the spending of others. It would be prudent to know what was done with excess profits in the good years, was it saved, reinvested, or wasted? My heart goes out to them, taking big risks does not always reap rewards, and many small businesses fail.

There are other stories I could comment on, but I’ll let you read them and form your own opinions. There’s a good mix situations that we can all relate with. What I cannot relate with is very few of them seem to be taking responsibility for their own choices; a common occurrence in our society. That’s Weakonomics.

By The Weakonomist

The Weakonomist is the founder of Weakonomics. Clicking the picture of the puppy will tell you more about him. If you like what you're reading consider subscribing to the blog, following him on Twitter, and checking out the related posts below. Please consider a donation if you really enjoy Weakonomics. Also keep in mind that nothing I say can be construed as financial advice.

categories: economics, media