Seniors Hold Tea Party Protest In Ft Myers, Florida

[Joanne98]

Run time: 00:54 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_b6y7m5Jws   Posted on YouTube: October 18, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: October 18, 2009 By DU Member: Joanne98 Views on DU: 1318

 

[graywarrior]

1. They don't even know what they're protesting about.

[JDPriestly]

11. That was my first reaction. But then I thought about what I know

about the fact that Fort Meyers' homeowners have been among the hardest hit by the real estate crisis. These people include people who sold or took out a second mortgage on their homes in New Jersey, bought a retirement home in the Fort Meyers area and have, over recent months, watched as the value of their homes spiraled downward.

President Obama visited Fort Meyers a few months ago. Wall Street was bailed out, but ordinary Americans, as we all know, have not been bailed out, and they are hurting. It's time for the Obama administration to start doing something about the huge losses that ordinary middle class people have suffered. When I say "huge," I am not referring to the numbers of dollars that any one family has lost, but at what portion of that person's, especially that person's savings and net worth the losses represent.

Here are the stories.

Oct. 13, 2009

Home price numbers have ended their free-fall, but a lot housing experts are still concerned about a possible double-dip.

Integrated Asset Services, which tracks troubled properties, says its House Price Index fell .2% in August. It’s the second down month in a row for the index, which saw a 2.8% rise in this year’s first quarter.

The slowdown, however slight, is ominous, says Dave McCarthy, president and CEO of Integrated Asset Services. That’s because there’s a “shadow inventory” of foreclosed properties that remain unlisted and unsold that could throw a monkey wrench in the housing recovery. “We know there’s a sizable inventory of bank-owned homes out there that will be listed at some point, and that could ignite a new wave of stress in the housing market,” McCarthy says.

According to Integrated, several of the nation’s hardest-hit areas may already be feeling the strain. The index reports two of the country’s most distressed counties—San Joaquin in California (Stockton) and Lee in Florida (Fort Myers)—both of which were down nearly 50% from their high-water marks, fell another 7% in August.

. . . .

http://www.businessweek.com/the_thread/hotproperty/archives/2009/10/could_home_pric.html

October 7, 2009

By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY
FORT MYERS, Fla. — When Mike Cannington lost his job as marketing director for a chain of motorcycle dealerships in August of 2008, he figured he'd find a new one within a few weeks.
He'd spent 16 years in marketing and once led the local chamber of commerce. "I thought there'd be a job out there for me," he says.

. . . .

Recently, he's had to fight off darker thoughts, sometimes wondering if he'll ever work again. "You sit there and you say, 'What's it going to take?' says the burly and affable former TV sports anchor. "You don't see a light at the end of the tunnel."

Cannington is among thousands of people in Fort Myers and millions nationwide who have been out of work six months or longer during this bruising recession. Nationwide, the number of long-term unemployed people hit a record 5.4 million in September, or 35.6% of the jobless.

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2009-10-07-long-term-joblessness_N.htm

[notadmblnd]

2. did they burn their medicare cards?

[Grassy Knoll]

3. NO MORE DEPENDS......NO MORE DEPENDS !!!!!

[stlsaxman]

10. you forgot the hyphen... "NO- MORE DEPENDS! NO- MORE DEPENDS!"

[liberalmuse]

4. So they're drawing medicare and social security...

and much more than they paid into it, mind you, yet they want to pull the rug out from under those of us who are still working and supporting them. If the government hadn't invested their money into Social Security, giving them much larger returns than the meager amounts they paid in, the odds are that most of these people would have to work for the rest of their lives, or they'd be living in a slum eating cat food. Fuck you, you self-centered cannibals. What kind of sick ass generation eats their young like this? This is the first generation to leave the country much worse off, and those that came after them will carry the weight of their selfishness and stupidity for decades to come.

[JDPriestly]

7. Actually, you are forgetting that those of us on Social Security

paid in the same percentage of our wages that you do since the mid-80s. And before that, the dollar was worth a lot more than it is today. Nixon cut it loose in 1973 or 1974.

[seattle_blue]

5. Some advice

Well stop being racist mobs and that will cure your ills. It's not rocket science.

[JDPriestly]

6. That's why the unemploiyment numbers are as low as they are.

If you are not on Social Security, you are on unemployment. When is Obama going to put America back to work. Sending troops to Afghanistan and sending money to Goldman Sachs seem to be the priorities.

Many of these people are simply too old to work efficiently, but a lot of Americans who would like to work have had to retire early -- many of them several years ago.

[SandWalker1984]

8. Seniors complaining while thousands are losing their homes

While these Ft. Myers seniors are protesting "don't touch my Medicare and Social Security," many people in the area are losing their homes to foreclosure.

Ft. Myers is tied with Las Vegas as leading in foreclosures for the first half of 2009. Living nearby, I am very familiar with what is going on on the west coast of Florida. The housing boom/bust had the biggest impact on the area, but job loss comes in a close 2nd, with official job rates of near 12% (although probably much higher as a lot of subcontractors were under the table so do not show up on unemployment records). The food banks cannot keep up with the amount of people coming in for assistance. People are living in cars and Salvation Army shelters because they have nowhere else to go after the banks foreclosed on their homes.

Yet these seniors are not discussing how decisions made during the Bush administration regarding lending have destroyed the local economy. They do not care that families (including children) are living on the streets. They do not care that it will take years, if ever, for these people to get back on their feet.

I am so tired of the "I've got mine, f@ck you!" attitude so often expressed by these groups.

[abq e streeter]

9. Important news coverage... there had to be AT LEAST a couple dozen people there.

[zeemike]

12. I think they are mostly angry people that never got over integration.

Being old enough to remember those times it makes more sense....because those people just went underground whit there feelings because it became no longer socially acceptable.
Now it is racisms by proxy.