Sad Story

by digby

This economy is just terrible on so many people. The stories are just heart breaking, with people losing their life savings, their homes, their jobs, their health insurance, everything.

Thank the Good Lord for the NY Times or we wouldn’t hear about the absolute worst of the news. This one hurts so much:

Rise of the Super-Rich Hits a Sobering Wall

[E]conomists say — and data is beginning to show — that a significant change may in fact be under way. The rich, as a group, are no longer getting richer. Over the last two years, they have become poorer. And many may not return to their old levels of wealth and income anytime soon.

For every investment banker whose pay has recovered to its prerecession levels, there are several who have lost their jobs — as well as many wealthy investors who have lost millions. As a result, economists and other analysts say, a 30-year period in which the super-rich became both wealthier and more numerous may now be ending.

The individual stories will make you cry:

In one stark example, John McAfee, an entrepreneur who founded the antivirus software company that bears his name, is now worth about $4 million, from a peak of more than $100 million. Mr. McAfee will soon auction off his last big property because he needs cash to pay his bills after having been caught off guard by the simultaneous crash in real estate and stocks.

Auction his last big property? Down to his last four million? Dear God, where will it stop?

Can’t we do something to help these people? Oh, right. Well, something more, then?

Are we not our brother’s keepers?

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