American Breaking Point (for make up) by Francis Joseph Chu

Hi Sir,

Here are my comments on the article "American Breaking Point".

The United States is in turmoil today.  A few years ago, nobody would even think it was possible.  People may even say that you are out of your mind.  But its true!  I have relatives who live in the United States and work as architects and I work in a bank that has its global headquarters in New York so I am able to see firsthand the impact of the crisis on the people and the economy.

A few years ago, we visited our relatives in the United States.  At that time, the crisis had not even happened yet and I saw that they did not even have time for themselves because of the amount of work that they had to finish.  Work just kept coming.  We visited them again last year and now they do not even have a single project to work on and are even contemplating on whether they should just come back to the Philippines.  My cousin moved back here just to look for a job and also to lessen the burden on his parents.  At work, there was a time that the Company imposed a freeze on the hiring of new applicants.  Incentives were lowered and some were asked to resign and were just given a severance package.

So how did it begin?  A few years ago, the credit process in the United States was very lax.  Anyone could apply for a loan, line of credit, mortgage, credit card, you name it.  Even those who did not deserve to be given these were approved because they were able to fabricate an ITR.  There was no need for too much documentation and it was like the banks were giving away money.  Then the time came that people could no longer afford to pay their amortizations because they had lost their jobs.  Many homes were foreclosed.  A relative bought a home in Las Vegas for around $900,000.  Today, that same home is only worth around $300,000.  People were forced to sell at a loss just to recoup their losses.  While driving on the freeway during our last visit, I would see people on the sidewalks with signs saying "no money, no food, no job, need help".  Others even steal gasoline from parked cars just because of the high prices of goods.  This shows just how hard life has become for Americans.  But they cannot blame anyone but themselves.  The banks today have implemented stricter measures in acquiring credit like asking for an applicant's ITR straight from the IRS but its already too late.  Many banks and companies have closed like Washington Mutual and Lehman Brothers and many people have lost their jobs because of this.

So what have they done?  My relatives have gone back to school and taken up courses on Accountancy and Autocad.  They want to acquire new skills with the hope that this will create new work and opportunities for them.  Others have done what my cousin did which is to move to another country just to look for a means of livelihood.  If before, it is the people in third world countries who dream of going to the United States to get out of poverty, today it is the Americans who are going out just to make both ends meet.  Others have taken on odd jobs or worked multiple jobs just so they would have enough to feed themselves and their families. 3

Francis Joseph Chu

"The key to immortality is first living a life worth remembering."