Bureau of Engraving and Printing vignette of John Trumbull’s painting Declaration of Independence (c. 1818). Wikicommons/ Frederick Girsch. Some rights reserved.
Like millions of other Americans, the 2008 financial crash changed my family's life overnight. The value of our home, a home I had bought by playing by the rules with a down payment of 20%, dropped by almost half, wiping out our life savings. The effects did not end there either because the rest of the economy was also affected. Cities and states cut spending and personnel.
My employer replaced our insurance coverage with an HSA that barely covered our physicals. My salary was cut. Our financial situation, which had been improving, worsened. Where before we could save a little each month, we could no longer save anything. When my son broke his leg, for instance, and we rushed him to the clinic, we had to haggle over the cost. Eventually, we qualified for some financial assistance, but this was a drop in the bucket as statistically speaking we were, like half of American households, living month-to-month, and no matter how much or how hard we worked, we could not significantly change our situation. At this point, I began to research the causes and consequences of events.
