If there is anyone to blame for my financial situation, I can only think of 2 answers: me and the American people.
I say me, obviously, because as a family man, I am responsible for the well being on my wife, kids and myself. Just like my wife is responsible for the well being of my kids and me as well. It is up to me and her to proving the financial part of our lives so that we can live a, somewhat, normal life (normal depending on the persons point of view). I work, she works or we both work to bring home the bacon. It is up to me to take steps to elevate my education levels to be able to gain and maintain a position with a higher wage to provide the necessities to live and survive. My efforts, my ambition and my determination will be the deference between making it and failing.
For the past 8 years me and my family have been from my mother-in-laws house to my own apartment to an efficiency back to my mother-in-laws house and the cycle starts again. Why? Because I was careless and irresponsible when it came to managing my money. I had many great jobs, but lost them for being too hard of a worker, kept making people think that I was after their jobs and ended up making lots of enemies and losing jobs in the process. But you learn from your mistakes. In the end I didn’t do my part and go to a University or College and get a better education that could have helped get a better paying job and that is my fault. I was too lazy and to be honest still am. But that will change soon enough.
I also say the American people because of what I just explained in the paragraph above. There are 3 types of people in the work force, the owners who are in it to make money any way they can, the employee who will do anything to keep their jobs and make more money and the employee who just wants to earn a living and move up in the world based on their performance not connections. If it weren’t for those who felt threatened by my abilities I could have had a great job by now. If it weren’t for choosing friends and family over skills to fill a job position I could have had a good job. Let me point out that not every person or situation is like this. It just so happens that I have had one of the 2 situations happen to me in almost every job I have had in my life. I have only had one job in my life where my superior appreciated my hard work and my skills, it was my previous job when I was working with my brother. The irony is that it was not my brother who appreciated me, it was my warehouse manager, a man who liked working as hard if not harder than I did. I actually lost my job because of my brother, he fired me 1 month after my second child was born because he chose to listen to his employees (who were also his friend, biggest mistake in his life and he is suffering that today) rather than listen to me. But that’s life.
So you see, if people would make more of an effort to help each other out then maybe things wouldn’t be as bad as they are today. But since getting a job is more of a who has better connections than who has better skills, the best way to find a job now a days is "if you can’t beat them, join them".
In conclusion, as you can see nowhere was Bush involved in me being in the financial situation I am today, a low wage earner. But that will change very soon.