By Cyril O'Dougherty
 
    I want to first say thank you for all the emails I have been receiving and feedback I hope everyone is being helped by what Iam providing I truly wish I can do more. Like many of you with all my studies into the economy and the history of economies for the last two thousand years it does not provide me with any full proof answer to what will happen to America coming in 2010 to 2012. Our President is a truly great man is sometimes a great man can lead a nation, people, and even country. But this time it will take more then just one man we will need the help of our government and the people. Remember after all we our this nation, the collective attitude of the people is the will and design of it and such is the writings our of founding fathers basing it upon the two greatest nations ever to exist,  which were Greece(Democracy) and Rome(Republic), along with these two systems and rules implemented into law creates a nation that has endless boundaries and ideals all proven when our President was elected the final achievement for already a Government designed to improve.
 
Here is a list of ways for the typical Low middle class and Middle Class family to survive and stay Middle Class period. I have read many articles and seen many programs that discuss this but to be honest I believe none actually ever give the answers truly needed and how to go about them for the middle class person. Well, within this blog will be a sort of guide how to and I will list them in simple steps as they should be for anyone. No double talk, no redirect, no solutions without explaining how to achieve them.  At this current rate more and more people are losing jobs, borrowing up the last of their loans, losing health care, and going days with not eating full meals. Soon The middle class will be forced to turn to crime to survive such as stealing and more, such is already being seen and it is getting worse. Our entire American infrastructure is falling into disarray and soon the middle class will be wiped out and then without a middle class their eventually will be a revolution as much as that sounds crazy. So here is a break down of the best tested methods. They may vary state to state but overall they apply.
 
1.) Consolidate bills and find out what is owed and must be paid immediately and what can wait.
2.) If you lost your job get all the entitlements.
3.) Do not trust in a change in our economy within the next two years, so plan now, and do not procrastination.
4.) Begin to take the process of looking for a new job and new career. It is survival mode so any job that pays is better then none.
5.) Cabin fever, plan to stay indoors with family and resort to old fashion ways to entertain yourself along with eliminating accomities such as smoking cigarettes.
6.) It is not the time to worry about your children going to college perhaps next year, all family members must look for employment.
7.) Lost money
8.) Do not give in or give up. Do not think because you are depressed it is a medical condition if you never suffered it until you became in this rut. Doing so will slow your recovery and may lead you to paying money and wasting it at a doctor getting a medicine to deal with your fake depression which of course your doctor will tell you it is from a chemical imbalance which all of a sudden came out of nowhere.
9.) Continue to order credit cards
10.) Make sure you take a bayer aspirin 81mg everyday, these are stressful times and like many if you are in your late 40's or 50's or older your risk for a heart attack or stroke from hearing or facing your problems can kill you even if you take medications for high blood pressure. Just check with your doctor to make sure it is OK.
11.) Finally do not watch the news to much, and do not let threatening letters,calls, or news scare you.
 
 
Step one:  Take a good look at what you have. Do you have children to support? What bills must absolutely get paid? Will you be able to put any money in the bank for a new emergency fund? Do you have health or life insurance? Car insurance?  All this questions are vital because my advice here is something you probably will never hear from any other plan because they do not understand what it is like to be in your shoes.
 
Have you taken your look, good!  If you are still working great, if not same deal. We are going to start with bills that absolutely must get paid. If you have children this is even more important to follow this part. Now what you must do is decide what must get paid and not. What you need to survive and to stay middle class which is the second goal when this is all done and over with is Shelter, food, and In home entertainment so you do not go insane and get depressed because you have some entertainment in this dermatomes. So now that you know what you need time to implement the rules. First any credit card debts it is time to let them go. Stop paying them. Forget your credit score. Along with that you may consider changing your phone number. Next, all money is to be taken out of banks if they have begun to charge fees such as you need a certain amount of money in your account or you must pay a penalty fee then you may consider taking your money and moving it to a bank that doesn't have such rules. Next is to set up a certain amount of money for food. Begin cutting coupons and looking for discounts and use your value card. Make sure you pay your cable bill so you can watch television or use the computer if needed if you can spare it. Their are many ways to help get great deals on cable and computer bills. Finally, for this part I will say it maybe a hot summer but air conditioners will run up that bill and if you do not have central air that is your only choice. I suggest though getting dual air fans if possible. Iam going to have listed below many grant ideas and extra money you can get for those who need things like air conditioners and also can't afford to pay for them. The same with telephone bills and food. The main part is to get rid of the bills which do not provide the essentials. Your credit score can always bounce back and later on you can get a consolidation plan or if necessary file for bankruptcy. But the main point is you can deal with these later so let go of those bills and only protect your shelter, food, and home entertainment.
 
2.) Make sure you get your job entitlements. If you are not Union you are entitled for unemployment despite what they tell you. You need 16-24 weeks and to make atleast 3 good quarters over 6,000 dollars. Check the unemployment site in your state. Also, if your company you worked for had a 401a along with a type of pension make sure you apply for these. Next, go to your local welfare office and apply for food stamps, cash assistance,and medical. Once it again it varies state to state. The new bills passed by President Obama has given a lot of money towards these programs. And if you have children you are more likely to get these. Both food and cash you should be eligible for just bring the proof of your last working statement and who you worked for along with all the things required that you can find online in your state. Many qualify for 300 dollars of food stamps a month and around 420. In cash depending on how many children you have and if you can collect unemployment or not. To collect medical insurance you need to see your doctor and let him know any conditions you have that you need medical for and you will qualify.
 
3.) The presidents plan and stimulus package is working just as planned but it may take a second one and with the war in Afghanistan well that may bring us down again so do not wait to do any of these things hoping you can pick up a job because this is only a recession and temporary. We are in our countries second descriptions and its time to act and you must!
 
4.) Decide that you have to get a new job even if you are in Union. Start thinking of what you like to do write it down and put that idea in a box for two years. For now any job will do. DO not feel you are lowering yourself because you have to get a job at a fastfood place. Atleast you are working many are living on the streets or now in jail. Start putting applications in any places that is a place of business around you.
 
5.) One of the reasons I said to make sure you pay your cable bill and computer bill is so you can deal with cabin fever. Entertainment at home was always something practiced by Americans. It helped saving money much but it changed in the 80's and 90's. Well it is time to get out that game of chess or monolopy and play. If you already have a game system well you can have the kids get into that for fun. Start making movie nights for the family it is vital and this also helps to start getting back American values that were lost over the last 20 years.
This is a important step and when you feel as if you are in to much go for a long walk. It is free,healthy, and who knows you may end up meeting another person in the same situation and find someone you can relate to.
 
6.) This is hard for me to say but this is not the best time to be sending the graduating kids to college. Education is very important but their are two reasons why you want to put it off for a year or two. First, colleges know we are in this Depression and are jacking up the fiance charge so when your child graduates he will get screwed big time and probably work the first five years of whatever career he ends up in to pay back what he owes, and by the way less and less graduates are becoming what they get their degree in. The second reason you can save a bunch of money and stress and also have another person working to help get you by. Plus the child gets a break anyway and that is a pretty good incentive. He or she can she go to college but wait until The depression switches back into a recession atleast. In the end they will have a better chance of getting a job doing what they are majoring in college and the fiance cost. This is something you really have to think about and talk to your child with or children. Let them know what is going on, you be surprised most of the time many children want to see their parents be happy.
 
7.) Lost money means maybe anything you forgot about or do not know about. Maybe a inheritance or maybe some money put away for you along time ago. All you do is go to your local hall of records and you can find out. Also, online look for grants . The government is giving away tons of them for all sorts of things. You can get all this information online or in a any library.
 
8) Continue to apply for credit cards. You maybe losing your home and cannot still figure out how you are going to get that money. Or perhaps you have a emergency and need to fix your car. Before you start letting your credit go in this Depression get a few credit cards by applying online incase of a emergency. Remember when this is all done you are not planning to rip them off, basically you will pay them back with a consolidation debt loan when this is all over. This can also help you get home entertaining equipment or maybe pay some extra bills while everything is being applied for.
 
9*10*11) These three I consider the most important especially those with a child or children. These are stressful times, many cannot get a checkup because they simply no longer have insurance and cannot afford it. You must learn to relax, and take everything in stride. Follow a good moral code that goes along with your individual life. When everything becomes to much tell yourself one day at a time.
 
I have basically given you the overview. In my next segment I will answer any questions.

  To all it may concern,
  I would like to launch my own live video and audio feeds to make it easier for listeners, if you are interested in a picture you can email me or go to www.myspace.com/mastercyril or any questions in general please email me at wolfshiem1978@aol.com.

By: Cyril O'Dougherty

    Well I would like to start by listing a major problem that will sink America further down while it tries to rebound from a "Depression". The reason I use depression while the mainstream media doesn't is because anytime we lose 600,000 jobs a month and people are using up their unemployment and their credit we have a depression it is that simple. The government claims we have a safety net and that we will never experience the great stock market crash that we experienced in the turn of century and that their will be no bread lines or those things. They say this because their so called system in place is unemployment and welfare. Well people I want everyone to know after doing much research that this is failing and that soon enough people that are relaying on these systems will see it failing.

See I first researched the unemployment in each state and at first I was impressed after all we have been paying taxes from our own checks for these things since we all began working. I noticed some states even have some extensions. Then I went to welfare and studied each states system and was somewhat equally impressed by first glance. Like any program it takes patience and time and using the phone but when done you can get some extra help financially. Now here is the problem, first unemployment may not be extended anymore and many Americans somewhere around 10 million are using it and our on their extension which means they are collecting a extra year implemented by various states. And as each person begins to run out using their unemployment either extension or using it for the last six months we are not rebuilding it and eventually people will no longer be able to collect it. The other problem is the people who cannot collect it already which are not on the books and in stats. So the first part of the protection plan that will prevent the Great Depression from coming is within this. The second part, is welfare, many states offer food :"stamps" with those who have children, but those without well basically you do not get any help. Another problem is they were supposed to help Americans get some sort of health care because so many Americans have lost their private insurance companies once they lost their jobs of those in the Unions who cannot get enough hours. The only way to get medical basically is either paying out of your own pocket, which frankly if that was possible many would already and we wouldn't have a problem, or you can apply for social security which many do not want to. So those two systems which are to prevent the Great depression from reoccurring are failing.

The next problem which I will mention briefly is social security. Anyone applying be careful they are applying some old rules in which prior they allowed to pass with no problem because the condition of the STATE was doing well and the government was not in a trillion dollar debt with no plan to bail it out. Anyone applying for social security BE AWARE they are going by the last ten years of your work and also your qualifying factor. If in the last ten years you did not work enough despite having enough qualifying from previous years even if you applied when the injury occurred and at that time did have ten years of prior work it does not matter it has to be from when you won. I know this from first hand I have to watch my mother suffer from this even after she hired a lawyer that you get off the television that guarantee if you don't get paid he doesn't. So she didn't get medical or anything yet she applied in 1998 when she had the ten years and despite winning the case noone can help her and we have tried everything. My mother is not the only case I have interviewed a few others in other states.

Finally, I will mention two main things. President Bush left us a tremendous debt and President Obama has done a wonderful job atleast using his charisma which is so vital to a nation in crisis. It has been proven through history many times what a powerful leader can do if he has self confidence and is strong in his beliefs and intelligent surrounded by the proper people which I believe he has done. One example of this, despite the leader ended up being consumed with his own power and generally being mentally sick, was Adolf Hitler. No doubt he was wrong and sick but his ability to rally the German people who were starving and heading into a third world nation into a super power and to recover Germany's economy is a example of what can happen when a powerful leader who is charismatic can do and unlike Germany we have a democratic government. But it is vital that President Obama continue his optimistic never say never attitude and ignore those that wish him only negativity. Their is much left to be said in regards to the up and coming Great depression we are heading to and their are solutions such as credit forgiveness and creating a new structured banking system. We need to eliminate as much corruption as we can and we need to repair the middle class at any cost. If we do not we will end up just as Rome did collapsing from the inside while our enemies destroy us from the outside. Back then Rome fell from political corruption, bad leadership(President Bush), disease, and finally radical enemies willing to die to destroy Rome. In my next blog I would like to post about the complete solutions to fix these problems. I touched on them briefly now. With that being said I leave this last paragraph with a topic I will be writing along this topic. Foreign affairs.

By next week look for Pakistan beginning to collapse, and while no doubt American special forces are their to prevent the Taliban from getting nukes Iran just fired a missile capable of hitting Israel. The Pakistan army is a show army, they do not wish to fight India, nor the Taliban. Which means that within these weeks their will be vital events taking place their. Unfortunately we cannot leave our allies behind despite most problems coming from them not taking care of their own business. This will effect our economy and may shape our world as we know it.