After a Pay Cut, Surviving on Less
For millions of families, the recession has not meant a layoff or drastic income reduction, but a pay cut that has forced them to thrash through daily calculations, as The Times's Michael Luo reports.
In California, state workers like Jeff Farrell were forced to accept two-day-a-month furloughs. Now vaccinations for his family’s two cats and two dogs are out. Haircuts have become a luxury. Grocery trips are calculated to a penny.
“People just say: ‘Oh, it’s just a 10 percent pay cut. Cut the fat out of your budget,’ ” said his wife, Sharon. “But we’ve cut the fat. We’ve cut the fat all along, and so this is really pushing us close to the bone now.”
If Money Can't Buy Happiness, How About Optimism?
According to Gallup, the rich are feeling the most optimistic in the present recession, and as The Times's Economix blog reports, the reverse was true late last year as the stock market tumbled and those with more money had gloomier outlooks.
No comments:
Post a Comment