Recession Affecting This American Family

A little more than two years ago, Whirlpool bought Maytag and then 15 months ago, they announced that they would be closing the Maytag plan in Herrin, Illinois. For my close family, this was the first sign of the looming recession.

Technically, by the officially economic measurements, we are not yet in a recession. To officially be a recession, the economy must show two consecutive quarters of negative growth in the economy. In the last measured quarter, the final 3 months of 2007, when adjusted for inflation the United States economy grew at a fraction of one percent, but it grew.

So officially, we cannot be in a recession until at least July.

But like most Americans, I have to respectfully disagree with the official economic standpoint. According to RealtyTrac, a California-based real estate information service, foreclosures were up 75 percent in 2007 over 2006. And, they continue to be happening at astronomical rates.

On a personal level, my husband and I are still working, but his father had spent 17 years at Maytag when they closed. Now, at 57, he has gone back to college to get a degree in auto mechanics. My in-laws are doing okay because of a state training program for displaced workers and the two years of unemployment that they were given when the plant closed, but they will certainly attest to the reality of a recession.

Five hundred miles away, my mother still has her job with a rubber company in Michigan, but she'll be happy to tell you about the recession there and estimated 70,000 jobs lost in Michigan last year. The nation as a whole might just be entering the recession, but Michigan's been there for awhile.

Meanwhile, back in Illinois, I watch the things that the state is doing and wonder how anyone could dispute the idea that we are in a recession. The state is once again months and months behind on their bill payments, they haven't had a capital construction bill get funded in a decade, and there is talk of leasing out the state lottery to private firms in hopes of making a profit to help support the state's budget. That capital construction bill is funding that the local school districts need to build new schools.