After A Layoff, Detroit Family Struggles

CBS Evening News: In Hard-Hit Detroit, Are Children Getting Left Behind?

(CBS)  Discouraging as the economic statistics are for Detroit, numbers alone tell only part of the story. For a first hand look at the human crisis, CBS News paid a visit to a hard-pressed family - home to one laid-off wage earner and four children of the recession, as CBS Evening News Saturday anchor Jeff Glor reports.

It's dinner time in the Thomas household, where things have changed dramatically ever since father James got laid off from his engineering job at Chrysler last December.

"My complete department was obliterated because of budget cuts. So that was basically 125 people gone. [Snaps.] Just like that," James Thomas said.

Trying to support four kids between 7 and 13, the Thomases went from an annual income of $101,000 to $35,000 - Celia's social worker salary - and just above the poverty line for a family of six.

All that, while trying to make a mortgage payment of $1,000 a month.

"Having James lose his job has been really, really hard," Celia Thomas said.

The family is cutting back on all non-essentials. No more soda with dinner. No movies.

"Now since our dad is laid off and does not go to work anymore, we don't shop for things we don't need like new gym shoes," daughter Courtney Thomas said.

James started coaching the girls' soccer team to avoid paying $35 fees to participate.

To avoid going on food stamps, the Thomases are getting food from their garden, and having tough discussions with the kids.

"You need water you need air, but you don't need new shoes," daughter Camille Thomas said. "We had to cut back on our wants."

The Thomases are another American family that's gone from a relatively comfortable middle class lifestyle to just barely getting by. And if you think it's tough for them, just head a few miles away, downtown, where 33 percent of the Detroit's population now lives below the poverty line, including a staggering 55 percent of children.

Alexis Johnson is one of them. Her breakfast is paid for by a school program, because her mom makes only $529 a month.

Now even school programs are being cut -- after school activities, art programs, and more.

Only 25 percent Detroit's school kids graduate from high school.

"The dropout numbers concern me," said Ken Cockrel, Detroit's interim mayor.

Cockrel is running for election and promising change.

"It's like turning an aircraft carrier," he said. "It doesn't take forever. But it's a little slow."

If that change can happen, places like Matrix Human Services will likely lead the way. Matrix is based not only in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Detroit, but one of the poorest in the country.

But it's been in business for 110 years and, says president Marcella Wilson, "I have a very simple recipe: education, education, education."

This non-profit picks up where schools have dropped off. But even groups like this are doing it with less, as philanthropic donations from the auto industry have dried up.

Matrix's clients were folks were struggling before the recession, Wilson said, and "Now it's even worse."

Matrix's kids are trying to stay happy, and doing a pretty good job of it. But what happens when they get older? Wilson is hoping that by that point they won't have to think about it.

"Times in Detroit are very tough, but Detroiters are even tougher," she said. "And we'll beat this."

Still, not every Detroit resident is sticking it out. The city is losing population at a rate second to only to the exodus from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina.

[praiseblessings]

This family has played by American rules. Both adults finished college, no kids out of wedlock, bought their home, live within their means and give back (to their Church, the kids' school -a Detroit Public Charter School- and community -he's been coaching soccer for almost 10 years, and it's not even about avoiding the fees). The dad has worked as a Server at Seldom Blues (local restaurant). He would tell you himself, that there are very few jobs that he would think are "beneath him". Still, the kids are being raised to love GOD and follow his commandments. Yes, its happening to the middle class in Detroit and beyond. THIS STORY IS ACTUALLY ABOUT A FAMILY THAT'S STRONG & DETERMINED TO SURVIVE.

I say we re-assess America's capitalistic mindset and pay attention to the media's role in all of these issues...

To dam bad. I raised 6 kids and never made over $35,000 a year. Very few times I had Ins.. And still don't at this time.. Suck it up! What BS! My son had a heart attack 4 years ago at 21.. To this day they don't know what caused it and he does not have the ins. to find out.. They just drug him for everything and he pays for his own meds. My daughter has the same problem with her jaw as I do. No one has seen the dentist in years. Stop the Bull Crap!

[weedapeapl]

You want to make this partisan, fine
Posted by curse914 at 7:47 AM : Apr 26, 2009

The ones who make it partisan are the ones who STILL worship Clinton as if he did now wrong, while bashing Bush and the GOP for every burned out lightbulb for the past 8 years.

Meanwhile, they remain in total denial mode over Madoff, Enron, Andersen Accounting, and all the other rampant accounting fraud of the Clinton years.

They remain in denial that planning and preparations for 9/11 were under way before Bush won the election, so obviously Clinton is the one who provoked the attack.

They remain in denial that Clinton is the one who invented the WMD lie. Clinton attacked Iraq over suspected WMD, even though none were ever found after 1991.

It was all a big lie.

But the Democrats still pretend it never happened.

They even said "Bush is Hitler."

That's who's making it partisan.

[nebul09]

act like the honda CEO and never take bonuses, cap wage increase and no incentives and enroll in 'REGULAR' healthcare plans such as your workers; then maybe, just then, someone will be able to endure an economic downturn.

[weedapeapl]

Posted by 6591Hou at 2:25 PM : Apr 26, 2009

Obviously you have no clue.

There are NO jobs in engineering in the USA unless the applicant has the magic code letters H1B on his resume.

[antoniof123]

It is funn but some of you are still trying to blame labor. This has been a lie from the beggining. Here is how it works.

GM, and Ford pay for benefits out of pocket however, Honda and Toyota do not Japan has socialized medicine. That like most other countries is where the savings go. So if a company moves over seas they can pay less for health insurance plus they don't have to worry about saftey, pensions, and the like.

So for you morons that want it like this enjoy your health care going down the tubes. There is no easy answer but if we work together and put the blame where it belongs on the backs of those so called best of the best in management we will get it fixed. If you think that by cutting labor and lowering their wages you will benefit then move to a third world country and see how you will benefit.

[Mike20002000]

I finally found the perfect site to track corporate earings results. check it out...

http://fortune500earnings.com

[6591Hou]

An engineer can't get a job in 5 months? Who's pulling whose leg here? Is he one of those special folks who won't take a job that's beneath him? Sorry but there are tons of engineering jobs - save the hardship stories for the blue collar folks and not some $100,000+ family that had to cut back on new shoes.

[rushlimpdrug]

"After A Layoff, Detroit Family Struggles"

Really?
I would have thought after a layoff a family
would live a dream.

The truth is NO ONE cares until it happens to them.

[weedapeapl]

the party is over.
Posted by curse914 at 7:47 AM : Apr 26, 2009

VERY well said! You are in fine form today.

Yes, the party is over. AND OBAMA IS TO BLAME!!!

[curse914]

Isn't it strange that in my parents' generation only one parent generally needed to be the breadwinner? AND they had full health insurance for their families through their employer. AND they were able to have a decent pension through their employer.

AND CEOs made a lot less then, relative to the average worker.

AND companies felt a certain loyalty to their workers (which no longer exists).

Care to tell me how all THAT all happened?

How much can you put on the "little guy's" shoulders before he collapses?

Posted by democracy1 at 9:05 AM : Apr 26, 2009

Wages have not matched inflation since the late 1960's (era of the single wage earner).

We had a manufacturing base then. An economy based entirely on services is another grand lie. As productivity quadrupled, wages stagnated and manufacturing was outsourced to nations with no worker or product safety regulations. This was not for the betterment for all, but a select few that own the means to capital and are intent on increasing their share of wealth and control.

If anyone thinks that pure capitalism actually promotes competition, they are naive. The name of the game is to corner the market and make the assent to compete so steep as to be impossible to take a peace of the pie. A mom and pop outfit can not compete with a WalMart that can outsource production to countries that higher workers for pennies a day. This is why we have 3 major poultry processing plants that all poultry in our nation is sent to. Regulations have been put in place for the benefit of these processors that make it cost prohibitive to process local poultry; it is an absurd arrangement between the government and these peaces of paper (corporations) that makes entry into the market intentionally impossible.

[vietnamwar]

vote fo Obama ,ask for Obama come and bail out... heh heh heh

[democracy1]

There are many of us who DO live within our means: without buying on credit, paying our reasonable-interest fixed-rates mortgages on time every month, going without the latest electronic toys, growing some of our own food, not buying top label clothes, etc.

We may be highly educated and work as hard as we can (sometimes over 65 hrs/wk), often with 3-6 hours a day simply commuting (which is also very expensive).

Yet, over the past 30 years, we've seen the average worker's pay falling in comparison to the GDP (while their productivity rose dramatically) and CEO compensation soaring. Companies lay off the "little guy" while keeping CEOs who are often overpaid even while incompetently tanking their companies.

We have also seen the burden of the cost of health care increasingly transferred to the worker from the employer over the same time period. And since it's considered part of your "compensation package", essentially your "compensation" has gone down.

Isn't it strange that in my parents' generation only one parent generally needed to be the breadwinner? AND they had full health insurance for their families through their employer. AND they were able to have a decent pension through their employer.

AND CEOs made a lot less then, relative to the average worker.

AND companies felt a certain loyalty to their workers (which no longer exists).

Care to tell me how all THAT all happened?

How much can you put on the "little guy's" shoulders before he collapses?

[curse914]

Posted by weedapeapl at 7:12 AM : Apr 26, 2009

Clinton's "prosperity" was a technology bubble. Bush's "prosperity" was financial instruments bubble and it all was a 30 Reagan Revolution bubble. You want to make this partisan, fine, blame the concept of Deregulation which led to these successive bubbles.

These bubble are the death throws of a perpetual growth economic system collapsing. It is not only perpetual growth, but it is exponential. Because we can not produce enough consumers at an exponential rate to generate wealth for the privileged few, the system was tweaked to simulate growth (a bubble). Since much of the wealth that was "created" since Reagan has been erased, is was a magnificent deception, but the party is over.

[curse914]

Have any of you considered and economic system with little to no growth?

As much a the folks on the right cry about illegals in France or Spain, officials in their governments import workers because they do not have the tax base to support their standard of living.

Industrialized nations naturally reduce population as their populations becomes more educated, reproduction is understood to be a choice. But the choice to not reproduce is a non-starter when tied to an economic system that requires perpetual economic and by extension population growth.

As nations become more "successful" they require more wage slaves to support the standard of living for a select few. On a global scale we have the top 1.4 billion consuming 76 percent of all extracted resources from this planet at any given time. 5.3 billion are extracting resources and making them into products for those privileged 1.4 billion. There is no way that any more of our current planet population can consume at the level of those lucky 1.4. So the majority of the planet are enslaved by Globalization's promise to "lift all boats". It is a monumental farce perpetuated by those who want to maintain a system that will eventually collapsed under its own weight.

[weedapeapl]

FREE TRADE IS SLAVERY

Slavery was abolished by the Constitution.

So why do we still have free trade?

[weedapeapl]

When did the Clinton prosperity end?

Everybody knows it ended about this time of year eight years ago. And everybody knows Bush got the blame.

Everybody said "Boosh took office, and our prosperity disappeared overnight."

Well, NOW IT'S OBAMA'S TURN!

Obama's three months are up.

OBAMA IS TO BLAME NOW FOR THE WAY THINGS ARE NOW.

Nobody said "Give Bush more time." So nobody should be saying "Give Obama more time."

He's had as much time as Bush had. The time for blaming Bush is over.

OBAMA IS THE WORST PRESIDENT IN 100 YEARS.

Hey, maybe the workers in Detroit wouldn't be suffering so much if Obama wasn't THE FOURTH PRESIDENT IN A ROW to support free trade, which is letting slave labor nations rob U.S. workers of their jobs.

Anybody who forces you to compete with slave labor is INTENTIONALLY TURNING YOU INTO A SLAVE.

[remuses13]

110000$ salary and a 1000$ mortgage..they supposed to have some savings and the father can get a job in transportation .. or this job is not for an engineer?...I don't feel sorry for people who worked in automotive industry they get overpaid and look what happened with this industry because their incompetence....US engineers at Toyota, who design the cars and factories, are paid a little less than at the Big 3 now Small 3:) and they are doing a great job

[jwind1]

Gosh that's tough. But the Walstreeters and Bushit Billionaires are doing OK, and that's what's important--those are the people who count.

Isn't that right, Repigs?
Posted by johnb8888 at 5:40 AM : Apr 26, 2009

yep...we love watching libs suffer for not applying themselves in life.....these are a few of our favorite things

[Atheism_Wins]

Ospenda: Pay up, taxpayer! All you fools who didn't protest on April 15? Shut up and pay up!

American marginal tax rates:

Above $ 7,200 35%
above $ 8,950 45%
above $12,850 37%
above $16,950 42%

For those in the 35% bracket:

Loss of Earned Income Tax Credit 7.7%
Payroll tax 15.3%
State and Local Income taxes, let's say 5%
Property taxes, Sales taxes, gas taxes, car fees, etc get us up to about 35%

At $ 8,950, add in Federal Income tax of 10%
At $12,850 your Earned Income Tax Credit stops phasing out
At $16,950 you're in the Federal 15% Income tax bracket