Yesterday, in an historically upwardly mobile local neighborhood, I talked with a women who had stopped to load a broken air conditioner into her car.
“Need help?”
“I think I got it.” She was struggling. “I’m going to recycle this. They always say whenever you see an air conditioner out for garbage, grab it.”
“You’re going to take it to scrap?”
“Yep.”
“How much is scrap going for these days?”
“I don’t know. I got 15 yesterday for little odds and ends. And this is heavy. I need everything I can get. I have cancer. I can only work 2 or 3 hours a day.”
I didn’t ask if she had insurance.
Yesterday, Amazon papered the Lehigh Valley in “come work for us” post cards. There’s just one problem with that.
Last night, I heard the Executive Director of Turning Point, a regional shelter, counseling, and advocacy organization for survivors of domestic violence/partner abuse say that this year, demand for services has increased 40%. This was in response to a question from another non-profit director about possible correlations between the continually failing economy and increased instances of domestic abuse.
A few hours ago, I found out about Hallmark’s new line of job-loss sympathy cards. They are selling well.
A few minutes later, I saw that infographic showing the percentage of Americans who are millionaire (1 percent) vs. the percentage of Congress with that kind of wealth (50).
Things are really, really, and I mean really bad.
Thank God for good things like this:
Things are bad. But we can be good. Quite simply, we must.
Chris Cocca 
I suppose I’m an eternal optimist. I am hopeful that the harder the economic times, the softer our hearts become. Thanks for this one.
I second the thanks. Renews my faith in humanity. For 5 minutes.