Terrific piece, Deborah. Very honest and poignant in terms of what you and your husband are going through. And appropriately critical and challenging in terms of the unfortunate approach to this crisis evident in the Styles section of the New York Times.

Debbie, thanks for writing this- that story made me feel so ill.

My husband is also unemployed but luckily I am full time now so we can make ends meet and I have to say - I ma enjoying having dinner on the table when I get home!

Melina

A great piece, Debbie. I have been asking for months now, where is the discussion of the poor? The middle class is the new poor, according to our politicians, but the poor are still there and nobody's talking about them. What about all those TANF single moms who were terminated from welfare after their 60-month (or much less in some states) time limit? All the research showed that they are out there working low-wage jobs, but making no more money than they did while on welfare. When their jobs are eliminated and welfare is no longer an option, what will they be doing? Where is the discussion of homelessness and the dissolution of local services to support the poor? And, I'd like to know when Congress is going to authorize economic relief not for failing banks, but for my home state, California, so that our schools can thaw their frozen budgets and my friends who work as community college counselors can stop worrying about being paid in "I owe yous." There are real people on the other end of these state and local budget crises and we need help too! (Why isn't the New York Times writing about this???)

Thank you, Bob, Melina, and Rebecca, for your comments! That piece kind of wrote itself. And I have feeling there will be more. It's really nice to get this feedback from you all.

Rebecca, we should turn your extremely right-on rant into a post...?!

I have been in the corporate trenches slugging it out for years. I hope I won't get laid off. but I do think that ironically, some women who have had sort of "cameo" jobs where they make little to no money for the household may be made to rethink their value and their position in the household. Some women (and men) have been lucky enough to have spouses who, basically, support the household while they can work at something that pays nothing or little to their own hearts content. Frankly, they have been shielded from a few things: the need to actually ask for what they are worth to run their business at a profit, the need to be aggressive in business marketing and negotiation, the need to compete with others in the dog eat dog world to make a living or just have insurance. I've seen this, by the way, with husbands and wives who have, frankly, been endulged in their own business while their wife works at a "real corporate job" to keep a roof over their heads and insurance. When a crisis comes, you find if you are in this together or if the little employed or cameo employed spouse will not expect to be carried like a child or partner like an adult to survive.