Reply #25: It's finally hitting home for me - my ex-wife is in danger. [View All]

As some of you may know, I follow the layoff news very closely. One of the reasons that I do this is because my ex works in Philadelphia for a major hotel chain. With the cuts in corporate and personal travel, I've been expecting to see mass layoffs in the hospitality industry - but I've been surprised to see very few so far.

Wednesday my ex-wife was called into her boss's office and was asked to take the rest of this week off - without pay. They're having meetings to determine what the next steps will be, but she thinks that she may lose "one or two days a month". I, on the other hand, think it's entirely possible that she may not have a job on Monday.

Back it 2003 we would talk about the economy. As a "doomer" (as some on DU dismissively call realists), I was beginning to fear this collapse already. She and I would have discussions, and I told her that I believed that our levels of debt were unsustainable and that a collapse was inevitable. I told her that in such a scenario, her job would not be safe. I said that she should examine her options and try to find a job in a safer industry. She didn't listen.

I am not a crazy person. I am not always right in my opinions, but I always base those opinions on the best facts I have. She, and many, many others, based their opinions not on facts, but on what they wanted to believe. I saw this coming, I tried to warn people, and no one wanted to believe any of it. They wanted to believe I was a doomer.

Now the ex is telling me that if she has to get a part time job, she will. As readers of the SMW, you and I both know that there are very, very few parttime jobs out there - or jobs of any kind. She still wants to believe what she wants to believe.

All of this has huge implications for our son. If my ex loses her job, she has very few options available. What would be best for my son, in that case, is for him to come live with me, where he can be in a stable environment and I can put him in a good school. I can't see her letting that happen - not out of malice, but simply because she would miss him too much.

My ex and I get along very well. I am not a ranter, I'm not a doomer, and I don't want the economy to fail. However, I am a realistic. I continue to be extremely frustrated by what I see as a willingness to ignore the facts on the part of Americans. As I feared, this "willing ignorance" is about to have real life consequences for me. I saw it coming, but I could do nothing to stop it.

Thanks for letting me rant. I may cross post this is GD, because I'm a masochist.