What Another War Could Mean for America’s Financial Future and Yours

In tough financial times, sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees. But as another global conflict unfolds in the Middle East, and with the United States very much involved, it’s important to understand another war’s potential impact on the national economy, local layoffs and your individual financial future.

At least so says long-time New York Times writer Bob Herbert, in his final column for the paper. Entitled, “Losing Our Way,” the column outlines a host of problems facing average Americans—demolished school budgets, closed libraries, layoffs for teachers and police officers, lower qualities of life—even as resources begin flowing toward a third war theatre in Libya and domestic promise again takes a back seat to foreign policy.

Herbert writes, “Welcome to America in the second decade of the 21st century. An army of long-term unemployed workers is spread across the land, the human fallout from the Great Recession and long years of misguided economic policies. Optimism is in short supply. The few jobs now being created too often pay a pittance, not nearly enough to pry open the doors to a middle-class standard of living.”

If you’re one of “the army of unemployed workers”—nearly 14 million by Herbert’s count—you probably feel like the nation’s economic recovery is far from coming to fruition. And with one job for every five people looking for work, there’s very little hope on the horizon—unless, of course, you’re one of a very small percentage of wealthy Americans.

“There is plenty of economic activity in the U.S., and plenty of wealth. But like greedy children, the folks at the top are seizing virtually all the marbles. Income and wealth inequality in the U.S. have reached stages that would make the third world blush. As the Economic Policy Institute has reported, the richest 10 percent of Americans received an unconscionable 100 percent of the average income growth in the years 2000 to 2007, the most recent extended period of economic expansion. “

While income distribution remains a problem in the world’s most prosperous country, all is not lost for Americans in fiscal trouble. Unlike most other nations, our founding fathers provided a failsafe system for citizens in financial dire straits: U.S.  bankruptcy protection.  Under the American approach, a bankruptcy discharge provides the proverbial fresh start to move forward with life.

In the United States, bankruptcy laws provide multiple personal bankruptcy options.  And every week bankruptcy attorneys meet with dozens of people in financial distress.  Each time those who have encountered misfortune, bad judgment, or business failure walk into law offices feeling hopeless and at the end of their rope, perceiving no alternatives to their continuing fiscal problems.

Almost every time, however, it seems more and more when these same clients leave these offices, they feel hope and relief often for the first time in months or years; they are reassured that the bankruptcy laws and the bankruptcy system offers them the possibility of a new start— at a tolerable cost—and with it a financially viable and secure future.

In short, American bankruptcy laws can end worry and stress of living on the financial brink; even when the current state of affairs in our “more perfect union,” has never been less perfect.

So, you find yourself caught up in this crisis and drowning in debts, call a bankruptcy attorney today and learn how you can regain control of your financial life, even in these troubled times.  In North Carolina, contact The Law Offices of John T. Orcutt, with convenient office locations in Raleigh, Durham, Fayetteville, and Wilson.