The rise and fall of an American Dream

Once upon a time there was a man, the man started his own business, this business grew to be an empire. He had seen his father do, but he wanted to try doing it from scratch, not wanting to ride on anyone else's coat tails. He was a visionary, he had a dream, an American Dream, he was a very fair man who well rewarded the people who helped his visions grow, and he enjoyed the people as his Camelot grew, synergy at work amongst them you could almost grasp it with your hands. Prosperity and Comaradie walked together for good many years, thriving and constantly growing to be more, unti some very evil investor men on Wall Street and equally evil men from our own Federal Reserve brought an entire nation to it's knees, everything grinding to a halt. Banks failed Companies closed Layoffs of unthinkable magnitudes An entire housing market collapse, and with it a multiple of tradesmen, ground to the same halt. As our own prized media advertised on the nightly news "home value depreciation", repeating for months that turned into years, oh yes indeedy they did depreciate to the point of obscene. Jobless masses became foreclosed homeowners, became homeless. Starting over, scratch, zippo, where they'd been as young newlyweds. Others would use every sent of savings or retirement funds they had to stay slightly above the water line. Banks were bailed out, no questions asked. This would enable them to help people with loans, consumer loans, commercial loans. Not so much helping with loans, they did however totally modernize their robotic machines, computer programs, and now you could bank by phone- no easy feat to accomplish but they survive strong & steady. However, the banks did not want to lend money to the people needing help the most. So instead they turned into the most collective homeowner there ever was, holding so much real estate in foreclosed homes, that if they can simply wait out this fiasco called a recession, they will have a very tidy profit in their greedy little hands, profits made off the collaspe of the American Dream. The man with the vision was rocked as well, vast quantities of land and homes given back, given back to who? The banks. He and his remaining people survived to a point by revamping foreclosed homes for the banks, until they could begin to buy homes at auction to resell as some demand came back into the market. And they were sucessful at this. And slowly they were able to re-hire some of the talent that had earlier been laid off, and for this we kindly thank them for their expressed loyalties. He also started a blog a few years back, writing various articles about the slow signs seen of the housing market recovery, some from a businessowners eyes, some from a consumers eyes, but all of his writings contain a very human element in them, they gave us hope, hope that better days would come, hope that we could stay employed long enough to reach a retirement age that is so close we can taste it, and as he gave us hope, we were able to gain some ground back, making 50% less yet supporting a home that demanded 50% more, can deplete the soul a bit, but this mans blog kept us thinking Camelot was damaged, but might after all with time and patience be restored to a doable condition. Maybe it all had too much impact, or maybe there are things we don't know about, the man's vision of an American Dream comes to an end for himself, his employees, countless contractors who work alongside on so many projects, he closes the company soon and yes it will carry it's own impact to many, including the man as I don't believe for minute he wanted to close this particular chapter of his life's work. Aside from my own boss who is the very best of people, this man of vision was also one of the finest employers you could ever want, his belief in the American Dream will continue on through the echoe's of what he started so long ago, as his own Dad had done, and slowly America will continue to repair, especially if we become of a sounder mind than what is presently representing the people, the fragmentation that exists presently impedes progress. Many thanks for the hopes, and dreams, and all the good adventures along the way.