Residents worry about financial future

As the country’s leaders decide how to address the looming financial crisis, Charlottesville-area residents are thinking about their financial futures. And some are very worried.

Anthony Rubiaes, a 76-year-old city resident, started working on his house and car after rising costs made it difficult to hire someone else. Rubiaes said he thinks America is headed for a recession, but he’s hopeful that a proposed $700 billion bailout will help.

“If it’s going to help the economy, I like it,” Rubiaes said.

The plan touted by the Bush administration would let the government reduce the load of bad mortgages and debt from ailing companies, theoretically giving them a chance to lend money again and get back on their feet.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson are pushing to implement the bailout soon, but Congress has insisted on a more measured review, with some seeking changes and others, including some Republicans, in opposition.

President Bush made a direct plea for support to Americans via a prime-time television address Wednesday night.

Most of U.S. Rep. Virgil H. Goode Jr.’s constituent callers have opposed the plan, said Linwood Duncan, Goode’s spokesman.

Albemarle resident Letice Best said she doesn’t know much about the plan but has felt the effects of the softening economy.

For the first time in 10 years, the 40-year-old Best has had to get a roommate. She has been working as a temp for four months while trying to find permanent work and does not have health insurance.

“I can barely keep my head above water,” Best said. “Just trying to maintain is a struggle for me.”

Best said she believes that the war in Iraq has caused the United States economy to weaken and that she doesn’t completely trust the government’s motives.

Bernanke and Paulson are on Jack Faw’s list of people not to trust. The 70-year-old Albemarle County resident and Ron Paul supporter said the bailout would only help a government that got itself into trouble in the first place.

“If we had assets backing our currency, this wouldn’t have happened,” Faw said.

Faw, who is retired, hosts the “Sound Money Group” at his home for likeminded thinkers. Former teacher Nancy Rodland, 53, said she has been learning how to can food and grow a vegetable garden through the group, hoping to barter in case the economy tanks completely.

“There are different levels of fear right now,” Rodland said. “I lost a lot of money in my retirement accounts, which is why I’m going to investigate what’s going on.”

Some people, such as Robert Coombs, don’t have money to monitor. Coombs, who describes himself as one step away from being homeless, said he has had trouble finding day labor to pay for food.

Instead, he has been playing guitar on the Downtown Mall for change.

“I gotta make money every day,” Coombs said. “If I hock the guitar, I could get money, but how would I make money?”

Coombs, 51, said he wants Congress to take its time before voting on the bailout to keep the bottom from falling out of the economy.

Questioning how the economy got so bad is part of fixing it permanently, said Jordan Pollard. The 29-year-old architect living in Charlottesville said the bailout plan isn’t part of that.

“I think that when we take the bailout option, it will be a quick fix and doesn’t deal with the infrastructure,” Pollard. “The infrastructure is what is broken.”

Stu Armstrong, executive director of the Piedmont Housing Alliance, said something has to happen to keep money moving through the economy. A bailout wouldn’t make things easier without consequences.

“Doing something to control a financial crisis so it doesn’t cause a major economic crises is probably what the upside is,” Armstrong said. “The downside is that we’re mortgaging the future and our children will have to pay for it. We’re just delaying the pain.”