Personal Asset Liquidation – America’s a Flea Market

We all know the state of the American Economy. We feel it everyday in business and in our personal lives. Its something that we have all learned to live with, and occasionally, I forget how bad it actually is. I was reminded this past weekend I decided to stop by a local flea market that I had been told was very active on Sunday mornings. I had visited this flea market several years ago as a college student, looking for some items for a new apartment. I remember about two dozen booths set up with people selling sports memorabilia, antiques, coins, etc. These were people who came each week and did this not to support their livelihood, but as a hobby. When I visited last weekend, I saw an entirely different picture. Dozens of booths with entire families sitting behind them. A Mother, Father, and usually several young children. They were not selling baseball cards, old jewelry, or used DVD’s, but instead it looked as though they backed a truck up to the front door of their house and unloaded all of their personal belongings. This was not a sale of items collected as part of a hobby, this was a personal asset liquidation – a true sign of the times. It saddened me to know that many of these people had lost their jobs, savings, and any equity they had built up in their homes as a result of the economy crashing, and although the stock market is back up and banks are once again raking in record profits, the average man on the street and their families are still suffering.
This is why I take great pride in what we do here at Second Wind, this is why we have not only our turnaround/ workout division, but also Debt Relief Services, our non-profit arm that helps people, just like the one’s I met at the flea market, get out of crushing debt. I do have hope that in years the economy will eventually turn around and the flea market will once again be back down to a few venders selling baseball cards and vintage records. But as I watch congress shovel billions of dollars to bankers, bicker about raising the debt ceiling, and push our country towards default, I realize that it is a very long way away.