Indiana Unemployment

n this corner of America known as the world capital of mobile homes, Todd Brink earned his living by producing those brilliant large vehicles that plied the broad highways. Brink prospered, as its industry. Then came the hard times.

The misery began when their mortgage payments skyrocketed and his savings dried up, and last year was forced to sell their house and moved with his family to a rented trailer for $ 300 a month. As if this were not enough, in September the Monaco Coach Corp. closed its plant in her area, and Brink became unemployed.

Battered by tightening credit, rising fuel prices and slumping sales in recent months RV manufacturers have laid off thousands of workers, many northern and central Indiana. And Brink, part of that group of voters in overalls who closely watched during the presidential campaign is now trying to figure out how to survive.

"I always had a cushion of 2000 or $ 3000. Now I have nothing," says Brink, 38, who worked at Monaco for 14 years. "I had a job to support my family. Now I do not. It's devastating."

"I'm afraid of not being able to support my family. The whole weight on my shoulders," adds Brink, the sole breadwinner for his wife and four children, the eldest of whom is 10.

Economic anxieties about unemployment, the collapse of Wall Street and the specter of recession have come as a chill throughout this quiet stretch of U.S. homeland. The locals are alarmed by rising prices, mourning the loss of their well-paying jobs and doubt that Obama and McCain understand their concerns.

"Everybody plays on our fears now," says Jody Baugh, a welder who lost his job this month with the closing of the Monaco. "If one had to live one day as we would have a very different perspective" she says. They have not the remotest idea of the burdens of everyday life. "

For both workers, the loss of their jobs was the latest in a series of financial setbacks. The two held mortgages with variable interest rate in recent years rose so astronomical.

Brink sold his house when his payments jumped from $ 670 to $ 1050 per month. Baugh, 40, was caught in a bind even higher: rising home insurance costs, medical expenses and the common burden of having to help two of her four daughters who go to college. "They expect a family of six living on a salary of between 10 and 11 dollars an hour. It is impossible," says Baugh, heartbroken.

Both Obama and McCain are going to great lengths to gain the support of workers in the Midwest coveted. With less than six weeks before Election Day and a recent poll showed the candidates running almost even in seven states: Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Minnesota.

Industry in decline
In some of those states, unemployment remains higher than the national average. Certain corners of the region have been suffering for decades, and cities like Flint, Mich., Gary, Ind., and Youngstown, Ohio, have become symbols of the decline of the industrial Midwest. Both presidential candidates have targeted this region, with frequent visits that included a scale of Obama in Flint and one public appearance McCain in Youngstown.

While manufacturing remains a very active part of the U.S. economy, said Robert Scott, international economist at the Economic Policy Institute, between March 1998 and August of this year, the sector lost more than 4.2 million jobs.

Scott says that in recent decades has missed a wide spectrum of jobs, not only in the automobile or steel industry. The items such as electronics, tools, software, accounting and call centers also have moved overseas.

"20 years ago, people knew what he must do to secure a middle-class life with good jobs and benefits," Scott says. Now, all these roads are closed. Today it is much harder to get a job in a factory and keep " .

In Indiana, only, since 2000 manufacturing has lost 148,000 jobs, 22% of the total, according to official figures.

Obama hopes to capitalize on the frustration of workers in overalls and mobilized behind the state of Indiana, who for 44 years voting for Republicans. It will be a Herculean task, but with an unemployment rate of 8.9% in August, nearly three points above the national average, the change that Obama claims begins to make sense to Baugh, the unemployed welder. He leans over it, but want to be sure to choose someone "to help the middle class."

McCain also has its supporters. Kenny Twa, who owns a hardware company site, says he supports because "it is left to drive."Others admire his military record, but some voters here wonder if a president is enough to change the direction of the country and the economy.

Terry Swihart, fired from Monaco this spring after 28 ½ years of service, is concerned about the rising costs of medical care.

Her husband Jim, 56 years and also lost his job at Monaco, the column was operated for three years and have implants in hips and ankles. Between them they paid about $ 900 per month for expenses. "Salvage for this and that," he says, referring to the giant mortgage banks. "But to us who is going to save?"