How are we hurting?

Finally moved everything out of our condo on Mar 16.
Our mover, Steve, was an engineer turned entrepreneur. Claimed to make 4x his well-paid corporate job by becoming a professional mover and starting another 3 more businesses. He talked non-stop and was not afraid to share his $ucce$$e$.
In these hard economic times, it was good to know that someone made serious money. But it was heartbreaking that it was at the expense of those in foreclosures.
He claimed to make additional $60,000 selling all the stuff that were left behind. He re-decorated his entire home. Even his Mexican help has a sub-zero at home. Everything else, even in good condition, were transported to the dumpster. Sigh... days of excessive consumerism has created this massive indigestion. Obviously leading to the question of our economy... and the world's economy. I believe we're hurting like never before.
Foreclosures today are NOT poor people trying to scrape by. These are your middle income with STEADY jobs... With burgeoning lay-offs, these middle-income who are one or 2 paychecks from bankruptcy are the NEW POOR! Harder for these folks to bounce back as jobs are scarce and good jobs are even more rare. Many are fighting to keep their belonging and dignity, just reeling from one bad situation to the next. They just gave up when banks foreclosed. They don't even fight for what they can get from selling. They just left.
Steve told us of a hard case where the lady and her 2 kids gave up their California dream and went home to mum in Wisconsin. She could only squeeze so much into the car with her 2 kids. She left an almost untouched home for the movers, even with food still fresh in the refrigerator. It was hard to see a closet full of her clothes, shoes and purses, her kids clothes and toys -- all the personal effects. She left California with less than what she came with. Hopefully there are more options for her in Wisconsin, with her family's help.
The final sting -- failed AIG thought they needed more than $400million (apparently the final figure is not in yet) in retention bonuses. For what? To clean up the mess? Isn't that their job to start with? Aren't they already paid handsomely to hold on to their jobs? Isn't that luckier than many who lost their jobs thru no fault of their own? Shall we indulge the rich and powerful, even at times like these? Where is the reality check? Where is the disconnect that you pay bonuses when the company is MAKING money, not bankrupt!!!!