This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Danny’s Gone
Everyone makes mistakes. I’ve made a bunch. It’s the ones that start small and seem insignificant that sneak up on you over time that are the ones that have the biggest consequence. The mistakes that lead to other people getting hurt are hard to confront. But the most pain comes when a mistake ends up hurting a child. I’ve done that.
I’m not writing about this to cleanse my soul (I wish it were that easy). I’m hoping that readers see this story and learn from my errors. I think my mistake has been made a few million times the past decade or so. It’s just time to discuss the consequences of our actions.
About ten years ago I was in need of a big hole. I have enough property to always need something. This time it was a drainage ditch and a dry well. I knew that there were workers looking for jobs in a nearby town. I’d heard about it from neighbors who had gone to a corner in Ossining, NY where day workers from south of the border came in the mornings. I didn’t think much of it at the time.
Sure enough, there were workers. Construction trucks were picking up guys. When I drove up a half dozen came up to me. They all talked a fast Spanish, they all wanted a job. For no particular reason I chose one. His name was Caesar. Two days later what I wanted done had been accomplished. A nice job at that. I paid cash for the work. It was $80 a day, plus I provided food.
I drove him back to where he lived at night; a not so nice apartment that he shared with eight others. I didn’t think much of it at the time.
He had my telephone number and called a few weeks later and said, “I need work”.
I understood that this was a cry for help from a guy who was having trouble getting food money. I had a ton of things that had been left undone. So I said, “Yes”.
So it became a few days a week. That lasted awhile. I introduced him to others. Everyone needed work done. It turned out that Caesar had many skills. He was a good mason and could lay up stonewalls. He was a painter, gardener, a decent mechanic and a pretty good rough and finish carpenter. He was from Quenca, Ecuador (small city outside of Quito). He had a wife, Ruth, and a daughter who was then three years old. He left his family to come to America.
We talked while we worked, I spoke “Spanglish” he spoke broken English, we understood each other perfectly. He, of course, was here illegally. He had made the long trip from Ecuador to NY via the Texas border. He came to the US because (his words) there were no jobs an no future in his home country. We became friends of a sort.
After a year or so, Caesar had saved up some money. He sent $10,000 (via Citi) back to Ecuador. This was the payoff money to the Coyotes who would transport his wife to the Texas border. She made the trip in the back of a box truck. She was raped on the way.
She was dumped, (with 20 others) in the brush country outside of Brownsville, Texas. She walked to the lights of the city and took a bus to NY. Thousands of “Ruth’s” made this trip.
Not too long after she made the long journey she was pregnant. This may have been the result of two devout Catholics and a long separation. But it was also a defensive move on their part. They knew that a child born in America would automatically become a citizen. They believed that if they were the parents of a American child they would never be deported. A common belief that has led to many children being born to illegal workers.
They named their son Danny. A healthy and happy child. Life was good for the family during the early part of the decade. There was steady work for both of them. Housekeeping for Ruth, Caesar worked construction. In 2003 they had a combined income of $60,000. A number that made them “rich” compared to the world they had come from. They were living the same dream that millions of immigrants had when they came to the US over the years. The difference, of course, was that they were illegal and had no right to be here. They bought fake Social Security cards (easy to get back then).
They lived in an area that was exploding in population of men and women who had come from Ecuador. Word travelled back to Cuenca that work and money was available. Over the course of just five years the illegal population exploded in the towns of Ossining, Peekskill and Mt. Kisco. Bodega’s and restaurants popped up.
Danny grew up fast. I saw to it that he had the medical attention he needed and later pulled a string or two to get him into the local schools. There were birthdays and holidays that I contributed to. He came to my home and I taught him to swim. Unlike his parents, he took to the water and swam like a rat. He called me, “Grandfather”. I was okay with that.
Danny was as much an American boy as any you could find. He spoke English perfectly (much to his parents chagrin). He liked American football, he didn’t play soccer. He loved basketball. He did fine in school. He made many friends. He was invited to the birthday parties of his classmates. He was a very happy kid.
Around 2005 my feelings on what was happening began to change. What had started innocently enough was now morphing into something that was no longer innocent. It was clearly a population explosion that would end up with a bad result. I slowly changed my views. I saw the risks that were developing for all that were involved. This change of heart was influenced by people who knew I was helping a family out. Some made it clear that I should not be helping the “Browns”.
I tried to make things right. I hired a lawyer and sponsored Ruth to become a US citizen. Her application was accepted in 2005. The formal notice that she was “in line” to become legal was a source of a great celebration. Six years later her application had still not gone anywhere. Not one single applicant from Ecuador was given immigration status (Green card) in all those years.
I saw to it that Ruth kept a record of all of her income. She paid taxes on what she made, the same as anyone would do. I thought this was important. It would prove that she was playing by the rules. I thought that the tax records would support her request for citizenship. It never mattered at all.
I no longer hired Caesar. I wanted him “on the books”. So he found work where no one asked questions about his legal status. If he had a SS card (illegal or not) there was plenty of work to be had. Somehow that quasi-legal status made it “right”.
Things fell apart for this family starting in 2008. The recession killed the construction industry. With that went the jobs the illegal’s had come for. The unemployment rate for the illegals went from functionally zero to at least 50%. Caesar was only able to find “pickup” work a few days a week.
I saw what was happening. I urged them to go back to Ecuador. I offered them the money to buy plane tickets. They wanted none of that. They stuck it out in the hope (like so many others) that the US economy would turn around. It never did.
Around 2010 there was a new challenge emerging. The local police began targeting the illegals. They stopped the cars they drove in to work. The cops were clearly profiling (they swore they were not). ICE (Immigration, Customs Enforcement) raided a few businesses that hired these workers. Jobs disappeared as a result. To make things worse the illegals were subject to random attacks. One was beat to death while in the custody of the police. A once happy immigrant community was scared to walk the streets.
Ruth, Caesar and Danny stuck it out as long as they could. But Caesar was stopped by the police and was given a summons to appear in court.
I was gone last week. When I got back there was a message on the phone from Danny. He was leaving the next day. He was crying. He wanted to see me before he left. When I got back I went to his home. He was already gone.
Think what it must be like for a ten-year old boy who is American as any of us to be forced out of the country. Think what a strange life he faces in a country that bears no resemblance to what he grew up with. He will not fit in. He doesn't speak Spanish fluently. His parents are back in a place that they know. They are also back in a place that has no opportunity for them and their son.
I know in my heart that I’m partially responsible for Danny’s plight. There is not much I can do about it. I will find him someday. I’ll try to make this right. But the damage has already been done. There is a ten-year old American boy whose life has been ripped apart. That’s a fact that is very hard for me to come to grip with.
**********************************
There is little to celebrate this Labor Day. There are so many Americans who have no work or are doing jobs for little pay and no upside. The illegal workers who came here in the good times are leaving in droves. In 2007 there were 12mm in the country. The endless recession has reduced that number to 8mm in just a few years. The depression we are living through has hurt many families. The ones that are on the bottom of the rung are paying the biggest price. Families like Danny’s have been hurt the most.
I know that many readers will think that my participation in this story was all wrong. That Danny and I deserve the pain we have. I expect a fair bit of criticism for this. Trust me, no words you can write would make feel worse than I do. I think of Danny all the time. I pray that this American child is safe.
.
»
- advertisements -
Nice excuse considering GE paid no taxes last year and CEO bonuses in a lot of fortune 100 companies are more than what they pay in taxes. The reason they are leaving is to exploit cheap labor. The reason Bruce hired a illegal was it was cheaper than hiring a legal. If you can't see the similarities then...
And exactly what is the relevance of corporate tax evasion in this context?
As it happens, I agree with Reagan on this one: 'companies don't pay taxes; people pay taxes'.
To elaborate, most people think a company with a profit of $10B should pay a higher rate of tax than a company with a profit of $10M. They ignore the possibility that the $10B company may have a million shareholders, getting $10k each, and the $10M company may have 5 shareholders, getting $2M each... ie, the shareholders in the $10B company will wind up being charged a higher rate of tax on lower dividends, than the shareholders of the $10M company.
ie, companies shouldn't be taxed at all. The recipients of dividends should be taxed at the same rate as income. Problem solved.
Coming back to the idea that cheap labor is being 'exploited' - do you believe Americans are obligated to buy goods from Americans? If not, then what is the difference between paying non-Americans USD for their labor indirectly in foreign countries by buying their products, and paying non-Americans USD in America directly for their labor?
what is the relevance of corporate tax evasion in this context?
I have no idea you brought it up.
Coming back to the idea that cheap labor is being 'exploited' - do you believe Americans are obligated to buy goods from Americans? If not, then what is the difference between paying non-Americans USD for their labor indirectly in foreign countries by buying their products, and paying non-Americans USD in America directly for their labor?
So are we in agreement, I see no difference and that is the entire point of the discussion. It is no2foreclosures who see's the a difference, and which caused me to post
what is the relevance of corporate tax evasion in this context?
I have no idea you brought it up.
Er, no, you brought it up, with your previous comment:
Nice excuse considering GE paid no taxes last year and CEO bonuses in a lot of fortune 100 companies are more than what they pay in taxes.
I see by your non-posts that you ignore my relevant points and are trying to construct a straw-man argument. So lets just leave it at that. You win I agree its really a humanitarian effort to hire illegals in the USA, but our evil corporations "press-gang" people into working at sweatshops. Our evil corporations must die and what everyone in the USA needs to do for the benefit of our society is to hire illegals.
I see by your non-posts that you ignore my relevant points and are trying to construct a straw-man argument.
My 'non-posts'? What is that supposed to mean?
You win I agree its really a humanitarian effort to hire illegals in the USA...
I never said it's a 'humanitarian effort' to hire illegals. I said it was every person's right to engage in transactions of a voluntary nature.
but our evil corporations "press-gang" people into working at sweatshops.
When a US company successfully lobbies the US government to overthrow elected left-wing governments and install right-wing dictatorships that kill union organisers, or throw the indigenous peoples off their lands and then grant the US corp use of those lands, what would you call it?
Our evil corporations must die and what everyone in the USA needs to do for the benefit of our society is to hire illegals.
The vast majority of US corporation don't 'exploit' foreign labor - if you'd read my posts you would have seen I'm a proponent of free trade.
If you need to completely distort people's arguments to win a debate... maybe you're on the wrong side of the debate.
Exactly. I awarded you the coveted "Green Up Arrow". No need to thank me.
Thank you! :-)
You are welcome sir. Thank you for the witty and "on spot" comments.
Not to start a mutual admiration society but I love your comments
You are a typical Yankee idiot who doesn't know any history, no I don't mean the version you learn on Fox News or reading the Washington times or by watching Hollywood movies.
The United States of Death, Disease, and Destruction has destroyed nations wholesale so that they could maintain this and that preferencial "trade" or monopolistic access to natural resources. For example, the history of the overthrown of democratically elected presidents. As I wrote in 2008 in "The Greatest Ponzi Scheme in History":
Washington’s interesting vision and version of “democracy” and “liberty” for the nations of the world with natural resources include overthrowing (or attempting to overthrow as was the case with Chavez in April 2002) those previously mentioned elected leaders by any and all means, and by installing the following “champions of freedom and democracy”:
1. The brutal dictator of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (the Shah of Iran), and his universally hated secret police, the SAVAK, which left such an indelible mark on the Iranian psyche that almost every Iranian personally knows of someone who was brutally tortured during the reign of the U.S.-propped up Shah regime, using such wonderful torture techniques as those taught and trained by the CIA and the Israeli Mossad.
2. The series of right-wing dictators after the CIA overthrow of President Arbenz of Guatemala which then resulted in the killing of over 100,000 Guatemalans during the 40 years following the coup.
3. “Papa Doc" Duvalier as the dictator of Haiti, whose own private police force, the "Tonton Macoutes," terrorized the Haitian people with machetes and killed over 100,000 during the Duvalier reign of terror.
4. General Castelo Branco in Basil who along with the CIA created Latin America’s first death squads, whose bands of secret police hunted down "communists" (no more than Branco’s political opponents) for torture, interrogation and murder, and which effects are still prominently felt in Basil’s corrupt police forces today.
5. General Suharto of Indonesia who massacred between 500,000 to 1 million civilians accused of being "communist," and killed over 200,000 East Timor residents (one-third of the entire population) after the personal go-ahead was given by President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger one day before this heinous genocide against humanity took place.
6. And so forth and so on.
American people, who are easily persuaded because they don’t know any real history and don’t travel outside of the U.S., will always side with the U.S. government’s and the corporate mass media’s version of what happened. And they will swallow the reasons and excuses on why the U.S. had to invade this or that country. Kill all the socialists and leftists! Overthrow the communists!
Learn your history before you make more stupid comments.
I've traveled the world, more than you I would bet. You have the ravings of a lunatic. Where did you learn your history, Cuba?
Grow up.
Well, golly gee dude, you make it sound like we're the only evil empire that's ever existed on the face of the planet.
From time immemorial, states (empires) and those who ruled them have been guilty of quite a few of the atrocities that you point out in your little phlem attack.
We all know about the Roman Empire, the Mesopotapians, the Assirians, the Egytpians, the Babylonians, the Carthagininians, the Etruscans, the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union Empire, the British Empire, the German Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Mayan Empire, the Aztec Empire, the Byzatine Empire, damn it I'm tired of typing, heres the full, if not complete, list
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_empires
Do you seem to think that throughout the history of Apekind that were the most evil out of all of these Ape Empires?
Apes have been guilty of caving in the skulls of their fellow apes ever since they climbed out of the trees and and started walking upright. Did you know that even chimpanzees go on war raids looking for monkeys or chimpanzees from other groups to kill? The monkeys they kill and eat, the chimpanzees from other groups, especially the males, they mutalite and leave behind as a warning. And we're supposed to be genetically 99% similar to chimpanzees.
So, climb down off your soapbox and be glad the US government isn't bombing your little sandbox in your neck of the woods.
In all circumspect, what's to stop them?
Oh and we supported Gaddafi and Saddam, what does this have to do with the fact that Bruce was looking for a cheap labor source and you praised him for "helping out fellow human beings in need?" He was looking for cheap labor if you do not get it then...
I will agree with your assessment but I will once again restate my question. Why is its then OK to exploit the cheap labor once it arrives in the good old USA? What was so nice about Bruce when he was getting cheap labor? On a side note how dare you judge me...I'm actually Hispanic, and I know more about exploitation, and history than you will ever know. How can you call Bruce's exploitation a humanitarian effort while condemning the rest of the world as being exploitative. As a typical liberal your a hypocrite because when your circle exploits people you call it humanitarian. As the bible says "why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"
Thanks, you pre-empted my reply. Two people coming to a voluntary agreement about how much money will be exchanged for how much labor is completely different from having some external country overthrow a government, steal natural resources from under the feet of the people who have lived there since time immemorial, and then press-gang them into servitude.
How are they "pressed ganged" is the British Navy involved? I think its a voluntary arrangement after all per your statements they getting paid and not unemployed. By the way they lived their since they committed genocide on the native indigenous populations
By the way they lived their since they committed genocide on the native indigenous populations
Who is 'they' in this context?
Just to clue you in: I suggest you look up the history of the United Fruit Company... or the influence BP and various other oil companies have on the foreign and military policy of both the US and UK.
Why do you feel responsible? I suspect you were taught by liberal teachers that each of us is responsible for all sorts of things outside our control. You were probably given community punishments for your class for the behavior of people with whom your association was not even voluntary. Such conditioning and belief is a form of psychological abuse. Cast off such conditioning and declare your own person-hood free of assigned guilt.
Being liberal is a precursor to being a good teacher, since a good teacher must be flexible and have a wide world view. Being responsible for what is beyond your control is called neurotic.
At labor ready, it costs $14.00/hr for laborers. They have insurance, workers comp, pay taxes, all legit. That means it costs you $32 more per DAY to have a legal person do work on your property without having to worry about breaking the law, insurance, workers comp, unemployment, or being sued.
If you can not afford an extra $30 per day, then you have no business 'needing' this work done in the first place. I am so disgusted by your article its amazing. You are a selfish, narcisistic piece of shit. You should be jailed along with anyone else employing illegals. The illegals NEED TO GO back to where they came.
These people hoard american dollars while not paying for shit and then send the $$ to a foreign country when an american can be doing the work and spending the money HERE.
Yes but you can't get Americans to do the work that immigrant labor fills in. Germany cooled its hot economy in the 80's in order to keep illegal immigrants out which appar to be a necessary component of economic growth.
Good luck finding college kids who, en masse, are ready to wash dishes and cut lawns.
Where do you live? I remember when fast food employment was just for immigrants all I see now is seniors and college students working the fast food joints, their are no other jobs for them.
In a big city.
I live in a medium city and don't see it I guess the college graduates in the big cities must all want to work at wall street or something
Germany has a very low unemployment rate right now. I can tell you also, plenty of Polish workers. For those jobs Germans "just don't want to do". It's called manufacturing. We used to do it a few years ago.
On the heels of Clinton's service economy, manufacturing disappears, right in time for outsourcing...
some blame unions. I think it's the lack of an American agenda that puts kinda puts us all in the same boat. Threat of a hurricane made people clear out the shelves of necessities. You'd think Obama, elected like a rock star and dying at the toilet rim like one, would have ushered similar calls to action in people. No, with Geithner's hand up his ass like a sock puppet, he parlayed the unmentionable force (race) to fuck everyone, the ultimate wolf in sheep's clothing.
The fact of the matter is, without all the name calling, is that without the insurance, contractors license, workers comp and paying of taxes, if Caesar had injured himself while working on Bruce's property, Bruce could have found himself liable for hundreds of thoundsands of dollars, even millions of dollars worth of damages depending upon the type of injury sustained.
Does anyone think your home owners insurance is going to cover the hiring of someone not commercially licensed, insured, and covered by workers compensation. The insurance company could have told you shove it since you knew full well who you were hiring.
And, by the way, I hope you and your friends got Permits from the city or county for all the work you had performed, and all that work was inspected by the city or county. Depending on where you live you can get in a shit load of trouble for that also, if and when they find out.
Of course with Caesar deported, there's no one to guarantee the work he performed with any type of warantee, so if that stone wall he built or any other work starts falling apart, I guess you'll have to hire another illegal to fix the problem only to double down on your previous mistake, which was namely to save some money.
But, the most obvious problem with all of this is the fact that as hispanics/latinos from Mexico, Central and South America, have moved in and taken jobs from Americans, the worse affected have been African-Americans. Not to say that most young inner city young men want give up their lucrative day jobs dealing crack, meth and heroin to toil in the fields working for whitey.
But, who here wouldn't love to be able to work without paying income taxes and payroll taxes. Be able to drive around without a license or car insurance, possibley incurr multiple DUI's or commit multiple crimes without being deported. Be able to bypass the requirements for a contractors license, insurance, and workers compensation, especially while doing construction work. Or be able to go to the emergency room and walk out knowing you won't have to pay. Or have your child attend public schools while paying the minimum in property taxes. Or have your buddy do his wife's taxes, on her more than likely small wages, so that they can collect all the available tax credits, like the child tax credit, fromt he Federal government, which is also illegal, and depending upon the state get a rebate on the property taxes paid, especially if your considered poor. And be able to collect other types of welfare benefits depending upon the state one lives in, using fake SS documents.
In other words, if someone else can commit all types of crimes no matter how small or morally inconsequential, and get away with it, then why the hell should I continue to live by the laws set forth in this country. Oh, that's right, if I were to commit some of the same felonies, you know things like tax evasion, and I got caught, I would be thrown in jail, they're lucky they only got deported back to Ecuador.
Don't forget they also committed identify fraud...I could not say this better myself
Danny is LEGAL..He was born in the USA..Thats what this is about..
Im sorry Bruce...
Danny is "legal" because of the stupid anchor baby law. I am tired of paying for millions of danny's in jails and in American schools. American schools that have become toilets for American kids due to liberalism and open borders.
I do not get all this sentimental stuff. A person exploits the illegal immigrant work force, who in turn steal social security numbers (its called identify theft) and some how we are to believe that this person is kind. No word on what happened to the little daughter left behind when they illegally migrated to the US, but a ton of compassion for the one that had to go back to the living conditions that his sibling was left in. I just do not get it. No wonder this country is going down the tubes, you exploit people and then have companion for someone that you personally know and then you try to get everyone to "cry a river." What a joke.
Danny is a real kid who Bruce has known for 10 years. That's why he cares about him.
If you don't get it, I hope you do some day.
That was exactly my point but if you don't get it I hope you do someday.
very good writing Bruce.
You hired that man to do a job because it make economic sense. To you and to him. I am glad that in the process him and his family could prosper. It is too bad he now has to leave the country for reasons that have nothing to do with his willingness to work.
The world is getting smaller. Humans will have a difficult time surviving if we are fighting each other over where we were born or the color of our skins. Sometime in our evolution we will have to learn how to willingly share with others and at the same time limit our consumption so that all can live a decent life. It is pitiful of these "patriots" that they always find others to blame for bad economic times. These "patriots" were not asking for Greenspans resignation in 1995 nor were they advocating a union wage for all laborers then or now. "Freemen" they call themselves, but freedom is only for them. All others will be persecuted. They are like junkyard dogs who snarl and bite only because it is their territory. They indeed are a good argument for 2nd amendment solutions!
Bruce, you are a man in the noblest sense of the word.
gh
I hear ya Ecuador Expat. Sent back to Cuenca which is a great city full of opportunities for anyone who speaks perfect English? I would live there in a heartbeat and when I was there in 09 it looked thriving and I understand is a hotspot for expats.
Im happy here in Costa Rica though.
Anyway Bruce that is a sad story in a way and I know Costa Ricans who had a similar outcome and are back here now. Some are still there but have paid off the coyotes. Life goes on. The story of USA no? Immigrants from wherever coming, working hard and becoming Americans. Irish, Germans, Swedes etc.
Same happens here in Costa Rica. Our Mexicans are from Nicaragua. They work like shit for double what they could make back home across the border. Many get caught and sent back.
Many of the expats cant hack it here and end up going back. They cant get into the culture or expect everythign to be the same as the USA.
My question here is why Danny (from your earlier post in 09) refused to learn Spanish?
He has never seen his sister. He can’t talk with her on the
phone because he has refused to learn Spanish.
That was a big waste with two Spanish speaking parents.
Just make sure he has a certified copy of his birth certificate and you can help hime later come back. He is a citizen born there.
Im sure Ceasar and Ruth will do just fine back in Cuenca.
Thanks for sharing
Illegals - "Get the fuck out!"
Have a nice day.
And I prefer them to you. Statist tool.
Uncontrolled open-borders have done such a wonderful job in bankrupting the West. Go F Y
Open borders, or socialist welfare State, pick one, you CANNOT have both!
you would you knucle dragging anti america pos
The INS is evil, plain and simple.
The INS is a tax funded business that exists and profits from laws that shouldn't exist... little difference from the DEA. Spun from that larger business that hijacked our government.
The INS is a symptom. The disease is that bigger thing you're still trying to get your head around.
Holy F you talk about them like they were squirrels perched by the back door waiting for a handout. When you adopted Caesar and his family (and you effectively did) you assumed a responsibility. It seems you found religion the day you decided to cut Caesar off many years later, sort of like the well meaning lady who always put food out for the squirrels until the first day of winter.
Anyways, thanks for writing this as it is a good lesson on personal responsibility and consequences. It's not clear from the article but it seems the parents did not share with you that they were about to leave, which I find puzzling. Surely they have your contact info so the good news is that even for the poor, technology has enabled easy and cheap communication from the most remote corners of the earth. Hopefully they will be in contact with you.
You have no idea what you are talking about. That would be fine if you didn't make moral pronouncements without foundation.
that's an ironic response
Bruce,
A tough story, beautifully told. Reminds, in case necessary, that humanity is ahead of finance. As a salute to Danny and to your own humanity, strike a blow against "The big con infests America" by showing readers this kept-hidden track record of ours:
"Real Homes, Real Dow" at
http://homepage.mac.com/ttsmyf/RHandRD.html
LOL! ZH is filled with a lot of libs who want to blame anything and everything else but liberalism and open borders. I bet a bunch of these fvxxks vote for the islamists. McCain was the Dem/Soros/Buffett/elites backup plan.
Actually it seems to be filled with jerks if some of the junk votes I see on this thread are any indication.
As long as you keep thinking in terms of liberal/conservative lables and political boxes nothing is going to make any sense to you but rage.
Why should it matter what passport the guy holds, especially if there's been a bureaucratic backlog in dealing with his Green Card application?
If a working guy is skilled, capable, available and honest, he deserves to find as much work as he wants.
Good for Bruce for giving him the hand-up he needed at the start.
Although it is tragic, his situation now is no worse than many other unemployed or under-employed.
Best thing would be for people with money and property to use now as the time to carry out maintenance programs. Current availability of construction workers is good, pricing is keen, and feels good to be giving guys work. It's what I'm doing.