The failure of the financial system that was caused by the 2007-2009 financial crises affected our family directly. This is because my father used to work in one of the bank that was hit by the 2007-2009 financial crises. Many of the bank customers could not service their loans and the profit of the bank fell drastically. It was quite unfortunate that the bank decided to retrench some of the employees including my father to reduce the overall cost of labor. The loss of his job increased financial stress in our family because I was in school, and my mother was not working because she had also lost her job in the manufacturing sector. To respond to the declined income, we had to move to a low-cost house that lacked many amenities. Moreover, we were forced to opt for public transport because my parents could not afford to fuel family cars (Mathiason, 1).
My father used to work in Japan. He was highly paid, and he had proposed that we should arrange to move and live with him abroad, but all of sudden the financial crisis of 2007-2009 hit. The company he was working in started experiencing decreased demand for its products across Europe (Havemann, 1). The decreased demand made the company management to force workers to make a tough decision of either laying off workers or giving them an option to take a pay cut. The management easily got away with the decision because the workers were not under any union. My father decided to take a pay cut because it was not easy to resign given that jobs were rarely at home. In light of his fallen income, my mother decided to take part time job to meet family needs. Moreover, I had to drop the Japanese classes that I was taking in anticipation of moving abroad.
References
Mathiason, Nick. "Three Weeks That Changed the World." The
Guardian. 28 Dec. 2008. Web. 15 Jan. 2016. <http://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/dec/28/markets-credit-crunch-banking-2008>.
Havemann, Joel. "The Financial Crisis of 2008: Year In Review 2008 | Global Financial Crisis." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 01 Dec. 2008. Web. 16 Jan. 2016. <http://www.britannica.com/topic/Financial-Crisis-of-2008-The-1484264>.
