Tell Me Something, She Said: How you can lose it all in America.

So, this is a true story: A young guy spends his nights with a buddy at comedy clubs doing stand-up, somewhere in Midwest. The guy gets married, gets a job at a newspaper, has kids. One day he is at the checkout counter in the supermarket and sees his comedy club buddy on the cover of People. He's there because he married Roseanne. He calls to congratulate, his buddy asks him to come over to Hollywood, hooks him up with a writer job on Roseanne. Twelve years go by, the guy is flying high. Now he has 8 kids, a mansion in San Marino, multiple luxury cars, as one would when one is working in Hollywood and making 700k a year. The life is great. The work is hard, but he loves it. And then, his wife (who doesn't work) is fed up with his hours, asks him to quit and spend time with the family. He does that. Two years later it's time to get back to work, since, in the family of 10, no one is making money. But, things have changed. This is 2004. Instead of sitcoms, reality shows now rule the tv. He tries to get a job for years, nothing happens. All the meanwhile, he is taking home equity loans on the San Marino mansion. Surely, now you see where this is going. In 2007, the housing market explodes and takes down the economy. They are under, and they lose the house. His wife leaves him, and goes back to Germany, because she can live off wealthfare there, and takes younger children with her. Other children are grown and have left, the guy becomes literally homeless. He is homeless for years, picking up occasional work stacking shelves, but eventually finds his way to Berkeley, and is now eking out a living writing blogs for tech companies. Good thing for him is that while working in television, he was unionized, so he'll have a nice pension and won't die destitute. The most amazing thing for me about this story is that all the connections with the rich and the powerful, and all the social capital he had built over years meant exactly diddly squat, once he was down. Fucking Hollywood, man.