A family banks on its human capital

A political awakening
Meanwhile, he says, the rich and powerful benefit from tax cuts for top wage earners, obscene corporate profits and executive salaries, lax immigration policies that benefit big business, campaign contributions that are really political payoffs and weak regulations for big oil, pharmaceutical companies, defense contractors and the insurance industry. The result, he believes, is an ever-declining quality of life for the middle class.

Hamaker is currently the sole wage-earner for a family that includes his new wife, Inna, 34, and stepdaughter, Svetlana, 16, recent immigrants from the Ukraine. Hamaker’s son from a previous marriage, Chase, 8, spends weekends and other days with the family; Hamaker pays $450 a month in child support to the boy’s mother.

He describes his politics as middle of the road and straddles a statistical median as well. The family’s annual income of $54,300 falls between the median figures of about $50,000 for Alabama and $59,000 for the nation as a whole.

Until a few years ago, Hamaker says he had no complaints about money and paid scant attention to politics. He had recovered financially from his divorce and was looking forward. He had a small mortgage and student loan and very little other debt. Then, with the cost of living creeping upward, he met Inna on the Internet. They fell in love and were married last year.

Elissa Eubanks for msnbc.com Hamaker's financial straits have fired an interest in politics, which he pursues in part in online forums.

The cost of moving Inna and Svetlana to the United States and dealing with their immigration issues was considerable. Now, Inna, who has a master’s degree in accounting and wants to get a second advanced degree in health-care management, is taking English classes, another major expense.

Given their rural household, it makes financial sense for Inna to stay on campus in Gadsden, Ala., about 50 miles away, during her school week. The family has just one car; buying another, and paying for insurance and gas for a daily round trip, would cost too much. As it is, Ken commutes 90 miles a day from Hayden, not much more than a wide spot in the road with a Piggly Wiggly and a Family Dollar, to and from his job.

“When I moved out here (nine years ago), gas prices were 82 cents a gallon,” Hamaker says.  “When George Bush took office, I believe it was still $1.29 a gallon. Of course, we all know where we’re at now.”

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