When my fiancée and I bought a house in St Petersburg, Florida, in 2003, my business was strong. We had sales of between $4m and $6m, and we employed 22 people. We could easily afford our three-bedroom home. But in 2007, my business took a downturn. My company specialises in bio-hazardous waste removal: when a house is infested with nuisance wildlife – such as raccoons, possums or bats – a trapping company gets rid of the pests and we clean up the disease they leave behind. It can be anything from tuberculosis to anthrax. We relied on wildlife trappers to recommend us, but during the downturn people chose to save money and just live with raccoons in the attic.
2003年，我和未婚妻在佛羅里達州的圣彼得堡買了一套房子。當時我的生意很興隆。我們雇了22個人，年銷售額在400萬到600萬美元之間。我們很輕松就能供得起這套三居室的房子。但在2007年，我的業務開始滑坡。我的公司專事消除動物帶來的病害：當有人家里有討厭的野生動物——比如浣熊、負鼠或蝙蝠——出沒時，在負責捕捉的公司除掉它們后，我們負責清除它們帶來的結核、炭疽等疾病。我們依賴于野生動物捕捉公司的推薦。但在經濟衰退時期，人們為了省錢，寧可和閣樓上的浣熊們和平共處。