quote:Originally posted by scholarette: So, anyone else here start crying whenever they watch the news?
Start? It seems to follow from this that natural disasters in Asia and war in the Middle East doesn't make you cry, but a bunch of wealthy Americans losing their jobs and having to go on welfare fo some months does. Are you sure you've got your priorities straight?
1.) It only follows if you infer things not said.
2.) Don't be a jerk. Everyone has selective empathy.
Edit: not that selective empathy is necessarily involved, but it seemed to be what you were criticizing.
Posts: 4287 | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by scholarette: So, anyone else here start crying whenever they watch the news?
Start? It seems to follow from this that natural disasters in Asia and war in the Middle East doesn't make you cry, but a bunch of wealthy Americans losing their jobs and having to go on welfare fo some months does. Are you sure you've got your priorities straight?
I haven't been crying over anything (yet), but I think there is some distinction to be made between natural disasters and the current economic crisis in that the natural disasters are not man-made. Seeing the damage in lives and property from a tsunami is certainly heart-wrenching, but it's depressing and aggravating on a different level when you look at job loss spiraling from the reckless decisions made by business executives who make hundreds of thousands or millions a year and have had some of the best education money can buy. Shouldn't they have been more responsible? Shouldn't they have known better?
As for war in the middle east... Well, as tragic as it is, it seems to me to be somewhat a given. I'm not unsympathetic to the lives it effects, but honestly, most of the time it feels like waking up to a rainy day (they're unpleasant to be out in, but they just happen once in awhile). In another way, it is more similar in that it's a man made mess, but since I don't have any direct contact with it, and I do with the American economy, I'm more inclined to spend my time contemplating our financial state than I am conflicts across the globe.
Posts: 382 | Registered: Jan 2008
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Sorry, I do get more upset over the grim financial outlook for my family then I do for just about anything else. My husband is unemployed, so reading about how no one is hiring and not to expect things to change for 6 months to a year is scary and upsetting. So, it isn't that some unknown American lost his job and is on welfare, it is how am I personally going to survive this.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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quote:Originally posted by scholarette: Sorry, I do get more upset over the grim financial outlook for my family then I do for just about anything else. My husband is unemployed, so reading about how no one is hiring and not to expect things to change for 6 months to a year is scary and upsetting. So, it isn't that some unknown American lost his job and is on welfare, it is how am I personally going to survive this.
Best of fortunes to your husband scholarette. Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Yikes! I'm sorry you're having such a rough time. Have you guys considered moving? There are some states doing better than others.
Posts: 1321 | Registered: Jun 2006
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We are stuck here until I finish school (either this winter or spring 2010). So, that limits our ability to move and potential jobs. On the plus side, at least as a student, I can get cheap student loans.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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I see hiring opportunities all over the place. Granted most are in grocery stores or fast food, but I would think any job is better than none...
Posts: 571 | Registered: Mar 2001
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quote:all this extra time has compelled me to get my butt back in the gym.
You also seem to be playing the Xbox a bit more.
Nah, that's just me running Netflix while I browse the internet for jobs. BTW how would YOU know unless you were on Xbox yourself!?
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In other news I start training for my new job as a Neurofeedback Therapy Technician tomorrow! I sure hope this doctor has the patient base to provide me with at least 20-25 hours of work a week. To new jobs in careers heretofore unknown!
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Well....turns out today was actually a third interview to see if I could handle the work involved and if I could relate well to the patients. Needless to say I was terrified and yet I managed to stay cool and collected the whole time. I found the patients to be wonderful people, and I think I made a good impression demonstrating technical skill, befriending the patients, and getting along with the staff. It turns out that out of upwards of thirty applicants they narrowed it down to me and one other person. The guy interviewing me could not say if I had the job or not but he said he felt like I did a very good job. I hope he wasn't trying to put me down gently but they are supposed to call me in the next few days either way.
I'll just have to keep looking for other jobs so I don't stress out in the meantime. Here's hoping they call back with good news. Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I know this thread has felt a little too saturated with my posts, something I hope won't always be the case, but I just received word that I beat out the other candidate and am now employed!
I'm so glad everything worked out, I hope I can figure out the nuances of this position as fast as possible so that I can start supporting my sorry butt again.
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Since this thread is back up, does anyone know when we're supposed to get to the bottom of the drop in the stock market? Is it going to take the 18 to 24 months the rest of the economy is supposed to take?
Posts: 2283 | Registered: Dec 2003
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No, it should begin rising before then. Many parts of the economy (jobs, et cetera) lag the stock market and the return to growth in GDP.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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New plan to buy up troubled assets and to package them together hopefully creating a market for them. Not sure how I feel about this, I need to talk to some people first.
But now, off to work, I'm glad to be a cog in the machine of capitalism again.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I attend another job fair on Friday. Just the typical round of spring education job fairs...no one is really posting openings for next year yet. March is a bit early for that yet. But, should see action picking up a bit in April, with the real hiring push coming in May, June and July.
Being patient is hard! I want someone to hire me RIGHT NOW and tell me that I'll have a classroom next fall. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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I've been working in a coffee shop for about two years now. Six months ago, I was promoted to store manager. After a 90 day probation period, I applied for the health care package that all the store managers get. It went into effect February.
Last week, I was told all that the company could no longer afford the coverage, and that they were dropping the whole thing. The upside is that I'm young and healthy and except for my vision, I can pretty much get by without regular check-ups.
Time to go shopping for a good catastrophic plan.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Juxtapose: I've been working in a coffee shop for about two years now. Six months ago, I was promoted to store manager. After a 90 day probation period, I applied for the health care package that all the store managers get. It went into effect February.
Last week, I was told all that the company could no longer afford the coverage, and that they were dropping the whole thing. The upside is that I'm young and healthy and except for my vision, I can pretty much get by without regular check-ups.
Time to go shopping for a good catastrophic plan.
Since the insurance my wife can get through her company really sucks, and I am currently a private contractor, I basically pray that nothing serious happens to either of us until I can finally get this State Department gig off the runway.
My grandfather is an insurance broker and according to him he does not even try to seek new customers, but instead spends all his time trying to retain his current base as everyone is either downgrading or suspending service.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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I don't know what the insurance situation is like in Utah, BB, but there are decent catastrophic plans I've been looking at here in WA state that run from fifty to eighty bucks a month. I'm not certain about your situation, but that isn't budget breaking for me. If something awful were to happen to me, having one of those plans could be the difference between paying a few thousand dollars and paying a few dozen thousand dollars. It might be worth looking into, if you haven't already.
Posts: 2907 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Well I spoke with my boss today and apparently there aren't enough new clients coming in that they can afford to keep me. I can work for two more weeks, while I look for another job, and then buh-bye. So it's back to the unemployment line, flooding the country with my resume, badgering contacts for leads, and thinking about everything in terms of dollar amounts.
I'm so sick of doing this, I just want to have a job that I keep for at least five years. I'm confident I'll find something better, I always am, but I'd also rather not do this song and dance again. Of course I signed a 12 month contract a month ago with my apartment complex, so I might have to try to sell my contract if I don't find a new job right away.
I don't want to say I'm too good to work fast food or as a janitor, but in a sense, I just can't work those sorts of jobs anymore and pay all the bills that need to be paid.
Maybe I'll go back to school and take out a bunch of student loans and ride out the recession. I've got some ideas for where to start looking for jobs, but ideally I was going to work as a neurofeedback/QEEG technician until I figured something else out. Now I'll likely figure something else out until I can figure out what I was supposed to figure out in the first place.
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I am so sorry BB. I hope something great works out for you soon. I keep thinking, this recession can't last forever.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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That sucks, I hope it works out for you. I did the college thing and I graduate as an LPN in 4 weeks, but now I am trying to decide if I can afford to go for my RN right away. I don't think I can, as I have prerequisites to do first, and because I am not in a degree program while doing them I don't qualify for loans.
I'll be looking for LPN jobs soon, I suspect. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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Of course the Dept of Workforce Services increased it's staff by 150% last year. Plenty of government employees there to help you find private sector jobs who pay taxes for the government workers. The government is hiring like gangbusters as part of the stimulus plan. Problem is none of those govt employees stimulate anything, their pay comes from taxing the private sector. Go to USAJOBS.COM...that's the future of the US economy. The foundation is getting thin.
Has anyone ever stopped and considered the fact that limiting executive compensation reduced the balance of the treasury? It makes good political sense to severely restrict the salaries of executives from companies that received bailout money but fiscally it is the opposite. The bailout money has already been spent. Reducing executive compensation returns none of that money. In fact, returns even less....slash their pay by 90% and get 90% less back in taxes. Makes as much sense as paying income tax on unemployment and social security benefits. Anyone like to wager which party started taxing social security and unemployment payments?
For most, perception is reality. If you really cared about the defecit, you would have been opposed to executive pay cuts for bailout recipients. They pay the bulk of the taxes in this country. 50 cents of every dollar the executives got would go directly back to the treasury and the company would still owe the entire principle balance. Instead, they get tax deferred stock that is a bargain. When the market rebounds and the stocks quadruple in value, the tax payers get the short end of the stick. Rock bottom tax deferred stock is more valuable than a high salary that is going to be taxed at near 50%.
I don't think you can fairly extrapolate from your own experience to the rest of the population, mal.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Black Blade, what do you do? You're in Salt Lake, right?
If you are willing to work with your hands and mostly use your brain to make sure your hands are doing the right things, Pilkington Metal Finishing is hiring. The wages are standard laborer wages, but they are hiring and they have great benefits and really good health insurance of which the company pays 80% of the premium, much higher than standard. (This explains at least in part why the wages aren't higher.)
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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katharina: I live in Provo, but I'm not opposed to working in Salt Lake. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a look see.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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So I'm applying for work as a substitute teacher and a teacher's assistant for now. Hopefully I can do that until I find something more substantial or until I go to grad school.
Working part time and going back to school suddenly seems so appealing.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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