COMMENTS: 54
Jobless in America: Stories from the Frontlines of the Economic Crisis
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On January 27, at the end of a grim week of headlines announcing mass layoffs across the country, Nicholas von Hoffman posted a piece on the Nation website titled "Lost Your Job? Tell Your Story." By turns sad and scathing, frustrated and furious, the testimonials poured in -- what follows is only a sample. Inspired by this approach, AlterNet invites readers to send in their stories of how the recent decline in the economy has affected their lives. Email to: Crisis@alternet.org.
"I had just come back from attending the inauguration in Washington the day before I was told they were letting me go," a salesman named Robert Hinckley writes to The Nation. "My supervisor called me into his office and asked me if I believed in change. Before I could answer, he said he knew I did, since I was a big Obama supporter. Then he told me that the company thought I needed a change, since I didn't seem to be able to 'make my numbers' anymore."
In Maine there are skilled carpenters knocking on doors, asking for any kind of work, shoveling snow or stacking firewood. In Arizona Roger Barthelson, who has a PhD in biochemistry, says, "I am worried about losing my job, which pays about half of what the bottom-level salary is for someone with my experience--if I had a real job. Underemployment is bad enough. Now my little McJob may go away. Maybe I should retrain?"
Add that question to the one e-mailed to The Nation from "Anonymous" in Miami, who cries out, "Where are other people's stories? I have been looking online and, beyond this forum, they are nowhere to be found. Perhaps without an Internet connection, the worst stories will never be heard. Is that the reason for the silence?"
Every business day brings announcements of new layoffs at the big corporations. Layoffs in the small businesses, which comprise hundreds of thousands of jobs, do not get the publicity, but the consequences are the same--panic, worry, want and family disintegration. Animal shelters report that jobless people are bringing in the pets they no longer can afford to keep.
At the current accelerating rate of layoffs, we will be called on to deal with a catastrophe by the end of June. And at this time next year, the nation could be suffering 6, 7, even 8 million more Americans without jobs in a society singularly ill equipped to take on a disaster that many of the people in power thought could never happen.
Past recessions hit blue-collar workers and farmers the hardest and schooled them psychologically, if not financially, in alternating good times and bad. The white-collar wipeout is something new. We have no experience in handling the huge numbers of college-educated, technically trained unemployed.
Not only does unemployment ruin the lives of the people enduring it; it kick-starts home foreclosure rates and stimulates bankruptcies. The people who still have jobs, fearing that they could be next, stop spending money on cars, houses, clothes or anything else.
The past century of depressions, recessions, slumps, panics, dips, slowdowns, busted bubbles and crashes shows that jobs are the last thing to come back, that employment is the slowest to recover. Every job lost postpones the return of prosperity.
This is the moment for a tourniquet on the job hemorrhage. News of the millionaire class using public bailout money for their bonuses and private airplanes has left people feeling stranded and furious. They are demanding that something be done for them.
Washington should get money out to the states so they don't have to cut payrolls. As the bill stands now, it does that in part with education and health, but it ought to go further and make up the billions in deficits that at least forty-six states are looking at and save the thousands of state and local jobs that otherwise will soon be lost. California is already requiring state employees to take two unpaid days a month; before we can turn our attention to job creation, we need to stop the layoffs.
Appropriation of money that cannot be spent immediately should be put off for another day. Transportation money ought to go into running more trains and buses now. Construction on new infrastructure should be postponed, and work crews should be sent out to do repairs now. If a project is ready to start instantly--be it a research proposal, childcare or a theater group--put money into it now.
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Posted by: Animal on Feb 10, 2009 1:57 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Once again, I'd like to give these idiots and sheeple a Big Fat "THANK YOU"!!!! Good job, the neocons/corporatists/globalists/fascists/Dominionists/robber barons couldn't have done it without you. WELL DONE!!
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» RE: We get what we deserve
Posted by: michael1972
» RE: We get what we deserve
Posted by: michael1972
» The "Ron Paul revolution" was humbug on the merits
Posted by: brunowe
» RE: The "Ron Paul revolution" was right
Posted by: michael1972
» The market can't do anything of the kind
Posted by: brunowe
» RE: The "Ron Paul revolution" was right/End the Fed
Posted by: ron heringhauser
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Posted by: georgiaorwell on Feb 10, 2009 1:58 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Our nation has evolved into the most callous, greedy, corporate military-industrial complex on the planet - just what Eisenhauer warned about. Our citizen workers have been outsourced to India and China, etc. When was the last time you talked to a business that the rep didn't have an Indian accent. Thanks, Clinton, for NAFTA - can't wait to see how Hill/Bill as Sec State handles this job - no conflicts of interest there...right?
The only way to get on the right track is to absolutely unify to put into place a new party that is totally progressive and serious about real reforms. The current majority of Congress is paid for by lobbying groups and are never, never going to change.
What are we going to do about this? (at least socialism helps the people - capitalism is ruthless and totally without mercy to the working class). Of course, O'Reilly, Hannity, Limbaugh, Coulter selfish freaks plus the corporate media don't want us to organize for the people's interests.
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» RE: A new party in 2010 - 2012
Posted by: Beck
» RE: A new party in 2010 - 2012
Posted by: CarlaWaters
» There won't be new party in 2010 - 2012
Posted by: Animal
» There has to be a new party in 2010 - 2012
Posted by: georgiaorwell
» By 2012 everything will the stolen
Posted by: billwald
» RE: By 2012 everything will the stolen
Posted by: Animal
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Posted by: outlook on Feb 10, 2009 3:35 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: The West, for the last thirty years, has been plundering the planet and living on an overdraft
Posted by: richholland
» RE: The West, for the last thirty years, has been plundering the planet and living on an overdraft
Posted by: DaBear
» RE: The West, for the last thirty years, has been plundering the planet and living on an overdraft
Posted by: DaBear
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Posted by: Jasonix on Feb 10, 2009 5:03 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
At some point, someone is going to have to say that the system is broken and that we have to start taking direct action to save our own lives. That means growing our own food rather than trusting some big corporation to truck it in from 2,000 miles away. That means cooperating with our neighbors for mutual support and protection. That means starting to build a local economy of barter and trade. Obviously, we're not going to grow enough food in little garden plots on quarter-acre parcels of land, so communities are going to have to cooperate to bring abandoned farmland back to life. The idea that we're all part of some big competitive game where there are winners and losers is going to have to give way to a people working together in a coordinated fashion to just survive.
Good luck with that, America.
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» RE: Grow food and hunker down to outlast functioning government
Posted by: richholland
» 1/4 acre? look at how much THESE folks do with 1/5 acre
Posted by: Smackback
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Posted by: Animal on Feb 10, 2009 5:19 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» RE: Never thought "Mad Max" would become a documentary....
Posted by: madmax427
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Posted by: kick on Feb 10, 2009 5:31 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: symcokid on Feb 10, 2009 9:11 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: MeyravLevine on Feb 10, 2009 5:55 AM
Current rating: 4 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I had to lay-off few people last month. One of the guys (middle-aged man) I fired was almost in tears. His wife is on disability and he has diabetes. He asked me how was he supposed to provide healthcare for his family?
I couldn't say anything. Nobody is safe.
We are so fucked!
I hope Reagan is burning in hell along with the fraud Milton Friedman.
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» RE: Karma at work - we are being punished for imposing war-criminals like Bush
Posted by: CarlaWaters
» RE: I agree
Posted by: MeyravLevine
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Posted by: GuitarBill on Feb 10, 2009 12:02 PM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
If you click on his "Privacy Center" hyperlink, the server the link points to will install a keylogger on your computer, which is used to steal your credit card number, SSN, etc.
Please, report the comment to Alternet's staff.
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Posted by: FoonTheElder on Feb 10, 2009 7:30 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Never trust what your employers tell you.
and
Never trust what your government tells you.
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Posted by: VZEQICVA on Feb 10, 2009 7:33 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: CarlaWaters on Feb 10, 2009 8:11 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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Posted by: penstamen on Feb 10, 2009 9:48 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
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» Yes, author and activist Barbara Ehrenreich has documented that this is a myth.
Posted by: winterinthehinterland
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Posted by: DaBear on Feb 10, 2009 10:04 AM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Now you know what we been feelin' since 1989. Now do you finally believe us?
This entire crisis is a matter of paper and system. Every reasonable person knows the solution to poorly written paper and a dysfunctional system: you burn it and start over.
But for the owning class who insist we all keep the paper and the system-craptasm, we could solve this pretty well.
We need to move beyond "hope" to effect real change, the kind that fixes things rather than allows the country to burn in favor of a few mansions and their occupants.
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» RE: no satisfaction in sayin' it...
Posted by: Jennifer Bedingfield
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Posted by: charles000 on Feb 10, 2009 10:50 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I remember the savings and loan scandal, and later the Enron debacle, which was a tip of an enormous iceberg that is now much more visible.
I don't know to what extreme people can be pushed before they resort to desperate means to stay alive, feed their families . . . but pushed far enough, and people will eventually do what they have to do, no matter how extreme.
I have great respect for President Obama, I have no doubt he is trying to work out the best compromise realistically possible to turn this economy around, but I would suggest that there is a quiet rage brewing out there, which may not remain quiet.
I would offer that people want to see some justice here. Bernie Maddoff is just one of many who should be looking at serious hard time in prison. What I would want to see is some of these so-called financial wizards on Wall Street, under arrest, being led away in hand cuffs, and facing very serious time, if not life sentences in federal prison.
Would this directly change the quality of life for the millions who are now unemployed or about to join their ranks? Directly, no - but it would go a long way toward establishing some form of trust and faith in the system as most once believed such to be.
Right now, I would offer that such trust and faith is at an all time low, and we are going to have to see this restored if there is to be any realistic chance for long term recovery from the disaster we are now in.
Without that trust and faith, all bets are off.
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Posted by: symcokid on Feb 10, 2009 12:03 PM
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Posted by: lsmart on Feb 14, 2009 8:09 PM
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Kick even more people out on the street...yeah, that's brilliant.
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Posted by: cbishopp on Feb 10, 2009 11:20 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Obviously there are some big things happening.
We are tripling our money supply in four months time. Major energy producing resources are controlled by multinationals who relocated their own headquarters OUT of this country, (along with a fleet of manufacturing companies) five years ago. Our natural resources are being mismanaged and our food supplies are not localized and based on the price of OIL.
There is a middleman in every transaction in which you participate.
This is a con, a sting much like war itself where wealth and resources are reallocated and the masses are left to starve.
But the rest of the world has been starving for many years and America was the elite. Remember when just the price of a cup of coffee would feed a starving child in India? How many people even dared to realize that they were part of the same system and that one day they too would fall?
This system, I believe, is physically manifested as the monetary system. It is based on currency but most of it exists as book keeping entries in banks and digits on computer screens completing billions of transactions a second.
Our currency is created by debt. In a speech today Obama, himself, stated that credit is the lifeblood of our economy. Credit is debt, debt to banks and private lenders who control the creation and value of your currency.
Currency created through the faith and credit of the United States where no debt is attached would solve this problem overnight.
Chartered State banks would borrow this money at a low interest rate and fund local projects designed for the communities present, not for the profit of a company located overseas. Education, health care, safe food production, community water and energy programs, equal housing programs, all directed by the community for the community. Interest would be spent back into the community it serves not funneled into private coffers.
This currency would be required to pay all taxes and ALL taxes would funnel back through the government and fund more public projects.
The workforce would be engaged in the services that provide a better living standard for the community as apposed to a consumer based population bent on the quest for goods and services that result in high levels of waste, pollution and the isolation of the individual.
Though highly oversimplified the idea is to remove the middleman from your currency creation. Remove the middleman from the services your community requires to survive and thrive. Remove the hands that profit unnecessarily from your hospitalization and health care.
Globalization is NOT the answer. Global awareness is.
We are watching a dying system push all of it's efforts toward survival and a possible result of this crisis could be the complete breakdown of the dollar and the development of currencies controlled by private continental or hemisphere banks backed by a massive UN Military Complex.
Why does this have to happen?
Kill the debt.
Reinvent your community.
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» RE: "Kill the debt. Reinvent your community" is the perfect pitch to
Posted by: MeyravLevine
» Thank you
Posted by: lsmart
» It Doesn't Have To Happen...
Posted by: jvaljon1
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Posted by: astudent on Feb 10, 2009 11:50 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Fast forward 25 years: I now live in South Bend, Indiana, where I have lived since my parents moved here in the '80's. South Bend is located in St. Joseph county, which shares a border (our east border, their west border) with Elkhart County - the location of the 15.9%/highest unemployment rate in the country.
People cross the county border for purposes of work all the time. Those of us who don't drive don't have that option, but now I have the problem that I am competing with people from Elkhart for jobs here in my own county. I don't grudge those folks jobs; they have families to feed. However, their presence in the job market means that students like me, who need part-time work that is flexible about class schedules, are pretty much out of luck. No employer who actually is hiring (an almost-unheard of phenomenon right now anyway) is going to take a college student who needs schedule accommodations when there are so many workers in need of jobs who will work any hours they have to in order to keep a home and food. Again, I don't grudge those folks any job they can find. I need a job too, but I don't have a family to support, so it's not as critical for me. It sure is frustrating though.
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Posted by: Spiritgirl on Feb 10, 2009 11:54 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Cutting money to the states forces cuts to teachers - affecting class sizes, police - crime anyone? firefighters - don't have a fire, construction - naah we don't need our roads fixed! With jobs - we the people spend more money than the rich and the corporate, but you idiots don't see that! Hey, I've got another idea - let us cut Star Wars from the Defense budget - it hasn't worked anyway, or how about those subsidies to Agri-business, or wait a minute - how about all of those "pork bridge to no-where projects" that all of you have injected into the appropriations budgets over the years!!!!
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» RE: Am I my brothers keeper, yes I am.... eliminate aid to Israel.
Posted by: symcokid
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Posted by: drfun on Feb 10, 2009 11:58 AM
Current rating: 5 [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
How disappointed I was in America not wanting having the forethought to see the Carter Energy Policy would be a wise and secure way for the country's future.
I never went to college, bought a home or vehicle using credit. My upbringing taught me that buying things 2nd hand was a prudent thing to do. Though I was called un-motivated and even lazy while women thought me not-interested in marriage and low paying intermittent jobs being non-stable or reputable in nature.
I didn't fall for the American Dream lifestyle of possess now, pay later, have contributed little $'s into the MIC through taxes and have not been burdened with a woman who expected this or alimony or child support payments from a mistake(s).
I was forced out of the U.S.A. a few years back to find employment in developing country's as an ESL teacher with no regrets with this decision one iota. I've been able to see the world and enjoy other cultures that must live on much less than any westerner could imagine.
I've reduced my annual carbon imprint, while providing my students with a alternative lifestyle choice of living simply so others can simply live mantra. I also want people of the world to see that not all Americans support its wasteful consumption habits or mis-guided foreign policy.
The times that I have been back to see family and friends through the self-appointed Bu$h years years had me looking at a country I don't recognize after 9/11. Those who were duped into the agenda of spending our way out of this mess have accrued a spiraling out-of-control debt that future generations of "Loved Ones" will only be paying a fraction on its interest.
I'm Relieved to know I have no prodigy burdened to bear the stupid clusterfuck that has been created by so called "Financial Wizard's", whose CEO's lost more money last year than during most company's lifetimes and their greed fueled fiascoes were still rewarded.
I witnessed many I know get suckered into the Student Loan - Corporate Ladder - Junk Bond - Dot.Com - Day Trade - Sub Prime - CDO's, and was told I'm missing out on some of the best times in American history. All I could do inside was think how foolish most are being and will regret their past decisions.
I'm the only one I know who hasn't experienced a down-sizing, out-sourcing, off-shoring, foreclosed upon, over-worked, under-paid, un-insured, situation. Who wasn't swindled from with what little I possess and still a few $'s in my pocket left over for a rainy day.
And didn't have to pay out the nose for a piece of paper or dream that in the end has screwed most of the people who were gullible into believing what a "Family Values" wife and political party swapping, senile snitch sap of a man Ronnie really was.
With his "Peace Dividend" turning out to be a "Peace Deficit" that will be looked upon as the starting point of the most immoral and unethical of times in American history.
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» RE: I saw the writing on the wall
Posted by: Lily H.
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Posted by: Lily H. on Feb 10, 2009 7:20 PM
Current rating: Not yet rated [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
her locks) mystery shoppers (a real scam if I've heard
of any), and giving plasma. Wow, that'll keep that roof over your head and that SUV full of gas!!
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Posted by: mamaham03 on Feb 11, 2009 9:41 AM
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» RE: OK, now what
Posted by: AhavahbatSarah
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Posted by: notmom on Feb 12, 2009 5:03 PM
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So don't expect me to have too much sympathy for the newly unemployed. At least they've been working for the last 10 years while I looked for a job.
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Posted by: pacto on Feb 15, 2009 11:21 AM
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