Jobless in America: Stories from the Frontlines of the Economic Crisis

By Nicholas von Hoffman, The Nation. Posted February 10, 2009.

Arizona is already number forty-nine in the fifty states for money spent on education. We're going for fifty. The idea of killing government and cutting taxes is still big in this largely Republican state, and Janet Napolitano, the one adult in state government to provide some moderate supervision, is gone. We're now stuck with an almost all-Republican government. As education funding gets cut, my co-workers and I get more and more nervous about losing our jobs. So, even though I'm 54, have a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Pennsylvania and twenty-five years of productive research and teaching experience in cell biology (including drug development), 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?

Roger Barthelson
Tucson

'I received no severance, no unemployment'

For more than fifteen years I worked as a proofreader of textbooks, from college chemistry on down. The company was at first family-owned, then it was bought by a national firm, and then that was bought by an international corporation based in New Delhi. Can you guess where this is going? The Los Angeles office was closed in December.

Because I was an independent contractor, I received no severance, will get no unemployment compensation and forget about COBRA health insurance, which is not affordable anyway to the unemployed. I have little hope of finding such specialized work at all, much less at the hourly rate I was paid. Here in California, the official unemployment rate is now 9.3 percent, but that doesn't include people like me, and there are a lot of us.

W.K. Grady
Los Angeles

'There will be a revolution'

I was a successful senior writer/instructional designer with more than twenty years of hard-earned experience, and I lost my job on November 19. I worked for BBDO, an advertising agency whose primary customer in the Detroit area is Chrysler. I had a good salary, good healthcare for my family, benefits like a 401(k) and paid time off. That's all gone now, and my family and I are struggling with the realities of this new situation we find ourselves in.

The managers and politicians are only focused on their next quarterly earnings or their next re-election bid and don't seem to understand that the loss of my job doesn't only affect me and the ones I love--it affects every business my family and I come into contact with. How and where will I and millions of others find jobs like the ones that have been lost? With no job, how can I afford to buy a new American vehicle or TV or shoes for my son or food for our next meal?

The people that we've elected, and those entrusted with this nation's corporate and financial assets, better get it together fast because soon those questions will be resonating a million times over, and the noise from the masses may well topple the walls surrounding their gated communities and country clubs and rattle their gilded cages. We were told, Work hard, play by the rules, and pay your taxes and you will get ahead--you will have the so-called American Dream. That's a damn lie, and I for one am mad as hell about it. God help those in charge should I and the millions of other people like me (our numbers seem to be growing exponentially by the day) reach a point of desperation and no return. There will be a revolution and no redemption for the people who caused this mess.

Joris B. Rapelje
Clinton Township, Mich.

'I save seeds'

Because of a couple of chronic illnesses, I've ended up cleaning houses to get by. As my customers lose their jobs or have salaries slashed, my income is also being whittled away. Because my husband has a job that still has health insurance, I am not a good candidate for disability. Because my husband is a well-skilled carpenter, his employer is able to get him jobs a couple of days a week if we're lucky. This week, there is no work.

Because my husband has work at all, he can't qualify for unemployment. The unemployment office doesn't even take calls every day. The answering machine at the local office said to call back in a few days just to get information. So we both look for work, hoping to find something that will get us over the next hump, something that will enable us to pay our household expenses.

See more stories tagged with: economic crisis, unemployment, joblessness

Nicholas Von Hoffman is a columnist for the New York Observer and is the author, most recently, of "Hoax" (Nation Books, 2004).

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