This post about the toxicity of long-term underemployment and unemployment among those of us who have excellent credentials, great work histories and are old enough to have clear memories of "The Six Million Dollar Man" yielded a lot of comments and emails.
Here is one late arrival from "GB in FL" that I thought I would share:
I rarely leave comments or offer advise, but something made me go back to this page and share some thoughts.
After working for the same employer for 28 years, they finally gave me the pink slip. Now I'm 57, unemployed, divorced, and living off my dwindling savings. So I can relate to some of the posting I've read here. But, here's some information or knowledge I've recently come across.
1. We are not our jobs, careers, education levels, assets, etc. We are sovereign beings with a right to exist. There are a hundreds of conspiracy theories blame our social problems on alien agendas, the Illuminati, the 1%. They say we are being programmed to depression, despair, and hopelessness. You must realize that you are not your 'net value.' You have a soul, spirit, and physical body and you can make a difference in this world.
2. Be flexible and adapt. The United States was the top dog after WWII, but now it's an empire in decline. Don't worry about it, this is the natural order of civilization. Empires come and go, who needs them?
3. Become as self reliant as possible. I'm learning hydroponics, off grid living techniques, and will eventually have a mortgage free property. We can't expect the government assistance to last forever. The system is bankrupt and the generosity of our fellow man is waning.
4. Take a look at some of the new and exciting ideas being presented. People are putting together moneyless communities. Time banks offer work exchange opportunities. You can build a tiny home or live for free in a household that needs a care sitter.
Life is attitude. I admit my attitude has been gloomy lately, but I'm starting to make a shift.
Much love to you.
GB in FL.
Happy early Thanksgiving, kids.
Take care of each other.
6 comments:
Be excellent to each other.
So we should all turn in our saddles and start hoeing spuds.
I started out with a rant about Empire, education, and expatriation (among other things, but alteration is fun). Instead I'll offer some advice that will likely go unread, but at least I'm trying.
I'm a young-ish almost-professional. BA, JD, law license, etc. I'm also, by most measures, smack inbetween Gen-X and Gen-Y/millenials, so I was grew up and was conscious in the early 1980s, and have witnessed the stuff that Gen-X saw on their periphery (until the 2000s and Bush where they now LIVE it with me) and the Gen-Y/Millennial, who know, subconsciously, that everything is stacked against them.
1. College is only for:
a. Independently wealthy people (parents or a trust fund kid who don't need loans)
b. People who need a degree for their expected career, i.e. doctor, nurse, engineer...
c. If not (a) or (b) above, people who don't mind acquiring tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars of non-discharageable debt for an education that will likely not provide a secure, well-paid career. In fact, your degree(s) may not even help in finding a low-level job in the field you studied in. Welcome to America!
2. Encourage your kids, friends, friends' kids, family members, etc, to get into the medical field, and in particular professions like doctors, nurses, etc, since this will be one of the last parts of the economy that the oligarchs will be able to outsource or in-source without too much trouble coming from the rabble and plebs. Anymore, a white-collar job is the least-secure job you can get, because there are millions of Indians and Chinese champing at the bit to get that job, and will take 1/4 of your pay and smile.
3. Limit the amount of debt you hold, since this is the easiest way for the oligarchs who own and operate this country to take everything from you legally.
Sure, you can learn how to grow food, join a co-op, live off-the-grid, and hope for the best. But this country is a lot more complex than simply growing crops on a 1/4 acre of foreclosed-upon property.
Don't just be passive. Have plans. While I'm not going to scream that the country is going to collapse even in my lifetime, I can see how things can get immeasurably worse before they get better. Especially since the people who want things to get worse have a lock on the media and the government.
2014 and 2016 will be good measures of which way things are going to go. Maybe we'll luck out and we can start turning things around. 35+ years of Garbage In is still producing many metric asstons of Garbage Out, but maybe we can just incinerate the rest of the garbage and start inputting infrastructure improvements and socialistic (!!!) policy into the system.
Or we won't, and we'll continue on the wrong path.
Bernie Sanders 2016!
@n1ck: My money is still on the "won't" option. The only reason I bother to vote for Democrats anymore is because I feel like we are in 1985's Day Of The Dead, and the Republicans are increasingly reminding me of Captain Rhodes.
Mister Roboto:
I'm at 50-50 either way.
If Americans actually paid attention to, uh, anything, we might be able to turn things around.
Unfortunately, it seems that everyone my age or younger pretty much assumes this country doesn't care about them, and they then only care about themselves. Which is one of the ways the Republicans, their fascist enablers, and their oligarch masters win.
A passport costs about $150, lasts 10 years, and only takes about a month to get.
Shit doesn't always go bad over the course of a decade or more. Sometimes shit breaks down overnight.
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