OT: officially lost my job today :(

[plaid_emu]

imagine if your local police force was run by a public company whose main goal was to drive the stock price up, not necessarily to keep people safe.

 

Unfortunately this is the reality. That's why most cities, towns, and villages are "incorporated". But they don't answer to the taxpayers who have the vested interest in the corporation, they only answer to the insiders who really manage the finances. It's very sick. You should check your local auditors office and have a look at the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. In my county they've got millions of dollars in investments yet they're always talking about how they're going over budget and need more tax money.

 

Guess who gets 40% of our little county's revenue.... The sheriff's dept... nearly $15,000,000 Meanwhile our general maintenance funds (i.e. roads/sewage) are stressed and the libraries are having to cut hours. Just so they can drive new sporty customized cruisers and be equipped with fancy ray guns to electrocute us while they're making premium wages.

[Plink Floyd]

The 'insiders' want to keep the sheriff's department happy, in case too many 'villagers' read the Auditor's report and decide to have a 'torch and pitchfork' party.

[EricM]

 

Why should a U.S. citizen, regardless of our status, be denied health care? I personally loved what Alan Grayson said about the right wing's plan for people in need of health care is for them to die. I feel like that really is true. People like Limbaugh have all the money in the world to pay for expensive health care. I don't. Anyway, I'm getting soap boxy, good to know I have some support here.

 

 

I'll tell you why we get screwed? It's because Progressives and Liberals spend too much time bitching online than going out to do something about it. FYI I am not singling out anyone here, just generalizing.

If we can learn one thing from the Right Wing fanatics is that kicking and screaming gets you what you want. We need to bring out the fire and pitchforks figuratively. If that clown Louis Farrakhan can get a couple hundred thousand people on the National Mall there is no reason we can't. If you had thousands of people outside the US Capitol screaming for Single Payer, and refusing to leave until they get it then we will get it.

There is a Corporate Crypto-Fascist agenda going on and the only way to cut through the media bias and the DC blinders is to take the fight to them.

[Plink Floyd]

"Brain the size of a planet"! Just see what they want to drink...

[shambler]

 

Being Arab doesn't help these days, either. Not only did my life nearly turned upside down after 9/11, but some shmuck, again, tries to blow up a plane nearly a decade later and make things worse...again, and my entire country [among many others], halfway around the world from the US, ends up on an "Alert List" in an instant. It really hurts to be stereotyped this way. I am an individual, not a group of individuals. But this is a different story..

 

 

A lesson for us all here, how would YOU feel if a bunch of fanatics from YOUR country started blowing up innocent people?

 

I wish you the best Med, from my experience there is always something else around the corner.

 

Now you are out of work think about what job would really suit you on an emotional level.

 

I am an electrical engineer but when I found myself out of work I thought about what I needed from a 'job' and applied for work in social care.

 

Although I ended up in an engineering post again, who knows where the telephone call offering me an interview for social care would have lead? Having found another job in engineering I turned the interview down but I just don't know the other path my life could have taken.

 

Your post reminds me of something I always try to remember.

 

No group/race/sect of people are inherently good or bad, essentially everyone on earth is the same no matter where you come from and the sooner we realise and VALUE PEOPLE over everything else the sooner we will achieve some sort of heaven on earth.

 

Respect and Peace, Benyoucef.

[realtrance]

Benyoucef,

 

Don't let any idiots ever fool you; your education is the most valuable thing you've ever done. Illiteracy and ignorance breed narrow-mindedness, incompetence and a guarantee that you'll have at best only specialized success at something that when -- not if, when -- it's outmoded will completely outmode you.

 

Unfortunately in the US we've increasingly confused simple job training with education.

 

Job training gets you a job; a true education opens the path to multiple careers, and the flexibility to live beyond the existence that being a pure wage-slave to some corporation represents.

 

I wouldn't trade my purely liberal arts degree and background for any kind of specialized training; I know many, many people who've even engaged in higher education in a specialized field -- engineering, biochemistry, physics, even many of the seemingly more corporate-focused degree fields, like law and business -- and spent most of the rest of their lives regretting it, as the specialty they've trained in has been thrown away and they've ended up with no alternatives to fall back upon.

 

The army of unemployed software developers in this country, for example, is immense, and grows greater by the day; they're dispensed with by the gross, and have to sit sometimes for years hoping some corporation, or the government, will grow a need for them again.

 

Use your education and your imagination to create the career and, more importantly, the life that matters to you. It doesn't have to involve a lot of money. Find a way to share who you are, not just what you know, with the people around you who will care about and relish that.

 

Don't waste your precious life grinding away in some specialized field making money for someone else, only to be thrown away as an outmoded tool, with nothing at the end of it, to show for it, the way most are in this country.

[nice keetee]

 

Benyoucef, Don't let any idiots ever fool you; your education is the most valuable thing you've ever done. Illiteracy and ignorance breed narrow-mindedness, incompetence and a guarantee that you'll have at best only specialized success at something that when -- not if, when -- it's outmoded will completely outmode you. Unfortunately in the US we've increasingly confused simple job training with education. Job training gets you a job; a true education opens the path to multiple careers, and the flexibility to live beyond the existence that being a pure wage-slave to some corporation represents. I wouldn't trade my purely liberal arts degree and background for any kind of specialized training; I know many, many people who've even engaged in higher education in a specialized field -- engineering, biochemistry, physics, even many of the seemingly more corporate-focused degree fields, like law and business -- and spent most of the rest of their lives regretting it, as the specialty they've trained in has been thrown away and they've ended up with no alternatives to fall back upon. The army of unemployed software developers in this country, for example, is immense, and grows greater by the day; they're dispensed with by the gross, and have to sit sometimes for years hoping some corporation, or the government, will grow a need for them again. Use your education and your imagination to create the career and, more importantly, the life that matters to you. It doesn't have to involve a lot of money. Find a way to share who you are, not just what you know, with the people around you who will care about and relish that. Don't waste your precious life grinding away in some specialized field making money for someone else, only to be thrown away as an outmoded tool, with nothing at the end of it, to show for it, the way most are in this country.

 

 

Idealistic. I wish it was so.

[Palaver]

I haven't read this thread because I don't understand the sympathy. That might sound kind of mean, but hear me out.., I got canned too because of all this recession {censored}. I got let go from a high profile job.

 

It's life. It broke my heart at first, but the one thing thing that offends me is hearing "I'm so sorry for your loss." It's not a loss. It's a disconnection from a dependancy that you create. Being let go from a job becomes meaningful for one reason; payments. At some point in time, it will all become laughable.

 

Why are people sorry for a loss such as a job? I have my life. Things haven't ended. I didn't forget how to play piano because I lost my job. Infact, it's a great motivator to move on. It makes you stronger and teaches you something wonderful; your true friends and your real business network. It also teaches you how to apply for a job.

 

We will be working for the rest of our lives (until retirement:)), enjoy the severance and time off while it lasts. Stuff is coined 'the great depression/recession' because it's a memorable and rare event. It's not a usual thing. Soon enough, things will be back to normal and Korg and Roland will be releasing new ROMPLERs every year. We will be able to afford them because we'll have money to burn!

 

Write. Write. And write more. Get inspired. Get stronger, and have fun. The things that define us tend to be the qualities we exhibit when we walk along the scary, unsteady and unsure edge. It's only as dangerous as you make it.

 

Don't let guitarists hog all the glory. We can solo, too.

 

Cheers,

Phil B.

[Purity_Control]

It will be laughable soon one hopes, but it's not laughable when it happens and when you're wondering what you'll get next or if you'll get anything next, and having no money for a few months if you end up cooling your heels isn't particularly funny either.

 

Maybe this time next year we'll all be laughing, but let people get over the OMFG stage first.

[midi]

I hate to tell you this - but 90% of the jobs in the USA do NOT require a college degree - just ask Biill Gates

[keybdwizrd]

 

It makes you stronger and teaches you something wonderful; your true friends and your real business network. It also teaches you how to apply for a job.

 

 

Yeah.

 

And for many it has taught them how to declare bankruptcy and lose their homes. It's taught people how to tell their kids that college is no longer an option. It's taught people how to beg from family members so that they can pay medical bills for themselves and their children.

 

You may have been able to lose your job without apparently suffering any tremendous hardships. I was fortunate enough to be in a similar situation. But not for one second do I have anything but serious sympathy and compassion for the millions of people who have not been so fortunate.

 

Your attitude is callous. It shows tremendous ignorance.

[keybdwizrd]

I hate to tell you this - but 90% of the jobs in the USA do NOT require a college degree - just ask Biill Gates

 

Bill Gates was successful in spite of not having a degree, not because he didn't have one.

 

A college degree opens doors and creates opportunities that might otherwise not exist. But it guarantees nothing beyond that.

 

Lastly, the majority of higher-paying jobs do require a degree, or the knowledge associated with getting one. Spend some time on monster.com or any of the job sites and I'm quite certain you'll agree.

[grace_slick]

Today we got an email at my office saying because of our recent merger with another company and the slow flow of work lately, there will be some re-structuring, which will include a reduction in hours, a change of roles, and some redundancies...*sigh* Now I'm a bit scared. I thought I'd escaped the crisis! *fingers crossed* I feel for everyone who's lost their jobs.