If you can still put a roof over your head and food on the table for your family, you should consider yourself to be very fortunate. There are millions of Americans out there right now that are really, really suffering. The cold, hard reality of it is that there aren't even close to enough jobs out there for everyone right now. It is almost as if we are all caught in a really bizarre game of musical chairs where the losers get stripped of their tickets to the middle class. What this horrible economy is doing to the dignity of millions of middle class Americans is incredibly saddening. There are a lot of very highly educated and very hard working Americans who cannot seem to get jobs no matter what they do and now find themselves doing whatever they can just to survive. It can be really hard to keep your dignity when you played by all the rules and you worked as hard as you could all your life and now you find yourself a half step away from being homeless. Those of us who are still doing okay should never look down on those who are struggling in this economy, because the truth is that any of us could be next.
If you really want to read some horror stories about what long-term unemployment is doing to some people in America, you should go spend an hour or two over at Unemployed-Friends some time. It is a great forum with a lot of great resources for the unemployed, but it also contains dozens and dozens and dozens of heartbreaking stories from middle class Americans who have had their lives shattered by this economic downturn.
The following is a typical story on Unemployed-Friends. It is from a 48 year old Air Force veteran who has lost everything and is now sleeping in his vehicle. It turns out that Scott48's job was shipped off to India and now he has been out of work for over two years....
"I am a 48 year old USAF Vet. I got my house in 1996 with the help of the VA. In 2009 the company I worked for went out of buisness(gone to India) I then became a 99er. I notified Wells Fargo that I lost my job and they said they would work with me, the next mortgage statement I got they conveniently increased my mortgage! With what I got from UE was enough for the house but I had to cut out the luxury of food, gas, utillities, insurance, entertainment and alcohol. That was it for me, so the forecloser ball was in motion. I had to give my dog to my cousin so he would get fed, I took everything I owened to the auction( execpt tools, clothes, pictures, tech manuals and my Saxophone) and sold it. I went to a half-way house the VA recomended for a week and it was joke, so my cousin said I could stay with her. After 4 months she diecided that I wasnt looking hard enough and kicked me out, and Ive applied for everything except selling myself. This summer I was staying in an abandoned house due to forecloser and the real estate company has now put it on the market, and I am now on the street sleeping in my vehicle or a friend here and there. Keeping clean is going to be a challenge cuz the Flying J truck stops charge $10 for a shower, rip-off. What a country!"
The truth is that this economy is driving many Americans to the brink of desperation. Even recent college graduates are becoming desperate enough to actually consider suicide. The following story is from an Unemployed-Friends user known as 08pacollegegrad....
"I could just take any job like working at fast food places, but I hear people who try can't even get hired there. I went to Wendy's for lunch the other day and I thought of picking up an application...but the slot where they keep the applications was completely empty. That should say it all. Plus, I feel like if I take just any job...I will be set back further and never be able to gain experience in my chosen fields.
I follow up on job applications, but employers ignore me for the most part when I try to contact them. I sent five follow up e-mails last week and got no responses. I contacted an employer expressing my interest in working for them, but all they gave me is the link to their online application system that I have never gotten a job from.
I am thinking of applying for more internships (I have already done two), but I don't want employers to think why I am applying for an internship when I should have had a full fledged job by now.
I have almost killed myself over my situaion and am taking anti-depressants right now. I see a psychiatrist every 4-6 weeks, but I still have days where I feel so empty. I am sick of sitting at home searching for jobs and praying for a response that never comes."
Many Americans spend day after day after day looking for a job that never comes. The sense of hopelessness that can build after doing this for a few years is almost indescribable. The following is another incredibly sad story from an Unemployed-Friends user known as feuxdejoie....
"I lost my job in June 2008, my husband was working but sentenced to prison for 4 years, for DUI, no accidents or injuries. I had been using my unemployment to pay bills but my last check came June 12, 2010. I'm alone and scared. The city that I live in has the highest unemployment in the State, Illinois. Our children are grown and I sit alone all day searching for jobs. My husband can only call once a month because of the outrageous rates for telephone calls. I'm at the end of my rope and don't know where to turn if they don't pass a tier V for unemployment or open up some jobs.
I turned 50 in April and had worked all of my life, starting at age 14 with a work permit! My employer stated to me that they needed someone bilingual and terminated me even after I told them that I would take classes to learn. I signed up for college and began classes in January then unemployment told me that I wasn't elgible for unemployment while attending school."
There are millions of Americans who believe that their lives are over because they can't get decent jobs. When you lose your job, your home, your car, your health insurance and then finally your unemployment insurance runs out, it is easy to lose all hope as an Unemployed-Friends user named Ember has done....
"so i feel pretty much hopeless. been unemployed since July 2008. in over two years i haven't even been called for an interview. tired of looking and applying for jobs outside of my field that require experience i don't have. it's all for naught. i have two bachelor of science degrees. my BS degrees, cuz that's what they're worth. since losing my job i've gotten divorced. lost my house. lost my health insurance. totalled my car and sustained chronic back pain. and moved in with my mom. and did i mention, when all this started i was a new mom, just back from maternity leave? so (now) i'm raising a toddler on my own, with no income. my unemployment insurance ran out a few weeks ago. i don't even know what to do now. i just want to disappear. i'm tired of trying. i'm tired of being a burden on everyone. if i didn't have the responsibility to take care of my child i wouldn't be around anymore."
This final example is from an Unemployed-Friends user identified as Faith1028. Be warned that this one will shake you to your core if you have any sensitivity at all. As you read this, keep in mind that this kind of thing is literally happening to millions of Americans these days....
"HI, y'all! This is my story. I'm from Chicago.
I lost my job 11.06.09 - I did my best to remain positive & confident that I would get a job by the end of November.
December 2009 - Still no job. I'm getting food stamps (LINK card) & Unemployment Benefits. Not much money at all, but I'm surviving. Thanks to all this stress, my stomach has been burning and/or been painful daily for all December. I puked my guts out on the 26th.
January 2010 - My stomach is still hurting every day. I had to close out my savings account. I haven't told my slumlord or my fellow tenants that I lost my job; I go on pretending I'm still going to work everyday. Unfortunately on the 26th, I got my eviction notice. I called the office to ask why. The response was "I don't know." I became hysterical. I've no job, no money, no family/friends to help. (I have many *relatives*, but no *family*.) I truly believed my only alternative was suicide. I wanted to say good-bye to my brother (my only sibling), but we haven't spoken to each other for over 4 years; I no longer have his address/phone number. I found him on Facebook. I didn't bring up my situation because I felt he wouldn't care. We exchanged a few messages and that was it. I haven't heard from him since. Good riddance.
February 2010 - Someone found a family that I can stay with for only $250/month! My own room! They turned out to be aquaintances of mine. Vegetarian, too! At least I have a place to stay. I'd rather live alone, but, hey, I'm desperate! -- And I'm not too crazy about the bedbugs. OW!
June/July 2010 - Thanks to daily/nightly use of citrine crystals since 30 May, I have no more stomach problems!
Thanks to weekly use of a natural (green!) pesticide from PlusNaturalEnzymes.com, I no longer have a problem with bedbugs! However...
Mid-June, my Unemployment Benefits ran out. Of course, I'm still looking for a job! What am I supposed to do - put a gun to someone's head and force them to hire me? As of this date, I have $12 left to my name; $0 in my chequeing account. I recently reapplied for and am now receiving food stamps. Before I got my food stamps back, I've eaten whatever (Vegetarian!) food I can get, even stuff I'm allergic to. As a result, I've become sick: cold-like symptoms, pain in lower intestines...and a rash over my arms, legs, & neck. Oh, does it itch! At least my food allergies are not life-threatening.
Needless to say, my depression has gotten worse.
I am really trying hard to remain positive -- and alive.
But why? Is it really all worth it?
I haven't paid July's rent, and the people I'm staying with are getting very *impatient*; I fear I'll be evicted again! The money is coming! It's not my bloody fault!
Someone on Twitter sent me a link to this site. I know I'm not the only one suffering; some folks have already committed suicide. I don't want to die, but I don't want to be homeless, either. I am so bloody scared.
Just give me money that my tax dollars paid for!
--Or better yet: GIVE ME A BLASTED JOB!!"
The really sad thing is that there are countless other stories just like these being posted all over the Internet all the time.
People are hurting.
People are losing hope.
So how did we get here?
Well, it turns out that the "haves" have figured out that they really don't need the "have nots" after all. Incredible advances in technology have increasingly enabled employers to replace humans with machines and computers. In addition, as we have detailed previously, millions upon millions of middle class American jobs are being shipped off to China and to dozens of third world nations where workers are more than happy to work for less than a tenth of what an American worker would make.
All of those jobs that have been lost to technology and that have been sent overseas are not going to come back. The hordes of long-term unemployed that we are seeing now is just the beginning. It is going to get a lot worse.
So the next time you hear a hard luck story from an unemployed American, don't look down on that person.
You might be next.
Hey no one special. Everybody’s special so don’t give up. I hear what you are going through as I was downsized. If possible, take a job, any job, just to get your mojo back a little. Who knows, good things may happen from there.
My opinion is we’re seeing the end of “The American Dream” of/by the people. The banksters admittedly engineered this with the Federal Reserve in 1913 in the first place. Don’t doubt that the greatest/ongoing wealth transfer from the people to the (CFR/Illuminist/Wall St) globalist banksters has all been pre-planned by them; they’ll soon be thieving our IRA/401K funds soon, as originally planned, a little research will show. Do you now see the fake “war on terror” that has further lined the pockets of Wall St banksters has all along been a “war on freedom” so that post-crash the gov’t can use the 9-11 justified Patriot Acts & pre-built FEMA concentration camps to hold starving rioters, looters, food hoarders, “gun collectors” & resisting survivalists & patriots (the new terrorists), by our own troops (per presidential Executive Orders) or UN/foreign troops here now under martial law. The banksters’ agenda-script has been in place all along, including Hollywood’s role to deliver the anesthesia to “the people” who are/were supposed to be responsible for chaining down the federal government, but who voted “democratically” for the unlimited, uncontrollable Cyclops we now have, and which won’t even take care of the welfare we voted for, as that money is going to go to who? (All-together-now): The Wall St Banksters. Then ours and the population can be reduced, per further agenda items on their list. See the Georgia Guidestones for the post-crash world we’ll be living in. When we wake up, we’ll see our lives’ have been planned for us! If enough of us wake up, we may take some ground back, but it does seem too late for that now. Stubborn U.S. citizens (& neocons – I used to be one, sorry) keep arguing this can’t be happening. If the Wall St bailout & bald-faced, millionaire-billionaire bonuses didn’t wake you up, then probably nothing will! One more thing… If there’s an NBC attack (nuke-biological-chemical) involving a large US city), be wary of accepting the President’s claim of a foreign flag as cause as with the 9-11 attack, and consider the likelihood our gov’t may have engineered it to 1) justify martial law, and 2) restart the war machine in Iran or elsewhere (to take our minds off our troubles here at home again), and of course continue funneling more $$$ to the Wall St war machine. Can’t get enough of your money! The “Republic/Democracy” is writhing, almost dead. (Television still blunts the pain – ooch!) Long live the Queen (and her bloodline, down to the Bushes, etc. etc. etc.). You may call me what you will – I just call myself ‘an awakened one’. The links lead to a continuing search for the truth… to read and come to your own conclusions.
My prior comments were assembled somewhat haphazardly, as they relate to our country’s decline, from my own continuing education paid for by 9 months of unemployment now, and ongoing 25% unemployment since the dot.com & telecom crashes in 2001-2002 when my first job loss came from losing my engineering job to an off-shore company in India.
Imagine and the hammer hasn’t fallen yet,but it’s close to falling now. So many more Americans are about to fall victims to the Depression.
Some of the comments here are rather funny. The fact that some of you are willing to work for a wage akin to the third world doesn’t give you the right to moralise, or give you some moral high ground.
The problem with these moralisers is that they do not know or care what is happening politically, they would rather just bend over and accept the consequences.
The American government bailed out banks to the tune of 7 trillion. Now, divide that number between the population of America; you could buy a new house and land to grow food for every individual in America. The problem is that America like Western Europe has stepped out and gone global leaving behind those whom helped build their respective countries.
Let the figure sink in; try and visualise it: SEVEN TRILLION! Who owns all these banks? Why is America continuously at war? Who owns the media? Who own Hollywood? Why are countless amounts of Immigrants from Mexico and the third world allowed to enter America? Why is the academia, the media, and the government so anti-white?
I’m not an American, but I can see what is happening there as it is reflected all over western Europe. To those that just accept their circumstances I say that you’re the majority, and the Majority never elicit change because they’re just sheep, and frankly deserve to be slaves!
For those who want real change, start thinking radically outside the paradigm the government and academia provide for you, and start looking at the cause of the problem. Shift your morality to survival mode, brush off all those ‘shut up’ words, and start claiming what is yours.
Your government, like mine, were bought off a long time ago. It is time for Americans to get radical!
There will be no turning around this unemployment situation until we close down the Federal Reserve banking cartel with its phony debt-based money and return to an honest, Constitutional money—gold and silver—and prohibit fractional reserve lending.
Google “Hugo Salinas Price Gold as the Generator of Jobs” for a real education into how a functioning economy works.
There is only one painful way out of this whole mess that America is in.
You all voted for the dumbocrats and here we are.
You all voted for the repukocrats and here we are.
Keep voting for one or the other… and IMAGINE where we will be!
No … you will not get out of this mess by voting.
Many posters here have bought into the capitalists’ propaganda about the “benefits” of free markets, capitalism, globalisation and outsourcing, which is why the afflicted people are so hopeless, depressed and even suicidal.
Yes, you can work hard provided some capitalist owner of industry will let you – i.e. give you a job so you can but they are not doing so.
Given the cost of living in the U.S. it is impractical to be paid the kind of wages workers in China are paid, since while they can live on it in China, you cannot in the U.S.
Instead of whining, you need a socialist revolution to overthrow the capitalist system and establish a socialist system in which production is for social need, not private profit, and then you can work hard and all enjoy the fruits of your labour, and live with honour and dignity.
Arise! ye pris’ners of starvation, arise ye wretched of the earth.
Workers of the World, Unite and Fight!
Hey All,
Most of the world has lived much more humbly that the US for decades – smaller cars using less gas, smaller homes, less lavish lifestyles. We Americans have become used to a fat lifestyle envied around the world, a lifestyle that was consumption based, and unsustainable…and built on the backs of the third world. It could be the party is simply over, until the US develops something sustainable, and independent. We must begin making things in the USA again, not simply buying them from other countries.
But let’s also remember, millions of us were waving flags and banging the drums of war, cheering for the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. With the trillions invested in the war, we could have invested in our own infrastructure – schools, healthcare, unemployment benefits.
This country needs to begin taking care of the American people, and stop worrying about what other countries are doing. Who really gives a shit about dictatorships in other countries now? That is their problem. We need to fix THIS country. And the American people may have to adopt a less lavish lifestyle – like make coffee at home, instead of buying that 5 dollar mocha frappaccino.
RT Carpenter, good post but one point for your consideration; Social Security is not a pension, it’s a tax, and the law says not one word about pension benefits.
The “law” (which is part of the IRS Code) has bold headers above the paragraphs that read stuff about old age and retirement pensions, but those headers are not part of the law that was allegedly passed by Congress and the political hacks are well aware that most people don’t know that. But, if you read those paragraphs it’s easy to see that they include the promise to pay nothing to anyone, which is proof that the govt intended to deceive us with their phony Title 26 from the beginning.
Years ago one “truthful congressman” saw the crayon scribbles on the wall and said, “…People will get their checks. They may not be worth anything (because they’ll be exchanged for printing press MONOPOLY munny) but they’ll get their checks!”
NOT true that the elite don’t need us because they have replaced us with technology.
They have replaced us with foreign workers who now work in their relocated industries
(a relocation that we paid for with OUR tax dollars under the guise of “foreigh aid”).
To hell with these people. Quit begging them for jobs. Go out and start your own business,
make your own money (pay none of their stupid taxes).
For those that still want to beg – there are plenty of prison staff jobs still open.
Appears I did right thing when I said goodbye to USA long ago.I requested conscientious objector status and was completely ignored so I left for good.Now if I return I will no doubt jailed and after 2 years kicked out of USA.What a silly government there.Now no problems but have had many of course.My degree from U of Texas was not accepted because they only accept ivy league degrees in Australia.I often get the question :’how did you know that”Elementary dear Dr.watson.
Hey fellas please you’re attacking those who are suffering & in the case of Joe the real culprits are the big end of town. They screwed everyone deliberately and ran away not only with the profits BUT they (with your governments complicity) got away with your tax dollrs as well. This has been the biggest scam. Your government & ours are feeding these slime balls (big end of town). The jobless need help, the biggest crash is still ahead get ready don’t believe your lying government
Well, I am an employer. I own my own business.. Some random observations.
No matter how hard I try, it is hard to find a NORMAL unemployed American.
1. Many have a sense of entitlement. They deserve to make what I make after a couple weeks.
2. Many are dependent on some sort of drug or alcohol.
3. Many have some sort of ADD that makes it impossible for them to follow easy directions.
4. They feel their problems are my problems.. “I need Friday off. It is my girlfriends Bday” etc.
5. The money they earn they waste, which makes them always broke.
I placed ads looking to start someone with no experience and transportation at $12 an hour. People send me cunter offers asking for 15-25 an hour.. As though since they have debt, kids, bills etc it is every employers job to pay them enough to cover everything on 40 hours a week. So they rather sit home and collect unemployment or wait for that job that will pay them what they think they deserve.
The story by Faith1028 is an interesting one… in a peculiar way: for someone who says they’re “from Chicago,” the story has several indicators that the author is British. Did anyone else pick up on that? For instance, the British spelling of “chequeing” rather that the American English “checking.” Also, I’m from the Midwest myself and – having visited Chicago on many occassions – I have not heard a single Chicagoan use the term “bloody” to describe their situation. Adding to the confusion is the use of the word “y’all” – a term more native to the South, rather than the Midwest.
I’m not saying I don’t believe the story… I just couldn’t get over the oddities in the dialogue which do not seem to belong to someone who is truly “from Chicogo” as Faith1028 claims to be.
Could it be that he/she is from the UK and was previously employed in the state of IL? If so, would he/she actually qualify for U.S. unemployment benefits?
Either way, it sure is a sad story.
America lost its MEN thanks to feminism. Thus we no longer have a culture that can defend itself. First the cultural enslavement; now the economic one.
Wow are things different up here in Canada. I live in Northern Ontario and almost every store is hiring. I work in a commodity wholesale business and we have hired 6 people so far this year and we have so much business we are looking again.
There is not much difference between our two countries, we need immigrants so why not apply (free healthcare too)
Joe The Clerk has the right attitude. Most of the trouble w/ the unemployed/desperate stems from a history of lack of planning and improving. Ask yourself an honest question, what new set of skills or trade knowledge have you learned within any given 10 year span? If your answer is zero, then that’s it. The world is constantly changing and if you don’t change w/ it to adapt, you go extinct, just part of a natural cycle. Another question, how many were productive during their entire life beginning w/ say 19-22 yr old? I bet many were party/hardy and lack self discipline to plan for their future. Please don’t take this wrong, I know many Mexicans who came w/ nothing in the early 90′s and they are all doing fine despite this nasty recession.
Words can not tell you how badly I feel for these folks. What everyone needs to understand is the economic destruction taking place is just a small part of the plan. The globalist bankers are going to depopulate the earth one way or another. Congress, The Supreme Court and every other governmental body that has become corrupted with these fascist and communist ideas should be destroyed. It may be too late to save this country. How do you want to be remembered? It is better to die standing up than to live on your knees. http://www.Prisonplanet.com
move to canada you are welcomed.
I’m not a religious person, at least not an organized religion person (Organized religion, for the most part, is another scam – there are exceptions, Mormon, for example). Our problem here in the US is not financial, though those who write here are certainly suffering financially. Our problem is spiritual. We have been told over and over how we are a “nation of laws.” Whose laws? Man’s laws. And why have we been told that? Because by enforcing man’s laws we need a lot of lawyers. But really what we need is a nation which follows God’s laws. Of course, God is a concept that has been trashed: we are all supposedly too savvy and modern to believe in God. The only way we can get rid of the ache being described in this article is by having a society based on adherence to God’s laws, not man’s. How, you ask? Well, charity. And I don’t mean just giveaways. I mean really caring about the others who live around you. The others who collectively make your world. If we really cared about others, we simply would not let them suffer so. More importantly, we would not make decisions – those of us in executive positions – which are guaranteed to inflict suffering on others. I am an executive. I try to do that, as best I can. I have a rule when I hire. I never hire a person if I can’t clearly see enough work on the table to keep that [erson busy for at least two years. I can’t see further than two years out, or I would make it more. But I want to avoid the pain of having to let someone go for lack of work. This causes some pain in the workers, in a strange way. Before I can commit to a new hire, I will need to work the others harder to make up for the missing worker until I hire him/her in to fill the gap. But it’s a lesser pain to work everyone (including myself) harder than ruin someone’s life by hiring and then firing because of lack of work. So some of you will scream, oh that’s Utopian! What about all the chiselers? That’s the other part of God’s law. We are all supposed to care for each other, but all who can are supposed to work in some way, to contribute in some way. That way we who hire will not need to worry about being taken advantage of. And it’s not Utopian. It can be done. It’s all based on how we view ourselves as a people. We have a new rule here in the US and it’s not good. If it’s legal then it’s ok. There is even a name for this: “Legal Minimalism”. This makes granny dumping ok, because last I checked, you are not financially responsible for your granny. At least not according to man’s law. But how about God’s law? To dump your granny is an abomination. Yet it is quite legal. You owe her nothing – according to the law. I know I am rambling and many of you have urgent need. There is not much I can do alone, as a single person, except say that reading about your suffering deeply disturbs me. I am personally not in financial ruin right now (though I have my own suffering, for sure). But I don’t want to live in a world where those around me suffer needlessly. So we need to do something about this pronto. we need to construct a world where success is not a zero-sum game. A world where one person’s success does not dictate another’s failure. But to do that we are going to need to change the values which drive the country.
I live on the steets for a long time.this guy has a car how luck.but you have to make your own job do anything,go back to school thar money for that,you have not hit bottom yet!
Americans have lost their dignity, but Americans will quickly find ways to regain it. Either boot out the politicians or take a stand as they did in the American Revolution & fight for their children’s future.
There’s a new book out about Americans who are fed up with Imperial govt./tyranny & take a stand. It’s about common Americans, like all of us here, as freedom fighters & it could be our hometown soon. Great read!!
http://www.booksbyoliver.com
Ey Joe the ‘clerk’ …noone ‘stole’ this land, our ancestors conquered it by warfare, same way every other people in history gained their turf.
Americans owe no one an ‘apology’ or any other restitution for colonizing this land, we paid for it with our blood. Personally speaking, I’ll ‘apologize’ to anyone who gets in my grill and asks for one due to the actions of my fore-bearers (good, bad or indifferent) with my fist!
As for ‘working cheap to compete with the Chinese’, you obviously aren’t bright enough (or maybe simply a provocative troll?)to understand why the US is in economic dire straits. ‘Our’ internationalist elite cares as much for the well being and future of this country as it does about what it ate last week and even less about it’s citizens.
The US these days has the best political leadership money can buy, so in reality it has none.
Know that there are millions of us out here who are still financially solvent despite the best efforts of this warped elite and it’s puppet government. Our thoughts and sympathy are with our unfortunate countrymen who have been ruined by this deliberate take down of our way of life, not with the likes of you and know we will have our day of vengeance upon those responsible.
What comes around, goes around doesn’t it?
Continue to whine and serve your master SLAVE, enjoy the scraps he begrudgingly tosses on the floor for you to eat while you still can. Call it ‘false pride’ that folks like myself still possess the self respect handed down to us by our ancestors, who wouldn’t have spit on the likes of you if you were on fire.
Ta-ta, get back to work boy.
some have said we should cut the $6 billion we give to Israel and send to these unemployed people, they are not chosen by God, go get a job, don’t touch Israel’s help
The big problem we have is that Americans have almost no sense of solidarity. For years, during the ’90s and the first decade of this century, in the “good times,” most of us had jobs and money and didn’t give a rat’s ass about the ones who were not able to make it. Now that one in five of us doesn’t have work, many of those who didn’t care about the unemployed or underemployed are finding themselves in the same boat, ignored or dissed by those who still have work.
Nothing is going to change until we all start to see ourselves as a class–a working class–employed, underemployed, or not employed doesn’t matter, and all exploited and victimized and indentured to the ruling class of bankers and capitalists who run the system.
Once we see that, we will start to work together to gain control of this system, and we can talk about ending the export of jobs, establishing income support programs that work, they way they have in Germany, for example (a country that has higher wages than the US, manages to give everyone healthcare, yet is the second biggest exporter after China, and is pulling out of the global recession while we flounder and sink).
At this point, we should be having five million people marching on Washington, and a million camped out on the Mall between the White House and the Capitol building. Why aren’t we all there demanding help for our hungry and unemployed? Why are we seeing Republicans, of all things, gaining in the polls? They want to do away with extended unemployment benefits and blocked passage of the extended benefits bill!
Dave Lindorff
http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
I too became a 99er in 2008 when my department was outsourced to India. I was a highly trained worker and looked for similar work for 2 years while having to give up my apartment and move back in with my mother in my 30′s. Now unemployment’s finally run out and I have had no other choice than to buckle down and get a manual labor job doing construction and installations, which is what I do now.
I get yelled at and abused by my boss, the work is backbreaking with many 14 hour days. I have no other choice. It is truly grim to the point of sometimes considering suicide as the only option.
that is what they want for us
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4430543376785758889#01h22m45s
Joe the clerk can talk a lotta crap online but if he said that to me face to face ha would $hit teeth for a week.
Hard luck stories?
I am very sorry for you all.
However!!!!
When are you going to get off your butts and stop whinging and vote the criminals out of office.
How many of you voted for Ralph Nader – the man who has fought for years against off shoring and corporate greed.
From the figures – precious few.
How many voted for the tweedledee/Tweedledum which pose as separte entities when they are just one corporate party.
Most of you – yet you were repeatedly warned you were wasting your vote.
How many of you will actively campaign for an answer to the destruction of the West and the impoverishment of its workers. For instance an end to globalization and protection to protect western jobs?.
Any of you?.
How many will support the new movements to secede from federal control and revive the independence of states – complete independence if need be?.
Any?
You are getting what you voted for. A fraudulent President by the name of Barry Soetoro and a pack of politicians virtually all in the pockets of the elite.
Well enjoy – or actually mobilise and do something to save yourselves.
White people did not steal America, they colonized it through immense suffering, you fool. White people had been coming over the land bridge for thousands of years, along with the Indians. The Indians killed them off. We came back after developing a civilization. Stop with this programmed white guilt shit. I am proud of my Ancestors. We all make mistakes. The Indians used to enslave their own people, so did the Africans. The non-whites do not have the moral high ground! Wake up white folk and black folk and red folk, my fellow Americans. You are being taken down by your leaders. This is deliberate, this collapse. http://www.iamthewitness.com. The time is now to wake up. Violence is inevitable, so is real change, not Obamafascist change. I don’t have an answer except that some terrible crap is coming and you need to wake up in order to deal with it. Get your head out of the movies, tv, mags, papers etc. Come to know the invisible realiities. http://www.izunome.org
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Joe the Jerk obviously “works” for a government agency of some sort, whose salary is paid for by the private sector. No one works 100 hours for long, so, along with being a jerk, he is also a liar.
The 77 year old man had it right! We must organize a mass strike and bring the entire country to a halt until the congress, judiciary and president resign in mass. The banks that took the bailout are now settling their foreign trade accounts with Chinese currency(according to FT.Com), hastening the demise of the dollar and turning against the very people who bailed them out. The only reason why there are still minimum wage jobs left is because there are a few “working folks” able to buy lunch at Wendy’s or shop at Wal-Mart. But once those people have lost there jobs then the Wal-Mart jobs will be gone. Did you see the report where Wal-Mart has mentioned that their volume is DOWN because fewer people are shopping? The collapse is coming folks and if you wait too long the scoundrels will be buried away in the bunkers before you can strike and throw them out of office.
We must come together as one if we are to turn our country and this situation around. Worried that striking will cause you to permanently lose your job? Don’t! Because once the criminals in Washington D.C. finish taxing us to death and stealing our social security there will be nothing left. Why do you think they allowed Hollywood to feed you that crap about 2012? “Let’em keep thinking that they have until 2012 and we’ll take everything we can until then.” They know what’s coming and they know its going to arrive well before 12-21-2012.
Our skies are sprayed with chemtrails, our banks rob us blind and take our homes and businesses, our children are dying in wars that we were lied into, our jobs are off-shored by companies making millions, they don’t want us to grow our own food, we can’t smoke cannabis even though every scientific study done with any integrity shows that it benefits man and does no harm, our healthcare is now taxable, we can’t even collect rainwater anymore, and who goes to jail? The dope dealer trying to sell weed, that used to be legal in the 1920s before the Big Pharmaceuticals figured out that they could make more money by suppressing cannabis and providing designer drugs for money that made more disease and never cured anything, the foul mouth governor who threatens to cut Bank of America off from all state business over a shuttered small business, and all of the low level criminals who don’t have connections to the White House. How many bankers have gone to jail now? Have read about how the administration no longer has the funds to prosecute illegal aliens so they are letting them go free for all crimes except DUI, Family violence but other crimes are wiped away? Have you heard Obama’s man on social security refer to the program as a milk cow with 310 million titts? We’ve paid into it all our lives and now that they’ve borrowed it into the red they don’t want to fund it!
WAKE UP PEOPLE! START SHARING AND CARING. START TALKING TO ONE ANOTHER AND ORGANIZING A MASS NATIONAL STRIKE! WE HAVE NO OTHER POWER. THEY CONTROL THE MEDIA, THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, THE BANKS, THE MILITARY, THE HEALTHCARE SYSTEM, THE TRANSPORTATION SYSTEM, THE FOOD SYSTEM. We have no power other than UNPLUGGING FROM THE MATRIX!
STRIKE! Unplug from the matrix and deny them your personal power to run their schemes.
Is that Joe the soda jerk or Joe jerk off? Either way the name sure fits.
To: Joe the JERK,
You are an ignoramus. I am amazed at the stupidity of your comments. You feel nothing for others but claim the opposite. You are either a foreigner to America or a government hack planting conflict on the web. Either way you have no idea whatsoever concerning the well being of our people or our nation.
Your stupidity is so vast on so many levels that you defy cognitive reason.
Perhaps you should move back to whatever third world or socialist country you came from where 100 hours a week is standard fare and live out your miserable existence as a slave.
Do not kid yourself into believing your pollution influences anyone here or elsewhere, for your pathetic incompetence is relegated to the mentally disturbed and no one else.
You IDIOT.
GOT IT!
I don’t mean to be unfeeling to those who are down on their luck, but the fact is we all need to suck this up. There will never be any recovery. The jobs are gone permanently. Industrial civilization is collapsing. The only thing keeping oil prices down right now is the economic collapse. If any type of recovery actually happened, oil would spike and smack it down again. We are at peak. It is time to accept that the last few decades were an anomaly.
What do you do now? You head out to rural America and start asking farmers to share crop, that’s what. Subsistence farming. Peasant living. Feudal arrangements just like they had several centuries ago. It takes a strong person to accept the inevitable, but this is the future. Face facts. Civilizations collapse. If that wasn’t true, we’d be typing on this forum in hieroglyphics. It is simply our time. If you want to live, then you have to change. Drastically. Otherwise, go ahead and jump off the highest bridge you can find and hope your end is pleasant.
Someone in rural Kansas with 1000+ acres will likely respond to your request to farm a few thousand square feet for no pay and your agreement to help with odd jobs. He’ll teach you how to grow food, and you can lose those 50 lbs. you always wanted. It’ll be hard work, and you’ll barely survive.
My advice. Get off the internet and get to work. I’m under no illusions my job is secure. The instant I lose it, if I can’t find a new one within 3 months that is what I’m doing. No way am I going to sit around and wait to die.
The problem is that folks have been living from paycheck to paycheck for decades. Living beyond their means on credit with absolutely no savings. That has now ended. We’re supposed to feel sorry for these folks and give them our money? Yes, it’s tragic but when you hang around places like Unemployed-Friends you still hear this attitude of entitlement. This is taking money out of my pocket and all those that still have income. It’s time we went after the bankers and put them in prison. They are to blame and all you Unemployed-Friends liberals that voted for this abortion known as Obama: You made your bed now sleep in it!
It is time for a grand change…in diet and behavior. The old paradigm has been flogged to death by the rich and the local wannabees. Everyone with money or say in your life behaves like gods now. These arrogant bastards rub it in for all its worth. Bad attitudes and bad manners, even forthright disrespect bordering or equal to gross disrespect. But, what you’re gonna do? What is the worst that can happen? Forget the fears. Go into it. You can survive in a shelter. You can eat those micro-waved foods if it comes to that. Do that and wait. You don’t know what’s coming…whether it is the NWO with martial law or the Ron Paul Revolution. Stay alive. Eff the family and relatives. They would sell you out anyway for their 30 pieces. New solutions to staying healthy while poor. You don’t need traditional food that kills. Eat raw foods, sprouts (1 lb lentils costs <$1), live off the land (dandelions grow everywhere), see how others who are homeless live, and learn how to (you will see an art in there somewhere)…..learn, learn, learn.
Don't worry about your image in others eyes. This is all Hollywood. The resistance and pain you feel is part of your de-programming from the capitalistic system that served the elites to bring us to our knees. Their power comes from those in the system….those who would die rather than face a life of nothing. Rather see life from new eyes. Poor or rich has gotta die. You may very well live longer if you live outside of the system and forage on it!
This is the result of the “I want everything and I want it now” mentality. Live within your means and save your money in case you lose your job, think ahead. I do not feel sorry for people who squandered every last cent they had (and ran up credit-card debt and took on a humongous mortgage) because they got suckered into a lifestyle they wanted but could not afford. Cigarettes and beer also robbed these people of their money and their health.
1. Why have all the jobs gone overseas?
A Workers are willing to work for less pay and benefits.
2. Why have all the jobs gone overseas?
A Employers pay less in taxes and insurance.
3. Why have all the jobs gone overseas?
A The government encourages business to outsource.
4. Why have all the jobs gone overseas?
A Degreed American workers will not take a job if it does not further their career.
5. Why have all the jobs gone overseas?
A American workers demand their rights, foreign workers submit to management and company rights.
End of reasons.
I remember when everyone was living the life in 2005. People thought they were millionaires. They’d buy McMansions and pull out money from their homes to buy toys and just pretend like they were successful. My old next door neighbor used to look down on the renters across the street and say mean things about them, now he is the one losing his house and his business is about to shut down. You should never discredit other people. The ones who are doing well now, need to see how lucky and blessed they are. As for the person who works 100 hours a week just to keep up his lifestyle, he is fooling himself and pretending it is going to go on this way forever. How long can you work like that before your body gives out, 5 years, 10 years, 20- Don’t fool yourself!
The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away.
If people want a more prosperous nation they need to stop serving the rats that want endless war between Christians and Muslims in the middle east using the 911 inside job as the launching pad. Every time the rats infest a nation, it starts going down the tubes because they get into top positions and suck its blood with endless promotion of war, endless bank swindling, endless corporate crime etc. No more rats.
The governments objective is depopulation control of us parasites and useless eaters too below 500 million in this century, see the georgia guidestones.
There is no gods, devils, heavens or hells in our natural world, only man made fears and superstitions that hardens hearts and enslaves minds within the tyranny of religions which are incompatible with higher education, business and good government. Christianity is a perversion of pure morality that constitutes the anti-christ, said Thomas Jefferson!
I’m 68 years old, medically retired, caregiver of my alzheimers afflicted wife for the last twenty years, I was once a wealthy businessman with my own company, I’ve had to deal with this corrupt health care system, pay our way, live on a small farm, but we prepared, I knew what was comming, we’re bankrupt now from the doctor bills, but we still got our farm, and our two social security disability checks, respite nurses, I only possess a grade school education, I am an atheist, and total quality management businessman RETIRED and living high on the hawg in the great smoky mountain’s of east tennessee…
Bottom line, nobody gives you anything, you have to work for it, quit feeling sorry for yourself and get out there like we did and take part time jobs cleaning banks to supplement our social security checks or pick up pop cans, winners never QUIT! and Quitters never WIN!
This is ALL BY DESIGN,they (the ruling class) want to bring us to our knees so we agree to and take anything they offer for a scrap of food and a roof over our head). Yes, it is partially our fault for wanting ever cheaper goods and services. Now the goods manufacture went somewhere else and will not come back until those “cheap workers” (in China, India etc.)go onto the barricades and demand higher pay. Who knows when! And the services? We imported those that had nothing and they are doing the jobs they got because Americans did not want them. They will not give those back voluntarily either! Plus they have their own lobby now and the feckless politicians of both parties on their side to make their status permanent; so they in turn put those politicians in power forever! But the ruling class (politicians with almost unlimited terms and constituents that vote them back into power; large corporations that have figured out that they can play the masses in all countries against one another; Hollywood/entertainment who are and will be leaches forever and lets not forget the complicit elitist media).
So I don’t know how WE THE PEOPLE can make up for our mistakes and take this country back. Get rid of ALL politicians (both parties), large corporate hierarchies and the dumming down from Hollywood/ Entertainment and leftist Media!. IS THERE ANYTHING LEFT FOR “WE THE PEOPLE” THAN FULL FLEDGED REVOLUTION?? I don’t think so….
To Joe the clerk, you need to get off you damn high horse. Working 100 hours a week? You must have 3 jobs and no life. I have a family. I have not found work in almost 2 years. Yeah, we are on Public Assistance. But that is not preventing me from going out and finding work, and not in a crap job. I pushed a mop around a warehouse. I’ve stocked shelves. And the latter one was part-time. Even the minimum wage jobs are not hiring. And if they are, it’s part time.
Joe, you have my pity. Because you have fallen into the same trap the ultra-rich are in. Love of money.
You truly deserve the asbestos cork award.
I’ll be setting off fireworks and dancing on the lawn when Joe The Clerk loses his job….and you KNOW he will
All this crap about jobs. Jobs are for the lazy and irresponsible. No wonder those who played by the rules lost, because there never were any rules. Being your own boss and running ones own business is the only matter in America for concern. The walmarts, coscos, sams supermart et al are the reason for this garbage and the stinking multitudes of “i just want to show up and get a paycheck” crowd.
Unemployment is a red herring, smoke and mirrors, a heaping steaming bucket of BS. People should be screaming to have their own businesses….. again…… not begging for a stupid JOB.
Whats a hard worker other than a good slave?
Whats educated and qualified other than brainwashed and indoctrinated?
The intellectual university elite super smarts are only just now finding that those pieces of paper on the wall guaranteed them nothing but something to burn in the fire or wipe their butt with for 2010.
All the rubbish ive heard over the years from smart ass little blips who constantly declare their worth to the world because they just spend over a hundred grand to qualify for a good job.
Doesnt anyone other than me see the fatal flaw in this thinking?
THERES WORK IN IOWA! HAVE HOPE!! COME TO THE CORN STATE!
Also, If you’re an under 30, you can apply for a current working holiday visa in Canada which is being supplied and work up there, to which the economy is doing great
Stay strong America! We need to do everything we can!!!
I just don’t believe it. Listening to this shit, people whinging about jobs moving to China and no jobs to be found? I thought America was the land of the free and the home of the brave?
Listen up, you feckless Americans have been taking the cool aid for far too long. You have supped with the devil, believing what the oligarchs have been telling you since Ronnie Raygun, while they have mopped up even bigger portions of the pie. My son was on a visit to NYC and the elderly bus guide, who in any civilised country would be comfortably retired, was boasting about what a great country the US is, saying “In this country, anyone can be a million ayeh” Maybe he was just doing it for the pleasure, while his chauffeur driven Caddy followed along behind. The oligarchs now own the US and they own the government. It is one of the most corrupt countries on the planet. And yet you guys just bemoan your fate????
I think time was when government was afraid of the people, now the people are afraid of the government. And there is no sign of the people joining together to take on the two party war party. The party, the RepugroCrats, represents Wall Street, the Military Industrial Complex, the Israel Lobby, and the Global Corporations. You have the best government money can buy. And now your Supreme Court relieves any restraint on Corporate financing of elections? If it wasn’t so absurd and malevolent, it would be funny. And meanwhile you guys just sit there and moan? Earlier generations would have been taking their muskets and pikes our of the thatch. Y’know, old George Carlin had it pitch perfect, as you can see in this clip;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acLW1vFO-2Q
Morning in America? If so, it’s time to wake up!!! But personally, I don’t think there’s a chance of that happening. Too many have too deeply drunk of the myths, legends and shibboleths of US hypocracy and imperial madness. Too many believe in the American Dream, or perhaps more properly, the American fantasy. Too much materialism, and too little sense of community, where everyone is my brother and sister, and where a wrong done to them, is a wrong done to me. As Pastor Niemoeller said in Nazi Germany,
First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out –
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.
And for all you crazy US Cristians out there who are filled with hatred, remember what Crist said,
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
As a child I learned that the 10 commandments could be reduced to two, Love God, and Love your Neighbour. And your neighbour, in this tiny world, is every other human being. bacause we are all part of the whole, in the family of God, and are each therefore part of the Godhead.
Peace and Love,
Card – Tir na n’Og
Increasing numbers of posters in forums like this invoking the classic American “God will save us” routine. Well guess what? You’re in for the biggest reality check of your lives. You have to do it yourselves. Others have tried, the Russians, the Romanians, the Philipinos etc, it can be done as long as the opportunists don’t hijack it after the real work is over (see Russians).
I have lost my home, life savings, and my family is split because of jobs. I have worked everyday of my adult life, am college+ educated and a vet.
I have lost faith with it all to include the American people. We just lay down why we are screwed over by the banking institutions.
Too big too fail means you are too little to succeed.
For my generation it is over.
Welcome to the real world.The west is in for an eye opener. Easy times are over, welcome to the depression.We knew it was coming, we got lots of warnings. We could have saved and prepared for it.Now you will have to live the way your great- grandparents did in the last depression.My folks went through it in England and Scotland, and passed on to me what being thrifty is. I could not believe the waste that went on on North America when we got here from Europe. The extravagence, the throw away society. Easy living.Now we will get in step with the rest of the world. We are still far better off than 3/4 of mankind, even in a depression. We will just have to get used to hard times, like others around the world live every day.
Joe is a funny guy. Over 10 million people have lost there jobs and he thinks Wal Mart, McDonalds, etc. has 10 million job openings despite falling sales and closing stores. hahahaha.
Are people actually this misinformed?
Be on the look out for issue which divide (immigration, Race relations, religious to dominate the headlines as the economy gets worse.
The goal is to get you fighting among yourselves so they can crack down. Face it folks, high paying jobs are gone, 70% of the economy is consumer spending.
You are living in a slow motion implosion. Sooner or later it’s going to take us all down.
Now the choice is will you get buried in the rubble or prepare to clean out those responsible and take control over your own destiny.
No one is coming to save you from either faction of the big government party.
Will your anger and rage be focused on those who are responsible or your neighbors? Your enemy wears a $5000 suit.
You’re next Joe, you ****…
Joe the Clerk.
You are one hateful, judgemental jerkoff.
How do you know that these people are lazy or even bought an iPod?
I hope your mother comes out from under the porch and bites your goddamn ankle, the day after your boss fires your sorry ass and gives your job to an illegal.
Punkass punk.
More good news…any country that tortures prisoners deserves all it gets.
The jobs are not coming back. Nor is the Chinese taking all of them. Have you ever heard of technological unemployment. robotics. Machines taking more and more jobs.
I don’t care how many times you yell at someone to find work if there is none then there is none. people can’t pay others to mow the lawn if they are not working either.
When all the earth is polluted and we can’t grow any more food what are we going to eat. Can’t eat money.
I advocate something called a resource based economy to replace this system which is dying. We are moving out of stage 0 of society to stage one and this is what happens when we do. Greed is rampant and in any political system the money goes to the top and people will do anything for money. Money in this society = survival.
But real survival is the human race cooperating working together. Otherwise we get the mess we have now in this money based economy.
It will take a high responsibitly of a person to live in such a society and it is not Utopia because man is in it and nothing man does is perfect. Nor it is any other -ism. Money always goes to the top and they always have armies. The VP has neither. Nor much government.
I too have been laid off over two years. I have turned more resumes and applications than I care to try and count. I am still looking for a job. They are not out there. So if someone thinks they can even take a 6.00 an hour job here in Ann Arbor Mi I challenge you to do it. Otherwise shut up.
One of the problems with this town is it is a sanctuary city which means immigrants get special treatment. Esp, Illegals. And that contributes to the high unemployment.
If anyone had a set of balls in our Gov. 20 million jobs could be opened up right now. Just do your damn job and deport all illegals. I am sure we could find the money easily.