O/T Add me to the list of unemployed.

I've been unemployed for the last 3 1/2 years, got hurt on the job. I have permanent injuries that seem to hold back people from hiring me or maybe it's my age @ 42. I know that paying into the union for 18 years got me nothing or working for Pepsi for the same got my benifits cut withen a month. They call workers comp a big deal, well it pays 225.00 a week, a solid grand less than what I was making.
I've got a mortgage that gets paid, three kids in the house that seem to want more and more each day and manage to have food on the table. Sure my quality of life as dramaticly changed but I'm still living and I haven't applied for assistence, maybe to proud for that or something.
I guess what I'm saying is that I wish I was physicaly able to take whatever job came by like I did before and wouldn't mind getting that 405.00 per week that unemployment pays. I'm living, been doing it for this long, don't know how, but I am, things will get better maybe not tomorrow but they will guys.

 

Problem is, this is the kind of crap that has gotten us where we're at now.
Nuclear Engineers at work start off at 30k less than that, and that's with experience!
Economy is going in the toilet and the FBI is hiring thousands of people.
Forget the fact that that will COST the rest of us more money, for an oversized corporation (gvt) that produces no product.
Sorry, but the answer to a loss of jobs is not creating more in an already swollen, and ready to burst, government.
The answer is accountability and treating the gvt like a big business.
The waste in the gvt is staggering. I've seen it first hand in the military.
It's real easy to spend money when it continues to fall out of the sky like manna from heaven and not from your own pocket.
The real answer is cutting costs in the gvt.
Also NO stimulus bill, where the money will end up overseas anyway.

 

I have read this entire thread. Thanks to all for the posts. Please now don't someone screw it up to be closed.

Sorry to those feeling the pain recently. Do not give in or give up on yourself. And take everything you have coming to you. You paid for it and earned it. Just use it wisely and get better.

I have basically lost it all in the last year. Yes everything! A real country song no one has had the balls to write except for me real soon. However everything I owned was paid for except the house and she bought me out on that deal. Business(s) in the tank (trucking industry). Am I mad? No. I'll be ok, a country boy can survive. Worst thing that can happen to me is to go back to driving a truck and I loved that career.

Doc you figure out how to get out of Oz and you can bunk here until I take you to your new job. I have one and place for you in SE Oklahoma if you want it. I hate to see you leave a land that I loved to visit and am still in awe of. And as well I am in for a $100 towards your trip and/or 50,000 air miles if we can use em somehow. You and yours took great care of me in my trips to your fine country and it is the least I can do for drinking all the wine, eating the steaks, and that one red head in Middleton I know nothing about. .

There is between the peaks and valleys of this thread great offers, generosity and sound advice for everyone. Pay in cash if at all possible and have a few plans to work.

I am damned proud to see the offers and ideas on this thread. And yes it is traditional. Traditional to have family/friends, a dream of personal and economic security and a ride you can own and be proud of. Pretty global traditional thinking in my book.

Keep talking to each other and everyone you see. Strength and comfort in having contacts and associating in numbers.

As was said and I said in a radio interview the other day. "the sun will still come up tomorrow in the east, you may not see it, but it is there. Walk knowing it is shining and it will be there tomorrow."

Keep the head up and look down for the pennies.

 

$405 a week for un employment? Damn you guys get a LOT, thats more than most make here in a full work week $580 AUD!! Hell yeah Im in the wrong country, even when I got a VA benefit is less than what we get here in unemployment.
and that is about $280 AUD, thats $193 USD!
Right now I don't get anything at all so that 280 looks good!
The pension was less and I was HAPPY on it, I thought I earned that. Broke my back in three places, both my ankles, all the rids on my right side, smashed my right knee (8 operations on it so far to fix it), fractured skull, Internal injuries, collapsed lung and to top it off PTSD from fighting for my country.
I think we get ripped!
Doc.

 

Not a surprise at all. The surprise was that it didn't happen before the two week Xmas shut down. I told my wife that I hopped I had a job to go back to. I made one year there Jan 2nd. That was my goal. The next goal was two years, that won't happen. Everybody was walking around after the lay off saying "I didn't see this coming" WTF? Look around, I knew it was coming. I liked my job, so I didn't look for another one, even though I new I should have. Wishful thinking I guess. I'll be alright for now. I can do a lot of things, and can work from the house too. The worst thing is no health insurance. Dean (ps) Let me add that the Toolroom supervisor told me if a lay off comes, they won't lay off by seniority, I new he was full of shit, but I guess it gave me hope. What pisses me off, is the guys still there bitching about how tuff their jobs are. Give me a break. The only thing I bitched about was not having enough to do. I hated to make a two or three hour job last all day, or even two days. The Toolroom supervisor is still sending work out to outside venders. Fuck, we can do that work in house, what an asshole.

 

Write your manifestos somewhere else, please.

 

My Aunt lives in San Gabriel and I like it there. All that talking about the goodays makes me lust for simpler times. Did the Divco milk truck bring you chocolate milk when you were a good boy ? ?

I must add in the eighties you could buy muscle cars for cheap. Old panheads were affordable. In my school they still paddled [ I know first hand ] And my Dad beat my ass as well.

I have faith in this good old U.S.A for we are the land of the free, the proud, the strong .

 

Feel like crap today, just got handed down the info that we are cutting back, possible 3 layoffs and pay cuts for the salary employees..big pay cuts.(and im the guy that has to be the one to tell them).might be soon riding the un-employment line with the rest of you all.
been in this buiz.since i was 16 years old been at it for 30 years. (small family owned maybe 24 employees)
and the government wants to grow larger?..whos going to foot that bill?
the next generation of kids growing up are going to get stiffed so bad, i already feel for my 10 year old daughters working career, and what her future will be like.

not that it makes me feel any better,but, i did have a feeling it was on its way.

if you have any ability to cut back on any unnecessary spending, or tighten down the financial out pay in your home, do so now and prepare for getting lean and mean.

 

All this talk about being disarmed bothers me. Hopefully that is not why you own guns. People have told me that Canada is disarmed too but i have a closet full of weapons all legal and registered . The difference is that we do not own guns ever for the sake of defending ourselves(and btw we kicked our southern neighbours out three times so far care they to review history (like why is the white house white would be a good question to start learning with) That said we are the best of friends and neighbours but our concept of guns is for hunting and sport. It does not occur to us in our wildest dreams that we are to use them for defending ouselves. (We keep a baseball bat for that and a large dog )
Right now we are all in a pickel wth the economy on the dumps and people losing their jobs. It is no fun. 6 months ago it seemed there would be no end to prosperity. i am too unhealthy and too old to get hired now so i would have to do something myself homebased to make a buck and I would if necessary and it may be so. Until the smoke clears we are in for a rough ride. My sympathy goes to those especially those who have no alternative source of income and no hope of employment. Hang in there somehow. It will change. It always does.
Don

 

Not to get too far OT, but I thought it was whitewashed to keep the cut sandstone it's made of from eroding!

If you're referring to "The Burning of Washington", I thought that was a casualty of a British raid in the War of 1812, caused by British illegally restricting our trade with France and illegally conscripting US citizens into the Royal Navy to fight Napoleon. We were after Major-General Isaac Brock's 350 Brittish regulars massing on the Canadian side of the border, not so much to conquer Canada.

Besides, when the British defeated Napoleon in 1814, the illegal trade restrictions and conscriptions stopped, as did the War of 1812 shortly thereafter.

So yeah, the Royal Navy made it into Chesapeake Bay in 1814 and torched DC, likely because we looted York (now Toronto) and burned down the Parliment buildings there (so maybe we kind of deserved it - and you guys totally got us back). But that's not exactly why the White House is white - they've been that way since the 1790s!

We must still feel kind of guilty about the whole thing. That's why we spend a lot of money making movies there nowadays.

~Jason

 

heres why its white
http://www.whitehousehistory.org/06/subs/06_a01.html

Dolmetch, you cant believe everything you were told or taught..sometimes you have to question authority, and find out the facts for yourself.

and as for disarming...they can have my arms when they pry them from my cold dead fingers..because at that stage, whats the point in living..."dont tread on me"

and also, they will Never ,,never get all of mine

 

Oh, you better believe it. My youngest graduates from college this June. First National Bank of Dad closes.

 

Hmmm bring ball bats and dogs to a gun fight... interesting.

 

Don rocks. But be extra nice to the man with the closet full of weapons.

Not that he needs 'em. From the posts I've read on here, he's the Chuck Norris of the 318 Poly... any man that can lift one of those heads into a bucket to do electrolysis on it for cleaning USING A RUNNING CAR AS A POWER SOURCE is hardcore to the max, man!

Check it out:
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showpost.php?p=3480936&postcount=7

~Jason

 

Be glad we're not in Israel these days. Oooops, is that religion, or politics? Never could win one of them arguments!

But back to topic - well sort of - other than those who've already said so, how has your situation affected your car hobby? I'm blessed so far that it hasn't touched us to any great extent but we're not celebrating. It's hard to when I see so many in a heckuva lot worse shape. What also makes it tough is knowing it's a buyer's market for scoring another project but possibly from sellers have to - instead of want to - sell. Some buyers take advantage & it probably helps, but I just can't and won't. I was hit during the recession in the early 80s. Married, 3 little ones and bang - got blindsided with a layoff. Had to sell my precious (at the time) '65 Mustang convertible I'd worked so hard for, just to pay bills and feed the family. Facing house foreclosure and had another hard choice to make. Ended up moving in order to take a job that barely paid the bills. But it was work. Hand to mouth pay and little if anything left over to enjoy with the kids while they were growing. But we worked. Worked hard. Took NOTHING for nothing - no welfare, no foodstamps, nothing but generosity from our families who had little to offer. I guess it paid off, long term. Kids all turned out very respectable, 2 are proud-to-be military vets and all have degrees, families and good jobs. But through it all I think they learned something that isn't taught in school or out of a book - work ethic. Sometimes they needed a hand up but never took a handout. Big diff. Valuable lessons from the school of hard knocks. Painful when ya have to do it, but hopefully long term benefits make it worth it. But to all who are going thru these tough times, good luck, lets hope the worst is over and we can all get back into this hobby we like so much. And thanks to the administators for allowing this "vent" to stay open. Sometimes the pressure needs a place to blow!

 

I feel for all of you guys out there looking for work and pray things get better again. I think it will take a long time to recover from this latest downturn. Too many bad things all in one shot. It's not just a pull back in consumer spending.

I'm still working, but being in a small company (4 people), I have zero job security. Now that my stock broker has managed to loose almost 2/3 of my safety nest egg in the last 6-8 months, I don't have much to fall back on either.

Now not to get us off topic (well, not too much), what are you guys doing with the money you have left and will earn? My grandfather and father only invested in real estate, gold and bonds. I thought I could get better returns and sought "professional" help. The professional has now lost most of my money in the market. What scares me about stocks is that the theoretical low value is zero as I've recently found out. Not many other assets can say that.

 

Still pushing the kids through college. Possibly, maybe even getting my wife to go back for her PhD. I'm a strong believer in using your time when work is slow to sharpen your ax. You'll be ready for the next round before anyone else. My family's future is everything to me, I can live in a cardboard box myself. But I don't want them to. Investing in new skills is an investment that pays dividends no matter where you are or what the market does.

Reminds me of a story. Two guys realized they were being stalked by a tiger. One of them stops and ties his shoes. The other one asks him "are you nuts, we need to run" The guy still tying his shoes, " I know but I only have to be able to outrun you"...

 

I don't know- When I was a teen and started working my Dad said "get alot while I was young". I thought he was taliking about Real Estate. Being 55 now I know what he meant.

I don't have much left form my 401K. I paid all my small bills off and now only have a BIG house payment.

 

too many are losing their jobs around me, scary for sure. I hope things turn around and they stop bailing everyone out with more credit. Makes no sense at all, pay off debt with more debt, amazing.

 

DocWatson, your apparent presumption/assumption that I'm talking to you in my rant when I'm talking about the financial world as I see it is preposterous. Your apparent physical injuries have nothing to do with anything I have said. That's a seperate issue. I could never fathom the horror that must torment you with. War is hell.

My "Current reality" is, that we are headed for a deep recession, deeper than any I have ever encountered. My commentary on that has not been directed at anyone here, certainly you in particular, because I detect that you are just chiming in, making it up as you go along, gleaning sympathy. You don't need to do that.

I, and zillions of other people have tremendous respect/sympathy, for people injured in war. It goes, without saying, that when injujred in battle a man deserves the best of care. To jump/sink to any conclusion that any diss from me was directed at you is preposterous.

I don't know you and can't even relate to your plight, let alone judge it. I would not presume to "account for anybody's circumstances", except my own. Where did I say that? I respectfully ask you to "Quote" any statement I have made to that effect or that referenced your personal situation in any way, instead of rhetoric that skirts something that you imagine that I meant from something I said.

 

Well looks like Thursday is my last day . I have but a few things to say. FUCK YOU Banks Fuck you credit card companies, Fuck you coporate America, that has made our once great nation a complete steaming pile of shit. I hope you rot in the steaming pile you have made

 

My son got laid off just before Christmas, unlike me he is well educated and works in IT. Fortunately he hustled up another position, sounds like a better one and is already working, he lost no time. He is carrying a relatively large mortgage and has a 2 year old, his wife is not out of school yet, I was pretty concerned.

Working people are having a tough time IMO, fewer decent paying jobs than in the previous 35 years.

 

Sorry you are out of work. Unfortunately the people you'd like to see in the steaming pile still have plenty of money to stay out of it.

Its all us little guys that will be in the pile together. Kinda like corn.

 

I'm a self employed design engineer, and as you would expect, my business is in a world of hurt right now. However, 'tain't that bad--my house is paid for, the kids have moved out, and my wife has a good job. My only REAL overhead is the cost of my engineering software, which amounts to about $1800 a year, and I get to write that off. Today I was over to see a friend of mine, another engineer who really is hurting. Eight years ago when I decided to register my business and go it alone, he borrowed a gazillion dollars and bought a small manufacturing company. At any rate, he had an interesting story to tell me. "THE BIG LIE"---About 20 years ago, Canadian politicians were really hot on pushing "Free Trade". As we all know, big money is what really funds our poltical leaders. And big money seen that things could be manufactured more cheaply in China and India. So---gradually many, many manufacturing jobs were shifted to China and to a lesser extent India. At about the same time, our political economists began to emphasize how great things would be in a "Service based economy"---One in which manufacturing takes on a secondary importance, and we all work in "Service Industries". Okay, we all seen that happen---didn't like it that much, but short of a revolution, there wasn't much we could do about it. Now comes the interesting part, that I hadn't thought too much about. The "Big Money People" seen the extremely large population in China, and India. They knew that once these people started to get a foothold in manufacturing, and the average person began to make something more than a peasants wages, there would be an incredibly huge market in those countries. And if they (The Big Money People") already had factories in place in those countries, they would stand to make immense profits from selling goods in those countries. They also knew that A SERVICE BASED ECONOMY, WITHOUT MANUFACTURING TO BACK IT UP will have a very limited life span!!!----And they didn't really give a shit. Because, by the time our North American economy collapses, they will already have factories in place and be reaping huge profits in China and India, so why should they really care what happens in North America!!!---And now its happening. I don't profess to be an economist, and I'm not certain that my friend has it absolutely correct, but Damn, its difficult to pick holes in his logic!!!---Brian

 

DocWatson, What does it have to do with me, you ask?

If you want to get personal and call names, I feel obliged to reply. I didn't come on here to bring attention to myself, but your incorrigable wild-assed assumptions require that I remind you. No-where at any time have I dissed anybody that is handicapped. To jump to that conclusion makes me wonder about your sincerity.

I served for 21 years in the United States Air Force, from ten years before the Vietnam war started, until six years after Linebacker II.

I was lucky that I wasn't injured and am horrified that you lost family and were also injured. I don't KNOW that you are, but take you at your word. If your story is true, Nobody, Nobody!, can thank you enough for that sacrifice. That said, you have no call to diss my service because I was lucky enough to not be injured.

This arm-chair that I'm sitting in, I earned it. Thank you very much.

 

"Working people are having a tough time IMO, fewer decent paying jobs than in the previous 35 years"

Well said. What none of the politicians mentioned when they made a shift to free trade and a service economy is that the need for skilled labor actually decreases. When you manufacture you need engineers, designers, tool & die makers, machinists, CAD and CNC ops, factory workers, accountants, etc. When you import goods and run a warehouse all you need is equipment, order pickers who make $10 an hour and a few people to run the warehouse.

I know several good machinists and tool & die makers out of work with no hope of getting called back because the work is being done in India. That's scary. What the hell are we going to do if we go to war in 10 years. Buy the tanks from India made with Chinese steel?

One of the pictures on the "cool picture" thread really hits home. It's a shot from the '50s in a small town America somewhere. The main street is lined with small shops, people (i.e. families), all domestic cars and bustling with activity. A vibrant small town, like many in N.A. I bet if you took the same picture today, the main street would be dead since all the shoppers are shopping at the big box stores somewhere buying imported goods, the street is lined with predominantly foreign cars, only a few profitable shops remain, most of the young people have left to find work, folks are badly (i.e. slopy) dressed, and the 1.2 kid average are in daycare because their moms have to work. Is this really progress?

That's why I love my '49 coupe. It's my time machine. I sometimes wonder if I was born too late. I get alone fine with people 50+ but don't relate as much to my own and especially the younger generation. (I'm 38, but I was raised mostly by my grandmother who survived 2 world wars) It is pretty sad if we are supposed to be "first world" but the average person can't be bothered to dress/look respectible, speak and write clearly and have a respect for others.

In a way, this deep recession may give people and politicans a kick in the ass to change the way we've been operating for the last 20 years. It's not sustainable.

 

Wow, 49coupe, that's almost just like my life. same age, grandparents help raising me, get along better with older folk, etc... Also to a tee, downtown here is a ghost town. Used to be the main street, now it's a bunch of closed business buildings with only 2 banks, the hardware store, and the local Legion. I'll add one thing to the 35 years of paying jobs.....less jobs, yes, but cut that in half now that both women and men are fighting for the same positions. My $.02

 

I picked up a letter of reference from my now former employer today. I was told another 160 will be gone Friday.

 

To look on the bright side(what little might shine thru) at least you got a letter of reference.....hopefully someone will see your skills/knowledge and not pinch the pennies.

Good help is not cheap
Cheap help is not good

Reading all these pages makes me wish even more that I grew up in the 50's/60's

Best of luck to you Fat ASS Whitewalls job hunting!

 

For some reason I thought you were a San Joaquin "valley dude" as I am now a recovering one. You still are on my Hero list...