I got laid off two weeks after 9/11. I was a 10 year employee making well over 100k per year. I had a 401k with over 200k which I depleted to pay bills, taxes, mortgage and cost of opening a business.
Business failed to meet expectations and when I went thru all my savings trying to save everything I was forced to file for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.
Still looking for the right career, still trying to make it on my own in a new business adventure. I would prefer the later since I feel it is a better opportunity for me in the long run.
But for this article's rants and raves about the economy, I would STRONGLY DISAGREE with its message. It maybe tough out there, but you can survive. (Maybe not on the grandscale as they are use to living, but surviving non the less)
I believe we are already seeing one of the best recoveries this country has ever seen! I belive in Tax Cuts and Bush.
We don't need a big nanny (read Hillary)for government, way to many people like sit and complain about their lives, yet few are willing to do what is necessary for themselves or their families to move forward.
In sales and in life "pessimism sells newspapers, optimism sells everything else!"* Just my two cents....
But most jobs in Massachusetts pay more than the minimum wage. Entry level supermarket and fast food jobs pay over $7 an hour and these jobs are worked mostly by teenage kids living at home and elderly people looking to supplement their Social Security. It would seem that this couple should have no problem rising quickly above that level if they ever had to do that line of work because those places are always starved for good management candidates.
I have a relative in New Hampshire who found himself out of work and he took a job at the local Wal-Mart. At first, he was driving forklifts at night, stocking shelves, making just a couple dollars above minimum wage. But he was quickly recognized as a hard worker and within six months, he was made a shift supervisor and nearly doubled his pay. He would have had quite a career going for himself there today had he not been recalled back to the job he was laid off at (where he makes about $30 an hour as a machinist).
BTW, if you were to work your way up to managing a Wal-Mart store (most Wal-Mart managers started at the bottom stocking shelves and whatnot), you could expect to make well into six figures. Working these jobs need not be a dead-end experience. Opportunities abound for those who are willing to grab them.
A big "hear-hear" to that. When my wife and I first got married (back in '97) a week after we got back from our honeymoon (and before I got the job I'm presently in), the place were she worked went out of business. I worked at UPS in the evening and did a 250 paper paperroute (which had me working 2am to 6am) for a year and a half. I think I made 35k that year. It can be done.