I’m with you. There’s ivory tower types all over here saying unemployment benefits are ruining their lives. Well, if they gotta ever really need them they’ll have a quick change of heart.
I’m suffering through similar dumps now, but I’ve mostly worked for 13 years fairly well except for awhile after 9/11 when the tech sector bombed here.
Hang in there. Start a business selling something that is needed in this economy. Don’t let the nasty people get you down and just keep plugging along, no matter how long it takes. The nasty people have no idea what it is like to have lost everything and the humiliation one feels at having to hold out one’s hand for help. To hear them tell it, we are all lazy people, partying and playing on all that money that wouldn’t even make my house payment. They are fools.
I will say this much, that people here do need to know, we received much better health care when we were “poor” than when we had insurance... all for free. Being uninsured, if at 200% of poverty level or below, is a pretty darned good deal (For a family of 4, that is $44,100/yr after deductions on your federal income tax.) Even more amazing, it was the more competent health professionals that did this (something in low supply in Eastern TN.)
It boggles my mind that people are screaming about not having health insurance. Google is their friend. Or call their local health department that will give them a long list of docs, dentists, and the like that will treat the poor for free. Having to sit in the ER to receive healthcare is a myth that those of us who have always been paying worker bees have believed. We were shafted on Obamacare even more than I realized and I now understand why those left uninsured weren’t a big deal to the Obamanutters.