Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Laid-off workers growing desperate
Bergen Record ^ | December 7, 2002 | By KATHLEEN LYNN, CHARLES AUSTIN, AND ALLISON PRIES

Posted on 12/07/2002 4:41:36 AM PST by sarcasm

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180181-186 last
To: F.J. Mitchell
Burger flipper is honest work.

So is IT consultant. Why should I drop from the middle class to the lower class if I don't have to? That's the American way??? That's idiocy.

And who's begging or whining (and I RESENT that implication!)? I've been a taxpayer in this country for almost 30 years now. I've paid those taxes so that when times like this happen, I'd have a govt to back me up when things got tight, but they're out to lunch.

Instead, they're letting anybody who can spell the word computer into this country on an H1B visa so that they can do the same job for a FAR cheaper price which employers jump at. Why bother to have a government if they're going to do us out of a well paying job and replace it with a gutter job (and yes, I consider a burger flipper or convenience store checker a gutter job!)

If you expect me to go from a $45/hr job to a $13/hr job without complaining, FORGET IT! I spent hundreds of days and nights working literally around the clock to get where I've been and have worked my buns off. Why bother to go to college or put in thousands of extra hours on the job, just to end up with a minimum wage job??

I'm not lazy and I've always LOVED my job. But, yes, I'll just HATE a minimum wage job because that will mean that I have to give up my house, my middle class life and descend into a pit of despair for heavens knows how long.

I'm not sitting on my hands. I'm looking to get out of the computer industry and break into the writing market. I'd planned that years ago and have just accelerated my schedule.

Don't give me any more BS about begging and whining please.

181 posted on 12/08/2002 4:09:49 PM PST by America's Resolve
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 171 | View Replies]

To: SauronOfMordor
Don't be surprised if he has a little mustache.

Or a big mustache or no mustache at all:

Big mustache.

No mustache.

Make your pick.

182 posted on 12/08/2002 4:12:32 PM PST by A. Pole
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 179 | View Replies]

To: America's Resolve
Over the past 30 years at $45.00 per hour, working only 40 hours per week, you would have grossed almost three million dollars. The net due to taxes etc., and considering the lean years early on, when per hour wages were surely less than $45.00 would still be at least a million taken home. THe average person would have at least banked ten percent of wages such as those, and considering that interest paid on the average bank account during the seventies was around ten percent, you should have had a pretty good nest egg stashed away by the time the sh*t hit the fan.

If you can find a job as a consultant now-fine-we have nothing else to discuss. You can stay in the middle class and have no reason to whine. Being guaranteed a certain status in life is not the American way-picking yourself up by the boot strings and starting over as many times as is neccessary is the American way. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is the American way and the only Constitutionally spelled out guarantee.

We all pay taxes and those taxes are too darn high, especially on those in your former wage catagory and above, I feel that we all regardless of our financial status should pay exactly the same taxes percentage wise-anything else is government sponsored punishment for succeeding.

I hope you find a position suitable to your experience and education-I pray that our economy starts to booming-I believe it will. In the mean time I wish you every success in your asperation to be a writer.

My comment merits your resentment and I accept it as my just due. I apologize.





183 posted on 12/08/2002 5:25:51 PM PST by F.J. Mitchell
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 181 | View Replies]

To: A. Pole
So where all this technological progress leads if it does not save human labour and people stop going to the church or have family life for lack of time? Political/economical system is to serve man, not the other way around.

The entire reason that my proposal is interesting to the automotive companies is that is saves human labor. Precisely, it saves rooms full of people answering phones that cost $35,000+ each year.

All the fabulous technology that people enjoy is built by people who work their butts off. Other people get to enjoy the fruits of their labors. In my experience, the reward for a job well done on a high tech task is to be thrown into the fire on the next one. It pays the bills, but doesn't leave much time to enjoy life.

The political/economic system in the U.S. is far more socialistic than it should be. It is wrong for the government to steal half of my gross earnings to subsidize other people. I have to generate a volume of income to keep my two oldest sons in college. Once that is complete, I have the option of pissing off the politicians by dropping my income to a level where their progressive ripoff scheme is no longer making me a slave to their social engineering.

184 posted on 12/08/2002 6:49:59 PM PST by Myrddin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 139 | View Replies]

To: marbren
No, not by military might, but by first rededicating ourselvess to God, removal of socialist doctrines and reaffirm those divine institutions which provide man the rich blessings available from God's bounty.

We don't have to worry about becoming socialized or communized,...we're already there.

We need to return to Him first, then the basics already enunciated in the Constitution which we've eroded over the years by cumbersome embellishment.

185 posted on 12/09/2002 8:19:27 PM PST by Cvengr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 165 | View Replies]

To: Cvengr
This is the solution. However, I at this point think we are too deep into sin for God to bring revival to the USA. Judgement seems more appropriate. We can pray, God may give us another chance.
186 posted on 12/10/2002 1:32:57 AM PST by marbren
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 185 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 121-140141-160161-180181-186 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson