In March of 2009, I lost the best job I ever had when I was laid off from an online university that I had co-founded. It was not my first layoff, but it did mark the start of the longest period of unemployment and underemployment I have experienced personally. During the struggles with poverty, job hunting, and the street fight that is the quest for affordable health insurance, one finds that a new outlook on life is necessary for both physical and mental survival. It can be discouraging. It can also unleash unrealized creativity and delight.
I originally envisioned this to be a forum of ideas for surviving hard times—for getting by financially until another job came along—and that will constitute much of what you find here. But with five job seekers for every available job as well as newly created jobs paying less and less, it is a very real possibility that not everyone is going to find a new job or a job that can sustain an individual or a household. The smart money says that employment won’t return to 2007 levels until 2014 at the earliest. Living lean in the life after layoff becomes more than a stopgap. The retreat into penny-pinching is becoming necessary as the American middle class fades and the structures of power—banks, insurance companies, credit card corporations and even government itself—behave with fierce hostility toward ordinary people.
Two general options suggest themselves. One is to learn to live outside the embrace of corporate consumerism, arguably a large part of what got us into this economic mess and who knows what other maladies of body and soul. This entails seeking a way of living that is sustainable, that emphasizes experience and personal development over external substance, and redefining what it means to be fulfilled and happy. I firmly believe that this is not only doable, but necessary.
The other option is to muster the will and the clarity to resist, to demand responsibility and accountability from those whose hands are on the levers of power and to insist on fairness and justice. These options are not mutually exclusive.
I invite you to join me as we explore how to remake our world, our lives, and ourselves for a better future.
I’m still unemployed too Sheldon, I’ve learned to reduce my spending very well, even paid off a Line of Credit that I had and got ahead on the oil bill. One of my old friends that I recently found on FB told me not to be afraid of “gracious begging” in these times. I have used it on occasion and not only did it help me, but made the person I was doing business with feel so very good about themselves.
I have a second job interview next Tuesday with an IT firm that wants to create a position for me — keep me in your thoughts & prayers and give my love to Denise.