How Has the Recession Affected You?
I was really thinking about this as I walked back from the gym tonight. When I began my career in journalism, it didn't occur to me that in ten years time, I'd be significantly worse off, financially. I thought I'd cracked the hard part--selling my first book--and after that it would be a steady uphill ascent. I figured that by the time I was the age I am now, I'd be reasonably financially comfortable, maybe I'd have some savings. I certainly didn't think I'd be worried about whether I could afford to buy a pair of used boxing gloves.
I'm actually doing okay, recession-wise; I never had any substantial investments, so I never lost them. But the global economy has lent to my life a permanent feeling of anxiety. I just don't have the feeling, one that I used to have, for sure, that there were a ton of wonderful professional opportunities out there and infinitely many interesting ways to make a living.
Now I just feel fortunate to have any work at all.
What about you? How has it changed your life?
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Jul '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Claire, for most folks I know, who are still fortunate enough to be working, the real effect isn't the recession, per se. It's a gnawing perception that this particular recession heralds a new, gloomier normality.
In previous recessions, whatever the short-term bruising one took, there was always an innate belief that, this being America, once the inefficiencies were squeezed out of the system, things would always be better in the future. We'd get raises. We'd get better jobs. Our investments would appreciate in value.
This time, we suspect that things are unlikely ever again to be as they used to be - that the combination of the dead weight of bloated government and the destructive dynamics of globalization have permanently hobbled our economy.
So we save more. We spend less - and less joyfully.
And we seem, somehow, to be looking over our shoulders instead of forward into the future.
Dec '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Believe it or not, even those of us who work in the funeral business are feeling the same anxiety. More and more budget cremations. (Thank goodness for the Catholic Funeral Mass with traditional burial. The bread and butter of the industry.) We are now down to a skeleton crew. (Tee hee)
My wife sells commercial title insurance so I suppose I don't have to relate her tales of woe. We have three kids in college who will be fully qualified to be baristas at Starbucks in a few years.
But you know what? We ride the bumps. We have our church, our health and no child in prison or on meth. Sometimes it's difficult but you just have to concentrate on your blessings.
As we say at work. Any day you come in the front door on your own two feet instead of the back riding on the gurney is a blessed day.
Hang in there folks, the Obama regime ain't forever.
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Kenneth's comment perfectly -- and beautifully -- encapsulates my own gloomy sentiments.
Speaking from the perspective of a recent college graduate, I am shocked to see brand new graduates from my alma mater like those who graduated in '09 and '10 settle for underemployment (working in the food industry, or in retail, or doing clerical work). Just a few years ago, before the financial meltdown, newly minted college graduates applied for, and easily cinched, well-paying entry level jobs in consulting, investment banking, hedge funds, and other lucrative fields. Those sorts of jobs seem few and far between now.
Aug '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Throughout the boom, I kept my life savings in a savings account, since the whole idea of investing was foreign to me. For years, friends, relatives and bankers told me I was foolish to keep my money out of the stock market. I finally gave in to the pressure and put everything in the market...about three weeks before the crash.
On the other hand, I've kept my job and kept food on the table. I'm not quite struggling to make ends meet, but I worry more about being hit with unexpected bills.
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Yes, it's the sense that things have changed forever that really gets me. That there may be no path back to the comfortable middle class.
Aug '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
It's keeping us tied to my husband's current job -- which is so well-paying that in this uncertain economy, we'd be fools to abandon it -- so my husband and I are forgoing moving to the American Southwest for me to go to graduate school, which had been our original plan when we married.
Besides the Southwest being better for my health and both my husband's and my aesthetic enjoyment, moving there would physically remove me from a family entanglement, which, because I'm such a softie, I cannot help trying to ease as long as I'm in the same geographical area as the family members entangled.
So, in our current location, I enjoy poorer health and lots of painful family distractions. It is simply harder to be a productive person here. My husband and I had hoped, when we married, to remove me from all that.
Oh, well. I moped about this for a while, but I'm adapting to a plan B -- of some kind.
Nov '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Well, I don't have a job. Does that count? And I can't seem to get one, not even in retail. Not even stocking or something - which is what I did before. The people I worked with want me back (not to brag, but I was pretty darned good), but the HR computers have the first say, and the jobs are taken already. Target? No. Barns and Noble? Nope. ToysRUs? Nada. Even this time of year.
May '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Because of the recession, I can't afford to pour champagne on my hos anymore like the rappers do. Now I have to settle for colt 45.
Edited on Dec 10, 2010 at 12:56pmNov '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
I feel a profound sense of pessimism. The world is "shrinking" and losing its color, and I blame it all on the growing influence of Socialism and its benighted goal — equality of outcome.
In the socialist future, everyone will be guaranteed a job — that gives no satisfaction and never provides enough income to pay the bills. Everyone will be fed three meals a day — but the food will be bland and tasteless, and never enough to fill the belly. Everyone will receive an equal share of the sun's light — but never enough to warm the body and soul.
"Equality of outcome" simply means less for everyone, everywhere.
Edited on Dec 10, 2010 at 1:09pmAug '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Michael Labeit
Because of the recession, I can't afford to pour champagne on my hos anymore like the rappers do. Now I have to settle for colt 45.
Michael, you're too classy to have a ho. Mistresses or courtesans, perhaps.
May '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Midget Faded Rattlesnake
Michael Labeit
Because of the recession, I can't afford to pour champagne on my hos anymore like the rappers do. Now I have to settle for colt 45.
Michael, you're too classy to have a ho. Mistresses or courtesans, perhaps.
I don't want to give my girls false impressions now. They're hos.
Sep '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
I did something I've never done before (not even close--I've had some type of job since age 11 and have had over 30 different jobs--part time, temp., and full time, even counting all the pharmacy gigs as one job). I quit my job as a Wichita pharmacist right in the middle of it all (Aug. 8th was my last day) and could get roughly the same type of job tomorrow, in Wichita, if I wanted to. Pharmacy and other health care professions (especially pharmacy in the Wichita area and in Western KS) are still plentiful, not to mention recession-resistant.
It's been wonderful--I've been able to relax, Bs a lot on Ricochet, and catch up on odd jobs around the house, but I'll have to go back to work soon.
One thing I've noticed in these parts. When I've employed a handyman-type (concrete man, sheet-rocker, etc) to help me with the projects beyond my ken, I've always asked him if he has enough work to keep busy. In virtually every instance, the answer is yes. Obviously, the kind of work one does, and where one is, matters.
May '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Kenneth sums it up for me as well. But I don't have a spouse and kids to look after, so I expect others are more worried than I am.
May '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
The recession has definitely made it necessary to defend capitalism against charges of financial recklessness and irresponsibility. I find myself now having to refute others (if I may say so myself) who claim that capitalism was responsible for the financial and economic crisis.
Jun '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Well, since you asked...hold onto your hat.
I think I'm about to find out. I've been gainfully employed through the recession but was laid off just a month ago with a few dozen other colleagues. In the last two years I've been re-examining my life plan. My wife decided she no longer wanted to be married and walked out leaving me to care for our teenage Autistic son. Last year about this time I had to put my son in a temporary emergency group home because he had become very aggressive and violent. He's better now and home with me. Around that same time I had to put my old blind golden retriever down. So, at that time when friends would greet me and ask how I was doing, I'd say, "Oh fine, my wife left me, I had to put my son in a group home and my dog died, but other than that...just living a country western song."
At the moment, working on laying out the final pages of a book based on my political commentary and finishing my first novel...while I look for a new job.
Jul '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Brian Watt: Well, since you asked...hold onto your hat.
10 at 1:12pm
Brian, I'm sorry to hear of your woes. God bless you and yours.
Jul '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Dan Holmes:
One thing I've noticed in these parts. When I've employed a handyman-type (concrete man, sheet-rocker, etc) to help me with the projects beyond my ken, I've always asked him if he has enough work to keep busy. In virtually every instance, the answer is yes. Obviously, the kind of work one does, and where one is, matters. · Dec 10 at 1:07pm
But the larger question is whether their incomes have declined. A lot of handyman types are competing with each other by offering ever-lower hourly rates, whereas 4 or 5 years ago, they'd have been working for a home-builder at good wages, with benefits.
Oct '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
I have successfully leveraged my recently obtained degree into a job working in a receivables management for one of the giant cell phone providers. A job with absolutely no entry requirements except have no criminal record.
Luckily its just a stop-gap before I ship off for the Army. Lucky the Army took me (not really lucky I guess because I did get a 99th percentile on the ASVAB) because there is practically nothing available in this part of Colorado, except some entry-level labor jobs in the oil and natural gas fields.
Nov '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Damn it, Diane, that was part of the problem. Those are all non-productive jobs. A healthy economy depends on production — on men who scratch metal from the earth and raise food from the soil — on factory workers who make things that other people are willing to buy. The financial field is about intangibles. The "beer" they produce is nothing but foam.
A single blue-collar worker who knows how to make a good brick is worth more to the economy than the whole staff at Goldman Sachs.
Edited on Dec 10, 2010 at 1:25pmJun '10
Re: How Has the Recession Affected You?
Kenneth
Brian Watt: Well, since you asked...hold onto your hat.
10 at 1:12pm
Brian, I'm sorry to hear of your woes. God bless you and yours. · Dec 10 at 1:16pm
Thanks, Kenneth. Much appreciated. I think circumstances are forcing me to confront new paths in my life; some that have always been there but obscured by the shrubbery of the life that got in the way. I've been in marketing for over 30 years and high tech marketing for 17...but I've always wanted to carve out a career as a novelist and political observer, so we'll see how this all plays out. I'll let everyone know when the books are ready. Cheers.