Is This It?
I have an entry in this blog (also the book "Unemployed: A Memoir") where I compare my situation at then 41 to "Logan's Run" in the Epilogue.
I thought frankly, I'd concluded the blog. At the time, I wasn't thinking about a book: because it's not a "sexy" subject - unemployment - it understandably does not sell well. That my screed would be answered by common sense and that the recession of the mid 2000s would lift. All would again be gainfully, fully employed. Fantasy.
So, is this it: Too Old for a Job, Too Young for Medicare or Social Security? The original article in the blog and book has moved from http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,375941,00.html to Finished At Forty IN THE NEW ECONOMY, THE SKILLS THAT COME WITH AGE COUNT FOR LESS AND LESS. SUDDENLY, 40 IS STARTING TO LOOK AND FEEL OLD. This article appeared in 1999. It's eleven years old and still relevant today.
It's relevant because invariably, the under-40 crowd will reach what Logan did as a "sandman" in the SyFy Fantasy: the "age of renewal," which he and other sandmen tracked down runners, until Logan reached the age and became a runner himself.
Is this it?
Instead of a laser that zaps us into oblivion, we're to transfer wealth upward and like it. We are to take jobs that pay LESS than our worth and adjust our budgets. We are to take contract jobs and pay exorbitant taxes as a freelance worker. We're to have skills we've worked a lifetime to master, now to be disregarded. Programmers appear to be up and out at 35. Banks on Wall Street are to get a tax payer bailout, and we are to be silent while their mistakes and morass go unpunished. We face foreclosure on our symbols of the American Dream and bankruptcy that will affect our credit for years to come. And, we are to be silent.
Where are YOU in this?
I'd like to hear from you and post your comments to this blog. The email is:
reginaldlgoodwin@blogger.com
Please let me know if I can post your name. Otherwise, your comments will be anonymous. I will respect your privacy.
My plan is to compile a list and forward the same to my Senate and House Representatives. I'd suggest you do the same to yours. If they hear from ALL of us, they'll listen less to Wall Street and more to Main Street. This is not an advocate position of one political party over the other, this is not a slight against the current or former administration in the White House. I advocate the over-40 American worker, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native that find themselves in the conundrum of "overqualified," "too smart" and "if we had two positions to hire for, you'd be one of them." It makes you feel good in the short term, until you look at your current bills that a good paying, fully employed job would remedy.
I am an American. I cannot accept oblivion or the scrap heap. This cannot be "it."
I am naive enough to believe we live in a democracy.
I thought frankly, I'd concluded the blog. At the time, I wasn't thinking about a book: because it's not a "sexy" subject - unemployment - it understandably does not sell well. That my screed would be answered by common sense and that the recession of the mid 2000s would lift. All would again be gainfully, fully employed. Fantasy.
So, is this it: Too Old for a Job, Too Young for Medicare or Social Security? The original article in the blog and book has moved from http://www.fortune.com/fortune/articles/0,15114,375941,00.html to Finished At Forty IN THE NEW ECONOMY, THE SKILLS THAT COME WITH AGE COUNT FOR LESS AND LESS. SUDDENLY, 40 IS STARTING TO LOOK AND FEEL OLD. This article appeared in 1999. It's eleven years old and still relevant today.
It's relevant because invariably, the under-40 crowd will reach what Logan did as a "sandman" in the SyFy Fantasy: the "age of renewal," which he and other sandmen tracked down runners, until Logan reached the age and became a runner himself.
Is this it?
Instead of a laser that zaps us into oblivion, we're to transfer wealth upward and like it. We are to take jobs that pay LESS than our worth and adjust our budgets. We are to take contract jobs and pay exorbitant taxes as a freelance worker. We're to have skills we've worked a lifetime to master, now to be disregarded. Programmers appear to be up and out at 35. Banks on Wall Street are to get a tax payer bailout, and we are to be silent while their mistakes and morass go unpunished. We face foreclosure on our symbols of the American Dream and bankruptcy that will affect our credit for years to come. And, we are to be silent.
Where are YOU in this?
I'd like to hear from you and post your comments to this blog. The email is:
reginaldlgoodwin@blogger.com
Please let me know if I can post your name. Otherwise, your comments will be anonymous. I will respect your privacy.
My plan is to compile a list and forward the same to my Senate and House Representatives. I'd suggest you do the same to yours. If they hear from ALL of us, they'll listen less to Wall Street and more to Main Street. This is not an advocate position of one political party over the other, this is not a slight against the current or former administration in the White House. I advocate the over-40 American worker, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native that find themselves in the conundrum of "overqualified," "too smart" and "if we had two positions to hire for, you'd be one of them." It makes you feel good in the short term, until you look at your current bills that a good paying, fully employed job would remedy.
I am an American. I cannot accept oblivion or the scrap heap. This cannot be "it."
I am naive enough to believe we live in a democracy.
posted by Unemployed | 8:38 AM
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