WyBlog

Among 6 people I'm the only guy with a job

No wonder my taxes are so high! There are a lot of mouths to feed out there.

Six of us spent the weekend at a lake house in the Poconos. The couple who own the house are retired. My wife has been out of work for more than a year. The other guy is a freelance graphic artist who's sucking wind and his wife just got sacked on Friday.

I'm the only working stiff in the bunch.

From the delicious irony department — she got canned by Pinch Sulzberger. Yup The New York Times is hemorrhaging so much money they're dumping ad sales reps. A business which is cutting its sales force is like a farmer who eats his seed corn. They don't plan on growing any time soon.

I guess ole Pinch can report her layoff as another "unexpected" jump in the unemployment rate. There seems to be a lot of that going around.

To be fair the retired couple planned well, invested wisely, and are content with their standard of living. When I cracked this joke (hey, I'm supporting all you layabouts) after dinner and my second glass of Macallan 12 he shot back, "we're not on Social Security, and don't plan on it being there for us." They're a few years shy of 60; and with the way things are going in Washington these days his pessimism seem warranted.

People are hurting. Folks are scared. Families are hungry.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are nearly 31 million people currently unemployed -- that's including those involuntarily working parttime and those who want a job, but have given up on trying to find one. In the face of the worst economic upheaval since the Great Depression, millions of Americans are hurting.

Caliph Barack I and his Queen are still on vacation....

Posted at 16:16 by Chris Wysocki   [/odds_n_ends]   Comments | Archived | Perm Link |
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