Author Topic: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!  (Read 9161 times)

ducky19

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9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« on: December 19, 2016, 11:06:34 AM »

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/9-million-american-men-in-prime-working-age-cant-find-jobs-and-im-one-of-them/ar-AAlJOVu?li=BBnbfcN&ocid=mailsignout

The entire tone of this article sounds complainy-pants. A few of my favorite excerpts:

“There have been times where I’ve wondered if I should just get a temporary service or manual labor job to help out with extra cash. But I’m worried about getting stuck in a position with even less room for growth than my previous jobs. And to be honest, I would be too humiliated. Our social circle, made up of mostly well-paid tech workers and professionals, has no idea how bad our situation has been. It would be exceptionally difficult to work eight hours a day hoping with all my might that a neighbor or friend wouldn’t swing by to see me working the cash register or pumping gas. I’m already demoralized. I didn't need any additional anger toward the world.”

Apparently too good to do just any type of work… I mean, he’s educated! He shouldn’t have to stoop to doing manual labor!

“Lately my thoughts have morphed into something resembling an existential crisis. What is the point of my being here on this earth? If I get a job, I will be able to afford a higher standard of living, I will return to the higher social status of the employed, and my family will respect me more — would all of that really be enough to justify my existence? Or would nothing really change? This alarmed my therapist when I mentioned it to him, although I am a long, long way away from self-harm of any kind.”

Wait, wha…? You’ve “memorized the cost of our grocery store list, going through combinations of items in my head so that each trip is as cheap as possible”, yet you’re spending money on a therapist??? I guess you need to have priorities…

“I wake up, crack open my laptop fully intending to spend a day applying for jobs and sending reminder emails. That’s when the distraction starts. I promise myself, just a quick glance at Twitter to see what’s going on in the world, and then I look up and it’s 1:15 in the afternoon. Twitter is my heroin — it’s endless content, and if I’m bored by one tweet, I just go on to the next one.”

If the other 9 million men are anything like you, it's no wonder they can't find work. My head hurts.

Warlord1986

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2016, 12:37:15 PM »


“Lately my thoughts have morphed into something resembling an existential crisis. What is the point of my being here on this earth? If I get a job, I will be able to afford a higher standard of living, I will return to the higher social status of the employed, and my family will respect me more — would all of that really be enough to justify my existence? Or would nothing really change? This alarmed my therapist when I mentioned it to him, although I am a long, long way away from self-harm of any kind.”

Wait, wha…? You’ve “memorized the cost of our grocery store list, going through combinations of items in my head so that each trip is as cheap as possible”, yet you’re spending money on a therapist??? I guess you need to have priorities…


I'll agree that it's an incredibly whiny tone, and it's obvious that he's not doing anything to help himself or fix his situation, but it seems very likely that he's dealing with depression. Depression is an ugly disease, and a therapist might be very needed.

Digital Dogma

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2016, 12:45:12 PM »
Reads like a guy afraid to go outside of his comfort zone, like others said it could be some sort of anxiety or other mental issue underlying his difficult career path. There is shame in being out of the workforce while you live off your SO and contribute nothing to retirement, not in working a register for a wage. Maybe this guy does IT and customer service because its not face-to-face, as it seems like this may be his real issue, social interaction.

gimp

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2016, 02:14:12 PM »
There is a lot of opportunity out there, but you'd be blind not to admit that many well-paying relatively-low-education jobs are gone. Makes life more difficult for some.

OurTown

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2016, 03:49:01 PM »
This story makes me kind of sad.  Twenty-some years ago when I found myself in a brief "transition" period in my life, I did office temp jobs.  (Kelly Services).  When I finally landed on my feet, I thought thank God I won't ever have to do that again!  Fast forward about ten years later . . . boom, a life disruption complete with divorce and a major job loss.  Guess what, more temp services, with Manpower this time, until I started law school.  Of course, I could have sat around and whined that temp jobs were beneath my dignity for someone of my skills and talents.  That may have been true but arrogance does not pay the bills.   

Civex

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #5 on: December 19, 2016, 06:05:40 PM »
I'm a bit surprised at the sympathy for the guy in this story(in the wall of shame and comedy subforum): he is basically a 40 something adult living in his mom's house being supported by his partner...and...whining about it. From the sounds of the story he has done nothing to better himself or situation, like going back to school, learning a trade, or being willing to hustle and, "take a job below him."

I can understand hitting a rough patch, but it sounds like this guy in a cycle of: take crappy job, lose crappy job, be unemployed and search for future crappy job. If what you're doing doesn't work, change what you're doing.

And he wants to whine about having to do, "more" of the household chores?! Really, buck up butter cup.

If the guy were in his twenties, people would be lamenting lazy millennials.

sleepyguy

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #6 on: December 19, 2016, 09:20:52 PM »
Pathetic imho... I'm generally pretty "softie" when it comes to sob stories but this is pathetic.  Embarrased to ask for work, social stigma?  Really... you provide for your loved, who gives a crap if you're pumping gas or flipping burgers.  You get family benefits and provide and become a responsible adult.

I totally agree with the above poster... he's living off his moms paid off house, his wife and paying the bills... and he's whining.  Has all the time in the world to learn new skill sets.  Pathetic.

Sofa King

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #7 on: December 20, 2016, 04:01:08 PM »
Adversity breeds opportunity.  This schmuck has to many enablers in his life to take a job ANY job. He is still a child in his mind. Still living like he is 12 years old.

rachellynn99

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #8 on: December 20, 2016, 04:12:10 PM »
I'm 34. So not super young, nor old. However two things my dad did for me when I was young:

1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.

2) I remember my dad fell into some hard times about 15 - 18 years ago when he was working construction and there was some bad weather, combined with just some other weird circumstances. He went coon hunting nightly to sell hides for $35 each, then worked all day at handy man jobs until he could get back on his feet.

If it's one thing my family and I do, it's work.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #9 on: December 20, 2016, 04:26:58 PM »
I'm 34. So not super young, nor old. However two things my dad did for me when I was young:

1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.

2) I remember my dad fell into some hard times about 15 - 18 years ago when he was working construction and there was some bad weather, combined with just some other weird circumstances. He went coon hunting nightly to sell hides for $35 each, then worked all day at handy man jobs until he could get back on his feet.

If it's one thing my family and I do, it's work.

The point #1 applies just as well for women too, and it's a point worth repeating to sons.

Far too many people are willing to marry women who are convinced that all they need to do is to show up and look pretty. That's all they end up being good at, though: they won't clean up after themselves around the house, they won't hold down a job, they won't look after their own kids and pets, and they're more trouble than they're worth.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #10 on: December 20, 2016, 04:36:49 PM »
1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.

What if the man won't work because he's already FIRE'd?

He still needs to put away his share of the breakfast dishes. Same as a woman who's already FIRE'd.

rachellynn99

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #11 on: December 20, 2016, 06:06:03 PM »
1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.

What if the man won't work because he's already FIRE'd?

He still needs to put away his share of the breakfast dishes. Same as a woman who's already FIRE'd.

I highly doubt anyone would be in a situation of FIRE if they wouldn't work. Except maybe someone who inherited money or some other very strange situation. Which we both know is not what my father was talking about. 

Metric Mouse

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #12 on: December 21, 2016, 09:04:18 AM »
This story makes me kind of sad.  Twenty-some years ago when I found myself in a brief "transition" period in my life, I did office temp jobs.  (Kelly Services).  When I finally landed on my feet, I thought thank God I won't ever have to do that again!  Fast forward about ten years later . . . boom, a life disruption complete with divorce and a major job loss.  Guess what, more temp services, with Manpower this time, until I started law school.  Of course, I could have sat around and whined that temp jobs were beneath my dignity for someone of my skills and talents.  That may have been true but arrogance does not pay the bills.

I wonder if people who have done manual labor jobs before are less likely to think like the subject of the article. If I'd never pumped gas or cleaned barns or loaded boxes, I might think that there is nothing redeeming in those jobs, but having done so I find they are not nearly as degrading as sitting around the house wishing I were working.

KCM5

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #13 on: December 21, 2016, 09:20:41 AM »
This story makes me kind of sad.  Twenty-some years ago when I found myself in a brief "transition" period in my life, I did office temp jobs.  (Kelly Services).  When I finally landed on my feet, I thought thank God I won't ever have to do that again!  Fast forward about ten years later . . . boom, a life disruption complete with divorce and a major job loss.  Guess what, more temp services, with Manpower this time, until I started law school.  Of course, I could have sat around and whined that temp jobs were beneath my dignity for someone of my skills and talents.  That may have been true but arrogance does not pay the bills.

I wonder if people who have done manual labor jobs before are less likely to think like the subject of the article. If I'd never pumped gas or cleaned barns or loaded boxes, I might think that there is nothing redeeming in those jobs, but having done so I find they are not nearly as degrading as sitting around the house wishing I were working.

I think some people might be like that. But other people, even when they're working the manual labor jobs, talk about how demeaning the work is. Or at least I can remember co workers at my multitude of unskilled jobs complaining about just that. Personally, I don't mind that kind of work and actually kind of miss it. But some people are going to find any work demeaning, so there's that.

MgoSam

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #14 on: December 21, 2016, 09:32:12 AM »


1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.



Agree with that, though as a male I'd add the same in that I won't date a women that won't work.

Now if either or both of us are FIRE, that's a different story. Thankfully in this day and age, nearly everyone works.

GuitarStv

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #15 on: December 21, 2016, 09:44:51 AM »
“There have been times where I’ve wondered if I should just get a temporary service or manual labor job to help out with extra cash. But I’m worried about getting stuck in a position with even less room for growth than my previous jobs. And to be honest, I would be too humiliated. Our social circle, made up of mostly well-paid tech workers and professionals, has no idea how bad our situation has been. It would be exceptionally difficult to work eight hours a day hoping with all my might that a neighbor or friend wouldn’t swing by to see me working the cash register or pumping gas. I’m already demoralized. I didn't need any additional anger toward the world.”

Apparently too good to do just any type of work… I mean, he’s educated! He shouldn’t have to stoop to doing manual labor!

I think that he has some valid concerns listed there.

I'm a software engineer.  If I stopped doing software engineering for a couple years to go and work a service or manual labor job, I've just really fucked myself.

- There's going to be a big gap on my resume which will lead to tough questions and potential employers questioning if I'm really cut out for the position that they're hiring for.
- There's going to be a couple years gap where I'm not working on and improving my skills as a software engineer.  If you're not continuously learning in this career, you're probably not going to be hired for your next job.
- There's likely not going to be much chance of career development or improvement working a temp service/manual labor job.  Many companies do not hire from the pool of temp workers, they just keep them temporary forever.

It might be possible to overcome that, but honestly I'd be far more inclined to teach myself new programming languages, develop software projects that I can show potential employers, and keep applying to jobs in my field day after day.  I think this approach is much more likely to lead to success.

BlueMR2

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #16 on: December 21, 2016, 10:14:53 AM »
There's some truth to that.  Once you're out of a professional job (for any reason) it's really hard to get another (they only seem to hire people that already have jobs).  Worse yet is taking a non-professional job.  The people that do that have an even worse struggle getting back into the game.  It's tough.

Personally though, I'd take the non-professional job to keep covering my expenses and do side projects in my chosen field hoping somebody would pick me up eventually.  It's less risky to do that way overall even though you're less likely to get back into the job you want...

Not sure why the women are left out though.  Same thing applies.  My wife lost her full time professional job, after looking and finding nothing for a couple years she finally caved in and just accepted a part time manual labor job for near minimum wage.  It makes *enough* to keep our financial plans on track, but was tough as it's practically admitting that she'll never work in a professional capacity again.

jinga nation

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #17 on: December 21, 2016, 10:34:25 AM »


1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.



Agree with that, though as a male I'd add the same in that I won't date a women that won't work.

Now if either or both of us are FIRE, that's a different story. Thankfully in this day and age, nearly everyone works.
Not in my workplace. Most spouses of my co-workers are stay-at-home. Because, apart from a couple of us college-educated fools, the rest are ex-military. These guys have half my family income and double the spending.

Obligatory Niles Standish "Cut it in half and double it": https://youtu.be/BHUNWqmasxk?t=1m16s

mm1970

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #18 on: December 21, 2016, 02:17:13 PM »
There is a lot of opportunity out there, but you'd be blind not to admit that many well-paying relatively-low-education jobs are gone. Makes life more difficult for some.

This is very true.  And the whole American dream thing too "just work hard and succeed!"

Some people get laid off and get other jobs.  Because they are good, work hard, whatever.  Some people suck and remain employed.

Some good people get laid off and cannot get other employment.  How do you handle that?  How do you come to terms with the 'new normal'?  Change it up, learn something new, take a temp job to pay the bills - but what if the temp job is your permanent life?  How to know that?

I've had to come to terms with a "new normal" on hitting the glass ceiling.  I have friends and coworkers who have had similar experiences with illness and injury - they were left unable to work, or able to work at a lesser capacity - far earlier than they expected.

It's kind of like a pyramid, or the military, or whatever.  100 engineers start in their 20's.  What happens when they are 50?  Some move into management, some move into senior engineering, some do sales...but are you going to have 100 well-paid individuals?  Age discrimination is no joke.

There's this expectation that your income is always going to go up...it's got to be tough to wake up to the truth

marty998

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #19 on: December 21, 2016, 02:55:16 PM »
1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.


Agree with that, though as a male I'd add the same in that I won't date a women that won't work.

Now if either or both of us are FIRE, that's a different story. Thankfully in this day and age, nearly everyone works.

Labor participation rate says otherwise... only ~64% of working age people are actually in some form of work in Australia.

So 1 in 3 don't actually work for a crust.

GuitarStv

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #20 on: December 21, 2016, 03:13:17 PM »
1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.


Agree with that, though as a male I'd add the same in that I won't date a women that won't work.

Now if either or both of us are FIRE, that's a different story. Thankfully in this day and age, nearly everyone works.

Labor participation rate says otherwise... only ~64% of working age people are actually in some form of work in Australia.

So 1 in 3 don't actually work for a crust.

When you remove people who have disabilities that prevent them from working, those who are retired, those who are furthering their education, and those who receive income from illegal sources what do the numbers look like?  A raw 64% number is far too course grained to be able to understand or draw conclusions about what's happening.

gimp

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #21 on: December 21, 2016, 03:16:22 PM »
1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.

I would never date a woman who didn't work either. Actually, to be honest, I don't really enjoy dating women who work at jobs that pay way less than mine, because it can make money awkward.

RFAAOATB

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #22 on: December 21, 2016, 04:35:13 PM »
1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.

I would never date a woman who didn't work either. Actually, to be honest, I don't really enjoy dating women who work at jobs that pay way less than mine, because it can make money awkward.

We need a matchmaking or online dating service that matches by income.  Call it AssortativeDating.com where you have to upload your tax data and professional matchmakers match you with someone who is not on a different trajectory than you are.
« Last Edit: December 21, 2016, 04:45:47 PM by RFAAOATB »

mm1970

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #23 on: December 21, 2016, 05:43:04 PM »
1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.

I would never date a woman who didn't work either. Actually, to be honest, I don't really enjoy dating women who work at jobs that pay way less than mine, because it can make money awkward.

We need a matchmaking or online dating service that matches by income.  Call it AssortativeDating.com where you have to upload your tax data and professional matchmakers match you with someone who is not on a different trajectory than you are.
Isn't that part of the problem?  Depending on who you ask.

I've read here and there about economics.  Women like to marry men who make more.  But now there are increasingly better paid women.  So it's hard to find men.

And then the 2-career high income couples.  Is it less common for doctors to marry secretaries?  And engineers to marry teachers?  Now you've got 2 doctors married to each other, so the wealth gets more concentrated.


meghan88

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #24 on: December 21, 2016, 06:24:28 PM »
1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.

I would never date a woman who didn't work either. Actually, to be honest, I don't really enjoy dating women who work at jobs that pay way less than mine, because it can make money awkward.

We need a matchmaking or online dating service that matches by income.  Call it AssortativeDating.com where you have to upload your tax data and professional matchmakers match you with someone who is not on a different trajectory than you are.
Isn't that part of the problem?  Depending on who you ask.

I've read here and there about economics.  Women like to marry men who make more.  But now there are increasingly better paid women.  So it's hard to find men.

And then the 2-career high income couples.  Is it less common for doctors to marry secretaries?  And engineers to marry teachers?  Now you've got 2 doctors married to each other, so the wealth gets more concentrated.

Oh, it can be complicated.  Early "career" as a low-paid female wage earner, I worked one, two or three jobs at a time, subsidizing my Sig-O's music "career" for 10 years, then an engineering degree for 5 years (yes, 5 years).  After he finally graduated and split in the early 90's (no kids ... good thing) I got through higher ed and quadrupled my own income.  I was oh-so-happy after 10 years as a single to meet someone who had an actual JOB.  Didn't care what he did.  He had a JOB.  He was also in debt to the tune of 50K.

Fast-forward 15 years and he's still employed with a respectable net worth.  We are about 4 years away from retiring.  I hope.

But, to the OP's cited article, if my career came to an end tomorrow, I'd take any job I could find if I had to, *if* it became clear to me that I would not get another job in my field.

There is no shame in working, no matter what that work might be.

gimp

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #25 on: December 21, 2016, 06:53:21 PM »
There are certainly weird social issues that stem from the fact that women having more-or-less equality (pre-emptive: no whining), especially including the ability to not have kids, to work for equal pay and be a professional, to own property, etc etc, is very very recent (at least in western/euro-centric culture).

So you have these weird dynamics where men and women can easily do most of the same highly-paid work and earn the same, but women want to marry someone who makes at least as much or more than them.

Or where men and women can work the same kinds of jobs, but married women are expected to do more of the house chores and child rearing.

I think that'll more or less work itself out over some number of generations. It's impossible to go from a culture of single-earner households to double-earner households and not have friction over it.



As far as concentrating wealth goes, that's really up to you to decide if it's problematic or not. If every household simply doubles their income (people tend to marry within their classes, including economic), nobody who works for a living really gets ahead - prices rise to match the rising household incomes. The absolute number of dollars isn't interesting at all, because it's an arbitrary number. To look at wealth concentration, you should be looking at actual buying power, especially as it relates to necessities (whether that's food and clothes, or land and a home, or rights to mine or farm or otherwise extract raw materials, etc.)

Metric Mouse

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #26 on: December 22, 2016, 04:47:12 AM »
Make it by NW rather than income or I will never ever get a date again unless its the guy living under the bridge in a card board box ;-).

Ha! Let's hope that's not the trajectory you're on!  Mustachians and early retirees just don't seem fit into any system...

ducky19

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #27 on: December 22, 2016, 08:16:25 AM »
I'm 34. So not super young, nor old. However two things my dad did for me when I was young:

1) Told me NEVER to date or marry a man that wouldn't work.

2) I remember my dad fell into some hard times about 15 - 18 years ago when he was working construction and there was some bad weather, combined with just some other weird circumstances. He went coon hunting nightly to sell hides for $35 each, then worked all day at handy man jobs until he could get back on his feet.

If it's one thing my family and I do, it's work.

I guess this is my point - I have never been unemployed for more than a day. At one point, I had a full time job and four part time jobs. Have I done some absolute shit jobs? More than I'd care to count. But I always busted my ass so that I wouldn't have to rely on family or unemployment, and then did what I needed to do to get myself out of said shitty job ASAP. Not sit around on my thumbs looking at Twitter all day.

RFAAOATB

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #28 on: December 22, 2016, 10:04:29 AM »
Make it by NW rather than income or I will never ever get a date again unless its the guy living under the bridge in a card board box ;-).

Wouldn't your income as a high net worth investor be the predetermined payments from your investments? a 250K Income guy with a million net worth may not be on the same trajectory as a 40K Income girl with a million net worth.

Mr. Green

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #29 on: December 22, 2016, 03:08:57 PM »
I promise myself, just a quick glance at Twitter to see what’s going on in the world, and then I look up and it’s 1:15 in the afternoon. Twitter is my heroin — it’s endless content, and if I’m bored by one tweet, I just go on to the next one.”
How do you read twitter quotes for hours? That sounds awful.

Metric Mouse

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #30 on: December 24, 2016, 09:51:34 PM »
I promise myself, just a quick glance at Twitter to see what’s going on in the world, and then I look up and it’s 1:15 in the afternoon. Twitter is my heroin — it’s endless content, and if I’m bored by one tweet, I just go on to the next one.”
How do you read twitter quotes for hours? That sounds awful.
It's sometimes taken me that long to decipher what our president elect is trying to say in his latest tweet.

Paul der Krake

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #31 on: December 24, 2016, 10:18:51 PM »
Associative mating and spheres and influence are no joke.

This is how you can have two groups of people living in the same country with virtually no common economic references. There are people who truly believe that the government cooks the employment books. Everyone they know is struggling.

Mezzie

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #32 on: December 25, 2016, 05:08:31 PM »
I realize I am very lucky that I have a job I love. If I were laid off, I'd probably take three months actively working to get a similar position, and then I'd take whatever job(s) I could find, continuing to try to find work in my field in my time off. If I made my former students a burger, I'd be ecstatic to see them, and if my former coworkers saw me at the register of some retail store, then what a nice coincidence! (They wouldn't be surprised, of course, because they'd know my position since I'd have them all keeping an eye out for openings for me.)

What shame is there in a full day's work? None. I am not too good for any job. Every day I work in the field of my choice is a privilege that I do not take for granted.

I feel like if this writer hadn't isolated himself to hide his situation, he would not only be happier, he might even be employed.

On a side note:
The recession hit a lot of my friends hard. In our circle of friends, we hired those who had been laid off for odd jobs. That kept people afloat and our friendships intact while they searched for other employment.

Lanthiriel

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #33 on: December 25, 2016, 09:35:22 PM »
A huge part of my reason for wanting to FIRE is fear that my skills will stagnate and I'll be unemployable in my 40s and beyond. This is kind of crazy because I'm actively involved in my professional organization and my skills are basically soft skills combined with technical writing, which doesn't really go out of style. But I know too many of my friends' moms and mom's friends who find themselves unemployed in their late 40s through early 60s and aren't prepared for long-term unemployment/underemployment. I want to get to a point ASAP here a low paying job or no job at all can sustain me, just to be safe.

Cassie

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Re: 9 Million American Men Can't Find Jobs!!!
« Reply #34 on: December 26, 2016, 05:59:26 PM »
I have known professionals that were unemployed in 40's and worked crappy jobs for 2 years until getting work in their fields again. There is no shame in any type of work.  When I worked helping people with disabilities get back to work we taught people that there is no shame in taking a survival job. Some would rather lose their homes and everything else including their marriages rather then do a job they see as beneath them. When a couple is struggling and the unemployed one is waiting for that great job and the other person is carrying the full burden it takes a toll on marriages.