The Summer of my Discontent

Yeah, I ripped off the title. So what? I changed the season at least.

Once again after yet another consulting assignment I find myself unemployed in the midst of a recession. They loved me, but did I get a permanent job out of it? That wasn't in the cards. This was a project, so I bear no animosity to the client company. That's business. It's just lousy timing...again.

In my opinion this is the same recession that started in 2000 or thereabouts. As far as I'm concerned they never cleaned up the rot in the economy from the first recession; Greenspan only swept the dirt under the rug with lower interest rates. That kicked off a housing boom (but little else) and here we are 9 years later. It took the Wizard of Wall Street a few years, but he finally admitted he screwed the pooch.

I'm earning less now than I was 10 years ago. IT, which is my field, never recovered from the last recession, at least in the experience of the rates I was commanding. So I'm wondering how those knobs in Washington, District of Corruption, ever figured that the recession was over. Yeah, economic indicators...they trumpeted the rise in the number of jobs. I've been saying for years they need to change that indicator.

What's worth more to the economy? 10,000,000 jobs paying $10,000 a year or 1,000,000 jobs paying $100,000 a year? They're worth the same amount of money, but the government would have us believe that the 10,000,000 jobs number is way better than 1,000,000. With the government's number, we have 10,000,000 workers living in extreme poverty getting Earned Income Credit on their taxes (which is essentially free money; I know, I got some in years past), whereas with the second we have 1,000,000 people paying about 35%-40% of their wages in taxes. Which is better for the IRS?

An article I caught quoted in a newsgroup from the San Jose Mercury along about 2003 said that of those laid off from Silicon Valley, most had found jobs again. Yeah, 60% of them were working in the "hospitality/entertainment" arena, meaning they were chambermaids, front desk clerks, bellhops, or hosts or wiaters at Chuck E. Cheese. I'm sure that pays almost as well as their former jobs in Silicon Valley. NOT!

All I'm saying is I can't wait for this recession to be over, but I'm not getting my hopes up. Maybe it's just my mood today, but I think the best years of my career are already behind me, and I have 21 years to go yet. Every time a recession ends, I end up poorer. I don't see that pattern changing this time. The dollar's sinking in long-term value, the Chinese and Russians are calling for the end of the dollar as an international reserve currency (they know something we don't?), and I'm just generally not optimistic. The only raises beyond inflation rate I've ever gotten are from job-hopping; every company said they couldn't afford raises due to economic conditions, etc. Meanwhile I busted my keister in college and earned two degrees, and for what? Nothing that I can see except a mountain of debt I didn't need at 46.

I'm just bitter, sore, disappointed, and not in a good mood. I hope it passes.

I like to be useful, so this current stint of unemployment is killing me. It's not that I'm worried about losing my apartment or anything. I consider that just a matter of time at this point. It just kills me to get up in the morning with no targets, no options, no new jobs posted on the job boards (they're all retreads of past stuff I've been rejected from already or stuff I'm not qualified for), and no accomplishments. I wanted to go into business for myself, but I can't get a website, I can get a host for my website, I have no potential clients, and I can't even afford cardstock to print my own business cards! Holy Hell, this is killing me!

Discontent? Yeah, bordering on rage at my circumstances, but to whom/at what to rage?