bush bashers unite!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I only pay attention to how it applies to me.

As you should - and as in your example the rosy picture painted by these statistics completely contradicts the experience of many people - especially when others wheel out the "people are lazy" excuse to defend them. I can certainly see how that would be a bitter pill to swallow.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I only pay attention to how it applies to me.

I can't find a decent-paying IT job in the Indianapolis area. (Decent-paying = $16.00 and over)

Foxconn fired 100 workers from 2nd shift and 40 from 3rd shift 2 days ago. This is after they fired 300 a couple of months ago. We have 8 production lines, and they only build on 2 of them on 3rd shift now. Last weekend they closed the factory down for 2 days because there wasn't anything to do. Luckily, I'm off weekends.

For those who don't know who Foxconn is, it's a Chinese company with an exclusive contract with HP/Compaq to supply their parts and build their computers. (They also build Apple products, provide motherboards for Dell and Gateway, and a billion other things) The factory where I work builds computers for corporations; the home versions of HP/Compaqs are built in China. Some of the customers we build for are the US Air Force, Toys R Us, NASA, Compucom, etc.

No orders from corporate customers = no work for us. When the economy is bad, companies don't buy new computers. Seems like a pretty good indicator to me.

I'm desperately trying to get moved to 2nd shift, as it seems likely that 3rd shift will be going away soon. Will actually be able to spend time with Sian that way, too.

Indiana's unemployment is horrible at the moment. I'd like to know where all of these great new jobs are.....

Careful, Larry. You're starting to sound liberal.

[PlatyPius 5]

Careful, Larry. You're starting to sound liberal.

Me? Liberal? lol

I'm neither liberal nor conservative; but both. I tend to be "conservative" in how I approach life, but I have many "liberal" beliefs as well. I ignore parties, for the most part (technically, I'm a Libertarian), and vote for the best candidate available. (Hint, it wasn't George Bush last time...or the time before)

What we have in Indiana are a bunch of ####### jobs. If you can work for $6 - $9/hour, then you might be ok. If you're at all skilled, forget it. I've been looking for a better job since April. Sian and I can live on what I make (about $30k/year), but I *should* be making around $45k or so. Moving isn't an option (I own 2 houses here, one of which I refuse to sell), so I can only hope that Indiana joins the current century and gets some I.T. jobs here.

I only pay attention to how it applies to me.

As you should - and as in your example the rosy picture painted by these statistics completely contradicts the experience of many people - especially when others wheel out the "people are lazy" excuse to defend them. I can certainly see how that would be a bitter pill to swallow.

Oh, there are jobs available here....as I mentioned, if you want to work for $6 - $9/hour. Unemployment pays close to $10/hour based on a 40 hour week. Given the choice, which would you choose? Unless you live with your parents, I don't see how anyone could live on a $6/hour job. Can you really consider that "employed"? When the pay is THAT pitiful, you might as well NOT work, in my opinion. You won't be able to pay anything anyway.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Oh, there are jobs available here....as I mentioned, if you want to work for $6 - $9/hour. Unemployment pays close to $10/hour based on a 40 hour week. Given the choice, which would you choose? Unless you live with your parents, I don't see how anyone could live on a $6/hour job. Can you really consider that "employed"? When the pay is THAT pitiful, you might as well NOT work, in my opinion. You won't be able to pay anything anyway.

I worked retail when I first got my work permit (not having a car or driving license in Los Angeles closes a lot of doors) and made about that much. Pay was pitiful - and after tax wouldn't even have covered my rent.

Edited November 4, 2006 by erekose

[dalegg 143]

Oh, there are jobs available here....as I mentioned, if you want to work for $6 - $9/hour. Unemployment pays close to $10/hour based on a 40 hour week. Given the choice, which would you choose? Unless you live with your parents, I don't see how anyone could live on a $6/hour job. Can you really consider that "employed"? When the pay is THAT pitiful, you might as well NOT work, in my opinion. You won't be able to pay anything anyway.

Unemployment doesn't last forever. You better keep working.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Considering how easy it is to get fired here - with "at will" clauses being present in employment contracts - I'm not too surprised that there are so many law suits.