I have a friend that hasn’t worked in 10 years (status, buying)
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I knew a person who got laid off in about 2004 and got another real job in 2017. They got a master's during that time and sold stuff online, but not enough for it to be a full-time salary.
I don't know much about their life, how long they searched for a real job, but I'm amazed someone hired that person whose last real job was 13 years ago.
I will be unemployed ten years this December. When I lost my last job the day before Christmas, I started job hunting day after Christmas. I still have not been hired anywhere, not even at a minimum wage job, for all these years. I even got turned down for volunteer positions. They went with someone who was a "better fit." My applications likely go straight in the trash now. I don't even have three personal references anymore. The people I used to use are long dead. I never did end up getting friends. I stay sick most of the time and have always had trouble socializing. People don't want to hang out with sick people. I've been sick since I was a child. I was recently cut off disability even though the vocational expert said there weren't any jobs I could do.
I owe over $170k in student loans. I have three college degrees: associates, bachelors, and masters. I had to live off student financial aid because even back then employers didn't want me. I often had to drop out of school because of medical reasons and appeal to get back in the next semester. It took four years to finish associates, four years to finish two years needed for the bachelors (they used credits from the associates for the bachelors), and eight years to finish the two year masters degree.
I would be hired for a job sometimes for a day or two before the employer would fire me for my medical problems. Then it would take months or years to get another job offer where I'd again be fired quickly because of my medical problems.
The classes I finished usually resulted in an A or B. I graduated the associates with honors. The bachelors I also graduated with high GPA. I even made Dean's and Presidents list. Then I had all As and Bs for the masters degree. My college professors were surprised I graduated because I was so messed up.
I went from 2010 to 2017 with no job interviews. Then, the last interview I had the manager immediately asked why I hadn't worked in so long. I was truthful. I said no one had hired me yet. He ended interview and escorted me out of the store.
She lost her job in 2009 and lived off 2 years of unemployment. She lived at home and traveled a lot with that. After that, she earned two graduate degrees. She know has a lot of student debt, but she doesn’t pay much because she is on some sort of income contingent plan. She has benefited from free living with her parents and various boyfriends, but most of her income has come from the US government in the form of unemployment and government loans.
I knew someone who lived off her home equity: when she ran out of money she’d refinance. And since value went up and up, she refi’ed over and over. I actually knew a number of people who did.
Then came 2008. The chickens came home to roost.
I wish I could tell you in apocryphal story of doom and gloom, but somehow people have this tendency to be very resilient. This woman stopped being an idiot. She decided to get a job, stop her non stop party lifestyle, and... she landed on her feet. As far as I know, she’s on solid ground financially now.
I knew someone who lived off her home equity: when she ran out of money she’d refinance. And since value went up and up, she refi’ed over and over. I actually knew a number of people who did.
Then came 2008. The chickens came home to roost.
I wish I could tell you in apocryphal story of doom and gloom, but somehow people have this tendency to be very resilient. This woman stopped being an idiot. She decided to get a job, stop her non stop party lifestyle, and... she landed on her feet. As far as I know, she’s on solid ground financially now.
Maybe she was able to get on her feet because her mind wasn't boggled with years of stupid, draining, non-rewarding work experience? She had enough of free time to comfortably adult up, and figure out what she wants to do, and master necessary skills?
I pulled out my crystal ball and in the future I saw the topic of the OP's post getting a quack doctor to sign-off on her imaginary, made up "disability claim", and receiving disability income like a neighbor I had three houses ago.
Somehow he got a "back issues" claim rubber stamped, though most nice days I would pull up in my car, from work, to see him mowing his yard, shoveling mulch into a wheelbarrow, or crawling up on his roof.
I will be unemployed ten years this December. When I lost my last job the day before Christmas, I started job hunting day after Christmas. I still have not been hired anywhere, not even at a minimum wage job, for all these years. I even got turned down for volunteer positions. They went with someone who was a "better fit." My applications likely go straight in the trash now. I don't even have three personal references anymore. The people I used to use are long dead. I never did end up getting friends. I stay sick most of the time and have always had trouble socializing. People don't want to hang out with sick people. I've been sick since I was a child. I was recently cut off disability even though the vocational expert said there weren't any jobs I could do.
I owe over $170k in student loans. I have three college degrees: associates, bachelors, and masters. I had to live off student financial aid because even back then employers didn't want me. I often had to drop out of school because of medical reasons and appeal to get back in the next semester. It took four years to finish associates, four years to finish two years needed for the bachelors (they used credits from the associates for the bachelors), and eight years to finish the two year masters degree.
I would be hired for a job sometimes for a day or two before the employer would fire me for my medical problems. Then it would take months or years to get another job offer where I'd again be fired quickly because of my medical problems.
The classes I finished usually resulted in an A or B. I graduated the associates with honors. The bachelors I also graduated with high GPA. I even made Dean's and Presidents list. Then I had all As and Bs for the masters degree. My college professors were surprised I graduated because I was so messed up.
I went from 2010 to 2017 with no job interviews. Then, the last interview I had the manager immediately asked why I hadn't worked in so long. I was truthful. I said no one had hired me yet. He ended interview and escorted me out of the store.
If you went 7 years with NO job interviews it sounds like you either need to seriously evaluate your resume writing skills (NO EMOJIs!), or remove your multiple face tattoos and stop including that headshot in your applications.
If you went 7 years with NO job interviews it sounds like you either need to seriously evaluate your resume writing skills (NO EMOJIs!), or remove your multiple face tattoos and stop including that headshot in your applications.
I don't have tattoos. I applied to every job in a 50 mile radius of where I lived. Why would I use a resume for a minimum wage job? They never asked for a resume. All the jobs in my field required me to do things I could not physically do. Like you had to bench press so much percentage of your body weight. I have trouble picking up something that weighs 20 lbs. I was born with health problems. I have never lasted long at a job because the employer got tired of my health problems. I am middle aged now. The job fairy isn't going to magically intervene. You have to have three personal references to put on an application. I was created this way by God the "infallible Creator" and it is His fault I have been sick since birth. The government said the accommodations required for me to work was not reasonable for an employer and so I never had legal protection, but they cut my disability off anyway.
Given how much college costs have risen recently, there's good reason for it. My own alma mater is well over double, pushing triple, what it cost for me to go in the 2000s. And I thought it was bad then.
So I'd be okay with some kind of plan that forgives the loans. Macroeconomically it would help the economy because those people would have more money to spend on goods and services instead of giving it to a bank contracted by the government.
Some people are butthurt because they paid for their own college loans.... well I did too, but as I said it was cheaper then. Students today doing the same thing as I did would pay MORE THAN DOUBLE than I did, AFTER adjusting for inflation. And the college has gotten no better. It's exactly in the rankings where it was 15 years ago. In fact my old department has the same faculty it did when I was there 15 years ago, except they replaced a couple retirements. Students are getting hosed, it's not acceptable, and we need to know why.
Any kind of tuition-free or student loan forgiveness needs to be coupled with the mother of all audits of college & university finances. I want those institutions given an enema to see what the hell they're doing with their money and why their costs have gone up so much recently.
And that would be offset by the millions of people whose federal income taxes would rise to pay these loans off. So no, it would NOT help the economy, on a macro OR micro level.
We know why. It's because of the federal government subsidies (funded by you and me) that universities receive. Post-secondary education was much more affordable when the subsidies were less. You might think that sounds backwards, but it's really not. Schools are getting all this "free" money in the form of subsidies that they figure, what the hell...we'll just keep asking for more. They know that the federal government (funded by you and me) is going to pay, in the form of student loans. In your scenario, we'll be paying twice. Once for the initial loan, and again when the loan is "forgiven."
Maybe she was able to get on her feet because her mind wasn't boggled with years of stupid, draining, non-rewarding work experience? She had enough of free time to comfortably adult up, and figure out what she wants to do, and master necessary skills?
I don’t know. She did once tell me that working for a living was a ridiculous idea. And she was in her 40’s at the time. I would think she’s already adulted up, since she purchased a home, was married and divorced, and had a twenty year old college bound son.
Sports facilities are paid for through the athletic department revenues (mostly from football which are the primary revenue generators at most schools) and alumni donations/boosters. No taxpayer or student money funds those facilities unless they are also for general student use (most aren't). Just wanted to make that clear. The other stuff, though, yes it's gotten much fancier than it used to be, especially as enrollments have grown over the past couple decades.
This is a contested claim. There have been studies that show that a Uni’s big sports’ programs do not pay for themselves.
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Solly says — Be nice!
