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Old 06-21-2013, 04:45 PM
 
Location: WI
30 posts, read 33,736 times
Reputation: 76

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Quote:
Originally Posted by wargamer6 View Post
Who'd you vote for last year?
You illustrate what so many others do....LACK OF COMPASSION FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP.

To those in have compassion, thanks. We need more people like you in this demented and toxic new world we live in.
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Old 06-21-2013, 05:33 PM
 
Location: Springfield, Ohio
14,651 posts, read 14,575,727 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Just_the_facts View Post
No, there are plenty of Americans available to fill the current positions. Perhaps if employers started paying their workers more than starvation wages, provided training, got rid of ridiculous employee selection policies (which screen out perfectly qualified employees), then there would be no phony worker shortage. It's economics 101, if there's a "labor shortage," then that means you are not paying a high enough wage.
Some of what you say is true, but as I stated there is still a need to fill the lowest and highest ends of the spectrum. Restaurants would go out of business if they paid dishwashers $12/hour and Americans would not pay $10+/basket of strawberries or bag of grapes which were picked by an American making a living wage. On the upper end you have a shortage of doctors, scientists, etc which would put us even further behind the world if not for importing necessary brainpower to the US. As I stated, education is the answer, not creating more jobs out of nowhere for the unskilled majority which are not financially sustainable.

The letter posted above is indeed heartbreaking. It speaks volumes of our individualistic, hyper-capitalist society where you are expected to "pull yourself up" no matter how bad your circumstances or starve to death. It will take a fundamental change to our culture, which unfortunately most Americans are not willing to make.
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Old 06-21-2013, 05:59 PM
 
Location: Illinois
827 posts, read 1,088,317 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luvthepack View Post
You illustrate what so many others do....LACK OF COMPASSION FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP.

To those in have compassion, thanks. We need more people like you in this demented and toxic new world we live in.
Nice dodging of the question.
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Old 06-21-2013, 11:33 PM
 
805 posts, read 1,159,705 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luvthepack View Post
Great post!!
Thank you!
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Old 06-21-2013, 11:35 PM
 
805 posts, read 1,159,705 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by luvthepack View Post
For all the people who think there are enough jobs out there, please read this letter below that is written from a 99er. I only found it yesterday, although it was from years ago.

If you're in a position to hire, please hire a long-term unemployed person. You could save a life, literally.

A heartbreaking letter from an unemployed 99er who has given up all hope | The Layoff List

Nov
26

The following letter from a desperate and hopeless 99er named Mark was brought to my attention by another hard working 99er, Bud Meyers, of http://acompanyofone.org. Mark’s contact information is not yet available, but a number of 99ers are trying to find his whereabouts.
Many 99ers, unemployed, and vulnerable Americans will be able to relate to Mark’s emotional letter. Hopefully Mark’s letter also breaks through to those who can change these tragic situations with the stroke of a pen or a change of mindset that considers life over profit; the occupiers of corporate executive suites, Wall Street banking kingdoms and the Halls of Congress:
To the unemployed, sick, disabled and poor:
Hello,
I’m unemployed over 2 years now, a 99er without any benefits for 3 months. I followed Unemployed Friends almost from its start, never posted until now, but am grateful for my time with you all. I did as asked with calls and emails, etc. I’ve a confession to make to you all. I’m a criminal.
I’ve obeyed the 10 commandments and all laws except: I’m unemployed and that’s now a crime, I’m poor and that’s a crime, I’m worthless surplus population and that’s a crime, I’m a main street American Citizen born and raised in the USA and that’s now a crime, and I’m euthanizing myself as I write this note — so arrest my corpse. This isn’t a call for help, the deed is done, it’s not what I wanted. Death is my best available option. It’s not just that my bank account is $4, that I’ve not eaten in a week, not because hunger pangs are agonizing (I’m a wimp), not because I live in physical and mental anguish, not because the landlady is banging on the door non-stop and I face eviction, not that Congress and President have sent a strong message they no longer help the unemployed. It’s because I’m a law abiding though worthless, long-term unemployed older man who is surplus population. Had I used my college education to rip people off and steal from the elderly, poor, disabled and main street Americans I would be wearing different shoes now — a petty king. Hard work, honesty, loving kindness, charity and mercy, and becoming unemployed and destitute unable to pay your bills are all considered foolishness and high crimes in America now. Whereas stealing and lying and cheating and being greedy to excess and destroying the fabric of America is rewarded and protected – even making such people petty king and petty queens among us.
Since the end of 2008, when corporate America began enjoying the resumption of growth, profits have swelled from an annualized pace of $995 billion to the current $1.66 trillion as of the end of September 2010. Over the same period, the number of non-farm jobs counted by the Labor Department has slipped from 13.4 million to 13 million – there is no recovery for the unemployed and main street. We taxpayers have handed trillions of dollars to the same bank and insurance industry that started our economic disaster with its reckless gambling. We bailed out General Motors. We distributed tax-cuts to businesses that were supposed to use this lubrication to expand and hire. For our dollars, we have been rewarded with starvation, homelessness and a plague of fear – a testament to post-national capitalism.
12 years ago I lost the last of my family. 10 years ago I lost the love of my life, couldn’t even visit him in the hospital because gays have no rights. I fought through and grieved and went on as best I could. 7 years ago I was diagnosed with Diabetes and Stage 2 high blood pressure with various complications including kidney problems, mild heart failure, Diabetic Retinopathy. These conditions are debilitating and painful. I am on over 8 prescribed medications, which is very difficult without insurance and income. But I struggled on and my primary care giver was very pleased with my effort overtime with my A1C at 7. Still these physical disabilities have progressively worsened, and I have had a harder and harder time functioning in basic ways. All the while I give thanks to God because I know there are many more worse off than me – and I tried to help by giving money to charities and smiling at people who looked down and sharing what little I had.
I am college educated and worked 35 years in management, receiving written references and praise from every boss for whom I worked. Yet, after thousands of resumes, applications, emails, phone calls, and drop ins, I’ve failed to get a job even at McDonalds. I’ve discovered there are 3 strikes against me — most 99ers will understand. Strike 1 — businesses are not hiring long term unemployed — in fact many job ads now underline “the unemployed need not apply.” Strike 2 — I am almost 60 years old. Employers prefer hiring younger workers who demand less and are better pack mules. Strike 3 – for every job opening I’ve applied there are over 300 applicants according to each business who allow a follow up call. With the U3 unemployment holding steady at 9.6% and U6 at 17% for the past 18 months the chances of me or any 99er landing a job is less than winning the Mega Million Jackpot. On top of that even the most conservative economists admit unemployment will not start to fall before 2012 and most predict up to 7 years of this crap.
I believe the Congress and President have no intention of really aiding the unemployed – due to various political reasons and their total removal from the suffering of most Americans, their cold-hearted, self serving natures. Had they really wanted to help us, they could have used unspent stimulus monies or cut foolish costs like the failed wars or foreign aid, and farm subsidies. The unspent stimulus money alone cold have taken care of ALL unemployed persons for five years or until the unemployment rate reached 7% if Congress and the President really wanted to help us – and not string us all along with a meager safety net that fails every few months. In any case if I were to survive homelessness (would be like winning the mega-millions) and with those 3 strikes against me, in 7 more years I’ll be near 70 with the new retirement age at 70 — now who will hire an old homeless guy out of work for 9 years with just a few years until retirement?
So, here I am. Long term unemployed, older man, with chronic health problems, now totally broke, hungry, facing eviction. My landlady should really be an advocate for the unemployed – she bangs on my door demanding I take action. A phone call and a “please” are not enough for her – she is angry. She is right to be angry with me, I am unemployed – as apparently everyone is now angry with us unemployed.
211 and social services cannot help single men. Food banks and other charities are unable to help any more folks – they are overwhelmed with the poor in this nation. So I have the “freedom” to be homeless and destitute and “pursue happiness” in garbage cans and then die – yay for America huh? It’s the end of November and cold. A diabetic homeless older person will experience amputations in the winter months. So I will be raiding garbage cans for food, as my body literally falls apart, a foot here, a finger there. I have experienced and even worked with pain from my diseases – hardship I can face. I just cannot muster the courage to slowly die in agony and humiliation in the gutter.
I have no family, I have no friends. For the past 2 years I’ve had nobody to talk with as people who knew me react to the “unemployed” label as if it were leprosy and contagious. I am not a bad person, in fact people really like me. But everyone seems to be on a tight budget these days and living in incredible fear. It is hopeless since we all are hearing more and more that we unemployed are to blame for unemployment, that we are just lazy, that we are no good, that we are sinners, that we are druggies, yet we are the victims who suffer and are punished while the robber baron banksters and tycoons become Senators, Congress, Presidents and petty kings. So the only option left for me is merciful self euthanasia.
It is with a heavy heart that I have set my death in motion, but what I am facing is not living. So off I go, I have made peace with God and placed my burden on Jesus and He forgives me. This nation has become evil to the core, with cold-hearted politicians and tycoons squeezing what little Main Street Americans have left. It is not the America into which I was born – the land of the free and the home of the brave with kind folks who help neighbors – it is now land of the Tycoon-haves and the rest of us have-nots who march into hopelessness and despair.
Every unemployed person I have met over these past 2 years have been saintly. Sharing what little they have, and being charitable – being kind and patient and supportive. Isn’t it amazing that we Americans who suffer so much, have not taken to the streets in violence, riots or gotten out the guillotines and marched on tycoons and Washington in revolt as would happen in most other nations? But rather we plead with deaf politicians to please help us. We don’t demand huge sums – just 300 bucks a week, barely enough to cover housing for most. Most of all we say, please help us get a job, please allow us dignity.
I can’t help juxtapose our plight to the tycoons and politicians. They are never satisfied with their enormous wealth, and always want more millions no matter whom it hurts. They STEAL from pension funds, banks, The People and government, and little Wall Street investors. Then rather than face punishment, they become petty kings in this world. They are disloyal to America, unpatriotic, and serve their own foreign UN-American greedy causes and demand more and more and more. I feel that this is not the nation into which I was born. I was born in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. America, where people give as much as they receive. America, where all people work for the common good, and try to leave a better and more prosperous nation for the next generation. American, where people help their neighbors and show charity and mercy. This new America is alien to me – it is an America of greed and corruption and avarice and mean spirited selfishness and hatred of the common good – it is an America of savage beasts roaring and tearing at the weak, and bullying the humble and peacemakers and poor and those without means to defend themselves. I am not welcome here anymore. I don’t belong here anymore. It’s as if some evil beast controls government, the economy, and our lives now.
I must go now, my home is someplace else. Goodbye and God bless you all. God bless the unemployed and poor and elderly and disabled. God bless America and the American people except the tycoons and politicians – may God retain the sins of tycoons and politicians and phony preachers and send them to the Devil.
Mark
- See more at: A heartbreaking letter from an unemployed 99er who has given up all hope | The Layoff List
A truly heartbreaking story. I'm sure there are many similar ones. Unfortunately, the mainstream media choose to ignore the unemployed and stories like this.
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Old 06-21-2013, 11:36 PM
 
805 posts, read 1,159,705 times
Reputation: 720
Quote:
Originally Posted by wargamer6 View Post
Who'd you vote for last year?
Irrelevant question as this is the work and employment forum and not the politics forum.
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Old 06-22-2013, 12:04 AM
 
805 posts, read 1,159,705 times
Reputation: 720
Quote:
Originally Posted by Natural510 View Post
Some of what you say is true, but as I stated there is still a need to fill the lowest and highest ends of the spectrum. Restaurants would go out of business if they paid dishwashers $12/hour and Americans would not pay $10+/basket of strawberries or bag of grapes which were picked by an American making a living wage. On the upper end you have a shortage of doctors, scientists, etc which would put us even further behind the world if not for importing necessary brainpower to the US. As I stated, education is the answer, not creating more jobs out of nowhere for the unskilled majority which are not financially sustainable.

The letter posted above is indeed heartbreaking. It speaks volumes of our individualistic, hyper-capitalist society where you are expected to "pull yourself up" no matter how bad your circumstances or starve to death. It will take a fundamental change to our culture, which unfortunately most Americans are not willing to make.
Well, I fundamentally disagree with you about a labor shortage. When you adjust for a declining labor force participation rate (which has declined by about 2.5 points in the last 4 years), unemployment is nearly 10%. How did we fill positions when unemployment was under 4% for much of the Clinton years?

And, you would not need to pay people $12 an hour (which is barley a living wage in most jurisdictions, btw) to hire a dishwasher. There are plenty of unemployed low skill (and even some medium and high skill) workers who would be wiling to work as dishwasher. Look at how high youth unemployment is right now. It's astronomical in some places and especially among African Americans.

And, yes, all workers should pay a living wage, otherwise those workers must in effect be subsidized by taxpayers via the Earned Income Tax Credit, SNAP, Medicaid, HEAP, uncompensated health care costs, and more. Walmart is the biggest welfare recipient on earth as so many of their employees receive government benefits because they refuse to provide affordable health insurance and pay a living wage. Without those benefits, Walmart would have to raise wages (which would cut into their profit margin), and if they didn't do that, people would refuse to work for them.

Also, if employers cannot afford to pay a living wage, then they should mechanize more of production, something which is not happening in agriculture as the picking of fruit is currently done by hand and not by a machine.

To the extent we have a shortage of doctors, it is because medical school do not admit enough doctors and they do not admit them in large part because of arbitrary interviewing processes that screen out many qualified applicants. There is no shortage of scientists and there are many in the science field who cannot find jobs in their field. Guestworkers in the high-skill U.S. labor market: An analysis of supply, employment, and wage trends | Economic Policy Institute In fact, only 22% of science and math graduates (excluding computer science) are able to find jobs in their field. And, even if there was a shortage, employers should respond by raising wages, something which is not happening.

I suppose employers will continue to complain about a labor shortage all while continuing to discriminate against the unemployed, screen out those from out of the geographical area, conduct credit checks, ask silly interview questions, require personality tests, analyze an applicant's handwriting, throw out 2 pages resumes and cover letters, and utilize other arbitrary selection methods (which the hr and hiring managers on this forum admit to using).

Employers love illegal immigrants and visa workers because these are vulnerable employees who are easy to exploit and underpay because they do not possess the legal rights of American workers (visa workers are deported if they lose their job, so employers know they can be very demanding of those workers without having to worry about them quitting).

I do agree with you about the letter, however.
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Old 06-22-2013, 12:46 AM
 
Location: NJ
18,665 posts, read 19,936,526 times
Reputation: 7314
Quote:
Originally Posted by Just_the_facts View Post
Well, I fundamentally disagree with you about a labor shortage. When you adjust for a declining labor force participation rate (which has declined by about 2.5 points in the last 4 years), unemployment is nearly 10%. How did we fill positions when unemployment was under 4% for much of the Clinton years?

Also, if employers cannot afford to pay a living wage, then they should mechanize more
Thay have automated, and that is part of the unemployment spike vs the Clinton era. Corps sell more than ever, with fewer people. That will increase greatly in years to come-RFID (cashiers largely bye-bye like bank tellers vs their 1988 staffing levels), robots to do more and more rote tasks at a fraction of their cost just 5 years ago, 3D printing-which could endanger much brick and moratr production shops, etc.

We'll also most likely see self-checkout replace cashiers in fast food..low margins, low price points to stay competitive..ACA impact..gotta cut costs to stay in business.
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Old 06-22-2013, 03:22 AM
 
Location: Buckeye, AZ
38,936 posts, read 23,823,970 times
Reputation: 14125
Quote:
Originally Posted by bobtn View Post
Thay have automated, and that is part of the unemployment spike vs the Clinton era. Corps sell more than ever, with fewer people. That will increase greatly in years to come-RFID (cashiers largely bye-bye like bank tellers vs their 1988 staffing levels), robots to do more and more rote tasks at a fraction of their cost just 5 years ago, 3D printing-which could endanger much brick and moratr production shops, etc.

We'll also most likely see self-checkout replace cashiers in fast food..low margins, low price points to stay competitive..ACA impact..gotta cut costs to stay in business.
I think ACA as well as the technology, COULD affect employee size. Obviously, you will need to have retail and fast food workers who will need to step in if the RFID and kiosks die on you. Technology isn't perfect and can have bugs that come up every once in a while. The other side is we still need to have a recovery. Eventually as we see QE end, we will see the inflated stock market deflate. IMO, QE has not done what we thought it would. Rather than create the jobs (perhaps due to pending ACA regulation.) We need many more companies even if they are smaller business to be started to help get the economy re-energized. Without, we are just treading water the way we have been, perhaps worse.
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Old 06-22-2013, 08:06 AM
 
329 posts, read 459,432 times
Reputation: 316
all these problems come from the world saturation.

world can not give us more than that we consume.

it's called the lavoisier law... u know? , nothing create, nothing disappear. . whatever...

guys, it s finished, it s over. the only way to survive is to kill everyone who is over 30yo. like In the crystal age movie... for guys over 40 they know what I m taking about. but of course, no need of that. not now...

we want a good economy to come back, how? cutting more wood in amazon forest to build more houses , killing more fishes to feed all of us, release more toxic for tablets pc, gadgets,... , sending more jobs to China,... to produce more and more and more and more...

we aim our society, (should i say world?) to fail since 1900.. why crisis of 1914, 1929,1939,1985,1990,2001 were not the same, why we recovered after 2 or 4 years? , why we won't recovered this time, because this crisis is the crisis of our planet earth.

earth is tired, earth is dying, earth will NOT save us.... it s finished. we have to change, live differently...

don't you see it?



Last edited by cheapcharly; 06-22-2013 at 08:20 AM..
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