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I'll ask you, then, what events caused the huge decline in earnings.
He was upper management in the cable TV industry, vice president or national director, something like that. Joined a cable company right after college in the mid 1980's and was placed on a management track that put him through all lower levels of the industry until he made it to the corporate suite.
Post 2000, there was a massive consolidation of the industry from perhaps a hundred small corporations to a handful of large corporations. He was part of the 'redundant overhead' that results from massive mergers.
He was located in Michigan, which endured a one-state recession since 2001, his skills were based exclusively in the cable industry, and he was on the wrong side of 45 when he was laid off; this meant that it was incredibly tough to find any job. No one would hire him at a higher level, because his skill set didn't translate to other industries, and no one wanted to hire him at a lower level, because they either were scared that he would immediately jump jobs trying to get back up the corporate chain, or because they were looking for a twenty-something to fill the position.
It's not that he didn't have jobs, they just kept getting smaller, until finally he couldn't get hired by a hotel chain as a night manager. He was told that he was 'over-qualified' for the position. He even went to other states, but got only one job that didn't last more than a year.
He spent an entire two years sending out resumes, scanning web sites, using head-hunters and going to job interviews on his own dime. And not one solid job offer all that time.
He's now juggling three different jobs, two of his own creation, in an attempt to earn enough money to live.
He was upper management in the cable TV industry, vice president or national director. Joined a cable company right after college in the mid 1980's and was placed on a management track that put him through all lower levels of the industry.
Post 2000, there was a massive consolidation of the industry from perhaps a hundred small corporations to a handful of large corporations. He was part of the 'redundant overhead' that results from massive mergers.
He was located in Michigan, which endured a one-state recession since 2001, that his skills were based exclusively in the cable industry, and that he was on the wrong side of 45 when he was laid off meant that it was incredibly tough to find any job. No one would hire him at a higher level, because his skill set didn't translate to other industries, and no one wanted to hire him at a lower level, because they either were scared that he would immediately jump jobs trying to get back up the corporate chain, or because they were looking for a twenty-something to fill the position.
It's not that he didn't have jobs, they just kept getting smaller, until finally he couldn't get hired by a hotel chain as a night manager. He was told that he was 'over-qualified' for the position.
He spent an entire two years sending out resumes, scanning web sites, using head-hunters and going to job interviews on his own dime. He even went to other states, but got only one job that didn't last more than a year.
He's now juggling three different jobs, two of his own creation, in an attempt to earn enough money to live.
I see one choice he made. It was earning a quarter of a million dollars a year, but not having enough cash reserves to weather a 2-year gap in employment.
And it appears he's making another choice - to create his own job. That might work for him. I hope it does.
Benefits are very limited for childless adults who are poor. Before Obama, childless poor adults were limited to three months of food stamps every 36 months, and most states did not have Medicaid for the childless poor.
As they should be. Unless you are disabled, an adult with no children can do what it takes to earn a living wage. I don't begrudge benefits to children, but have a hard time justifying my hard earned money going to adults that refuse to do what it takes to earn a living.
I see one choice he made. It was earning a quarter of a million dollars a year, but not having enough cash reserves to weather a 2-year gap in employment.
Oh no, I must have been unclear...that two year gap was simply the longest time that he was unemployed and not earning any money. The length of time during which he was either unemployed or 'under-employed' was over twelve years or thirteen years. There were a lot of gaps where he wasn't employed for 6 months or so. And one could make the argument right now that he is currently under-employed, at least if measured by his current income in comparison to his time expended.
One time, he was a corporate manufacturing rep at a local firm, entirely on commission - he made very little but kept plugging away at it - it takes time to establish ones self as a manufacturing rep. After several months, he was let go when the firm went into serious down-sizing due to a disruption in the automotive supplier sector.
Another time, he was a cable TV station manager. That lasted six months. He got fired for not following his boss's suggestion to 'upward adjust' the cable subscription numbers to make the corporation's financial reports look better. There was a wealthy family in New York State who did the same thing as was suggested to him, and they wound up in the federal penitentiary.
His last job in cable, he was the president of a small mom-and-pop outfit. He spent six months on the job, and wasn't paid for any of it. The company was being milked by the owners one step ahead of bankruptcy, and they kept putting him off with regards to his paycheck.
To sum up, he started the year 2000 with a total benefits package of $250K (including stock options and 401K matching) and probably $500K in assets. Funny thing about cashing out your 401K, the feds take about half of it. Add to that the fact that he lost his house (another major asset) due to foreclosure, and that eats another big chunk out of his wealth. And during the first few years, he was convinced that his unemployment was only temporary, so he didn't attempt to sell / downsize his house in order to reduce his mortgage payment.
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And it appears he's making another choice - to create his own job. That might work for him. I hope it does.
Actually, he created TWO jobs for himself, in addition to being a sales lead generator at a big box store. One is another marketing rep job - what he makes from that only covers his business expenses. Another is trying to be a general building contractor / home improvement guy. At least he gets some money from that, but most jobs come from working for sympathetic friends and relatives.
His last job in cable, he was the president of a small mom-and-pop outfit. He spent six months on the job, and wasn't paid for any of it. The company was being milked by the owners one step ahead of bankruptcy, and they kept putting him off with regards to his paycheck.
.
I question the basic intelligence of anyone willing to go 6 months without compensation.
I've worked some "creative contracts" where I skipped a month or a couple of being paid, but I made sure I had access to physical resources I could hold against being paid.
I also "capped out"
When what was owned me hit $20k I GOT PAID!
Sounds like he has himself to blame if that's how he conducts business.
Going to the military is the easy way out of poverty (get paid to risk your life)
Now if you had busted your ..... working or going to school to better yourself, it'd be a different story.
This is not true, and very ignorant. You're in time out!
I see one choice he made. It was earning a quarter of a million dollars a year, but not having enough cash reserves to weather a 2-year gap in employment.
And it appears he's making another choice - to create his own job. That might work for him. I hope it does.
Now I see my problem, it was earning one-eightieth of a million dollars a year, but not having enough cash reserves to weather an 18-month gap in employment.
Oh no, I must have been unclear...that two year gap was simply the longest time that he was unemployed and not earning any money. The length of time during which he was either unemployed or 'under-employed' was over twelve years or thirteen years. There were a lot of gaps where he wasn't employed for 6 months or so. And one could make the argument right now that he is currently under-employed, at least if measured by his current income in comparison to his time expended.
One time, he was a corporate manufacturing rep at a local firm, entirely on commission - he made very little but kept plugging away at it - it takes time to establish ones self as a manufacturing rep. After several months, he was let go when the firm went into serious down-sizing due to a disruption in the automotive supplier sector.
Another time, he was a cable TV station manager. That lasted six months. He got fired for not following his boss's suggestion to 'upward adjust' the cable subscription numbers to make the corporation's financial reports look better. There was a wealthy family in New York State who did the same thing as was suggested to him, and they wound up in the federal penitentiary.
His last job in cable, he was the president of a small mom-and-pop outfit. He spent six months on the job, and wasn't paid for any of it. The company was being milked by the owners one step ahead of bankruptcy, and they kept putting him off with regards to his paycheck.
To sum up, he started the year 2000 with a total benefits package of $250K (including stock options and 401K matching) and probably $500K in assets. Funny thing about cashing out your 401K, the feds take about half of it. Add to that the fact that he lost his house (another major asset) due to foreclosure, and that eats another big chunk out of his wealth. And during the first few years, he was convinced that his unemployment was only temporary, so he didn't attempt to sell / downsize his house in order to reduce his mortgage payment.
Actually, he created TWO jobs for himself, in addition to being a sales lead generator at a big box store. One is another marketing rep job - what he makes from that only covers his business expenses. Another is trying to be a general building contractor / home improvement guy. At least he gets some money from that, but most jobs come from working for sympathetic friends and relatives.
Yup, all choices he made. And some pretty dumb ones. Six months with no pay? Kinda dumb. Cashing out your 401K and not knowing that you pay half in taxes? Kinda dumb. Not attempting to sell when you can't pay your bills? Kinda dumb. Thinking that 12 years of unemployed or underemployed is temporary? Kinda dumb. Not selling your house before it's foreclosed on? Kinda dumb.
Yup, all choices he made. And some pretty dumb ones.
Six months with no pay? Kinda dumb.
Which was the only job offer that he had received, after eight years since he got dumped from his top paying job, after two years of unemployment without even unemployment benefits, after he was forced to declare bankruptcy, after his wife left him, after he was forced to live on a couch for lodging. When you're drowning, most anything will look like a life preserver.
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Cashing out your 401K and not knowing that you pay half in taxes? Kinda dumb.
Oh, he knew. But it was that, or lose the house. Wind up homeless with a wife and two kids.
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Not attempting to sell when you can't pay your bills? Kinda dumb.
When the house is under water, selling it won't solve your problem.
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Thinking that 12 years of unemployed or underemployed is temporary? Kinda dumb.
Not if the first twenty years of your life was always on the upswing. Up until around 2000, each year that he worked, things always improved. And even after that first layoff, he kept getting jobs. But while those jobs kept disappearing, they were enough to feed his optimism. The thing with guys who reach the upper corporate levels is that they are almost to a person optimistic. Pessimists wind up working the grunt jobs.
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Not selling your house before it's foreclosed on? Kinda dumb.
Again, see above re house under water. Kind of impossible to sell a house when the purchase price won't cover the mortgage.
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Ringwise, have you ever been on the wrong side of 40, forced out of your well-paying job by corporate right sizing, and tried to get back on your feet in a mini-depression, finally finding opportunities to recover, taking them as they appear, and then getting slapped back down?
Tell me, what exactly has been your life experience?
Why settle? And for what? Dollar Generals, tire shops, and dusty lots coupled with crime, drugs, and crappy schools.
My opinion may not be politically correct but here goes. The poor people do not have much in the way of fulfilling recreational opportunities. The occasional "teen night" at the school doesn't do it. That makes sex the main available form of recreation, particularly for people that don't have an agenda. Thus, poor people wind up having far more children than they can handle or supervise. The programs designed to combat poverty don't help either.
I have personally observed this. During 1982, I worked as a legal assistant ina legal services program for the poor. This shows that I put action behind my words bout helping poor people. I was not being paid. During this time, the painter for one of the contractors engaged to rehabilitate slum housing in Westchester County, New York took a liking to a 13 year old girl in one of the apartments he was painting. Can anyone tell us why the 13 year old girl wasn’t in school, and wound up pregnant by the painter? Is this a worthwhile use of taxpayer and government money?
The even-more-liberal attorney I was working under had, let us say, a very serious difference of opinion with me about this matter. I asked her what the 13 year old girl’s mother did for a living. She said “she’s a mother”. If she was being a full time mother, then, how did her daughter wind up pregnant at the age of 13 by a painter? When liberals became uncomfortable with these questions I began to move to the right somewhat politically. Does anyone thing this is the only time a government program for the poor people has gone seriously awry.
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