windcatcher
New Member
I can tell you about unemployment as I am there. I have been unemployed for 429 days and counting as I was laid off on Jan. 1, 2009. I drew my last check this week. I don't know if they is an extension or not... there is supposed to be, but with the way things are going I'm not so sure. I have to go to the Department of Labor on Monday and file for the extension, so I guess I will find out about it then.
The numbers lie. Targus posted the true rate, and I think it is even higher around here. I have put in countless applications and have had about six interviews in the past fourteen months... but no job offer. And they say it is getting better...? Try telling that to my mortgage holder, or the utility companies, or my bank. I draw less than half of what I made and it is our only income... and we may be without it come Monday.
No one can lat the blame for this at the feet of any one person, be it Bush or Obama. Rampant greed and unchecked markets created this mess, and it has been in the making for 20 years. There's nothing any of us could have done to stop it. Until the hemorrhaging stops and companies feel that it is safe enough to hire it will only get worse.
God help us.
I hear you brother! Hang in there! You're in my prayers. I know and feel it is a lot worse than it appears for many folks. Somehow, the reality t.v. of yesteryear, which showed us the real time horrors of war, and the devastations of earthquakes is saying little of the reality which is a part of many people's changed lives in this economy. But I can feel it. People still coming and going, smiling, buying groceries, eating out. Parking lots mostly empty. Thrift stores raising their prices on second hand goods and parking lots full. People are doing what they can: Isolated in their personal trials while presenting happy faces as though nothings wrong. New car lots full with no buyers and mostly drawing the curious, the dreamers: Used car dealers go to auctions and buy scraps and rearrange and place for sale 3x what they would have brought 2 years ago and no takers. A car repair man doesn't protest the waiting on a car that wont go.... as the owner pleads for time to get the money together to have the repair done: storage 'no problem,' he states,'we're slow anyhow'. Dental work, glasses, repairs.........people choosing to wait on items which just 2 years ago they'd thought nothing of saying 'charge it'. It will get better. It will get brighter. Just be patient, we tell ourselves. Feeling alone in ones own circumstances, a story leaks out here, and then there, and then yonder: One realizes they are not alone. Foreign stories come in: Rioting in the streets and protests; Stories of earthquakes and disasters and miraculous survivals and changed lives: People for the first time hearing and responding to the gospel message. Perhaps this is for our good and His glory. You are not alone. You have the Father and the Son and the holy ghost....... you are not alone. No matter where life takes you and no matter what the trial, you are not alone. Your loving Savior does not count success or failures as the world is accustomed to counting it. He pleads to draw closer and be comforted and satisfied in Him and keep the faith with endurance. He'll carry you through. He has promised to never leave you or forsake you. He was left and dispised and foresaken. He knows and has already been beyond any experience we might have....... and he comforts instead of dismissing us and tells us we are not alone for we have Him.