Hankster, I finally gave up and was glad to get a part-time retail job at $7.40/hr. I've been there over a year now, and it's OK, but yes, the money is awful. But at least I wasn't up against med students and people with sociology degrees from the University of Chicago. So I make 85 cents less per hour. Sure it would be nice to have an extra 85 cents, but when you get that low it hardly matters.

BTW I have a BA and a masters degree in psychology. Also a property & casualty insurance license. Also eight years in the financial sector. I taught college for awhile, back in the early 90s. Now, I have to compete for minimum wage retail. But this is Michigan--I think it's worse than the rest of the country.

Still, don't you get the sense things are NOT really improving? I do, even taking into account that I live in the rust belt. I wish we could fire those fat cats in DC and replace them with some of the factory workers and teachers who were let go permanently for no good reason. They'd probably do a much better job.