[pgrundy]

Everyone in my extended family has at least one member who is out of work and severely depressed. Sometimes the person working is severely depressed too and exhausted because of the extreme demands on anyone with a job. Yet now we are hearing the economy is on the mend again.

Does anyone else feel like this economy is starting to make people sick? I've never seen anything like this. I do live in the rust belt, but still. This has been lingering on and on, and now people seem to be cracking. Half the people I work with have two low paying jobs and still can't pay the bills. Everyone I know with a decent paying job has an out of work spouse who can't find work, and is constantly in fear of being laid off.

I don't think the news tells the truth anymore. It's all spin and nonsense, and now they're cutting social programs. Here in MI they're actually going to close the state employment agency (that helps people find work) in order to save money, and then they're going to lay off a bunch more teachers. It's nuts.

[impulse]

Yes, definately difficult times and scenarios to navigate. It's still early in the game for me, but keep thinking about what else I might want to do. If a job in my field doesn't materialize. Things such as volunteering overseas, through an agency like Peace Corps, etc. Lots of possibilities.

Seems to help remind myself that the way we live is simply a social and economic construct. That's in direct contradiction to the way humans had lived for tens of thousands of years. Yeah, if what had been doesn't work out. I'll find something fulfilling, even if it's living amongst strangers in a mud hut.

[pgrundy]

I have those kinds of thoughts too. Sometimes I think our society needs to fall apart because it's just not very healthy and it doesn't work anymore. But that's no fun to live through.

Still, when I was younger I lived very, very simply on hardly any money so part of me feels like, OK, I can do that again. I know how to do that.

Good luck!

[Perna]

It is uncomfortable living through societal changes. I really hated the 1960's and early 70's when I came of age and graduated college into a bad recession, the gas shortage, Vietnam War, drugs and "free love", women's movement, and all the changes in what I thought was "expected" of me by different groups in my life.

I'm retired now so the economy is scary in case something happens to my investments as I wouldn't be able to work due to age and having been out of the workforce so long.