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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
 Posted - 05/30/2009 : 20:58:06
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Poll Question:
Well, it's no secret that the economy is bad. How has it affected you?
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moakley
SFN Regular
USA
1888 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2009 : 05:06:50 [Permalink]
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| Fortunately, not much has changed for me. As a contractor my hours are slightly down for the year, but that is about to change. In order for me to continue working at the company I will have to become full time. So now instead of just taking time off unpaid I'll have to think about time off hours accrued. Yep, big deal. If that's my biggest concern to date, then I really haven't anything to complain about. |
Life is good
Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned. -Anonymous |
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Agita
Skeptic Friend
USA
58 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2009 : 08:14:30 [Permalink]
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I have been laid off since Janurary. I talked to my boss two days ago and he said to come see him in two weeks. This is after 9 years of working on holidays and 50 hours being a short week, working 40 hours was like taking a vacation. And speaking of vacation, I had one 10 day vacation in 9 years.
Bush-Co screwed us hard. |
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astropin
SFN Regular
USA
970 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2009 : 09:36:41 [Permalink]
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| Mixed bag. My retirement is in the crapper, but my day to day work really has not changed much. |
I would rather face a cold reality than delude myself with comforting fantasies.
You are free to believe what you want to believe and I am free to ridicule you for it.
Atheism:
The result of an unbiased and rational search for the truth.
Infinitus est numerus stultorum |
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WarfRat
New Member
49 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2009 : 10:02:42 [Permalink]
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| Still working...My job changed from support to migrating my job to India. Gotta love globalization. |
"I believe...that one benefits the workers...so much more by forcing through reforms which alleviate and strengthen their position, than by saying that only a revolution can help them." |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9687 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2009 : 14:42:36 [Permalink]
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For me it's business as usual.
I have my payments on the loans I have (apartment, car, motorcyckles). None of them getting any more expensive. In fact, car and MC loan interest dropped a little the last few months, and the apartment loan isn't up for negotiation for another 2 years.
My employment feels secure enough. I've survived 4 lay-offs since the business-boom in 1997 when the plant had almost 4000 employees. Now, it's less than 700. My education, position, and skill at my work helped me survive those.
I've seen my plant go from a high volume mass production unit to master unit in charge of industrialization and reference production for product refinement.
This lead to a slow change in what I was doing at work, and recently I was part of a delegation from my co-workers who negotiated a new job description. Which in turn resulted in a change upward in pay-grade. Raise after taxes should be around $150-175US/month, numbers aren't official yet since the Union had to sign the final papers, so I'm going out with my coworkers on friday to celebrate. 
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq:
Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 06/01/2009 : 15:55:30 [Permalink]
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Okay, well, I voted but it didn't take. And it's not going to either. A weird glitch I guess.
Anyhow, I'm pretty much a paycheck away from disaster. I've been on disability for almost a year and in that time the kind of work I do has just about disappeared. The phone has stopped ringing and my disability runs out this month. At this point I am just keeping my fingers crossed, as any good skeptic would do.
My trip to TAM is almost paid for, which means I know where I will be sleeping for at least four of the nights in July... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 03:56:01 [Permalink]
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In the area in Ohio where I lived most of my life, jobs have disappeared over the years, many of them coming to Virginia, where I am now, some of them just disappeared. I'm working for a sister company of the one that shut down in 2005 in Ohio. So, I did better than some who didn't go to Virginia. Some of those people went to other jobs and are now laid off again.
I have two houses in Ohio, one of which I used to have some equity in, and the other I'm deep in the hole on. On top of that, renting has pretty much been a disaster. Some of that comes from the fact, at least in my view, that this is a depressed area where young people who would rent the places that I own, don't have decent jobs, and some of it is because I do not have any of the skills or education that would make me a decent landlord, even if success were possible.
So, in my view, this depression started about 1974. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 03:57:02 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Agita
I have been laid off since Janurary. I talked to my boss two days ago and he said to come see him in two weeks. This is after 9 years of working on holidays and 50 hours being a short week, working 40 hours was like taking a vacation. And speaking of vacation, I had one 10 day vacation in 9 years.
Bush-Co screwed us hard.
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It didn't start with them. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 04:22:18 [Permalink]
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I've never had a lot of money and have always been frugal. Damned good thing, too as when I finally got wiped out, pre-Bush, once and for all, I managed to clean up what debt I carried. Had a pretty tough year doing it, though.
I live from one set of SS & VA 40% service-connected disability checks to the next but am comfortable in a modest sort of way.
Like most, I've had to cut back a little but it's all been minor stuff mostly involving gasoline.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 14:53:46 [Permalink]
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I'm one of those who chose perhaps the most depressing answer: "All of my hopes and dreams are now a fading memory." Those words pretty much fit my situation.
When I retired from a good blue-collar career at Pacific Bell (later SBC, and now AT&T) in late 1997, I was receiving a sustainable monthly income from my IRAs of $1,800 after taxes. After a stroke in 2004 and being immediately divorced for having it, my IRAs were reduced, and I had to take out only $1200 a month. As time went on, I had to reduce my income to $900 a month, then, with the recession, all the way down to $450. At that point, I was finally getting my Social Security income of about $1400 a month.
Unless I find another income source, or my income rebounds due to the stock performance of my IRAs, I will likely be poor for the rest of my life. Living in an urban area doesn't help my costs of living.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Agita
Skeptic Friend
USA
58 Posts |
Posted - 06/02/2009 : 18:13:51 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Gorgo
Originally posted by Agita
I have been laid off since Janurary. I talked to my boss two days ago and he said to come see him in two weeks. This is after 9 years of working on holidays and 50 hours being a short week, working 40 hours was like taking a vacation. And speaking of vacation, I had one 10 day vacation in 9 years.
Bush-Co screwed us hard.
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It didn't start with them.
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The fact that it didn't start with them makes no difference. They didn't do anything to rectify the situation, but they did everything they could to enrich their selves. |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2009 : 00:13:47 [Permalink]
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The fact that it didn't start with them makes no difference. They didn't do anything to rectify the situation, but they did everything they could to enrich their selves.
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And that was different from his predecessors in what way? |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Agita
Skeptic Friend
USA
58 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2009 : 10:14:07 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Gorgo
The fact that it didn't start with them makes no difference. They didn't do anything to rectify the situation, but they did everything they could to enrich their selves.
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And that was different from his predecessors in what way?
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That's easy, his predecessors didn't wage an umpteen trillion dollar illegal war off the books. |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 06/03/2009 : 10:22:34 [Permalink]
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That's easy, his predecessors didn't wage an umpteen trillion dollar illegal war off the books.
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Most of them waged illegal wars, but you're right, this one is right up there in cost. If Obama and Congress would call off the illegal attack and reduce the "defense" budget and do a few other things differently, the effects of that would be minimal on the U.S. economy. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
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How’s the economy?
