I can't complain about the economy

Where I live, Chattanooga, TN, the economy is pretty good. UE is around 4%. I say this out of the fact that last week I went looking for something to do between now and the time school starts up again in the Fall. I had three great $10.00/hr or more jobs at my beckoning. It feels great to have those kind of choices. I know there have been a ton of jobs lost (roughly 2 million +/-) but, IMO, if you want a job, you can go find one.

I wouldn't vote for Bush, but, as Bill Maher said, I'd bet on the guy. With 300,000 +/- new jobs being created in the past two months, and the economy on the rise, I think that this will considerably sway voter's opinions away from the other issues at hand such as Iraq and all the seedy "Watergateesque" going-ons inside those white gates.

you can probably live on $20800.00 a year down there (sure more with the coveted overtime) but few of us can in other parts of the country.

congrats though

stamps. The best of both worlds! Sounds like you guys in Chattanooga have got it made, living on easy street. On this basis I guess Kerry ought to just hang it up.

same thing i posted (although i like yours better) :)

yup. 'Murica is on EASY STREET and don't you just LOVE those tax cuts?

:eyes:

Oh yeah, they economy is really goin' great guns! What is with all these freepers at DU? Have they completely run out of fat to chew on FR?

an hour jobs that are now available.

Furthermore, it's so clearly part of the plan. Destroy MILLIONS of high-paying jobs, and then create a couple hundred thousand low paying jobs, and people things are better.

You can't compare 2003 to 2004 and say, hay, things are great.

Compare what we've lost from 2001 to 2004. Bush brought us way down to bring us up just a little this fall to make people feel good.

Are we a nation of Alzheimer's patients? Are we stupid? What they've done to America and to people's lives is STUNNING. Nobody should reward them with their vote, or even with this sort of praise you're giving them.

I have no bills to pay, other than gas. To think I have these options open to me when compared to one year ago where I couldn't get a job working at a frigign grocery store blows my mind.

It is true though. We DO need more middle class 40-70,000 dollar a year jobs. Those are becoming few and far between. Edwards addressed this issue often.

Since you have the choice between taking one to get some pocket change or just continuing to mooch off mom & dad.

That puts things in a whole new light.

decade, getting a 10 cents/hour raise every year (if you're lucky).

Forget 1 year ago. 1950-1974. That's when Americans was growing a middle class and giving people options and making America strong. Even 1994-2001 we were doing pretty good. Fuck 2003. I'm not looking for a world that's incrementally better than any of the very shitty last three years.

I'm looking for a revitilization of the American economy on the scale of the 1950s and 60s. Bush is interested in the opposite. But a lot of suckers don't get it.

It's hilarious....

The "I'm Right, You're Wrong" game.

Why does that seem familiar..... Seems to be a trend around here recently
1. make a stupid assertion
2. get collectively savaged in the thread
3. start a new thread to complain about how unfair it all is..
Scott

with 90% of the adults in this country. No wonder you can't complain about the economy. It was the same for me when I was in college. That was a long time ago. :eyes:

Why should this one not also be written in rose-Bush colored terms.

I am glad you are happy with the fake Bush Recovery and your $l0/hour job.

The sky isn't falling. Some people on here are no better off than Hannity or Coulter in their extreme partisan blindess. I'm sorry if me saying ONE GOOD THING about the economy bothers you. I always thought this site was better than FR, but now, it doesn't look so.

post is surprising. In addition to unemployment, underemployment is a huge problem.

So when you post a thread that says you are happy that there are many low paying jobs available for families of four who have lost their jobs, I am surprised you are happy.

Obviously, anyone who doesn't agree with your position is "hateful" in your view. Why are you so sensitive? Why such an angry, reactionary, over-the-top response? What's the agenda here rocktop15? (Not that I really need to ask).

Good for you that $10 an hour can pay your mortgage, health and life insurance, car payments, grocery bill, Internet service, utilities, etc. For people with families, it takes a little more than that (hell, for single people with fully adult lifestyles that include those expenditures, it takes a lot more than that). I have 5 friends-two of whom have Ph.Ds- who have been "downsized" from the corporations they worked for for 20 plus years (their jobs were sent to India). One has gotten a job as a telemarketer making $7.50 an hour (like most of these fantastic "new jobs"), but that certainly isn't enough to cover the bills. He spends every other waking hour job hunting, but in two years, he's only managed to get one interview. That's one more than the other four have managed. Try being an unemployed, highly skilled scientist over the age of 50 in America with kids to feed, and the picture gets a lot less rosy.

Like I said in a reply below, I didn't come here to offend. I came here trying to paint a little better picture of the scenario. I didn't think I was being sensitive, but I prob. was lol.

This one is classifying my post as hatred.

They classify everything. Do not buy into it.

When they classify things, they do not discuss, they just label. I am saying clearly, "Not buying".

Defend your position Rightwinger (not you Jen6). Defend it rightwinger and stop labeling.

I know you cannot.

he's just a kid; he has no real life experiences to base his judgments upon. Yes indeed, everything gets a label that is born out of a kneejerk reaction, learned from those who preach the simplest and most conveniently lazy of world views. "If you are unemployed, you must not be doing something right". God forbid this young one's parents lose everything and can no longer provide him with the security of their safety net. Seeing just how far ten bucks an hour goes when you're alone in the real world would be a painful lesson indeed.

For the record; I lived on Ramen noodles and eighty bucks a month in a fairly horrid slum during the eighties. I've also lived on $150,000 a year during the late nineties (my own salary made from a business I own-not conjoined with another's) so I know what it takes to live a wide variety of lifestyles-WITHOUT a safety net!

than paying for gas. Do ya think?

Maybe the ONE GOOD THING about the economy (the availability of a $10.00 an hour job) doesn't seem so GOOD in adult situations.

How much do your parents make per hour to ensure that your ONE GOOD THING remains so good?

A living wage has nothing to do with partisan blindness, it is a necessary fact of life.

You will find this to be true once you take the step into the deep end of the pool.

down on who they accept again. Without insurance you will probably pay 2 to 3 times what insured people pay for an ER visit or surgery and a hospital stay. To then pay off those medical bills you would need about 3 of those *good* $10/hour jobs. Ah, the high life!

But I wouldn't recommend you come to northwest Arkansas. My husband was just laid off. I've been working at the same job for three years as an office manager, and I get $7.50/hour with no benefits. That is considered good pay around here.

What are these jobs, all retail?

There's lots of retail jobs opening in my area. All part time with no health care or other benefits. All won't hire me either because their computer says I'd be a bad employee. :eyes: (Uh, I am in customer service right now. 7 years strong. People (most of them) love me. Their fuckin' computer is WRONG.)

You can have your great economy, for what little it's worth. We all deserve prosperity, especially given our workloads.

I'd love to know exactly what those jobs are. It wouldn't matter if Walmart/McDonald's/Burger King needed 1,000,000 new workers. Sure they'd show up as jobs created but their not jobs at a living wage.

Two jobs that pay well are in manufacturing and high tech...both of those are going to Mexico and India. I'm glad things are working out in Tenn,in Wichita about 15,000 have lost jobs that pay 30K and up.

For the most part those jobs are gone forever,in fact the Boeing Wichita plant is for sale. Guess who wants to buy it and is in the running? Chance/Vought. Now guess who owns Chance/Vought and a mired of other companies??

My guess is retail & the growing "Iraq industry"

That they don't have health care or that a gallon of milk is up to $4.00? Is this a full-time job or part-time? Do you live with your parents? Most adults don't. Just think, 1/2 hour of "labor" and you can buy a gallon of milk. Whoopee!

The Republicans have created a nation of people willing to accept the low expectations that have been set for them. Stop being so greedy, you poor people. So you can't afford to go to the doctor and your kids can't either. So you are living paycheck to paycheck. So you have nothing put away for retirement and your mediocre job has no such benefit as retirement.

Stop complaining because it's your own fault for not being born into the right families.

That's total bullshit. I worked making minimum wage at a car wash in high school and I could buy 6.3 gallons of gas for every hour I worked--this was in 1970.

Doing the math at todays fuel and minimum wage where I live you'd have to be making $12.28 per hour to have the same buying power.

I know,I know..most people make way above minimum wage--so Rupukes claim... So what??,like the author of this post his buying power at $10.00 per hour is still less than minimum wage back in 1970 when it comes to buying gas. And...Its a bit tough to just "do without" when it comes to fuel.

and where I am, one year ago it was $1.50/gallon. That is up 1/3. Raise your hand if you are making 33.3% more money now than you were a year ago. It's not that I don't think that the price of gas should rise, but people can't afford to have it rise by 1/3.

seems both dems and repubs don't have a clue when it comes to oil. It's NOT a renewable resource people. Eventually it's going to be so costly even bill gates will perk up at the price.

Simple supply and demand here. Yes, gas is going to keep getting more and more expensive for most people. I'm glad actually. It will force people to move to alternative energy.

A 1/3 increase could be a tremendous burden on the economy. I think that higher fuel prices are the only thing that will get America to look seriously at its energy situation. Still, I have questions about a 1/3 increase in one year.

it's not just TN we care about. WE ARE DEMOCRATS.

The average job around here pays $7 an hour. That's $13,000 a year, a single
person would have trouble living on that, let alone a family. In fact I looked at the
job ads in our local paper today and almost all the jobs were service sector jobs. I
saw one job that paid over $7 an hour, and that paid $8 an hour.

The General jobs section is about one full page long, 3 or 4 years ago it was 4 or 5 pages
long. The biggest difference is not the number of job listings, it's the quality and the pay
of the jobs. We used to have all kinds of $10 and up jobs around here, now they all pay
$7 an hour (or less) with no benefits.

Two married people with NO kids can about starve to death on those wages around here. All you have is just enough to barely scrape by. Car breaks down,washing machine dies then your in a world of hurts.

Wonder why credit card debt is at an all time high?? Doesn't surprise me a bit...

David

then we'll talk...

Or is he still working on that project?

BIG PICTURE.

i'm doing OK, but that's hardly a scientific or objective way to look at things.

I think i can say with confidence that i dont doubt your youth one bit.

I really hope you're wrong about Americans and our priorities. No amount of money can make me accept the fact that my tax dollars are being spent to beat and rape innocent children and I don't think I alone here. Also, I have a teen myself and I'm worried sick he'll be drafted to the hell on Earth Bush created. That's what matters to me.

You don't mention whether your job possibilities offer benefits.

More than 2 million jobs have been lost. The numbers I keep seeing are 2.5 to 3 million. Bush's two months of 300,000 new jobs is nothing. Don't forget that about half of that is necessary just to keep up with new entrants to the work force.

You say "the economy is on the rise." What do you mean? Some factors seem to be improving, but not all. And there's that giant deficit that's freaking out the IMF and even Greenspan.

Why would a few new jobs sway voters' opinions from Iraq and the very seedy scandals? Those are pretty important issues in the U.S. today.

I too will jump for joy at such an abundance of economic opportunities.
Nice try (but try again)

I guess some work is better than none at all. I just don't like the long-term employment and occupational trends. A hard rain is gonna fall.

I'm sure your parents won't mind if all of us who need the work take these jobs and move in with them. Will their health care policy cover all of us?

It doesn't matter if he's doing fine, or if the $10/hour jobs are entry level, path to becoming CEO jobs or bottom of the barrel, swab bathrooms in a maximum security prison jobs.

The point is that there are MANY places in the US that don't even have those $10/hour jobs available. That many places in the US have high unemployment. That many have lost their jobs and had to take jobs at severely reduced pay just to get by.

In short, what you should be chiding the poster for is for not seeing the bigger picture, for only saying "hey, things are good for me, so they must be good for everyone". Not being able to see outside your own little world is one of the biggest problems facing our country today.

I foresaw I would get a massive amount of negative responses to this post. Maybe some people here DON'T WANT to see the light at the end of the tunnel. If you people want to continue bitching about all the bad and not even try to look for a glimmer of hope, then so be it. There's no way in hell I would vote for Bush. I proudly display my John Kerry and Anti-W stickers on my truck.

I'm not extremely liberal as most are here. The Democratic slogan is "Big Umbrella." Why don't you actually embrace other's viewpoints. I consider myself liberal. I'm not talking Zell Miller "liberal" either. This may come as a shock to most here, but I would vote for John McCain over Kerry anyday of the week---assuming he was running opposite *. Yes, I know he's prolife and a stumper for *, but there's just something about him I like. Bash me for it or whatnot but that's the way I feel.

I respect intellectual Republican's who can back up why they feel a certain way. For them, that works. I don't respect Bible thumping Neo-Con Right Winger's such as the whole Bush cabinet.

more than 10 bucks an hour and living at home with their parents. They deserve more than losing 50% of what they had and then getting back 5% in the last three months before an election.

It will be interesting to see the growth of inflation on the CPI this Friday. The Energy index was up 38% in March and Healthcare costs up almost 6%. Get ready although they exclude Energy from the core CPI.

Check out Bureau of Labor and Statistics. If this is an improving economy, we've got trouble. Oh, did I forget to mention the devaluing dollar.

Unemployed 4 years!

Two College Degrees:
BSEE
MBA

Special Training:
FAA Certified Commercial Pilot

Military Service:
Officer United States Navy

Professional Work Experience:
Long and Varied

Slowly becoming impoverished!

Can't get low income jobs - too much experience, too many aliens
Can't find middle class white collar jobs - outsourced or already filled

Dallas, TX is in the top 10 cities with most lost jobs over the last three years.

112,000 high tech workers lost their jobs in 2001 and 2002. That represented 3.2 billion dollars in lost income. The local economy has not recovered and is not creating equivalent replacement jobs.

If that's the scenario, then you're doing something wrong.

No you don't!

You're doing a great job so far!

being a Republican. Or you're just callow or imperious. Probably the former, with a touch of the latter. That's a rotten thing to presume of someone who's over-credentialed and in dire straits. Didn't that barnburner of a speech you gave that earned you all the huzzahs give you a clue? If Mom and Pops kicked you out tomorrow, you'll be back in a couple of months singing a different tune.

laid off in * economy as well.

You republicans are all alike - Don't believe any ground truth except your own distorted lies.

Pete Sessions would like not to believe it as well.

He had his head handed to him at his town hall meeting last Saturday.

There were many unemployed ex telecom workers their that gave him an earful.

Personally, I am closing in on 2000 resumes out the door. My resume is posted on 105 jobs boards. Have not heard from a recruiter or company in over two years.

Need I say more other than we are not drinking the republican koolaid or buying the lies any longer.

She was a computer programmer...Her company lost their contract wiht the state and now she is working at a school making $13/hour. Guess what...she STILL supports Bush!

Can you believe that?!

eom

Hey time to go raid the folks fridge rocktop15 then spend some of the bitchin summer job money.....

:)

when financial trouble arises, turn to the rumpus room scenerio.

You'll be doing everything "right" once you realize that a simple move into the parent's basement will relieve all of your worldly burdens (excepting the gas money).

Praise the lord and pass the insulation. Have the common decency to exempt the in-laws from the untidy discussions resulting from living in poverty. It is after all the "right" thing to do.

mhr & millions of others who are unemployed are not doing anything wrong. It's next to impossible to get a job in this shitty economy. If rocktop15 thinks it's easy to get a job right now, put your money where your mouth is & quit your job right now so that some deserving person can have it to survive, & you can have the "fun" of begging for a job in this recession.

Nevertheless, we unemployed soldier on.

Tomorrow's job search takes me to a job fair in downtown Dallas.

The last job fair had three thousand people for 300 positions.

Very discouraging and all the more so because none of the jobs were remotely related to my background.

Then we'll talk.

They're doing it by having low wage costs, and low tax burdens. And often there income is coming from government contracts -- ie, tax money from a tax base to which they aren't contributing. That's called a one-way transfer of wealth from bottom to top. That is NOT called capitalism.

living with their parents prolly don't have much to complain about regarding the economy.

Unless, as an adult, you are bummed about having to depend on your parents for a roof over your head.

Someday, say when you are between the ages of 21-25, you may start hankering for the ability to be self-sufficient.

Someday, very soon, that bitchin' $10.00 an hour job won't seem like such a great opportunity. Once you start ta adding up expenses what with the cable and the internet and the utilities and the food, clothing and god forbid little children. Before you know it $10.00 an hour just ain't cuttin' it brother.

To put things in perspective as a single woman I was semi-happy with $10.00 an hour 12 years ago. Dude, have you heard of the term progress? Have you been clued into the idea of inflation? Cost of living? Anyone?

Don't be surprised when you reach that point in your life when you really do understand that the guy who claims he is responsible for 300,000 +/- new jobs being created in the past two months is the same SOB who claimed that the recession was the last guy's fault. Do not be alarmed that your guy told you the economy is on the rise, yet somehow it just never trickles down on you. Grab your bootstraps and buckle up knave, they really can't help you much.

One day you may find that the need for health insurance is important to you, perhaps even vital to your existence. It is then that you will realize that healthcare is something you just can't "go out and find" no matter what your guy's been selling in his speechifyin' antics.

BTW the TN state unemployment rate is 5.5%

how they feel about the economy. Afterall, they're taking care of you. Your health insurance. Your tuition. Your room and board. So, in your very self-centered universe, you can't complain about the economy. Why would you? You're hardly self-sufficient. You're dependent. Get out of Mom and Dad's house and find out about other people in this country. You're short on empathy and knowledge. Try to remember that the working people of America are not living in comfort at Mommy and Daddy's house. You seem very naive for your age.

Does this 10.00 an hour job pay the mortgage on YOUR house, the homeowners insurance, property taxes? Does it pay for your grocery, electric, phone, water, sewage, trash collection, minor or major home repairs such as needing a new water heater, AC, replace washer or dryer when it quits? How about gasoline to and from work, automobile repairs such as new tires, windshield wipers, battery, oil changes, general upkeep and other breakdowns and or regular maintenance. Do you get paid sick leave when you have to take a couple of days off, how about medical benefits, health insurance, do you have to pay for the doctor out of that $10.00 an hour, prescription drugs, do you have a wife, kids to feed and take care of? Thats just the tip of the iceberg, Yep I am willing to bet your biggest concern is were to go to pick up guys or gals as the case may be. Enjoy your youth while you can, some day you will grow up to be a responsible adult and feel the weight of the world on your shoulders.

has no idea about all these things. He will get a rude awakening in a couple years. BTW, thanks for reminding me why I am so stressed day in and day out! :)

You are young and healthy, rocktop15, just like most folks are when they are nineteen. You don't have any children. You don't have any major health problems.

Most of those $10/hr jobs aren't offered in a 40 hr/week package that includes benefits such as health insurance. You don't have to worry about that. Most people do.

Only the Bushbot creeps pretend otherwise...

This country is REPLETE with examples of Americans who lost a good, decent paying job they've had for years only to replace it with a lower-paying job without benefits...

You sound to young to fully grasp this fact, as you crow about ten dollar an hour jobs...

*

:evilgrin: :thumbsup: BTW, I totally agree!

$10 won't get you very far anywhere.

Please don't disgrace the hard-working people struggling to make ends meet, pay mortgages, and feed their families, by saying everything's great for you cause you got a low-paying job while living at home.

Those jobs aren't too hard to get. I'm not trying to be harsh, or rude, but it's the truth.

This "recovery" has resulted in lots of those kinds of jobs, along with many part-time and temporary positions. Great for kids, but bad for adults needing a real income.

<snip>
Both the unemployment rate, 5.6 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, 8.2 million, were essentially unchanged in April. The unemployment rate has been either 5.6 or 5.7 percent since last December. The unemployment rates for the major worker groups--adult men (5.0 percent), adult women (5.0 percent), teenagers (16.9 percent), whites (4.9 percent), blacks (9.7
percent), and Hispanics or Latinos (7.2 percent)--were little changed over the month. The unemployment rate for Asians was 4.4 percent in April, not seasonally adjusted. (See tables A-1, A-2, and A-3.)
<snip>

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

And the poverty levels are higher than the national averages in your state.......rural areas are really hit hard in TN.....

http://www.statehealthfacts.kff.org/cgi-bin/healthfacts.cgi?action=profile&area=Tennessee&category=Demographics+and+the+Economy&subcategory=Unemployment

What you are making wouldn't pay my monthly insurance bills. Health, Business, Property.....

I wish I could play the Ghost of Economy Future and show you what lies ahead when you reach my age, but I understand....getting high and rockin' is at the top of your list right now.

It's a lot when we only had 32 employees now 25. Oh yeah, and we probably have more to come PLUS the possibility of the rest of us Lucky Duckies getting our hours slashed to 30hrs/wk! Great economy indeed!

Congrats on your $10/hr job.

in oklahoma, lots of work, but it's all temp.

Most of them are not even "living wage" jobs for most of us.

Why are we wasting time with this whelp?

Heck, I shouldn't have even posted in this thread but the sheer naivety and ignorance of this person infuriated me so I could not help it.

Kid, you are a self-professed 19 year old living at home, and by the sounds of your responses you know very little about living in the real world, or what it takes to do so.

Your callous and utterly stupefying dissing of the person who had all of the impressive qualifications and experience on their resume, that your excuse for them not being able to find a job is "they must not be doing something right" is STRAIGHT out of a mindset that is spoon fed Rush and Hannity Right Wing Talking Points on a daily basis.

I'll bet you think "Poor People Are Lazy", as well.

It is a statement so completely born in ignorance one cannot even begin to describe it.

You fail to realize there are MANY, MANY cases of people in this country who were working jobs that paid anywhere from $30-120K, who lost their jobs and are now working jobs for $7.50-10.00 per hour. McJobs if you will. These people have families to support, mortgages to pay, health insurance, car insurance, and a whole lot of other responsibilities you wouldn't understand the first thing about, because you're still living with Mommy and Daddy. This is NOT an economic recovery. The Middle Class is DISAPPEARING.

The Economic situation in this country is on the edge of an oblivion.
We have the highest consumer debt in the history of mankind, Record Personal Bankruptcies, the ugly appearance of Inflation, and a Reckless Federal Reserve presiding over the most irresponsible Monetary and Rate Policy in history. Our Currency is collapsing, and even your low expectation paradise will seem like the Beverly Hills High Life should all of those nations overseas decide to repatriate their investment on our "debt" that they have for so long invested in. And these issues I just mentioned don't even scratch the surface. The Economy is in MUCH worse shape than even many here at DU know about. It would not take very much to make the whole House Of Cards fall right now. ONE event, such as the Blow-Up of JP Morgan's 35 Trillion Dollar Derivatives Book would do the trick nicley. It would not take another terrorist attack.

Sorry kid, maybe you mean well, but you have no idea what you are talking about. Maybe what you have right now is fine for a 19 year-old living at home with Mommy and Daddy to hold your hand, but it won't cut it in the real world, and when it's time for you to leave the nest, assuming we will have an economy that will ALLOW you to leave the nest, you will be in for the rudest awakening of your young life.

That is of course unless you have rich Republican Parents, then you probably won;'t notice a thing.

You won't find much support for your "economic recovery" theory here I am afraid.

And yes, I AM being harsh on the lad. I am definitely not the one that should probably be addressing him. But I am sick and tired of the ignorance and acceptance of lowest common denominator expectations in this country. The hour is getting late, and our 227 years are almost up.

We need to wake up in a HURRY.

If you stick around kid, I can guarantee you will find those who are willing to educate you and point you in the right direction of the facts and concepts you are missing. Assuming you are willing to learn.

You aren't off to a very good start, but maybe patience will win the day.

I must apologize to all, because mine has run out.

eom

...you must be doing quite well for yourself then. I am pretty sure though that for the millions of unemployed, they have lots to complain about.

My partner has been unemployed since the dot com crash of 2000. Now any job she could go for, is being outsourced.

So much for a grand economy.

. . . etc.?

Medical costs have increased by FORTY PERCENT. The economy is fucked.

It is reality check time for you.

gas to get you to the foodstamp office...

I am not suffering either... but then again I bailed on the U.S. economy almost 12 months ago :)

I doubled my income because of benefits and then I doubled it again because I don't pay taxes...

Did I mention the great lifestyle :) ?

The economy is picking up. 2003 was very good for me, and 2004 is looking to be my best year yet.

This week, I've been asked to start interviewing engineers again. Hell I havent done this in about, well 3.5 years. And these are $100k a year jobs we are talking about, not mic jobs by any means. Now the competition for these is looking to be very high, but nontheless we are hiring again..(wow!)

IMO, this is because the "economy" is predicting a Kerry win. Just as the economy crashed about 6 to 9 months before Bush won, when the economy was predicting a Bush win.

"the economy crashed about 6 to 9 months before Bush won, when the economy was predicting a Bush win"

To my knowledge, the economy did NOT crash before the election (which Bush did NOT win). We still had modest growth until March 2001, AFTER Bush's selection.

Me, I'd just about kill for a $10/hour job right about now. Boosh* has always been known as the Master of Lowered Expectations, and this proves it from my personal viewpoint.

Middle Class? Yeah, I used to be one of those. Long ago, and far away...

Sincerely. You are fortunate to live in an area that's doing better than others in the country. And it's nice that you're able to find the work that you can be happy with to have some money before you go back to school in the fall.

We have alot of hiring signs in our area as well for the retail and restaurants. This is an affluent area and they always have trouble getting the high school and college kids (from this immediate area) to apply for the positions. But I'm seeing more and more women between late 20's to 40's taking them. I suspect it's because they aren't able to support the family on the single income that was wholly sufficient just a few short years ago before Lucent and alot of the other major corporations here started laying off and implementing strategic sourcing.

There are several on this thread that have taken this to a broader view that I can't really disagree with in terms where the sentiment is coming from. So, just for you specifically I'll say: Congratulations and be thankful for your blessings. It's nice to see someone hopeful and who remains aware of the danger involved with another 4 yrs of Bush policies. Try to remember that when people lash out, it's usually out of frustration of the circumstances they find themselves and those they love. :)

that's what I make and must work less than 40 hours/week (don't want to have to give those benefits you know!). It is quite a paycut from the job I lost a year ago. $10/hour seemed like a lot back when I was in college. It seemed like a lot when my parents were still paying my health insurance, my car insurance, and before I had a car payment. I am sure it is an enormous amount when you aren't paying rent.

Ten years later I know it is nothing to brag about.

Nothing is more republican than cheap labor. Republicans love to masturbate over the benefits of competition but they spend many of their waking hours and hundreds of billions of dollars insuring that employers do not need to compete for labor. They see this as the Godly exploitation of less powerful people.

you can't buy a house, pay for health insurance for a family, support a wife and kids, save for retirement...

You can't put yourself through school and pay your own tuition by yourself without any help from Mommy and Daddy or Big Government. Shoot, you can't even support yourself by paying your own rent!

Let's see how you feel about them $10/hr jobs once you have your degree and still can't find a "good job" and are still living at home with Mommy and Daddy. 25 years ago people did live in their own places pretty quick after graduation from college or even high school.

No major economist has changed his forecast for this year (they were forecasting an increase in employment from 0.5 to 1%) -- none is on the record saying that he was wrong and there are heaps more jobs out there than what he expected. Just wait till '05 when the deficit gets worse and the economy slows even more and unemployment gets a whole lot worse.

But, it should be in the Lounge....Happy College Student posts really don't belong in GD.

Your experience as a 19 year old Happy College Student who can now afford all the really, really cool DVD's, CD's and other Important College Student Stuff do not in any way shape or form translate into real world experience.

IF you had posted, "Now I can afford tuition, Thank God..." then maybe you would get a real live grown up conversation.

Stephanie