I met up with someone who personifies what has happened to our economy

This past weekend, we had a little college reunion of sorts. I saw a friend I hadn't seen since 1998. She IS the story of the economy.

We graduated in 92 and she had a degree in Speech Communication. She immediately got involved in IT and project management and started doing this remarkable corporate climb to the top. It was amazing.

In 1998, I saw her at a mutual friend's wedding and all she did was bitch about how little she was getting paid. She finally said it was $75K. I nearly dropped my punch. At that time, that was more than my husband and I were making TOGETHER. I couldn't believe she was bitching about $75K. She kept saying she was worth more and was talking to headhunters (remember this was 1998). She was TRULY pissed off and insulted to be paid "so little." My mind boggled. I can understand ambition, but how much did she need, exactly?

Next thing I heard she got a job in DC making WAY more than $75K. I was happy for her. She moved there, got paid buttloads, lived high on the hog. Bought a BMW, had a wardrobe that would rival anything in Vogue, fancy electronics, VERY cute townhome.

After two years, she got laid off from that job (this is 2000). Took a job still in IT, but making far less, in Houston. One year later, 2001, she got laid off from THAT job.

She spent the next 18 months unemployed, looking everywhere. Moved back to Dallas to live with her mom. Sold the BMW. In 2003, she took a job answering phones at an architecture firm her friend worked at. Just a few months ago, she lost THAT job when they scaled down (too many administrative assistants).

So now, laid off again. She told us at the reunion that in DC she was making $195K. That WAS a big jump, but then the cost of living is a bit higher there. She talked wistfully about her life at that time. Parties, restaurants, hitting the cultural scene in DC constantly. Aiming for being a VP in that company.

I didn't ask her who she voted for. I didn't want to know. I was afraid of the answer.

She was a different person when I saw her this weekend. Now she just wants a JOB. Said she'd take back the $75K job in a heartbeat, but it's long gone.

she needs to go back to community college and enhance her skills like cleaning bedpans

She IS going to community college, starting in the fall, to take some courses she needs to become a physical therapist.

BSEE
MBA
Commercial Pilot
Honorably Discharged Naval Officer
15+ years of professional work experience

Have not heard from a company with a serious inquiry in over 3 three years.

In Dallas, TX over 112,000 telecom workers lost their jobs in 2001 and 2002. The buildings they once occupied are still empty today.

As well, Dallas has fewer people employed today than at the beginning of 2000.

If the recovery since the recession ended had been average, we should have seen the generation of 10.2 million net new jobs. All we got under Bush was 1.2 million.
http://www.comstockfunds.com/screenprint.cfm?newsletterid=1155

I understand your friends situation well.

This chart tells the tale for Dallas, TX

My most sincere wishes for your job hunt mhr. That TOTALLY completely SUCKS rocks. God. I'm here in this area, too. Wish I knew of some contacts for you, but I have no experience in those fields (I'm in public education).

The Dallas line just sinks doesn't it? (On that chart.) Whew.

have you ever thought of going into teaching, or is that not something that interests you?

We now have emergency certification programs in which you take classes at night to get your teaching certification. You have three years to get it finished, but it rarely takes anyone that long. You take the ExCET test (it's called something else now, actually) when you are done, pass it, get your certification and then get a permanent contract.

Most school districts would take you in a heartbeat, as they are quite strapped for teachers nowdays.

I would not last one day with the kind of "lip" that the kids spew these days.

I am sure that I would be arrested before noon of my first day.

It's really not as bad as all that. Depends on the school.

Oddly, I have had the most success teaching low income kids in the burbs. They are very sweet, very emotionally needy, so they eat up any attention you give them. I found them to be very loving kids (eighth grade). I am now a consultant but when I was in the classroom, I was firm but treated them with respect and expected the same.

Anyone who gave me attitude got a pass to the office and if the office didn't take care of it, they heard from ME. ;-)

But I hear ya, because I know my husband wouldn't last a day. He said there'd be bodies piled up in the hallway, then he'd go to prison. He just doesn't have the patience at all. (Not that you don't, but that would be his problem.)

And to be honest, he's not that into kids anyway.

Drugs, Blatant Public Sex Acts, Gangs, etc.

I can stand the challenges to authority - blatant disrespect is another matter though.

From what I have heard, it is worse than any reasonable person can imagine.

Apparently the schools and teachers are bound by laws that strictly prohibit punishment.

So without very active parents, the kids run amok.

my district is very different, but I don't want to name it here.

I am afraid my sympathy would've flown out the window when I heard the number. But I do feel for her, I really do, BB. Damn.

Would she take a job that pays $50k? How about $25k? How about minimum wage, which is under $11k?

How in hell does anyone in this country live on $11k? Usually w/ no benefits? And that's at 40 hours per week, which many people making MW don't even get.

:grr:

starting in the fall, to work on a plan to get her into physical therapy work. Or occupational therapy work (kind of related).

Meanwhile, she is trying to find a job doing SOMETHING, because her mom got laid off recently, too, and they are worried about her mom being able to keep her house (she is living with her mom now).

She said she's "this close" to flipping burgers.

Sounds cold, but that's the world we live in.

Signed

extremely effing thankful to have a job

Talking to her made my husband and I count our lucky stars. What really struck me was how different of a person she was from that last time I saw her, when she was bitching about $75K.

if you're making $75-200K a year and don't manage to save anything, you're an idiot. If you only care about money, power, and status, then you're self-absorbed scum. Sorry to be so blunt, but as I see it someone like this who finds herself in this situation probably NEEDS to be in this situation (humbling growth experience and all that).

any savings after making that much money. But it was pretty clear from how she lived that she spent most everything she earned. She said she did have money in a 401K but eventually had to live on that after the government took their 30% for early withdrawal. Then she had to ALSO turn around and claim it on her taxes as income, so she got hit with taxes on it TWICE. Ouch.

But yeah, she could have had quite a bit socked away. She does seem very different and very humble now. And quite sad.

"Apres moi, le deluge"...


I hope your friend manages to adjust and find some stability and a regular income...and I'd say the odds are good that going through this may actually make her a better person. So it works out for the good in the end, I suppose.

..considering I'm but an E-4 in the Air Force. ;)

he was bringing home $900 a month and I was in college. Talk about broke. Hamburger meat was living the good life to us back then.

In early 2000, I was making 90K. Now, I'm making 35 and damn glad to have it. I had to essentially start my career over in late 2000. I'm over being depressed and bitter about it, though I do miss the wonderful feeling of never being worried about money.

My partner was a PeopleSoft Consultant. At his height, he was making 125. The market starting drying up after 9/11 and when his contract ended in 2003, he took a full-time gig at a MNC headquartered in town. He still makes 80K with bonus though. He's bored but the job isn't going away anytime soon. Not bad.

Fortunately for us, I grew up poor so I forced us both to save and invest conservatively. We still took a bath when the bubble burst, though, like everyone I suppose. We came out further ahead than our friends.

Funny... I always told Will that I wish I could have lived through the Roaring 20's. Come to think of it, I did just that.

The big bubble stuff really missed us in the 90s. We were struggling. I was in college the first few years of the 90s, married and my husband in the Army making a pittance.

Then I was a high school teacher, making....are you ready for this?

19K. Yep. Woohoo! And it was the most I had ever made in my LIFE. I remember we went to the store after I got my first paycheck in late 93 and bought MEAT. Just meat meat meat.

Then we had a baby in 94. I quit my teaching job to stay home for a year and we were poorer than church mice. I sold my violin, pawned my engagement ring (got it back), all kinds of stuff. Went on WIC. Hard times. Could hardly buy food and gas.

Then my husband decided he had been all he could be and got out of the Army in 96, and I was working as a technical writer for a whopping $22K a year. He took a job at Home Depot.

We didn't really start doing better until about 2001 or 2002, so we are the weirdos in this economy. We aren't exactly rolling in it now, but we are way beyond where we were in those dark days.

I can remember being really aware of the great economy in the 90s and surely we would have done far worse in those personal conditions in the economy of TODAY. I used to wish I had gotten in on the internet boom or the stock market boom, etc. We kind of watched it from the sidelines, slurping on Ramen noodles, and rolling pennies to buy diapers, LOL!

...was to start sending my parents a check every month. At first it was $100, then $150. My parents had to sacrifice mightily when I was growing up and it just seemed like the thing to do. What I really want more than anything is to be able to start sending them money again. My student loans are going to be paid off this spring, and hopefully I'll be able to start doing it again, though the checks will be much smaller this time.

and i live a pretty meek life. I probably eat out more than some, but thats about it, i hardly buy anything.

My folks make nearly $100K between them, but it doesn't feel like it because of all the debt and how they help out my family, my bro, our Nana, etc.

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in 1998 and she had NO debt at all (until she got the job in DC and bought the BMW, townhome, etc.).

And here in the Dallas area (really all of Texas), the cost of living is really super low.

Or a Y-2-K profiteer.