Forum Post: The hard working, shit on, bottom 50%
Posted 13 years ago on Oct. 17, 2011, 10:46 p.m. EST by 8472ofborg
(100)
from Bruce, SD
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
I am fortunate, I think, to even have a job. Still, I work 50 hours a week and make a whopping $10.81 an hour. (though in a month I get a differential pay that bumps me to almost $12 ^^) However, I own a home, I have a car, and I am trying to get back into college so I can get a higher GPA. Now, to the point.
I am sick of having people call me a part of the Lazy class or the Lazy generation. I earn $28k a year and I struggle to get by whenever something bad happens. Yet you of the upper class have the gall to say I have to work harder and it is my own fault?!?! This whole protest is because of the situation I and others like me find themselves in. We work hard and get paid shit. Yet the upper class call us lazy and tell us to work harder? I'm sorry, but wake up. I work more hours in a day than you probably work in a week and get paid less than a tenth of what the "upper" class (the 250k a year crowd) does. They say they can't afford the taxes? I can't afford to eat 3 meals a day every day. Get off it, get over yourself, and help build up this nation.
ragepost over.
You are one of many. Assholes on the right just don't have the mental capabilities to understand people questioning the system. They are american apologists and whatever america does is the right way no matter what.
I'm underemployed. I used to have plenty of work. I'm a graphic designer and I have a 28 yr career in advertising. Up until xmas '08 I was making $50 /hr and I was able to support myself alright. I lived alone in a nice studio apt in the west village. Then the work just dried up. It just stopped coming. At first, I wasn't too worried. I had a good career, with lots of connections. I called everybody. I emailed resumes to everyone I could think of. Nothing.
I was able to get unemployment, so when I saw work for half the pay I used to get, I thought, wow, how could I... or should I? I felt like I might as well keep looking... I didn't want to have to eat shit like that, at my age... but after a while, I started applying to those low-paying gigs... they never called me either... so I shouldn't have worried.
I would find a couple of days worth of work, here + there... about once every 3 months or so. I took classes. I'm up-to-date on the latest software + digital trends, but my experience is largely in traditional media, and no one wants to hire me for new skills that I don't have years of experience with. Its a portfolio thing.
This is how I've been living. When the unemployment ran out, I borrowed money from friends, from family. I have agencies finding me work on + off. I work about half as much as I could, but as much as I can find.
At this point, I'm 2 months behind on my rent + I'm scared. I have enough to stay, but not enough to catch-up, and I can't borrow anymore. I just can't.
I think about killing myself. I don't see my career rebounding in time. I can crash with friends, but I don't want to lose my place. I just turned 51 last thursday. I don't know what to do.
As sad as it is to think about, you seriously need to come to grips with the fact that you're going to live somewhere else soon. Many of us would kill for a $10/hr job. You must've been through economic times like this in the past. Now is just one of those times you need to tighten up the belt and ride it out. Keep your prized possessions, sell the rest, and just try to keep surviving. You can't take your house with you to the grave, and all we can do is try to relish the good days where we can get them. Like the post below me, keep up the good fight. Alot of us are in similar situations and are doing the same. I was unemployed for 3 years after making almost $20/hr, but now i'm making $13 an hour in a 32 hour workweek instead of a 40 hour one and i'm thankful I finally got a job at all. I would've taken a minimum wage job too, but no one was hiring. Just have to cut your losses at some point bro. I know it's gotta be harder the older you are but you've only got so many options.
yeah, I know. I appreciate the sentiment. It just hurts.
Keep up the good fight, that is all any of us can do.
thanks.
I make just under $32,000 before taxes, work about 40-45 hours a week, and can't afford to think about a house or a car (I live in New York, which makes those things prohibitively expensive and useless anyway). But I have to say, I don't resent not being paid more. My job is interesting (though difficult) and I know if I work really hard, I'll figure out a way to move up. And anyway, I'm in my position because of choices I made. Given what you say about needing to raise your GPA, it sounds like you are, too.
My dad, on the other hand, makes six figures and works harder than any human being I've ever come across. Last time I saw him, he hadn't had a day off in seven weeks. Try telling him he doesn't deserve the money he makes. He worked two jobs through college and three once he graduated, and he took some big risks (some worked out, and some had catastrophic results). He is a compassionate person who has had some hard knocks, but he never took a hand-out in his life.
I think that in this country, you make your own luck and your own fortune. I also think that if I could trust the government to handle my money wisely and fairly (once I have more), I'd be more open to the idea of handing it to them to hand out to people who need it. But tell me, who is going to distribute it fairly? And how do I make sure it goes to someone who really needs it, instead of to someone who makes nearly what I make and possesses a house and car? Your problem sounds more like a lack of fire in the belly to me than anything else. I wish you best of luck going back to school, applying yourself, and finding a job you like more.
NY vs SD. My mother is in NY, so I know how the home prices are there. I only have mine because I bought a fixer upper to work on that set me back less than most new cars.
As for the GPA thing, I am glad your dad did what I did, worked 2-3 jobs while going to school. It sucks and sometimes you just crash from lack of sleep. Still, I can say I didn't do what you did as I paid for my school every step of the way.
You make your own fortune, I agree, that is why I work my job and work on my house to try and sell it in the next few years to pay for school again. Till then, all I can see is people who were handed everything and other people buying out the people I had hoped would fix this nations problems. It isn't lazy to accept help when you need it.
Well, I can certainly agree with the "buying out" part. And while my parents did pay my tuition and board, I paid for food, books, and everything else by working one or two jobs. I do realize that that's still much cushier than most people's situations.
Seriously, good luck.
I think that is what this is all about. "I can agree with the buying out part." Your parents did good for themselves and in turn helped you get somewhere in life. There is no fault in putting their family first. I just wish we could all have that, that is why I am after change.
Good luck to you as well.
Start the war against Injustice by starting our own banks to double the income of the Bottom 90% of Workers, for many more people will come to your side when you are proactive (for “new” Business & Government solutions), instead of reactive (against “old” Business & Government solutions), which is why what we most immediately need is a comprehensive “new” strategy that implements all our various socioeconomic demands at the same time, regardless of party, and although I'm all in favor of taking down today's ineffective and inefficient Top 1% Management System of Business & Government, there's only one way to do it – by fighting bankers as bankers ourselves, and thus doubling our income from Bank Profits which are 40% of all Corporate Profits; that is, using a Focused Direct Democracy organized according to our current Occupations & Generations. Consequently, I have posted a 1-page Summary of the Strategically Weighted Policies, Organizational Operating Structures, and Tactical Investment Procedures necessary to do this at:
http://getsatisfaction.com/americanselect/topics/on_strategically_weighted_policies_organizational_operating_structures_tactical_investment_procedures
Join
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/StrategicInternationalSystems/
because we need 100,000 “support clicks” at AmericansElect.org in support of the above bank-focused platform.
Most importantly, remember, as cited in the first link, that as Bank Owner-Voters in your 1 of 48 "new" Business Investment Groups (or "new" Congressional Committees) you become the "new" Congress, and related “new” Businesses, replacing the "old" Congress, and related “old” Businesses, according to your current Occupations & Generations, called a Focused Direct Democracy.
Therefore, any Candidate (or Leader) therein, regardless of party, is a straw man, a puppet, a political opportunist; what's important is the STRATEGY – the sequence of steps – that the people organize themselves under in Military Internet Formation of their Individual Purchasing Power & Group Investment Power. In this, sequence is key, and if the correct mathematical sequence is followed then it results in doubling the income of the Bottom 90% of Workers from today's Bank Profits, which are 40% of all Corporate Profits.
Why? Because there are Natural Social Laws – in mathematical sequence – that are just like Natural Physical Laws, such as the Law of Gravity. You must follow those Natural Social Laws or the result will be Injustice, War, etc.
The FIRST step in Natural Social Law is to CONTROL the Banks as Bank Owner-Voters. If you do not, you will inevitably be UNJUSTLY EXPLOITED by the Top 1% Management System of Business & Government who have a Legitimate Profit Motive, just like you, to do so.
Consequently, you have no choice but to become Candidates (or Leaders) yourselves as Bank Owner-Voters according to your current Occupations & Generations.
So please JOIN the 2nd link, and spread the word to as many as possible, so we can make 100,000 support clicks at AmericansElect.org when called for, at exactly the right time, by an e-mail from that group, in support of the above the bank-focused platform. If so, then you will see and feel how your goals can be accomplished within the above strategy as a “new” Candidate (or Leader) of your current Occupation & Generation.
I can do that too!
http://wh.gov/2zR
But the thing is, what you propose is illegal. You need FDIC insurance to start a bank, proof of funds, and a good business model to make the 40% you refer to.
Yes, you need those things, but obviously you don't know what you are talking about. If you hire (or ELECT) the expertise for board, with $32M in initial capitalization, and educated workers in banking concepts in order to become outside bank directors, which the Federal Reserve Bank has a web site for, then there's NOTHING illegal about starting bank, so please.
I hear you ... seems like i keep working harder for less This isn't living. Living is spending time with family and doing fun stuff. Working is starting to fell like servitude
This reminds me of a movie i watched where two previously wealthy girls were complaining about going from a protein diet to a carbohydrate diet... ramen noodles for dinner several times a week stops being appealing after a few days.....
Yes, it does. Hence why I add eggs on Mondays and Fridays and sometimes buttered toast to sap up the extra.
lol i can't even think about that right now, kinda making me sick...
I hear you brother or sister! You just can't buy into the old false maxims, such as, "you failed because you didn't work hard enough!" How absurd! I've noticed that all the "rich" people have at one point in their life, "picked themselves up by their bootstraps", and I've often thought that that was easy, it's when you're poor and have to pick yourself up by your short hairs that is most impressive.lol!
I'm just curious, but what do you do for work?
I work for the school system as a boiler operator on a coal fired boiler. During the "heating season" we put in a rotation because it runs 24/7, during the summer we do maintenance and repair on the building on a regular 5 day week.
Keep up the hard work. Good work ethic pays off. Just always have your eyes open for something better.
"less than a tenth" of 250k is less than 25k and you said you make 28k a year. great math. going back to school is a good plan
Less than a tenth per hour. I work 50 hour weeks...which means for 10 hours I make $16.22 an hour, or more than a tenth of the $120.19 an hour you have to earn to make $250k a year.
If you earn 28k a year that clearly puts you in the top 10% of wealthiest people in the world who 'control' 75% of the world's resources. Come the revolution people like you are going to be in trouble.
Oh, hang on, you're one of the guys who's calling for revolution.
I see what you did there. To bad I can't change the world's state just yet. I can, however, help enact change in my government. I favor making this nation great and being in the position to bring up the rest of the world. Thing is, to get the rest of the world out of its problems we have to fix our own.
We have it better than others, I do not deny that, still we can do a LOT better.