hippiechick wrote: 
I don't mind saying that I now make only $9.80 hr for 25 hours per week for a $980 monthly gross that allows me to keep my SSD benefits coming in (which I earned over 40 years of working thank you very much).  The 25 hours are all I can handle, I still fatigue real fast.  The premiums for my Health Insurance now cost my employer $1400 a month and that is for a high deductable, high copay situation.  I am way over qualified for what I do.  Yet I love what I do and am grateful that my employers do not hold my over education for the position against me.

But I have a job, health insurance and do not live on the street.  I become eligable for Medicare come February 2011, which will replace my work benefits, which I will probably lose next premium review anyway as the costs will go up another 25% at least making for a monthly  premium of about $1800 a month.  That falls into Cadillac coverage prices with taxes on the insurance because due to its cost, it will be considered Cadillac, regardless of the coverage, yet is is far from that.  I cover my wife as well, so she will lose her's.  The insurance was fun while it lasted and I'm real glad I got sick before all this health care reform crap jumped off.  If I had got sick later, I see myself as dead, knowing what I know having gone through all this stuff already.

I'll take something over nothing, anyday.  Plus, I've always heard its easier to find a job when you already have one.  Has that changed as well ?

These are the rules and I got to play by them if I don't want to have to move into a refrigerator box.

 romeotuma wrote: 
Honey, when you are in this position, it's hard to think of anything else. However, I do look at the whole picture and I am very familiar with how this affects the world economy.

Just think about what is going to happen to the economy when all those people who have been getting unemployment stop, and end up on the welfare roles, or homeless.

 romeotuma wrote: 
Believe me, I give plenty of thought to all of the other people who are suffering from a lack of employment/income. I thank my lucky stars that I am in the position that I am in. It just so happens that I used myself as an example, but I know that many many people are in a lot worse position than I am, and they are in my thoughts.

P.S. If it weren't for my loving companion, I would be contemplating homelessness.

 Manbird wrote: 
some of them are called grunion.

 cookinlover wrote: 
WRONG! Some of them are called stackers. 

 oldslabsides wrote: 
it'll be a flavor explosion! 

 Manbird wrote: 
Except for the supermarket workers... they're still called baggers.

 Manbird wrote: 
If I want anything out of you I'll step on OV's bunion.

 oldslabsides wrote: 
I'll tell who she's not... then you decide if you care... 

 oldslabsides wrote: 
You don't

Who the hell is Rachel Maddow and why do I care?

 hippiechick wrote: 
Oh, come on! Let's not drag tea baggers into this. Most of them are just average Johnny Bostons. And we're called 'tea partiers' anywho. 

 Lazy8 wrote: 
As I said, it's a matter of choice, and how desperate you are.

If you can get a union job, that is definitely better. I just picked a job randomly. Many of the baggers around here are people with special needs.

 hippiechick wrote:
I was one day away from taking an $8/hr road paving job when I found an engineering job last time I was out of work.

Would I have been happy? Happier than sitting on my ass, slowly going broke. I didn't get a great deal of enjoyment out of the job I took either, but it paid the bills and I did freelance work to keep my hand in. I held out for the perfect job (which came 5 years later, from one of those freelance jobs) while bringing in a paycheck. And I read the want ads every day.

Just as an aside: during one of the supermarket strikes in SoCal one of my coworkers did the math, and union grocery baggers made more than entry-level engineers. Actual checkout clerks made twice what we did.

 black321 wrote: 
It's only part time, about 10-15 hrs/wk. I will make enough to pay for my health insurance.

If you were an engineer, how long would you be happy working as a grocery store bagger? I am not saying that you should necessarily not take a job like that, but if you are working 40 hrs/wk (which you prolly wouldn't get anyway), how do you look for a job that is in your field in your free time. How do you pay for your family's benefits on that amount of money? I guess it's all a matter of how desperate you are. The last time I was unemployed I was able to hold out for the perfect job.

This time I have a lot of real limitations, being lack of transportation, my age being close to 60, and no jobs available in my field. I am also lucky enough to have a partner that doesn't mind supporting me financially; however, I need to have at least some money of my own to support my habits (one of them being music).

 hippiechick wrote: 



you would actually make about $200 more with a $10/hour job 40 hoursx10x4.3 (weeks in an average month). I know its difficult finding a job when you are already employed, and no offense, but I personally dont agree with an attitude "that I'm better off w/o a job and benefits", then taking a job and still looking for that perfect match. It's difficult but can be done. If, you are still searching for that perefect match, I dont think you'd see more than a handful of interviews in any given month...if you were lucky.

 ScottFromWyoming wrote: 
I got 1400 per month for 20 weeks then nothing. So that was about 8.75 per hour. The job I held for the previous 6 years paid about 17/hr. BTW, my UE benefits disqualified me from any kind of health care program. They said I made 200% of what I could earn and still be eligible. So... in CA one has to have an income averaging about 4 bucks an hour to qualify for a health care program. Same for food stamps. So now I make maybe $7.50 an hour if I have a good month - way over the top for food stamps or health care. It always boggles my mind when people talk about abusing the system. There really isn't much a 'system' here in CA. Maybe I need to place an ad on CL for a benefits scam tutor. 

 Manbird wrote: 
I've heard about that scenario also......

 Monkeysdad wrote: 
I interviewed for a job that is part time and pays a mere $10/hr. If I was still getting unemployment, at $1500/month, I wouldn't even consider taking this job. For one thing, you can't look for a better job if you take a full time job at a low wage. And if you have a family to feed, you wouldn't want to waste your time at this kind of job.

I feel like a 2-bit whore, taking a job at this pay rate, with the amount of skills I have, but if offered, I will accept.

 cc_rider wrote: 
My UE would be $450/wk here in CA, as is the colleagues' I mentioned.