1 And it appears, with articles like this, that the Editors and Staff at Time can hardly wait to join the good times!

2 Negative waves, man.

Always with the negative waves.

.

3 Here's one dynamic: in a booming economy, people tend to think that their current job sucks and that they would be happier in a new job.  In this economy, anyone with a job is just grateful to have it, so perceived happiness -- satisfaction with one's lot in life -- increases.

It's the happiness of the proletariat drones.  Lose your ambition, want what you have instead of aspiring to more and you'll be happy by the Time definition.  And America and the world will stagnate into a socialist fog, bereft of innovation and growth....

4 Suicide rates spiking today == happy people.  The connection should be obvious.

Curiously, black suicides went DOWN during most of the Bush term.  Obviously, their economic repression during those desperate years drove them to that.

5 This reminds me of the day after Thanksgiving last year, the Black Friday sales.  There were a few tragedies at stores with people getting trampled or shot.  Some in the media blamed Bush, because of peoples' desperation to save money. Then a few days later when it was revealed that sales were up over the same day in the previous year the media credited optimism about Obama.

6 I'm gainfully employed as an engineer these days, but I've been unemployed and worried about how to pay the bills and pay for food. You know what? Money doesn't buy happiness, but it's a hell of a lot easier to worry about esoteric things such as "am I content?" when your next thought isn't "will I eat today?" or "will I and my family be living on the street tomorrow?"

7 what are the chances we can get a transcript or video from obama's townhall meeting with the young chicom students yesterday? apparently the present said some stuff that is absolutely beyond the pale, such as wishing for a less free flow of information in order to silence crticism about him

8 All I will say is that I am so happy to know I and all the other legitimate taxpayers will be nowhere near  NYC when the hefty bill comes due.

Happiness is fleeing Serfdom before the useful idiots become aware of their environment.

9 In most recessions, we WOULD be unhappy.

But Barack Obama is president now. And that's far better than the materialism we were so desperately clinging to before.

10

    As a currently funemployed Comm Tech, I'm whistling out my ass that barry extended cash benefits.

Now I can afford to by shoes at the Salvation Army, to walk to McD's and steal ketsup packs, to put on my "muffin stems" I get from Kramer. Thanks barry, asshole.

Maybe once we all wear the same grey uniforms we'll be even happier!

11 is it just me, or is the MSM trying to shill for Obama?

12 And yeah, money doesn't buy happiness.

But it doesn't hurt, either. Studies show that the biggest difference is the effect it has on raising you from a subsistence lifestyle to one where you don't have to scrape by.

So going from middle class to upper middle class? Not that much difference in your happiness.

But from lower class to middle class can make a huge difference.

As would the opposite, I think. Which tends to happen when you, uhhh ... you know, LOSE YOUR JOB.

People who are out of work don't sit and think, "Finally! I've unshackled myself from the false idol of materialism."

They think, "Holy fuck! How am I going to feed my children?"

13 it's just you, man.

You're a *morale subversive.* You are trying to sabotage the Great Leap Forward with your negativism and criticism.

14 We should all don't worry, be happy about being unemployed or under employed! We should all be cheerful and glad when talking to the 12+ collection calls per day! We should have line parties at the Unemployment Office! Because everybody knows, our grandparents and great-grandparents were having a BLAST during the Great Depression! (This isn't a depression, instead of being a recession? Wait until after the Xmas season, and see what the economists say....)

No offense to TIME staffers, but if I had a job that paid more than $10/hour right now, I'd be a lot happier.

15 Owning one Obama speech DVD is equivalent to having a million bucks in the bank in terms of happiness.

Owning one Obama speech DVD is equivalent to having a paid off house and car in terms of happiness.

Owning one Obama speech DVD is equivalent to having a 12 months supply of food for your family on hand.

Owning one Obama speech DVD is equivalent to having a fully stocked armory in terms of happiness.

Owning one Obama speech DVD is equivalent to having a 5gal pail of the highest grade Peruvian marching powder in terms of happiness.

Owning one Obama speech DVD is equivalent to having a wild Vegas weekend with a dozen $5,000/night call girls.

16 spam

17 These asswipes are sooooo stu-pid.

What do they think they are going to do when the bank forecloses (oops, Obamatard will bail them out from his 'stash')? When there is no $$ for groceries (oops, Obamatard will extend un-employment and food stamps to like, forever)?

They. Are. As. Dumb.  As.  A. Load. Of. Owl. Shit.

And, them's their good points!

18 They really are being obvious with their bias now. They don't even make an effort to be objective.

One wonders if Time really wrote the article or if it was PR from the WH.

19 it's a mother beautiful economy, ace, and it's gonna stay that way ... okay?

20

Now the average house is more than 50% bigger*, the car is twice as powerful**

*With negative 20% equity!

**The Z06 'Vette was designed under Bush when shareholders own GM. And yes, it just may be a hair quicker than a f'ng prius.......We need to get people not only back to work, but on time, with big silly grins! That ain't comin' from a hydroid appliance/dildo.

21 Sure, I am really enjoying my funemployment.  I could equate it to enjoying having a root canal, or a colonoscopy.  I'm just loving getting 1/2 of my old income in funemployment benefits.  At least I am not going to lose my house over it...yet.  Depends on how many extensions they will give me.  187 job applications and resumes out so far and I have gotten 2 interviews and no offers.  This is sure some fun.  I am so glad our idiotic f*cking president and administration have made this experience so joyful and entertaining.  You know, if I had lost my job when Bush was prez, I would have been depressed and angry and frustrated, but with Odipshit in the white house, I mean, I'm having the time of my life!

F*cking idiots!

22

mm hmm, i cannot say how enthusiastic i have been to have my two older children( with child) move back in with me these last 6 mths. and to realize after flying through our humble nest egg trying to hold everyone \up, we are now downsizing  to a smaller less expensive home (we all really like cozy)

oh Heck more to love!, right? right?

see I'm happy and hopey with all the lovely change.

23 People who are out of work don't sit and think, "Finally! I've unshackled myself from the false idol of materialism."

They think, "Holy fuck! How am I going to feed my children?"

That would be the difference between "out of work" and "never work"...the latter never worry about feeding their children, because the government always has and always will.

24 I still hate Obama

25
Can't wait to read how happy granny is to die from lack of health care because that means "some nice young couple" will get her Florida condo.

26

mmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmm....Barrack Hussein Obama.

Dne eht ni, soahc ylno eb lliw ereht.

27 I wonder how happy the author of that drivel would be if someone "redistributed" the tires on their phat new BMW onto the redistributor's own much more deserving 15 year old Cavalier?

28 Just today when I founf out I'm on my way to funemployment!!

I'm so HAPPY for the mere fact that I'll have to start looking for a job again!!!

WOHOOO!

Oh teh fun!!

29 .. I'm struck by how many people tell pollsters that the voluntary downshifting and downsizing of the past year have come as a kind of relief.

They're 52%ers, no doubt. Fuck 'em all.

30 the car is twice as powerful (and there's often more than one)

Until Barry's CAFE standards kick in.  You'll need three tin-can golf carts to get your whole family anywhere together, but you won't be able to afford one.  Change!

31 Asswipes!

32

Am I more satisfied leading my sons' Scout Troop, since I have the time? Yes. Do I like helping out at the Animal shelter? Yes, but moreso, if I could shoot the Kittehs. I like walking the kids to the bustop, and shooting on nice days. Americans do this shit to stay busy and on a schedule/routine.

Do I like not getting laid because Mrs hutch works her ass off? One F'ng guess.

33 The MSM has now even lost the ability to effectively polish a turd.

34 Whats that commercial narrated by the children of a guy thats out of work talking about how happy dad is that he has time to appreciate the small things now?  Every time I see it I want to take my TV and throw it off of a tall building.

Obama to the Middle Class:  You must make do with les, we will tell you when its low enough.

Thats going to be a big winner for Dems.  Especially if they don't lower their jet-setting lifesytle at all, which they won't.

35 downshifting and downsizing of the past year have come as a kind of relief.

Only to the douchbag "keeping up with the Jones types" who would otherwise be buying $7000 lawn tractors to mow 200 square feet of grass.

36 Arugula.

37 Doesn't Obama understand that his message of hope and change no longer rings true, a year after he won POTUS. You can shrill the same message as a government worker in the hood. "Community orginizer" and win converts every day, but now, the sneakers are on marble, and the story is now old and cold. Obama cannot help himself. He cannot change the message.  Call it deminishing returns. He does not like that term. He wishes to expand the word of Obama.

38

It's funny that this douchebat writer pens this statement:

Which makes me wonder: Is it a coincidence that eight of the 10 happiest states in the country also rank in the top 10 for volunteering?

In light of a post on Michelle Malkin's blog, featuring our favorite loveable rogues, SEIU thugs:

In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown park.

Little did the do-gooder know that his altruistic act would put him in the cross hairs of the city’s largest municipal union.

Nick Balzano, president of the local Service Employees International Union, told Allentown City Council Tuesday that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing Anderson to clear a 1,000-foot walking and biking path at Kimmets Lock Park.

”We’ll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails,” Balzano told the council.

Balzano said Saturday he isn’t targeting Boy Scouts. But given the city’s decision in July to lay off 39 SEIU members, Balzano said ”there’s to be no volunteers.” No one except union members may pick up a hoe or shovel, plant a flower or clear a walking path.

 

39 Oh, and awesome post, Ace! 

40 26 -- Kratos, I saw how you did that.

41 You can shrill the same message as a government worker in the hood. "Community orginizer" and win converts every day, but now, the sneakers are on marble, and the story is now old and cold. Obama cannot help himself.

That is Obama's skill set.  He has no idea, based on the evidence, how to govern.  He only knows how to agitate the Man for more goodies.  Since hes the Man now the goodies are being acquired at a record pace.  The actual governing escapes him though as the country goes off the cliff.

42 Early on I'd held out a slight (maybe 10% chance) hope that Obama would rise to the occasion and perform better than expected like Truman did.  I should have put that at about a 1% chance.  It ain't gonna happen.  Obama peaked on election day and its been all downhill from there.

43

Comrades, of course everyone is now happy in our workers' utopia. Comrade Chairman Obama has spread around more funemployment to more people. Now more people no longer have to jobs to worry about giving them more time to be happy.

44 Well I am not unemployed yet but I did extend my military contract in the reserves so I could go on orders for a year if I lose my job.

45 Freakin sock.

46 Time... is that like Mother Jones or something?

47 This slow decline of the MSM is getting old.

Faster please.

48 It pains me when people who have been buying all the sorts of things I can't afford lecture me how it's okay to now do without them.  As if I hadn't been doing without them all along.

They pretend not to understand that the things I'm doing without now are things they not only still take for granted, but would feel very constricted if they couldn't enjoy.  They feel maybe they can't run out and buy a new flat-screen TV for the bedroom?  Well, boo hoo.  I don't have even one.

Seems they not only want the middle class to lose its money and its savings (to give to their own interest groups, of course), but they have the gall to want us to be happy about it, too.

Well, some of us are still struggling to put food on the table, kids through school, and the like, and it only gets harder.  Never mind the flat-screen TV's.

This flippant attitude of "Let them eat cake, and tell them it's tasty, too!" just piles insult on injury.

49

Suicide rates spiking today == happy people.  The connection should be obvious.

You can't even begin to fathom the unbridled joy I had as I shot myself and threw myself into the river the other day.  I've alway loved statistics!

50

Full disclosure: I enjoyed being laid off (happened several times) when I was young and single. Yes, I did collect uneployment insurance-- this was before my principles had...er, solidified. It was a paid vacation to me... and I always managed to get another job after a while.

Now, with a family and a mortgage, if I got the axe... fun? Not so much.

51

 Time... is that like Mother Jones or something?

I think David Corn(hole) writes for both.

52 Time = (Mother Jones - Tofu recipes)

53 Maybe eveyone's just happy to know that losing their jobs and/or getting their pay and benefits slashed is contributing to the greater good.

54

50

Same boat I am in. I just bought a house last November and a new car over the summer. If I lose my job and I can't get another one making a comparible salary I am screwed.

55 Seriously, why are we grousing about fucking Time Magazine?  That steaming pile hasn't been relevant for 25 years.

56

A conservative is a liberal who got mugged;

A liberal is a conservative who got laid off.

There is truth to this; when you are gainfully employed, the language of John Galtian rugged individualism sounds kinda sweet; when you are unemployed and see your savings disappear, then read stuff in the Wall Street Journal telling you that billionaire bankers are doing "God's work" and how they just can't be expected to work for a bonus of less than a million per year....When you see a guy like Rick Santelli looking at the camer standing amidst rich Wall Streeters and snarling about how he doesn't want to pay the mortgages of "losers" (that would be you, by the way)...

Well.

Mild mannered office drones start to dream of pitchforks and torches.

57

55 Seriously, why are we grousing about fucking Time Magazine?  That steaming pile hasn't been relevant for 25 years.

Gives us something to do would be my guess.

58

@2 Posted by: SGT Oddball at November 16, 2009 12:54 PM (ruzrP) -

crap

59 Truman, heck i had my rant saved for mths, where else could i  safely drop it?

60 Ya know, this may be a hidden argument for health care reform. With the House plan, there will obviously be less doctors, and less doctor's offices. As such, there will be less subscriptions to Time Magazine, and it could cease to exist.

61 I seem to remember a line from Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago that spoke about Stalin's zeks always making sure to smile around the guards and overseers of the gulags. It wasn't enough to take a man and crush his body and spirit. The State had to enlist the slave -- for what else was he? -- in a fiction that his labor and effort was not only not coerced from him by threat of violence, but was actually granted as a gift by him to "the people".

The false smile was the signature at the bottom of this lie: to let the internal misery show was a crime in many ways worse than the offense that led to the Gulag in the first place. A smile meant that all was right with the world; a smile sanctioned the State's actions. To express the inner rage and agony stripped away this flimsy cladding and revealed the rottenness to all parties. And this, of course, could not be allowed in the Worker's Paradise. So the slaves must always smile.

62

The St. Pete Times had an article today profiling several people who have been down-sized and how they, and in turn you, can bounce back now that the corporate yoke is no longer around their/your neck.  The article was cheerful, just as if these people had been waiting all these years to finally have the opportunity to start their own business/franchise/etc.  So the narrative is alive..... 

 

63

12 And yeah, money doesn't buy happiness. -

No, but it can sure rent the hell out of it.

64 34 Whats that commercial narrated by the children of a guy thats out of work talking about how happy dad is that he has time to appreciate the small things now?  Every time I see it I want to take my TV and throw it off of a tall building.

I know the one you mean, I think.  It's an insurance commercial by Allstate, with this guy intoning how much more we enjoy the simple things now, and isn't that great.

We went to see "Up" and were treated to that commercial.  All it did was remind me that we shouldn't be spending money on a movie.  (Which we rarely do, except for Pixar pictures, and I really wanted to see "Up.")

Made me glad I have State Farm, too.  If I had Allstate, I swear I would have gone home, called up the company, given them a piece of my mind, and got some other insurance.

This condescension is the worst.

65 Starvation is a small price to pay for the joy of basking in the aura of the Light Bearer.

66

Reason?  Are you still here? 

You're wrong. 

I take government money.  I have to.  I'm undereducated and underemployed.  My own damn fault.  Either I take it, or my family pays the price for my folly by foregoing health insurance. 

OTOH, I'm also working damn hard on a degree so I can go to work to support my family, and all the other slugs who will be stealing from me, just like I'm stealing from you.  Being on the dole has not turned me into a socialist, not even a little.

In fact, even admitting my failure of character is humiliating.  I hate government welfare more now than before I decided to take it.

67

12 And yeah, money doesn't buy happiness. -

No, but it can sure rent the hell out of it.

Posted by: mechanical genius moriarty at November 16, 2009 01:33 PM (c459z)

Just ask Elliot Spitzer.

68

Monty, and drink vodka, (made from anything)

seriously,I'm certain it didn't take very long for people to become terrified, I don't know if you ever read "Harvest of Sorrow" , about uklinization. cannot remember the writer, not well know as  Solzhenitsyn , but a  another decent look into  consequences of Stalin, Lenin .

69 66 ... In fact, even admitting my failure of character is humiliating.  I hate government welfare more now than before I decided to take it.

Posted by: Truman North at November 16, 2009 01:37 PM (e8YaH)

You're supposed to. It is a sign of good character. My compliments to your parents.

70 Imagine how happy they'll be with 20 percent unemployment!

71 Mild mannered office drones start to dream of pitchforks and torches.

Which really means that they never were really "conservative" to start with. If your first impulse on getting laid off is to expect the government to get you to work again, you are a truly lost soul. Vote Democrat, because that's where your head has been all along.

"Freedom" includes the freedom to fail, to make unfortunate choices, and to fuck up so badly that your life (and that of your loved ones) is essentially ruined. This is Mother Nature, not society; you cannot legislate it away.

I have been laid off three times in my life, once in the teeth of a recession almost as bad as this one. I was facing utter ruin: no home, no food, no nothing. I was this close to insolvency, in other words: sponge off relatives, or go on welfare. But I would not allow it, then or now. I took a job that paid half of what I had been making, in a different industry altogether. I didn't like the work and quit as soon as a better job came along -- but it never even occurred to me to give up and blame 'society' for my problems. If you depend on Uncle Sugar to get you a job, you have no gripe when he takes that job away. If you depend on the government for your daily bread, don't be surprised when he chooses you to go hungry when someone else makes a claim on your food.

In other words: being a citizen is not the same as being a subject. I'm a little depressed at how few people truly recognize that distinction.

72

I'm spending my funemployment calling Barry names and bad mouthing him to anyone that will listen.

Of course, I'd do the same if I was working.

73

"I'm struck by how many people tell pollsters that the voluntary downshifting and downsizing of the past year have come as a kind of relief."

Who the fuck wrote this, Dick Cavett?

74

I want to emphasize that: Liberals never tire of telling us the recession began in 2008

They also conveniently forget that dems has had full controll of congress & purse strings since 2006  

75
Time polling Potemkin villages again, eh?

76 dag gumm sock puppet

77 All that matters is that Barack Hussein Obama has his first real job.

78 So what's the general consensus around here about taking unemployment while doing your level best to find work? I'm not there but it has happened in the past. A couple of years ago. If I hadn't received the call about my current job on Friday, the house was going on the market on Monday.

79 A liberal is a conservative who got laid off and blames the business which laid him off.

A conservative is a liberal who got laid off and sees who's actually to blame: the government overtaxing and adding on regulation after regulation (which only helps Wall Street, which in turn rewards the government with some very nice campaign contributions, etc.)  to the point where said business can no longer afford to keep their one employee on.

FIFY and you're welcome.

80 Unemployment is insurance you and your employer buy.  Totally cool to take that.  You bought it.

81

So what's the general consensus around here about taking unemployment while doing your level best to find work? I'm not there but it has happened in the past. A couple of years ago. If I hadn't received the call about my current job on Friday, the house was going on the market on Monday.

Teej, didn't you and your former employer pay into the fund with taxes?   You are totally entitled to take it and not feel badly. 

82

Unemployment sux. I'm trying to make the best of things. Do I love time with my family? Yes. Hell I even miss the middle of the night callouts for pole accidents, and then putting in an 8 hour shift. I've never been w/o a job since I was 11, 32 years ago.

But if I ever got surveryed, my eyeballs would turn black, and I'd pound the shit and marrow out of the talking head that asked me "isn't this shit just great"?

83

I'm relaxing in the funemployment hammock myself. Dame Fortune smiled upon me doubly! As soon as I was laid off, the brakes went out on my truck.

Unfortunately, a good friend of mine is a mechanic and is helping me repair my truck for nothing, damn the luck. I should be able to get a job (albeit a lower paying one) in just a couple weeks and I'm pissed.

Who knew that one could fix Ramen noodles in so many different ways? That reminds me, Kroger brand cream-of-mushroom soup is on sale this week. Wonderland of Flavors, here I come!!!

84 Unemployment is insurance a tax you and your employer buy pay.

FTFY.

85

In fact, even admitting my failure of character is humiliating.  I hate government welfare more now than before I decided to take it.

Posted by: Truman North at November 16, 2009 01:37 PM (e8YaH

Tru, don't go beating yourself up.  You are doing what you have to do to feed your family, and you are also working to improve your situation.  I think that most people have no problem supporting people in your situation.  What we do have issues with are the generations of entitled welfare queens that procreate to gin up more money from the gubamint and make absolutely no effort to better their situation.

86
OT BACON POST:  The Irish Hog
The Irish Hog: A deep-fried spiral-cut potato... #bacon http://bit.ly/2JCrHa

87

All that matters is that Barack Hussein Obama has his first real job.

I'm learning that unemployment is really a journey of personal discovery. Except mine comes without a teleprompter or an oval office.

88

They also conveniently forget that dems has had full controll of congress & purse strings since 2006  

Posted by: dananjcon at November 16, 2009 01:45 PM (pr+up)

Amen that!

89

Think back a generation to when people had black and white TVs and antennas ???

I thought a generation was roughly 20 yrs?!?  Twenty years ago it was 1989.  And nobody was watching a black and white TV and cable TV had been around for a decade.  CNN, for instance had been around for 9 years.  MTV had been around for 8.  Heck, MTV had already stopped playing videos by 1989 and only 3 years later the reality TV craze would start with The Real World. 

Good Lord.  The idiots at Time Magazine would have you believe that the 1980s were actually the 1950s.  Buy a goddam clue already.

90

Thank you Monty, you are entirely correct.  Lost my bearings there for a second!

 

And Nursey- thank you for the kind words.  I'll be a cog in the machine soon enough.

91

In fact, even admitting my failure of character is humiliating.  I hate government welfare more now than before I decided to take it. T-North

I witch you brudda.

92

 So what's the general consensus around here about taking unemployment while doing your level best to find work?

Unemployment is probably the the only gov't program I have no prob with...YOU PAY INTO IT.  Its the abuse that twist my nuts.  W/the exception of times like these, no able bodied/minded person should ever be on unemployment for more than 6 mos. Unemployment is nothing to be ashamed of unless your going on year 2 or 3 if thats possible. Mind you I write this for the prospective that I am very grateful and fortunate that I have never been on unemployment, so I could be full of shit too!

 

 

93

The funnest of funemployment will be when Barry is out of a job.

94 Truman:

I realize that I sound hard-hearted to some who are going through hard times. A man has got to provide for his family: I understand that completely. But I've seen too many people over the years get sucked into the statist machine. Instead of going to friends, family, or a church for help, they go to the government -- and the government, like the Mafia, never gives money without conditions. Never.

I've often said that I'd sooner clean comfort-station toilets for a living than take government charity, and I mean that with all my heart. At least cleaning toilets is an honest job; the money is fairly earned, not coerced from someone else's labor.

Maybe it's the family I grew up in. Stout Calvinists all, for whom taking a dime of government money was a shame and a sin. Better to starve than to take government bread given as charity. We would take donated commodities -- never money -- from the church: that was family, not strangers. All of us kids were expected to get work as soon as we were able and contribute to the household (good thing everyone treated child-labor laws then with a wink and a nod; I was working for years on a cash basis before I ever had an actual payroll job). I've carried that attitude with me ever since.

95

I've got a class reunion coming up. What do I tell people about my employment situation? "Oh, I used to work for Verizon until a tree fell on me while climbing a pole". No, I suffered for 5 years getting Cortizone injections in my 3 bulged discs, until I physically couldn't do what I loved. Then I got shitcanned And was offered no other position. I don't want workers comp. I want a comparable paying job that I can perform, and they exist for the "few chosen".  My mother, a huge Donk local boss, even tried to lecture me today on the benefits of "hard work". "How bad can the pain be"? I have about 70 hours w/o pain while awake/wk, and get no sleep. I'm not asking for pity.

But everybody on this blog knows that the funemployed here will bounce back. I may use my 401k to buy a trailer park. Or a strictly Scandi nudey bar. 

96 I know this is old, but the Time article should have provided a link to a theme song for the article.

97 I drew unemployment for as long as I could after I got out of the Navy.

I figured they owed me since I had been paying State income tax for years when I didn't even set foot in the State.

98

But everybody on this blog knows that the funemployed here will bounce back. I may use my 401k to buy a trailer park. Or a strictly Scandi nudey bar. 

Trailer parks can be fun. Trailer trash cuties and meth labs. Go for it!

99 The most offensive thing about these elitist, upper class snots telling us what we need and don't need is the assumption that we're all driven by the same materialistic impulses that they are.

Here's the thing ... I wouldn't mind so much being "poor" if it weren't for the company it forces you to keep.

I'm not particularly materialistic. I'd be happy enough working fewer hours and making less if I could do this without being stuck next to a bunch of welfare sucking, subhuman filth who don't know how to behave.

But in even remotely urban areas, this isn't possible. When you live in a lower class area, you're forced to live and shop among rude, slovenly people who get paid by Uncle Sugar to breed more who are just like them.

And then there's the criminal element.

Much of the middle class impulse for moving up the ladder is about ESCAPING THE MESS THAT LEFTISTS HAVE CREATED.

It's not about getting a plasma TV or driving a sports car. It's about better schools and safer neighborhoods.

I'd happily live in a 1,500 sq foot house, but to get away from the cultural blight brought about by 60 years of the leftist welfare state, I'm pretty much forced to buy a 2,200 sq foot house.

And these fuckos on the left, sitting in their Manhattan apartments dare tell me that I don't deserve this. That I have to scale back. That my expectations are just too darned high.

For them, a recession might mean cutting back to 2 vacations from 4.

For the rest of us, it means not being able to take a bike ride at dusk with our kids because the neighborhood is too dangerous.

100 And Monty, we're cool. God Bless your family for your compass and beliefs. Mother nature f'ed me before the Company could.

101

strictly Scandi nudey bar. 

Uh...where do i sign up for this detail?

102

Trailer trash cuties and meth labs

Yeah, but once a month, one trailer goes BOOM!

103

Uh...where do i sign up for this detail?

Posted by: dananjcon at November

Show the Moron hand sign, and you get hired immediately. With "benefits"!

104 @102

Just make sure it isn't your trailer.

105 hutch1200 and Truman:

If there's anything I can proffer from my own periods of "funemployment", it's this: don't search with too narrow a beam. If you live in a small town or rural area, you might even need to stop thinking "career-type job" and think more "pay-the-bills job" until something better comes along. Or pulling up stakes and moving on. That's the toughest choice, even harder when you get older, but sometimes it's the only way. You gotta go where the jobs are.

I think the most "out-of-band" job I ever worked as as a cowboy/farmhand once summer during college. And I am a kid who was never particularly "handy" in any real sense. You gain a whole new perspective on how much your money means to you when you earn it by riding 50 miles of fence, mending chicken-coops, and helping to slaughter pigs. Every time I have to do a bad job, I think: "At least I'm not shoveling chicken-shit in 100-degree heat for four bucks an hour."

106 En Fuego!

107 I wish they'd call me for a poll. I've been unemployed for a month shy of a year now. No unemployement because I'm retired military even though I worked at a civilian job for 8 1/2 years and they paid into it. It's not enough to live on and I'm going into serious debt to finish my bachelor's degree. No funemployment here!

108 Much of the middle class impulse for moving up the ladder is about ESCAPING THE MESS THAT LEFTISTS HAVE CREATED.

Yeah.  Oh yeah.  No one wants to live in mixed-income projects.

I suspect this is why the left has such a thing for putting more "public housing" in upper-income areas.  Prevents people from escaping.

109
Yeah.  Oh yeah.  No one wants to live in mixed-income projects.

Holy crap!  There's no f*cking way I'd drop 200 large if it's  1/3 a shit hole out of the gate. 

110

"A conservative is a liberal who got laid off and sees who's actually to blame: the government overtaxing and adding on regulation after regulation (which only helps Wall Street, which in turn rewards the government with some very nice campaign contributions, etc.)  to the point where said business can no longer afford to keep their one employee on."

Actually, I agree that excessively high tax rates can depress the economy; its why I campaigned for Regan in 1980 and 84.

But it is also true that even an unregulated free market will go through cycles of boom and bust, and bubbles and recessions. Unemployment is what economists politely refer to as a "correction" which sounds cool if you are employed at a think tank to write about it.

It is also true that the Wall Street  rich benefit from their closeness to Washington, and bend and twist and extort the laws in their favor, regardless of which party is in favor. When you lose your house due to a financial mistake, it is a lesson you need to learn; when your bank loses money for the same reason, it is your responsibility to bail it out, for the good of the country.

Part of the problem here is too many want to make this a tribal thing- you think this is free capitalism versus socialism, and there are no other choices. Every fact has to be twisted to be a dig at capitalism, or socialism, or Bush versus Obama.

So you have people who endure self-hatred like Truman, telling himself he is a failure for getting laid off, when in all probablity, his job was doomed the moment a bank executive turned down a company's loan.

Isn't it possible that the economy tanked due to a combination of foolish bankers, corrupt regulators, and our own mistakes?

And isn't it possible that social welfare programs like unemployment insurance and state disability insurance are a good safety net to catch those people when the natural business cycles goes bust?

And isn't it possible that the rich- both liberal and conservative- spout platitudes about "capitalism" and "social justice" when in fact they are defending their own priviledges?

The traders at Goldman Sachs aren't rich because of their cleverness and skill at banking; their cleverness is chiefly in learning which hands to grease in Washington, their skill in in learning exactly what levers of power to twist to destroy their competitors and reward themselves. Hasn't anyone here wondered why the Treasury Secretary is nearly always a Goldman alumnus?

It isn't socialism to question whether the economic elite deserve their riches; and what they are practicing on Wall Street is not capitalism, or anything like it.

111 Boy, you think I'm a pessimist when it comes to the economy? Check out this little billet-doux from celebrity doomcrier Nouriel Roubini: The Worst Is Yet To Come. The upshot? Job market is bad, getting worse, and won't turn around until 2011 at the earliest. If it turns around at all. (He also confirms my own belief that the public unemployment rate of 10.2% is horseshit, and that the real rate is more like 17.5%.)

112

When you see a guy like Rick Santelli looking at the camer standing amidst rich Wall Streeters and snarling about how he doesn't want to pay the mortgages of "losers" (that would be you, by the way)...

You're kidding, right? Santelli's been one of the few people on CNBS to actually keep pointing out how crappy this economy truly is while everyone else on that network keeps pumping the "green shoots! green shoots! buy buy buy!" nonsense.  Does LIESman have you on his payroll?

And sorry, but someone who bought more house than they could afford IS a loser, along with the bank that was stupid enough to lend them the money--they both lost gambling on a rising real estate market that was obviously a bubble as far back as 2002.  That the government's solution to this is to continue to pretend that those homes are really worth $300-800K and to help provide even more 3.5% down mortgages while putting the Fannie Mae residences into rentership ought to tell you how dysfunctional the housing market is right now.

113 Yeah.  Oh yeah.  No one wants to live in mixed-income projects.

Back long ago when I was young and single they built some "low income apartments" here using federal grant money. Me and another guy from work went by there after they opened up and asked about apartments there (we were then paying $500/mo for a ratty 2 BR apartments).

He had a live-in GF as well. He qualified for 1 bedroom apartment for $1300/mo. Me being by myself qualified for a studio with a murphy bed at $1500/mo.

Now those same apartments are broken down slums. 

114 80 Unemployment is insurance you and your employer buy.  Totally cool to take that.  You bought it.

Posted by: Truman North at November 16, 2009 01:52 PM (e8YaH)

Milton Friedman used to say that you should take any entitlement you qualify for.  There's no sense in not doing so, not the least of which is that some other schlub is going to get it anyway.

115 It isn't socialism to question whether the economic elite deserve their riches; and what they are practicing on Wall Street is not capitalism, or anything like it.

I don't like the word "deserve" in this context, Reason60. Not at all. Do you "deserve" your money? Do I "deserve" mine? Who gets to determine who "deserves" what? I really hate where that line of thought goes: it leads to classism, statism, and social envy. I hate the whole idea of it.

A lot of the "foolish banker" hate being flung around is just class-envy, pure and simple. They've got lots of money, we don't, so that means they suck. Well, guess what? Lots of people have more money than me. That doesn't mean I deserve any of the money they have. Plenty of idle, vain, stupid, and downright evil people are rich; plenty of excellent persons are poor. So it has always been, so shall it always be.

If there is fraud or theft involved, as with Madoff, then it's not a question of "deserve": a crime was involved and restitution should be paid. But if money is lost to bad luck, bad timing, or simple bad judgement? Spare me the banker hate. People rolled the dice and took their chance. I don't want to hear any crying now that they've been burned.

116 If this POS came to my door to ask how I was enjoying my funemployment - it'd take everything i've got to avoid strangling him to death.

117

I lost my job the 4th of July. I am still fun-employed.

I'm so fucking happy I could shit.

So then.... how's that Hope and Change workin' for you guys?

118

12 And yeah, money doesn't buy happiness.

But it doesn't hurt, either. Studies show that the biggest difference is the effect it has on raising you from a subsistence lifestyle to one where you don't have to scrape by.

Abraham Maslow illustrated it best with his hierarchy of needs.  Happiness is hardly part of the equation when your basic survival needs (food, shelter, clothing) are at risk.

119

Back long ago when I was young and single they built some "low income apartments" here using federal grant money.

What bothers me the most about "low-income housing" is that the listed rent/income ratio is often only realistic if the person is carrying no debt at all and doesn't mind living on baloney sandwiches twice a week.

When I moved to New Mexico, I found a complex near the Sandias that had what I felt was a reasonable rent--about $650 a month before utilities.  I found out that you couldn't make more than $25,000 a year to live there, and that was that.  Almost 1/3 of a max qualifier's annual income alone, pre-tax, would have to go just to keep the roof over your head.  With the cost of living, that doesn't leave a lot of room for a self-sustainment if you want to save up or a major expense hits your wallet, unless you already live a very austere lifestyle.

120 I understand and admire Monty's view, but I see no trouble with taking unemployment $.  Anybody with a real work history has paid plenty into that, and usually not out of a hope to exploit it.  I've paid a great sum and never had to use it (thank God) and I never want to use it - but if I lose my job I'm taking that money.  Unemployment tax with defined benefits is not a bad idea generally - it's just the abuse of the benefits that is a problem and must be vigorously fought.

121 I was just at the grocery and a headline blared "Obama has Lung Cancer."
Maybe he was hocking a lunger instead of bowing.

122 I understand and admire Monty's view, but I see no trouble with taking unemployment $.

I'm not against it, necessarily; you're going to get taxed for it regardless, so you might as well use it. I'd just as soon the money went to help a hard-working Moron down on his or her luck than a layabout dipshit.

But it is ripe for abuse, and does not function in the way it is supposed to: i.e., to bridge you through a brief period of unemployment. I'd rather see employers be incentivized to re-hire people (particularly in small towns and rural areas, where a job loss is pretty much the kiss of death). And as a tax, it's highly regressive since it hits poorer people (and businesses) far harder than it does wealthier people (and businesses).

123 You know, I'll be even HAPPIER when it's Obama that's finally funemployed.

124

But it is ripe for abuse, and does not function in the way it is supposed to: i.e., to bridge you through a brief period of unemployment.  

Posted by: Monty at November 16, 2009 03:23 PM (4Pleu)

Very true - there's no disputing it.  A reasonable time limit is crucial.  No doubt some folks will simply not make it back into the work force in time, but no human-devised system is perfect.  Those people would have to fall back on the God-designed safety net - family.  I've housed 2 family members in my home, and 2 friends, to cover them until they could get things straightened out, which they did.  It's just part of what you're supposed to do, even though it sorta sucks when it's happening. 

125

I was just at the grocery and a headline blared "Obama has Lung Cancer."
Maybe he was hocking a lunger instead of bowing.

Don't get me all excited.

126 No, money doesn't buy happiness.
But as a general rule, it lets you pick what you're going to be unhappy about.

127

No, money doesn't buy happiness

But it can buy a complete asshole for POTUS

128 This article is so phenomenally stupid. Unemployment doesn't make you happier, it makes you worried as hell about what you're going to do when the unemployment checks start coming. My husband lost his job in May. Is he relieved, to some extent, that he no longer has to work 11 hour days for a company that couldn't care less about his well-being? Of course he is, but that doesn't mean he's achieved some Zen-like state of happiness.

Talk about rubbing salt in the wound...his company sent him a letter asking him to contribute part of his paycheck to United Way. Saying that "the economic downturn has left our many of our Northern Indiana neighbors in need." Fuckers, we ARE the neighbors in need, and you put us there with your horrible mismanagement of your company. I wish we had a dog so I could send them a turd as a "contribution."

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130

Nancy Gibbs, the writer of this article would probably commit suicide if she didn't get her non-fat, chai-latte every morning, wasn't able to afford her gym membership as well as monthly trips to the spa for botox, lipo, etc. etc.

Such is the alternate universe these twats live in.

I was funemployed for 3 years until my new job in July.  It sucked - it really did. And it will suck as I try paying off the debt I incurred during this time however I remain grateful to have the job I have.

131

WASHINGTON – More than one in seven American households struggled to put enough food on the table in 2008, the highest number since the U.S. Department of Agriculture began tracking food security levels in 1995.

That's 14.6 percent of U.S. households, or about 49 million people. The numbers are a significant increase from 2007, when 11.1 percent of U.S. households suffered from what USDA classifies as "food insecurity" — not having enough food for an active, healthy lifestyle.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said the numbers could be higher in 2009 because of the global economic slowdown.

Higher in 2009? In Barry's workers' utopia? This guy is way off script everyone is happy and funemployed!!!

132

This is like an AA meeting!  I've been funemployed since the end of August.  I spend my happiness drenched days selling pencils on the street corner, and laughing at the poor suckers that still have to go to work.  Ha ha ha!  Then I go home and drink myself into a stupor, and pass out in my own vomit, with visions of repo men dancing in my head. 

 

Yes, I am that lucky.

133

DngrMse @ 132....   you made me laugh on a bad day, thank you!

 

I hope your days get better and that you're working soon

 

134

Having been funemployed and looking for a job since mid-August, I have to say that it has opened my eyes to new possibilities in wasting time. There's only so much I can do in a day after I've hit every job site in existence. I've started working out everyday for at least an hour (these workouts are the real kind with weights and such, not the porn and crisco kind the people around here are no doubt perpetually engage in.) Then it's on to an afternoon of pester the cat (this is an actual cat, not a euphemism for a body part.) I have 5 fantasy football teams and I am probably going to the playoffs in all of them. I was doing okay in the AOSHQ Pickem until I forgot to put my picks in for week 9. AND, I'm leveling up fast in Mafia Wars. Things are going my way. I am making steady progress in all of the unnecessary aspects of my life. TO THE TOP BABY!

So after rereading the above I've decided to go back to school.

135

Monty-

I also agree with you that those who earn their riches fairly deserve them; what is NOT deserved, are the riches that Goldman/GM/AIG people get as a result of their cozy incestuous relationship with our elected officials.

It is completely unfair to enrich ones company at the taxpayer's expense, then turn around and pretend as though it happened purely by the invisible hand of the marketplace.

What made Socialism inevitably corrupt was exactly what you identify- the government picking and choosing who got what rewards; but that is exactly what is happening today on Wall Street- Lehman did not have good enough connections to Washington power borkers, so they were allowed to go under; Goldman did, so they were rescued.

In a fair world, some people are going to get ahead and others aren't. But what we have now is a rigged system, where certain entities are bribing the refs, and winning unfairly.It isn't capitalism, it isn't socialism, it is corporatism, which is the worst of both.

136

134 / CozMark: So after rereading the above I've decided to go back to school

After getting layed off several times in '84 & '85, I went back to school at age 27 for my engineering degree.

Not easy since I hadn't done any higher math for 9 years but I treated it like a 12 hr a day job and made it, finishing with a 3.5 GPA in my BSME classes.

Best thing I ever did. Do it.

137

Sock off

138 Best thing I ever did. Do it.

Er...I'm going to dissent a little bit here. Bear in mind that in a down economy like this on, everybody is "going back to school", and all those people are going to be entering the job market at about the same time as you are. Liberal arts degress weren't worth a piss-hole in the snow even before the crash; they're even more worthless now. If you really want to go into debt to re-train there are better ways to do it.

First, make sure it's in a highly-marketable field (and I can't think of one offhand -- no one is really  hiring). You'd do better at a trade-school if that's where your interests are: electrician, plumber, carpenter, auto-repair, even truck-driving. It will cost you a lot less, and the jobs will be easier to find once you get out. Or you might try medical or legal transcription. Look in your area and see where people are underserved -- one of my relatives went into catering; normally it would have been a financial disaster, but now she's the only game in town and has been doing quite well.

Spending $50-$100 on an undergraduate degree in humanities, the arts, poli-sci, or any of those things is a complete waste of time and money as far as jobs go. Even for technical degrees I'm not sure the projected benefits are worth the up-front costs. I'd only recommend it if you really can spare the money without having to borrow -- if you have to go into debt, then forget it.

139 Spending $50-$100

Should have been $50-$100K, obviously. If you can find a place that'll give you a (real) Bachelor's for fifty bucks, ride that whore 'till she's plumb tuckered.

140

"Americans may have less money — charitable giving in current dollars dropped for the first time in 20 years in 2008 — but about a million more people volunteered their time to a cause."

Could someone explain that quote to me?  I don't understand, who is measuring volunteers?  What constitutes "time to a cause?"  Most people I know volunteer their time in many ways, helping our relatives, friends and neighbors, donating our time to organisations to which we belong...as far as I know, nobody is keeping records of how we volunteer. 

Some bleeding heart lib types I know, however, are always spouting off about whatever "cause" it is that has their interest at the moment.  Is there an approved list of causes somewhere? 

The assumption in that quote appears to be that Obamajoy has blossomed across the land.  Frankly, I'm skeptical.

141

I went back to school (accredited online American Military University) to finish my degree in Emergency and Disaster Management - it's $32,000 and worth every penny for advancement in my current field.  Monty is right to recommend choosing wisely if this is the route you are going to go.  A lot of liberal arts degree holders are working right now at minimum wage - I know this as I have friends in this position after becoming funemployed.

142

money doesn't buy happiness

But it can damn sure rent it.

143

138 / Monty:

Yes, I should have mentioned something about what major to go back to school for.

In my case, and probably still, Mechanical Engineering with its' breadth is valuable.

 

134 / CozMark (and others):

If you are interested in Engineering but didn't do well in higher math in high school don't let it psyche you out.

I was a F-up in high school but at age 27 beared down and made it.

144

@136 Foghorn Leghorn

I am definitiely going to do it. Looking at careers that don't involve being in a cube farm/office all the time. That's the big one. I have been freed from the cube farm and I won't go back alive.

145 money doesn't buy happiness

--but A: it helps fund the search and B: I'd at least like the chance to try and prove that saying wrong.

(Funemployed since June; I've had about two weeks' worth of fun out of it.)

146

Does sentenced to community service, for DUI, beating your wife etc.., count as "volunteering?

I'll pick up garbage to punch the Wookie!

147

#2, Oddball was a staff sergeant (SSG). Next time you watch the movie, he's got a rocker under the three stripes.

Me, I have to drive ten hours each way for my first after-the-Army job. I haven't been home in five weeks owing to work hours and the amount of miles I was putting on my truck. I can't afford to replace it with the added expense of having a second household (a falling-apart rental trailer next to the meth heads), so I have to make it last.

But the money's about what I was making in the Army before my back and knees shit out on me. VA disability's not much.

And yeah, I got out of the Army and went right to work for a defense contractor helping train deploying soldiers. Right back to what I did best. I'd just rather be doing it back at Fort Campbell.

Funemployment. What the fuck ever.

148
Or you might try medical or legal transcription.

I have a disquieting feeling that digitalization and offshoring are going to eat up those particular trades.

Physical tasks performed by one's own hands, preferably skilled tasks, will be the last to succumb to lowballization.

Although I wouldn't be at all surprised to see, in 20 years, bricks being laid by machines that are teleoperated by someone in a Bangalore cubicle farm.

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All the unemployed moonbats are drinking their liberal kool-aid and singing 'Don't worry, be happy'.

 

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I have a disquieting feeling that digitalization and offshoring are going to eat up those particular trades.

Physical tasks performed by one's own hands, preferably skilled tasks, will be the last to succumb to lowballization.

Although I wouldn't be at all surprised to see, in 20 years, bricks being laid by machines that are teleoperated by someone in a Bangalore cubicle farm.