Sunday, January 10, 2010

Lifestyles of the tanned and unemployed

I was working on a clubhouse that had a pool one day back in the mid eighties when one of the complexes tenants walked in to the pool area and stated "Welcome to the lifestyles of the tanned and unemployed". I thought it mildly amusing at the time and it stuck in the back of my mind. Since then it has popped back into my mind during the times that I have been unfortunate enough to find myself unemployed. It's sort of one of those "turn lemons into lemonade" type things I guess. When you find yourself in an undesirable situation you have to make the best of things otherwise you get beaten down and fall into despair. When people fall into despair they find themselves in terminal depression and experience an overall feeling of worthlessness. It's a dangerous, slippery slope that leads to a deep dark pit that is hard to climb out of. Generally when people are stuck in the pit of despair they need help getting out of it. Hopefully it just takes a friendly hand to help give them a boost out. To often people resort to psychotropic drugs cooked up by big pharma that are dangerous and addictive. The side effects of these drugs are often worse than the depression itself and lead to a permanent dependence on the expensive pills. Others often drift into addictions of alcohol and other drugs. These remedy's, like the pills from big pharma only just mask the issues and do nothing to solve the situation. Love and support from friends and relatives is the best cure for depression , but , sometimes even that is not enough. Most depressed people I think lack a sense of purpose and have a hard time appreciating the things they have , focusing on the things they do not have. I realize that this is a rather simplified opinion but I think it is very close to the truth. Society show us images on the screen where everybody is successful and all the problems are solved in only an hour or two. Television sells us a false reality where everybody is better and happier than most people ever find themselves. When people gauge their lives next to what they see on the screen they sometimes feel like they are not as good as they really are.

A lot of times the cause of depression is much more grounded in reality. Not being able to support your family because of unemployment , or under-employment is very real. These days it is a growing problem with more and more people finding themselves on the line looking for jobs that just don't exist. I find myself in the ranks of those collecting unemployment insurance. I consider myself lucky in the fact that I qualify for unemployment insurance. So many in my trade work as independent contractors and are not eligible for the benefits. This has caused wages to drop tremendously and people are giving the work away just to scrape by on what they can get. For the first time in years , the company I work for has nothing in the pipeline. The job listings have virtually no construction jobs to be had. Without a doubt it's tough out there right now. The whole economy is stagnant and the stimulus programs have done very little to kick start the economy. Our government is dumping trillions of dollars into wars and the military industrial complexes. This does virtually nothing to stimulate the private sector economy that is traditionally the largest employer. On Alex Joneses website ,Info Wars , I found a link to the Washington Blog that had a great article on the subject regarding the spending issues we are currently experiencing. It's a very good , informative read , I highly recomend it.

So , what can we do given the presant situation? First off , as the Hitch-hikers guide to the Galaxcy would say - Don't Panic! When all others loose thier heads, keep yours , is very good advice. Second , Do what you can , try and create your own job , don't lose hope! Don't wait on the government to create a job for you, you will be waiting a long time unless you want to go fight in one of the wars they have going on. Third , don't fall into the depression trap. Remember - God see's to it that the birds and beasts of the field have thier needs tended to and how much more worth you are to him then them. Or as Jaggar and the Stones once said - you can't always get what you want , but if you try sometime, you just might find , you get what you need.

Keep hanging on out there
Lasco X

1 comment:

  1. I was reading about what one group of guys in California 1930's formed a work credit system. I haven't read the entire piece yet but It might be something to think about.
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