I suppose it was only a matter of time until the chaos and economic implosion came home.
Mr. Janus and I had been doing fairly well in our respective jobs. For the past few months I was aggressively paying down my credit cards, and I was feeling lucky we were in that situation as the for sale signs went up in our neighborhood.
Well, yesterday, the economic disaster just got personal.
Mr. Janus went into the office, supposedly to talk to someone in India regarding a new project. He has been "on the beach" in his consulting firm for a few weeks now, and I was getting nervous. He didn't seem so, so I chalked it up to my general paranoia. I tend to live by the information technology business motto "Only the paranoid survive."
About 4 pm they called him into his supervisor's office and laid him off. Just like that. No warning at all. The partners told him that the American market was soft and that they were focusing on overseas business development. Essentially abandoning work here in the States. They told some of the men (they are mostly men) that they were going to be moving overseas -- if they survived the layoff. Some were going to Egypt, India, Dubai, Korea, etc. No choice in the matter if they wanted to stay with the firm. He was not given the choice.
He is devastated and we are very concerned about our mortgage. I work but I work in social justice so I don't get paid much. And today I'm angry that I have devoted my life to advocacy and helping others when, if I were working in for-profit, I could have helped us better -- helping others came at the expense of my partner and myself. I can shore up the health insurance hole -- which is VERY lucky as Mr. Janus needs very expensive meds for a chronic health condition. But I cannot pay our mortage and my student loans alone.
We've started slashing and burning but the bottom line is we only have a few months to make it work, or we will probably lose our home. My parents have been notoriously unreliable in helping.
I told my father our situation last night. And guess what he told me?
"Everything I'm reading says the economy is improving."
I was so stunned I wasn't very nice. I said, "WHO said that? Sean Hannity? FOX News?"
He said that things are turning around and that everything will be fine because everything is getting better.
I have always joked that my father lives on Planet Dad. Boy, I wish I could live there. Life would be so much better! It's like I never would have to worry! Our government is good and right, the economic climate is fine, oil is plentiful and will be cheap again soon. Sounds great, doesn't it? Kind of like an adult economic Disneyland?
On Planet Dad, apparently there are no economic consequences for devoting your life to helping others and taking a pay hit for it; there are no consequences for poor economic decisionmaking at the federal level; there is no downside of globalization; there is no way the distress of others touches you.
Must be nice on that planet.