An acquaintance of mine just published a blog rant saying, "The job situation isn't so bad as everyone thinks." Her main argument is as follows: she looked in the classified section of a newspaper mistakenly delivered to her (I understand she isn't able to afford it and therefore doesn't subscribe), and there were tons of jobs being advertised. Therefore, it isn't that there aren't any jobs for all those unemployed people, it's just that employers with good jobs to offer don't want to hire them. Why not, she asks? Because the unemployed people are unemployed. If only the unemployed people would take poor jobs, or do volunteer work or take unpaid internships, they would be able to get good jobs!
I find this logic questionable, to say the least.
I have to say I'm only acquainted with this person through her writing. Reading her fiction work is a guilty pleasure of mine.
What of those of us who have expenses that we can't pay without income? A bit of a problem there. Most of us have to pay:
- Rent or property taxes
- Utility bills (rent rarely coveres electric or telecomms)
- Food (although starvation is, I understand, an excellent weight-loss plan)
- Transportation (whether it's a mass-transit pass or car insurance, repair bills and gasoline)
- Miscellaneous household expenses (e.g., it is preferable to have three different kinds of soap, plus bleach and white vinegar, for your laundry, dishes, and body)
- Grooming and medical expenses (at least one razor per person, shaving cream, toothbrushes, toothpaste and floss, mouthwash, OTC painkillers, allergy meds, first-aid supplies, and any prescription meds)
- Taxes
A representative bill for a single person in this area, living alone, with a chronic minor health condition, would be something like this:
$1000/month rent (let's assume this covers water and cooking gas)
$50/month electric bill
$50/month cell phone bill (our hypothetical renter is not an internet user at home)
$200/month grocery and household-supplies bill
$200/month health insurance bill (he's young, single and in reasonable health)
$50/month pharmacy bill (incl. prescriptions and OTC, plus grooming)
$100/month gasoline bill
$100/month car insurance bill (he's a good driver)
$100/month minimum payment on student loans
$20/month laundry bill
$40/month doctor visit for prescription
Okay, so this totals up to... $1910/month. Not counting any taxes (other than sales tax). That, by the way, is a low estimate!
Let's say he's working full-time, non-exempt, at $9 an hour (representing semi-skilled labor). He will make about $1440 before taxes, maximum, because he will get fired if he goes over 40 hours per week. He doesn't use any form of direct public assistance because he doesn't know how to
So which is he going to give up first? His health insurance and/or prescription meds (maybe they reduce the frequency of crippling migraines, or of seizures, or maybe they just allow him to get up in the morning and resist the seductive whispers in his head urging him to harm or kill himself)? His car? His student loan payments? His apartment and everything in it? What?
At least student loan payments can (sometimes) be deferred due to financial hardship. But you can't tell your body, "Stop needing food, I can't afford it." You can't tell it to stop being sick and needing a prescription, if you are in that situation to begin with. You can't argue with the DMV or the police that you can't walk to work but can't afford car insurance either.
Ain't nothing you can do if you can't get a decent goddamn job, unless you are rooming with others and/or living in really cheap housing and/or working with a very cooperative and efficient carpool and/or sacrificing your health and/or living with your parents and/or subsisting on a starvation diet (although if you're living with your parents they will probably try to force you to eat as decent a diet as they do).