Mike D Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 I've been in kind of a funk the last few weeks and today it's really bad. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that the future seems so uncertain in the US right now (and maybe everywhere), with regard to income, employment, retirement, etc. Right now I am working for myself, but it's not very stable income and I am just not real optimistic about the future. The job market seems to be changing very quickly - up until maybe the early 1990's you could still sort of count on getting a decent job somewhere, especially at a bigger company, and plan to have somewhat stable employment until you retired, assuming you were reasonably good at what you did and were a good employee. But after about the year 2000 that seems to have changed, especially with the rapid evolution of technology. Now between outsourcing, layoffs, corporate failures, disappearing middle-income jobs, and a whole host of other problems and issues, employment prospects in the US seem very uncertain. Nothing is guaranteed, and once you get over the age of about 40 it starts getting really scary. Unless you somehow managed to save a lot of money and have very little debt (and are fortunate enough to not have any major health problems), if you lose your job for any reason it can be a major disaster since finding another job is not like it was in the past where you could probably find something in a month or two. Now, you could be unemployed for many, many months, or even years and you might end up draining your retirement or whatever savings you do have in the process to survive, as well as lose your home. And when you do finally get a job, it may be a huge step backward with a big pay cut and maybe a much lower position. What used to be called an "Upwardly Mobile" career path with a relatively comfortable retirement at the end, seems to have given way to just take whatever job you can get just to keep food on the table, and hope like hell you don't get laid off in the next economic downturn - which as sure as the sun rises, will come sooner or later. Anyway last night I woke up at like 3 AM and started stressing out about all this, because I feel so insecure about my future - and i've never felt this way in my life. I used to have some kind of a vague plan of where I wanted to be in 5 years or 10 years, but at the current time I can't even see into next year - it's like a complete and total blank. And that's not a very good feeling. And even though i've worked my ass off my whole life, I don't think i'll ever be able to retire - at this point if I just have enough money just to make it another year that seems to be the best I can do. Luckily I don't have any health problems, but god forbid I do have something happen and couldn't work, I guess I would just have to crawl under a bridge and die. Well I am not sure what my point is here other than I don't feel good about anything in my life right now and I guess I just needed to rant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will02 Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 You're not alone, everyone is worried these days. Most people don't expect everything to be handed to them but for fucks sake everyone should at least get a fair chance at a decent quality of life. If this keeps up I fear that a societal collapse (and possibly a revolution) is inevitable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike D Posted September 3, 2012 Author Share Posted September 3, 2012 You're not alone, everyone is worried these days. Most people don't expect everything to be handed to them but for fucks sake everyone should at least get a fair chance at a decent quality of life. If this keeps up I fear that a societal collapse (and possibly a revolution) is inevitable. Yeah i've noticed that nobody I know (even the people with relatively good jobs), seems too optimistic about anything right now, and it's been like this for several years. I don't think it could take much for things to get really bad really quickly.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suzy Posted September 3, 2012 Share Posted September 3, 2012 I live in Eastern Europe and it's the same here. It's been like this for a while. Currently I have it lucky but I know it can end at any momemt. The news are full of companies going bankrupt, hundreds and thousands of people getting laid off at once. It's not looking good. Demography is such in this country that I know that by the time I would retire the country would not be able to pay pension, or only very minimal. So whatever money I will be able to save until then (IF I will be able to) that's what I will have. Fortunately I don't have debts (I was raised never to get into debts, never to consume more than what I can pay for, I'm forever grateful for that to my parents), but a lot of people here do as well. On the other hand, while Europe and America are struggling, if you go to Asia, economy might be flying there, but at what price? How do people live there? Is that the life you want? Be a slave to your company and then die? I surely do not. I sometimes think people, societies just should take it slower. We are killing ourselves. IMO a war or worldwide revolution seems unavoidable. The question is only: when? And what comes after that? I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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