Remember when you were eighteen, and just out of high school, and everywhere you applied for work, they told you essentially the same thing, you don't have enough experience. Move forward forty-two years and everywhere you apply for a job they tell you that you are over-experienced for any position they have available. 

However, you do qualify to be a greeter at the world's largest retail store, night watchman at the shopping mall or hamburger flipper at your local fast foods. These places are mostly concerned that you will show up for work everyday and that you most likely can be trusted. The only sick day you take is the one you don't recover from, you've died. The above employer is sad to have lost you because now they have to train someone else to do your job and that takes time and money.

Hey, don't despair there are employment benefits, right? Maybe, unless you were self employed, then you can't get make a claim because you don't qualify. Your former employees, the ones you kept on the payroll until there was no money left to pay them, qualify. Guess what, their employment benefits go against your account so that if a miracle were to happen and your business starts up again they will come after you for the money owed.

The retirement investments are nearly gone, most of it went into the business for the employees noted above. Fortunately, my wife is still working, but they've cut her days and salary. She looks at me every morning with her doe like brown eyes, that used to inspire me, but now make me feel guilty as sin. Her eyes are asking me the same question every morning. Are you going to get a job this week?

Don't you have children you may ask? Yes we do, thank you very much, and they think we are doing fine and to tell you the truth I just as soon not get them involved. They are raising families of their own and don't need us to add to their already burdened lives. We've always made it important to be self-reliant and neither one has returned home since leaving for school, it wouldn't fair if we camped on their door steps.

This morning, February 5, 2009, the unemployment rate increased another 632,000 people, for December. What they fail to add to that statement is that now there are more than 11,000,000 people unemployed. I guess they reason they don't mention it because it scares people, but you have to keep it in prospective; at any given time, when the US Economy is good, there are 7,500,000 people, (5%), routinely unemployed, at least that's what the news used to tell us.

Let's do the math, 11,000,000 minus 7,500,000 equals 3,500,000 people really out of work. Folk's, that's a lot of money not in the system, let's say it equates to $175,000,000 and the government has to participate with employment benefits so add, $75,000,000. A quarter of a BILLION dollars down the drain, most of these people are younger than sixty years old and have families, what are they to do?

I'm sixty, reasonably intelligent and I don't know what to do myself. I get up everyday, take one step at a time, and I'm thankful for what we still have and pray that something will happen soon to turn things around. I didn't vote for Obama, but I can promise you no one prays for him and his success than I do.

Hope things are well with you.