COWBOI -
I think the reason it seems that way is that honestly a lot of the opinions you have shared even here are very extreme even if it is assumed and taken for granted that we are in a depression. It has always pretty much been true that people will look at those with very strong ideas as "kooks" when those ideas don't always fit in with the reality of society.
ALEX - Agreed. The "kooks" look pretty sane these days, the guy I know who plays banjo on the street and makes bank, and is all paranoid about leaving a paper trail, is looking pretty good these days!
COWBOI - Honestly many of the things you have said in this thread are very extreme views that are not completely accurate.
ALEX - I'm probably laying some of it on thick, but wait'll the economic Doom hits you, you'll like it thick just like your sleeping bag hehe.
COWBOI - It is easy for people to sit around and complain that the economy is crashing and that people think they are crazy for feeling that way, it's harder to actually change your life and do something about it. The fact is most of us are where we are because we made choices that lead us here. How many didn't go to college? How many who went to college went into booming fields that hundreds and thousands of other people ran to pursue as well causing too many workers and not enough jobs? How many people sitting around on unemployment actually apply for more than the two jobs they are required to apply for each week (if and when they even apply for those two to begin with)? How many people have taken the time to pick up a phone or start walking around town asking about job openings instead of looking at places like craigslist and careerlink online?
ALEX - Indeed. I made the extremely poor choice to go into electronics, hence my fixing it by going into EMT or something related. As for applying for jobs and looking around, trust me that's being done. I personally believe it's all gonna crash, it may take a few years but it's coming down, folks. I bet everyone here a beer I'm right. So I am working on MAKING jobs or getting skills that make me in demand (EMT, possible hyperbaric tech from there its I have 2 contacts now with the local hospital, less said about that here the better) since I want to WORK but I also want to be HAPPY. Surprise, surprise, I'm DOING that. I also had the sense to move back to California when I saw how much the rest of the US sux bawls.
COWBOI - For the most part a lot of us who are sitting here complaining signed, sealed and delivered our current lives on our own. We all want to claim we worked hard and many of us feel that way but look around, it simply isn't all that true. Look at the people I went to school with as an example, I am doing far worse than the majority of them. I'm also one of the few who didn't go to college right out of high school, I didn't complete my classes and stay in school, I didn't work to further my education and give myself other options for jobs and a career. You yourself admit that this is not really the road you took either.
ALEX - Exactly. My decision to go into electronics was an extremely poor one. I meet ex-engineers and techs on the street routinely. It's a road to poverty. Sure, I like being able to solder, to set up clandestine antennas for "Listening Post Alpha" here, knowing how to fix or build stuff, but there's NO money in it. Thus, going back to school for EMT, and EMT-paramedic-ER-tech-various hospital things or EMS things or both are a process of constant learning, just the re-certification process to keep current means going back to school and doing internships etc on a constant basis. If I'd never heard of electronics, this ls likely the path I'd have taken, because before the electronic age, if you were smart, you likely went into the clergy, medicine, or became a teacher. That's where smart kids got channeled. I'd have done the medical route because it's fairly interesting if you disregard the body fluids and feces and well, gross stuff. I avoided going further than veterinary tech because of same. Electronics was clean. That's right, I screwed up my life by being a wimp. Now I'm correcting that. Various others here may have made similar bad choices because they didn't like hard work, or washing dishes for 5 years to make it into the kitchen (there's MONEY in washing dishes and kitchen work folks!) or doing various things that involve tools, protective gear, helmets, boots, etc. Folks, if it's dirty, dangerous, or demeaning, that's where the money is.
COWBOI - Your life is what you make of it just like mine is what i've made of it. Like me you aren't unhappy with your situation, you have chosen to have little and you have found peace with that. It isn't anyone's fault but our own and it is not a result of the government and economy failing so much as it is a product of our own behavior and actions.
ALEX - This is why I said you get it. The economy is changing. Let's forget for a moment that we're heading into the Greatest Depression and just say it's changing. OK so the solution is to understand that the rules have changed, or that you can often make your own rules now, and work with that. Have several things you do that add up to a living. Or discover that you really like being a school janitor instead of a PhD in something useless like computer science. Or, start a biz! Which these days means not getting angel investors and the SBA involved, it means discovering you have a knack for setting up the best cleaning service in town or developing a line of functional crafts (look up "paracord bracelets" for an example) or maybe something new that's not been done (here in the US which means not done - one idea I may try for fun is making something I saw over in Barcelona) and so on. There's a show on the radio here called the Marty Nemko show, and I believe you can get all the KGO programming online, he's worth listening to for some pep-talking and ideas.
I should have gone the full-quote route before. This is why I say you've got it. And you need to move to California if you want to live cheaper.
