I feel for ya. And I want to give you my confidence that things will work themselves out for you given the strong character you have so clearly demonstrated.

I also agree that those that are expecting things to miraculously get better after Obama are dreaming as well. As someone in finance, I can assure you we have some dark days ahead for the next year or 2. And the recovery from there is not going to be quick.

“Because what it means is that we have become a nation in which people cannot be told to act like adults because we are no longer capable of doing it.”

Thanks for writing this. I am sorry for the lack of work and hope you find something more substantive and long-term.

It’s become evident to me that politics mostly reflects culture. It’s why I’ve spent less time at this site lately, though it is certainly a necessary and valuable outlet. I just think when political decisions are being made, most of the terms have already been set elsewhere.

The principle underlying federalism known in other realms as subsidiarity is not just relevant to politics, but to culture. Healthy culture, though its secondary effects spill out to a wider area, is fundamentally local, and that is where attention needs to be paid, contrary to the pervasive “bigger is better” mentality militates against good culture and politics (even on this site I see its allure). Local relationships and communities require a kind of embodied commitment, breadth of life and shared experience, compromise, and discipline–among other virtues–that other looser communities we choose do not require, but these virtues are needed to raise up adults. The family–despite its brokenness–is an example of such a community, and we should do underestimate its formative impact (despite the flaws of our actual families).

Please don’t interpret me as saying national politics and endeavors like Redstate should be abandoned. I am saying that national politics should be generally subordinated to regional, state and especially local cultural priorities that actually do most of the work in forming adult citizens, and we are so far from this that it’s actually killing the country because all we can do is blame the Big X entities (politics-economics-culture) and do nothing productive because we’re forgotten how to build locally. We should blame them but also work locally to strengthen local and state institutions.

That’s where every American citizen’s vocation lies, at least in part.

I truly believe some politicians don’t want to convey the truth because they lack courage and the ability to articulate these issues in meaningful ways. It is not enough to simply identify the issues which we face. Intuitively, we all know what they are. Moreover it is the ability to briefly state the issues which confront us, convey the cold, stark choices and then ultimately provide hope in a solution. In my estimation, nobody has yet done that. Nobody.

The scarey part of this is many folks want to be lied to. They don’t want to hear about shared sacrifice or paying for grotesque consequences from unsustainable political decisions- whether it is in the form of entitlements or otherwise. When the Constitutions speaks of limited, enumerated powers it is not some throw-away line to be used in the context of debate. It was a wise, realization that government could not be all things to all people. It could not be some behemoth that provides cradle-to-grave care and all-seeing, all-controlling oversight.

Never, in my lifetime, have we been so divided. Our government has run amuck and trampled the free market, It has somehow equated success with being a demon. Our companies, who employ us and fuel economic success are mostly said to be ugly, corrupt slaver-masters that perform no useful purpose. And they wonder why we are in this current state of chaos?

Our government has tried to be all things to all people. It has made promises it simply can not keep, pursued more power in the fallacious quest for what is “right” and has far overstepped its useful role. Yet it takes not responsibility for what it has done and only seeks more power- telling us if it only has more control it can fix all our ills.

We have nobody to blame but ourselves if this continues.

A career change, now two jobs, plus my wife works for the first time in years and we are still struggling. We already been trying to sell the house and nothing is working. I can go on as well.

I don’t want pixie dust and unicorns from candidates either. I know they are lying if they do offer it and they lose me immediately.

Life is hard and it is not fair. I have always told my kids to deal with it and suck it up. I am taking my own advice.

What infuriates me is politicians who do not have the spine to acknowledge the spending has to stop, just as it has for all of us in “Reality Land” and the politicians need to, as I quote Erick, “Hold the Freaking Line!”

This election is an all or nothing last chance to save ourselves and this nation. There is no “Next Time”.

The part that is killing me is that 70 hour work weeks to pay bills and try to keep my head above water financially does not leave time to be an activist. However, my Representative and Senators have gotten a lot of on-line letters from me on their web site.

Something tells me the Tea Party anger of last summer has not subsided, it has only been tempered by people in my position who don’t have time to vent it, but it is still there glowing red hot under the surface of the main stream media facade. I think it has only gotten hotter actually. I think this election is going to be explosive in the results when those sentiments are released at the ballot box. There are a number of establishment Republicans as well as the Democrats who are going to experience its fury. I do think this election result will be bigger that the 2010 election.

…but that is my opinion.

I am so sorry for your situation. It seems like you have a good grasp on reality and as painful as that is, it will allow you to pull yourself up and make the best of a very bad situation.

In my thinking the way we got here, ie. the 99% wackos and the occupy wallstreet crowd, stems from the “me” generation in the 60′s. That seems to be when people thought personal responsibility morphed into government responsibility. It also seems to be the time when people started to “find themselves” and turn from God thus turning government into their God.

Unfortunately I think it will get worse before it gets better, and it won’t change before the election. Obama wants civil unrest and people fighting that’s how evil controls.

It’s depressing to even type this.

. . . including a good friend of mine who we’re in the process of digging out of his hole.

First, a comment on the broader substance of your post. I think the truth is, that you are incorrect. We only are going to wind up having to “settle” if we take the wrong path. There are three paths, in my view, available to us.

The first path is completely unacceptable and that is reelect Body Odor and continue to destroy the country. Highly unlikely. I really think that the GOP primary is the real contest to elect the next President. The second path is the most likely, which is, “reform” the tax code by “reducing rates and eliminating deductions” and whatever other trimming and fiddling around the edges things people are proposing. This is the Paul Ryan type of model. It doesn’t solve the fundamental, systemic issues we are facing.

The third path is the golden brick road back to prosperity. No, it won’t happen overnight, but we can get our golden age back as quickly as its been destroyed over the past ten years. We have to throw out our existing assumptions (that the income tax will always exist, that the role of government as it exists is as it will exist into the future, etc.). We have to throw it out and replace it with a new, growth-friendly model. I like the FairTax. I’ll take 9-9-9 as a transition plan. We HAVE to get away from rewarding failure and punishing success. We HAVE to crush the socialists and statists who are perpetuating the existing system.

So thats it.

On a more personal note, in response to that part of your post, I also am an attorney, admitted in Florida in 2004, currently $100,000 in education debt after paying off $97,000 already . .. and I ABSOLUTELY see what you are saying. There are zero “jobs” for lawyers right now and hordes of law school graduates looking. I personally know several lawyers who are now working at paralegal pay rates and doing paralegal work. it’s depressing.

I’ve got a close friend who I now share an office with, who is in your situation. Got laid off back in Sept 2010 and for about 6 months was experiencing everything you described. I helped him right the ship and get back on track, basically by opening his own practice, at first taking clients by working out of his own home, and now he’s renting space in my office and doing quite well. If you are interested, I can recommend to you some very helpful resources that can help convert your existing skills into an area of law where you can basically just start taking your own clients, if you are interested. scorpio0679@flaliberty.org if you are at all interested, shoot me an email.

Much like the auto program – which just stole from future purchases, but did nothing to solve any problems – our representatives in most levels of government have given us the same. For the last 20-30 (50+?) years we’ve borrowed from our future selves. Well, our future selves are now and the piper has to be paid.

We should have taken our pain after the Dot Com bubble popped, instead we doubled down on housing and President Bush told us to go shopping. We should have taken our medicine immediately after the credit bubble popped, instead we’ve TARP’d and stimulus-ed and closed our eyes, put our fingers in our ears and said “nananananana.” The TEA party are the only ones I’ve seen that has called for the proper course of action, and even then, when you get down to it, the polls show a majority of TEA don’t know what to cut and where.

The best solution is to try and take the pain as quickly as possible – massive cuts in all levels of government…

and Leon, you’re 100% correct that there aren’t any candidates out there saying that message, let alone even trying to make the case to the people because the people don’t want to hear it.

Best of luck in the job search, we’ll be praying for you.

The struggle between those who want to run their own lives and those who want to be taken care is at parity.

Sadly, the economic challenges have pushed many of the former into the camp of the latter.

Too many even of the hard working and diligent spent above their means and now face hardships of their own making through improvident financial decisions.

The problem of excessive leverage will only resolve when much more default occurs: credit cards, student loans, mortgage debt, municipal debt, sovereign debt. Many more banks and businesses need to fail and much more debt deflation occur before this country can begin to get back on its financial feet. We are years away from that point.

You are absolutely correct in sensing that the world is looking for a magic wand to cure all these ills. And why not? The history of the past 50+ years has been just that: the geniuses of the world have always kicked the can down the road before, surely they can do so again and pretend its a ‘fix’. However, we have finally reached the end of that road.

Those who predict violence are probably not far off the mark. I read/watch these waste products who protest and I get angry. Very angry, but not THAT angry…its a slow boil at this point.

I hear of the riots in Greece and France and know we are not too awful far away from that in many areas. I know the outcome in a heavily armed society will be likely much, much different and shocking to both the world and especially the malcontents.

We are at the tipping point and the GOP candidates who should be the adults in the room only have time to talk about a frigging rock that may or may not have secretly revealed Rick Perry’s secret racist past as a Grand Dragon or something.

They only have time to rant about his attempt to bed 12 year girls by forcing gardisil on them while their clueless parents are playing Wii or something equally inane.

They only have time to mince words and snipe and grasp at straws to convince voters that they are the most worthy of the milling band of children on the circus stage, dancing to the music of the debate choreographers vs. dancing their own dance.

What kind of person wants to be President so much that they will say or do anything to get the job?

They cannot possibly be successful without first having an adult conversation with the voting and taxpaying public. To pander and dodge only to backtrack or be ‘surprised’ once in office will destroy their efforts to lead and they will fail.

What kind of person wants to be President so much they would be elected and then have history associate their name with the collapse of this great country?

What is their strategy going to be? Blame Obama for 4 years? We don’t have 4 years.

I hear what you’re going through. I recently hired 4 people for what I thought was going to be student/relatively unskilled work and every single person I hired had a BA and another advanced degree. I’m paying people with 6 years of higher education $12 dollars an hour for some pretty boing work…

It’s hard out there.

I was orginally pretty sympathetic to the OWS people, because I think that the banks got a total steal from the taxpayer, and now they’re being such jerks it’s hard for small businesses like my families to get short term capital. But those demands are just nuts….

If you need contract work though, send me a message. I often have more work than I can do.

The Paradigm that the “Pendulum” always swings back and forth is flawed intentionally. There is no Pendulum!!!!!!! There never has been one, we were only sold on the concept of there ever being one so that we would maintain a hope that it would all change back, but it never has changed back.

Change means change.

Nothing ever changes back.

Understanding what impact changes have on the direction the Herd will move next is essential.
Taking advantage or Capitalizing on that assumption is the essence of Americanism.

There is a movement against all that was perceived to be “American”, and that movement has taken us further down the road than we are able to ascertain. Governments subjugate, our ability to shed the yoke of subjugation is our national strength, yet more and more among us are true believers that a “Just Master” is the right answer for all of us.

There is no easy way forward, and many are neither equipped nor geared to endure the trial.

My wife lost her job 3 years ago and we’ve been through a short-sale as a result. I hope when our economy does recover, our society doesn’t forget the lessons of this recession.

The fact is, a terrorist – or more than one – will succeed again, and Americans will die. It’s a simple fact — but for a political leader or candidate to acknowledge that 100% security is simply impossible (let alone incompatible with even a relatively free and open society which values comfort and convenience as much as it does freedom of movement) is utter political suicide.

I know how it feels, I had two 6-month stretches of being unemployed sandwiched around a 3-month contract– 3 months after I bought a house. I managed to make it through, but with my savings pretty well decimated. Keep your head up, things will get better eventually.

The only thing I can say is that this situation, just as are ALL situations in this life, is temporary. It WILL improve and, along with it, so will your fortunes. You will come back better and stronger.

I, too, am at a loss to understand how a handful of defaults on home mortgages could become so viral as to cause the economy of the Western world to crater and contract as it has. And if it truly was a liquidity problem, surely there has been enough liquidity pumped back into the economy to have overcome it. So I look elsewhere for the answer.

I’m considering starting another business. Currently my money is in real estate and the stock market. Do I sell and take those losses and risk the proceeds in a new venture or do I try to ride out the storm and wait for better selling opportunity? With the morons who are now the business environment is just too uncertain to be able to make a sensible decision. The market in stocks and real estate is so beaten down, it is natural to ask “Are we at the bottom?”

But the yearning to launch a new venture is a very powerful one and all of the metrics suggest that it would be successful. But there are metrics that we cannot apply because they are unknowable: What will the regulatory environment be? What unforeseeable costs will we incur? It is difficult to plan for the unknown. It is an order of magnitude more difficult to plan for the unknowable.

We need to put an end to the uncertainty; to return to the idea that Washington DC is NOT the source of our strength and ability to endure and encourage individuals to make choices that are in their own best interests rather than trying to second guess the whims of a handful of politicians who know nothing whatsoever about how an economy such as ours actually functions.

I hope things improve for you Leon. Keep on keeping on even though its tough.

In general, we as the people took our eye off the ball and let govt run amok with spending and no real oversight on willy nilly credit expansion/crony capitalism, not keeping the destructive left in check, and then compounding our problems with taxpayer funded bailouts for those who mis-allocated capital.

You are right that we have our collective heads in the sand and nobody wants to hear reality. That is why we are destined to repeat history, like a slow car wreck. Batten down the hatches folks, we haven’t seen nothing yet, unfortunately. Precisely because people are in denial.

Gingrich has been quoted while announcing his new contract with America that he would need 8 years to largely correct our trajectory. He is right but probably a bad message to send people if you want to get elected. I have seen how far extreme people can go when it comes to denial.

“You can’t handle the truth!” is so fitting here.

The light at the end of the tunnel deals in mass psychology. We all know we are screwed with Zero in office. Getting a real leader in will help with some optimism and it does become somewhat of a self fulfilling prophecy. However, we cannot look for a “savior”. I see that happening here at RS as people vet candidates and wonder if he/she “is the one.” The whole lesson is we must get largely involved as citizens to keep our freedom no matter who is in office. Nobody can save us from ourselves. I think Reagan said, freedom does not get passed down through genes.

However, we have to learn our lesson that it is each of our duty to “keep our boots on the necks” of elected representatives.

This is just general commentary of the macro picture. Again, hope things go well for you, Leon. Many more people than you think are in the same spot but aren’t talking about it.

I have an entrepreneurial idea in the legal area that would need input from legal eagles in contract area. Send me a msg. You prob have my email as a Mod?

but a much better juncture in my life. I came out of college w/ nary the beeping clue of what to do with a real life scenario. I worked retail and fast food while discovering a BA in History meant that your resume was pretty much history.

Getting out of that hole involved hitting up every relative I had, working totally demeaning jobs for $8/hr, going to school for a degree in Mathematics on the side and going into hock up to my butt cheeks.

That being stipulated, this hit me at a fortuitous time. I was young enough to shrug off a few 20+ hour days and still drive my car w/o wrecking, I had no girlfried (much less a wife and kids), and only owned my POS car and the clothes on my back. (Plus a few trinkets like CD’s and such). I can’t imagine trying to explain that sort of situation to my wife and my kids. May God give you the grace….

It–or the illusion of it–must be had at any price. These shaggy, stinking cretins have skin in the game now, just as their parents did in the ’60′s by virtue of the draft, and they don’t like it at all. Many of the same people who misguided their parents in ’68 are inspiring the current crop of mushrooms.

When the “Cabal of International Bankers” canard is ultimately taken up, the harmonic convergence of scapegoatery will be unbelievably earsplitting. You can already hear it tuning up when Van Jones riffs “Arab Spring” into “American Autumn”. There may be a substantial element of our current population which can handle talk about lowered expections, but not this OccupyMomsBasement crowd. You might as well be trying to reason with radical islamists.

David Horowitz and Peter Collier wrote a great book about radical Boomers called “Destructive Generation”, and I fear that the arrested development Millenials are going to put the Boomers to shame. We are in for a longer slog this time, since they won’t be forced into personal responsibility or reality by having jobs and children.

And one more thing…I still say Obama does not make any decisions. He is surrounded by like-minded people who make decisions for him and then put his stamp on those decisions, only to find out later to their detriment that he will take no responsibility for those decisions. For cripes sake, Crazy Uncle Joe just had to take ownership of the economy for him.

Oh man…I just got it, Leon you think we need a Republican who has the guts to tell Amercans that they’ve “gotten soft”.

lol…good one. You had me going there for a minute.

that means be a source of encouragement for you and your family. After living out of my car for nine months a few years ago, I know what it is like to face those really tough times. All I can tell you for certain is this…that which does not kill us makes us stronger. Trials and tough times can and do serve a positive purpose.

I genuinely believe that if our nation comes out of this downward spiral we’re riding into, it will be because of conservatism. Conservative policies are the best hope we have right now. This may not be the greatest challenge our nation has ever faced, but I think it is likely to be the greatest challenge conservatives have faced. We have to succeed in meeting that challenge.

I know what it’s like, though to have a job and lose it is worse than just never getting one. It’s tough not really having a lot of back-up options- people hate lawyers. Some recent grads delete law school and legal work from their resume and put something fake there instead, to help get a normal job of some kind.

There really was no reason our economy had to go south. The bubbles were the product of bad policy. The Fed has a lot of responsibility for that, as of course does Congress.

A new President could potentially make some significant strides through common sense measures on regulation, energy production, etc. I think people know it’s not going back to like it was before, because that was a false prosperity in a sense.

2006.

Any brief glimpse that comes will be just that.

Too many aren’t willing to look at the root of the problem with a totally un-jaundiced eye.

Housing bubble, stock market bubble, bubble bubble toil and trouble. There was a gold and silver bubble in the 70’s. The stock bubble of the 20’s caused the last depression.

This starts to sound like an anti-FED rant and I am no fan of the FED. If the FED didn’t exist congress would have printed the money.

2006 is never coming back because it never existed. There is no there, there.

It’s the thrill of skydiving before you find out there is no chute in the bag.

Nobody wants to look at the root of the problem.

Certainly not on the left but as it turns out not much on the right either.

No one wants to look at the root because it would require re-examining the ground they walk on. The premises they have built their lives on.

You speak of 2006, others want Reagan back or the 1950’s and apple pie.

These times of supposed prosperity are chimerical as a matter of economic law.

False prosperity driven by fake stimulus always paid back by recession and depression.

This desire doesn’t recognize that the opulence created by expanding the money supply always involves a crash. The more successfully the FED delays the crash the larger it becomes.

There is no foundation in this economy, it is only sand.

Easy money is the crack cocaine of the modern economy.

Like any addict we beg for more.

Built the way it was, 2006 will never return nor is 1928 coming back.

The problem is simple. The FED is only a symptom.

The federal government has too much power and no accountability.

I could say that ten thousand times and never drive it home deeply enough.

Washington has used its power and ill-gotten gains to create a debt driven economy (among other things). The FED is a contributor if only by providing political cover.

They are actually upset now that people are saving too much in these times of uncertainty. Are you saving what you can? Their economic model only works if debt is constantly increased like some weird Ponzi scheme that collapses when somebody’s credit limit is reached.

This is not the way to build an economy. Pulling up the foundations to add the next floor.

No politician is going to solve our problem from Washington, DC. Washington, DC is the problem and as we have seen in the spring and again in the summer it can compromise and corrupt them faster than we can elect them.

Does this mean it is hopeless?

Maybe.

Probably.

Because nobody wants to look at the root of the problem.

They think the current depression was caused in 2005 or maybe 2003. Maybe by 9/11. Couple of planes hit a couple of buildings and we just can’t seem to get a firm grip on the economy. They think the 70’s were caused by some event in the 60’s and so on.

The problem is the federal government. Too much power and no accountability.

There is no single politician or group of politicians who are going to make Washington accountable from Washington.

How did Washington get so powerful? Don’t we have a “limited” government?

1913.

The income tax was created, direct election of senators was instituted and the Federal Reserve was fashioned from bits and pieces like some Frankenstein monster. Like the Frankenstein monster, the FED has largely escaped the control of its creator. How else to explain $$$ Trillions sent OVERSEAS?

Nearly unlimited funding combined with the removal of the last vestiges of accountability.

Look at the growth of government from 1913 and it is easy to see it has increased exponentially since that dark year.

The solution is as simple as the problem. Just not easy.

The power of the federal government must be wrested away and returned to the states.

As you might well guess the federal government is not going to offer this concession.

No mere legislative act will do.

The states will have to take it back. There is still one final way they can do this.
One way in which the federal government has no ability to stop them.

It is not without risk. But compared to staring down the most powerful nation on the planet, swearing your life, your fortune and your sacred honor, it is a relatively minor risk.

But what about 2006?

It is not coming back in your life time.

But there is a way to rebuild 2006. If done right it will be only a stop on the road to greater prosperity.

After binding Washington down with chains scrap every last remnant of the debt driven economy.

Like a weight lifter WITHOUT steroids it will take longer to rebuild the strength of a nation.

It will have a solid foundation under it. In 1912 the United States had such a foundation. It took congress and the FED 100 years to destroy it.

It doesn’t mean the occasional storm won’t come along but when they do our foundation, built up properly, will withstand the flood.

That is a long post though.

I do believe that after several years I don’t see how the US can’t come back reasonably strong.

China’s coming implosion should mean that this 26 month long growth in American manufacturing should even speed up a little after the hangover from a China crash is over.

Tech is looking like it might have another decent run after that coming mess is in the rear view mirror.

Why are you not running for political office or looking at political jobs, consultant or otherwise? I’m sure you’ve got the right network, tools, and skillset. I’m sure you could communicate the message that resonates. I’m also sure that activists on this website would be happy to support you… just a thought.

I mean no disrespect. Just curious.

I don’t run a law firm, so can’t offer you an interview in the legal field. But I have been looking for some help, specifically from people with a legal background (they’re fantastic at research and analysis); hope it’s better than an Outback Steakhouse.

Contact me if you have my email in the profiles that you can access as a mod. Or let me know how I can contact you.

with your plight. I’m a former highly experienced commercial real estate guy that was cut loose almost three years ago at age 64 along with 700 other associates. I did some consulting work for six months but found nobody wants a full time geezer, preferring a lower wage trainable 30 something with a “future”, and I decided to retire.

On the same day we also lost our staff attorney, a younger guy with kids, etc. and that was tragic. He was unemployed for most of the three years, taking temp or contract positions to survive. Finally, one of the temp positions turned into “permanent”.

Companies today are believers in “temp-to-perm”, as it is the best interview process ever conceived. If you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it. God speed.

and hoping that something will work out for you very soon.

I read your piece first thing this morning, and having been very down for the past week or so, it made me feel even worse. I have this little old four legged friend that would turn 16 on Friday if he can make it that long, it is looking doubtful. 15 and a half years of memories and unconditional love is a long time.

I’ve been there and done that with losing my job more than 3 years ago, and not being able to find another one, even for the lowest of wages. Who would have ever thought one was not qualified for a job because one is too overqualified? I am thankful that my husband has a job with a company that is busy.

Leon you are too smart and too much of an asset to go much longer without being able to turn your situation around. Prayers for you that all will work out soon.

who are the backbone of our country, and I’ve no doubt you’ll survive these struggles. Rather than sit around and whine or picket Wall Street, you’re spending your time working when you can and actively pursuing gainful employment, so thank you.

For what it’s worth, the law firm I’m with did little to no hiring for the last 3 years until very recently (just a couple of laterals that brought their book with them). This year, they’ve hired laterals and new associates right out of law school. I struggled to keep my job by taking a 20% cut and working in areas outside of my expertise since real estate/retail was a bust. Anyway, my work load has picked up significantly just in the last couple of weeks, even with actual real estate deals. Things are picking up.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-20004004-36.html

The case is scheduled to actually head to a jury trial this month after many years of the case going through the usual gyrations.

I’d rather not talk about it here in detail. It will make sense once I explain it. Let me know how we could talk privately. Thanks.

Please know that you are in my thoughts and prayers. I am truly impressed by your dignity and resolve.

I don’t know if you are interested but I would be very happy to pass your resume along to friends up on the Hill and in Richmond.

My thoughts and prayers are with you, man.

I am going on 32 months without working. I was a partner in an investment firm. It was a dream job, but we were crushed in the financial crisis, losing 85% of our business, thus destroying my equity. I had a big enough cushion that would enable me to survive almost 2 years. I mistakenly believed that an investment professional with 25 years of experience would be able to find a job at the drop of a hat. Trying to find a job has been brutal – hundreds of resume submissions and letters have yielded 7 interviews. Financial services firms are simply not expanding, and the vast majority of open positions are being filled internally.

I’ve now burned through all of my retirement assets and other savings. I am woefully delinquent in servicing my debts, including my mortgage. My family has been incredibly generous in helping to the extent they can, but the hole I am in is so deep that even if I landed a job today, I would still be at risk of losing my house. You nailed it when you said that the struggle against complete surrender is a daily endeavor. Prayer has been getting me through each day, but as each day passes, hope diminishes further.

I will keep you in my prayers, Leon. God bless.

but I’ve been the hand outstretched before. Even so, I’m making less now than I was a couple years ago, and happy to get it.

Keep pressing on, Leon.

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan ‘Press On’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

–Calvin Coolidge

Mew

Just thought I might throw in another personal story as it may help with perspective.

The Depression has taken such a hold where I live, that we now have three generations of adults living in one household just to survive. And at this point in time, I am not sure who is helping who as we all seem to need each other and for that I am grateful.

My eighty year old mother had a stroke about seven years ago. At the time, she lived alone in her home that is fully paid for. Since that time, her health has declined to the point where she is no longer able to live alone and she refuses to consider going anywhere other than her home.

My son just went back to work after being unemployed for nearly three years. He is an engineer and had to take a job that pays one third what he normally pulls in. Needless to say, he lost his home during the time he was out of work and moved into my mother’s home to care for her as her health declined while he sought work.

I finally had to stop working so I could care for my mother so my son could look for work so we all are living at my mother’s now. My savings are nearly depleted. It has been the most difficult transition I have ever had to endure–humbling to say for sure. But every time I am tempted to complain, instead, I focus on all there is to be grateful for as things could certainly be worse.

When America is done being humbled, she will come out stronger and will have renewed character as she prevails and perseveres through this severe trial. I know I will never be the same and have truly learned to live one day at a time.

Thanks, again, for telling some of your story and I hope mine helped you to see you are not alone.

I have been following politics since the 1970′s, and what I have noticed is that there is a herd mentality, fed by the media, that effectively circumscribes what a politician can get away with saying about virtually any topic. It’s not censorship per se, but in essence it is like groupthink. The paradigm changes over time however, usually when some brave soul dares to say what everyone else has been thinking and the public says something like “yeah, I always thought social security was a fraud”. Candidates with self-funded campaigns have a little more freedom to take risks, since major campaign donors are highly risk-averse. Case in point: Ross Perot in 1992 was able to get 20+% of the vote by being more candid about the deficit issue than any politician that preceded him, including Reagan. On the other hand, politicians can get their head handed to them by being too far out in front on an issue.

…but I’m confident it is just that. A rough patch, that you will eventually get through.

You’re obviously talented and capable. Some employer is going to see that.

If you want to look for work in the intelligence field, feel free to contact me. It’s tough if you don’t have a security clearance…but you never know.

In the meantime, hang in there.

Who have offered support. I really appreciate it. It’s not surprising, but still disheartening, to know how many here are facing similar situations.

I may always be contacted at leon at redstate dot com if anyone is so interested.

with debt beyond my means and not enough month at the end of the money. I’m a government employee on an obligated position and I risk being “displaced” in December if things don’t work out at the office. I hold BO personally responsible for my situation. He converted all of the contractor positions to government civilians back in 2008-09 and now there’s a downsizing and hiring freeze so there’s no where to put me when the other guy returns. But this time, if I lose my job, things will be very, very different.

Today I’m in a different place than I was in the 90′s and then a client of Consumer Credit Counseling living in a 1BR apt for $350 a month and buying clothes on a JCP credit card and returning them for cash so I could buy groceries. The lessons I learned back then prepared me for today. Today, I own all of my vehicles – they are not the nicest vehicles but they are paid for, they run, and we do most of our own minor maintenance (air filters, oil changes, etc). I’m a military retiree and my house payment will never be more than my monthly retirement pay ($1700) so I will always have a roof over my head. I can veggies from my garden and make all my own salsa and spaghetti sauce, I do my own sewing repairs, and I’m no longer a client at the local nail salon. I cut my and my husband’s hair, do my own hair color, I make dinner every night and make enough to take lunches the next day. We have the minimal local cable package and minimal cell phone service vs. the full data plan. I use the library. I do all my own ironing of work clothes instead of using the cleaners. We rarely eat out, I mow my own grass, clean my own house, and turn off the lights in unused rooms. There are so many tiny things I learned when I was “poor” that those lessons carried over to today. The best thing we ever did was buy (paid in full) a 40 ft 5th wheel RV that we can live in full time if we were to ever lose the house. We think like that. We have to because we are BOTH military retirees and both work for the Dept of Defense. All of our eggs are in Uncle Sam’s basket and we realize there’s a very real possibility that we could both be “displaced”. (That’s such a better word than fired isn’t it?)

So I’m sorry to hear about your situation. I imagine that most starry-eyed law school grads dream about the big house, nice cars, and private school for the kiddos. But life isn’t like that. I guess what I’m trying to say is you are in good company. Keep the faith. The lessons you’re learning today WILL make you stronger and teach your children what they can truly do without. You will come out of this a much stronger and better person for it and I will keep you in my prayers for work. (And I highly suggest taking the advice of the post above about starting your own business – that’s my next step (without the help of the SBA) if I lose my job…”Bobbins Sewing and Craft Center”!)

Oh, and good post. Keep it up!

Nebraska calls…3 % unemployment

Dear Leon,

You need to get yourself into some courses on the Dodd-Frank Act, Anti-Money-Laundering, and the Bank Secrecy Act. You will be instantly employable. I am not joking. Check both the Bar Association and Bankers Association in your area. If you can scrape up the money, attend the American Bankers Association’s compliance school.

I just started a job 3 weeks ago after being unemployed for most of the last 3 years. It can be done, though it is very very tough. I am still a bit in shcok that I actually did it. I am earning about 25% less than I was in my last job, but it’s plenty for me and in the interim I have downsized my lifestyle and spending by more than 25%. I am working in a fast-growing regional bank, and it is hiring lawyers and bank compliance specialists and internal auditors like crazy. In the last year this company has hired 100 people just to do anti-money-laundering reporting. We have a staff of four working fulltime on Dodd-Frank and there will be many more hired in the future as this bank expands.

BTW it is insane how much our banks are spending on regulatory compliance now. Talk about shutting the barn door after the horse is out. Millions and millions that are not being spent on loans to small businesses, or opening more branches to hire people who need jobs, but on lawyers and consultants and process and reporting and testing and auditing and auditing the auditors. This is what banking has become now in the US.

Ponies exist. We’ve raised a generation — and much of the previous two — to expect free unicorns. The costs we’ve incurred in this fantasy (not just in the U.S. but around the world) would consume the bulk of at least the next few generations’ ability to produce, assuming they all didn’t demand unicorns of their own. The best-case scenario has the next generation wising up and, probably grudgingly, working to pay down the debt we’ve incurred. The far more likely scenario has them refusing to do so.

So your in a profession that in this country we have to many practitioners of. Who right to many laws rules and regulations so they have something to argue over and get paid. Chase ambulances and sue the productive. You entered a profession, practitioners of which has made the law, (like the constitution) meaningless. It wasn’t a carpenter that asked, “well it’s all according to what is, is”. This is the cake your profession has baked for the rest of us, while many of you got rich doing it. For whom should the bell toll?

oops

Politics to the side for a moment, having been unemployed for an extended period of time, I can relate to your resume story. The traditional methods of finding a job (mailing resumes, answering job ads–print or electronic) just don’t work anymore. It took me way too long to figure that out.

You’ve got to “network” your way into a job. The best guide for doing that I found was the book “What Color is Your Parachute?”

It took me a while to really accept some of the ideas, because they seemed counter inuitive at first. Like, you have to more specific in the kind of job you’re looking for. For example, a lawer specializing in dairy farm real estate is more likely to find a job than a lawyer specializing in farm real estate, who is more likely to find a job than a lawer specializing in real estate, who is more likely to find a job than a lawyer that can do anything.

Jack of all trades, or “verisitile” people don’t get hired. Hiring firms have a hole they need filled, and they will hire the person that comes closest to perfectly filling that hold. Versitile people that can do anything, don’t perfectly fill any hole, and thus don’t get hired.

OK, back to politics.

The Conservative Hand: a Manifesto to Achieve Conservative Political Goals

alt2p.org The American Legitimate Tax Second Party

I’ve been concerned about this for some time. It’s what made me go from not particularly caring for Mitt Romney to detesting him.. When Paul Ryan said the Social Seurity needed to be reformed, the Democrats immediately ran ads of a Paul Ryan look alike shoving an elderly woman in a wheelchair off a cliff. Romney in his own book called Social Security a criminal enterprise, and when Perry called it a Ponzi scheme, he immediately adopted the Democrat, ‘wants-to-throw-Grandma-under-the-bus’ attack. OK, let’s reform Social Security. I’m 51, I’ve been out of work myself, and know what it’s like to wonder if I’ll ever get past the arrearages. I have come to accept that I’ll probably be working well into my 70′s if I live that long. If I ever DO get to retire (you know, before Social Security, people didn’t GET to retire, unless they were wealthy tycoons. This was a total construct of the liberal Democrat FDR) I would like SOME of what I paid in to be available to me, rather than just, “sorry we went broke, your crap out of luck!”. It will be HARD, because when the Democrats ran Congress for 40 years they raided the SS Trust Fund t pay for their social programs to buy votes and get the poor addicted to the free ponies and unicorn dust, and left IOUs in the ‘lock box’ that now are questionable if they are worth using for toilet paper. So it will be harder than it would even seem at first, if we were to phase it out, because we have to first stop taking from people who have little if any chance to ever receive the benefits they are being forced to pay for, And at the same time, pay those who HAVE reached the age to receive the benefits they PAID FOR. What makes me SICK is that there will be ZERO accountability for those (like Al Gore’s Daddy) who blew that money. I like Cain’s 9-9-9 plan. The 16th Amendment needs to be repealed for it to be safe, or somebody else will simply come back after he’s gone and reimpose the income tax on TOP of 9-9-9, but if our corporate tax was half of the rest of the world, there would be a lag, as they watched, to see if we meant it, or if we were going to pull the football away from Charlie Brown again, but once they see it’s serious, there would be a massive influx of businesses moving here (and BACK here) and a repatriation of assets that would yet AGAIN validate the Laffer curve., I think it might take longer than some are thinking, but maybe not as long as the author fears, perception is everything, and if people THINK things are on the mend, they will act like it, and then capital will start flowing and our economy will begin to move. The thing we need to watch out for at that point is the Fed manipulating the interest rates to hold them down. We want to avoid a massive spike, but we NEED them to go up to make investment worthwhile again! I’ll stop before I totally get to rambling, You’ll be in my prayers and I wish you well!

I feel your pain. I am living on Social Security since I had multiple heart attacks and surgeries and was left unable to work. I am concerned however with your pessimistic outlook. I lived for most of my life within 30 miles of NYC, and for most of that time. I assumed that NY’s crime, filth and squeegee guys were incurable. Along came Rudy Giuliani and Those things changed. To day I got an email from a freshman Congressman for my district who says he is proposing the elimination of a whole Gov. Agency. It is a start. Things that we think are unfix-able only are until we fix them. Don’t give up. Obama has no clothes.

Steve