Web Letters: Jobless in America

By Our Readers

January 28, 2009

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The fact that this "free market" feeding frenzy at the trough that most of call our lives has finally left our society in ruins--does not make me feel good but it does make sense. Did this capitalist culture of greed and obscene stratification truly believe we could go on like this in perpetuity?

I have two small children to care for and my mother continues to work into her 70th year. I am, as an RN, fortunate to still have a job, but I watch helplessly as both friends and family feel the effects of what this scum on Wall Street felt most compelled by: contemptuous greed and righteous entitlement. This culture of theft has been allowed from Reagan to Bush to Clinton to Bush and, what a surprise, there is nothing left to pilfer from those of us attempting only to work for a living.

Now I see that President Obama under a guise of political concession and compromise is readying his argument and rallying his troops for an attempt at "getting entitlements (Social Security and Medicare) under control." No, Mr. President. You may not have one single cent of compromise here. The working class and the poor of this country did not share in the gluttonous consumption that brought us to this terrible place, and consequently we should not share in the demands of this devastation any more than we have. The rich have resided on our backs long enough. It is time we shed ourselves of their dead weight and make Wall Street values a thing of the past.

b. eliot minor

New York, NY
01/30/2009 @ 11:58am
I read these letters and wonder what has become of America.

I was one of the early ones, given my notice in January last year and in March, after working fourteen years at the same site with many of the same people, said goodbye to my staff and drove away. Despite consistently high performance reviews, successful project implementations and departmental development, I was a victim of corporate business decisions and the capriciousness of executive management. But I was just one of many highly capable people that were let go, and my situation is nowhere near as dire as some of those (many of whom are still without work). The final icing on this particular cake was that while this company was laying off people and planning the closure of further plants, the CEO was awarded compensation of $16M. It is this kind of stuff that frosts the gourds of those who look for fairness in the world.

I have filled some time and a bit of my bank account with both part-time consulting work and a (slowly) budding photography business. But make no mistake, this is a bad time to be pounding the streets and trying to drum up business. I am fortunate in that my wife is a healthcare professional--a business that seems to never want for customers--and so is a steady income-earner. But I see, hear and read of many in tenuous, desperate situations and can't help but wonder: what has become of our country?

Jeff Clay

Salt Lake City, UT
01/29/2009 @ 12:15am

Web Letters: Jobless in America

By Our Readers

January 28, 2009

New York, NY

Salt Lake City, UT

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