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Sunday, December 14, 2008

Define Depression

Another symptom of our downwardly spiraling economy: a good friend of mine went to work Monday to find out it was the last day his employer would employ anyone.

Shit.

I know how it feels, really I do. I got canned with zero severance and zero unemployment under false pretenses less than a week before Christmas two years ago. See also when my employer of five years went tits up less than two weeks after my first daughter was born.

I have a lot of words, an excess by most accounts, but I cannot verbally express the stress of losing your ride right after having a heap of extra responsibilities come aboard, or of losing your ride in the Silly Season when you already have a lot of responsibilities.

My friend has about a hundred children by the way. Okay, really it's just two with this wife, who I've known since Johnny Dangerously was showing in the theaters. But between their previous marriages, there's another 98. Three anyway.

Thing is, as much as I think the whole 'another Great Depression' rant is overkill, it sure feels like it when you're the one who's been outsourced to India. No matter what the Dow Jones is averaging.

I personally still believe we're in for another 1970s more than another 1930s, but the 70s sucked pretty hard themselves. And the cure for that stagflation was a lot of high-ass interest rates for a long time. So all you folks with adjustable rate mortgages, even if you're still employed and so far unscathed, better grab some Vaseline and your ankles.

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