who is feeling the $ hurt in this bad economy?

[karyn]

i am sort of freelance but my biggest fact-checking client just laid me off. i don't know what i am going to do because a lot of the smaller ones had already gotten smaller than ever before this happened. i have some savings but not enough to go very long if this keeps up.

who is feeling the financial/work hurt in this bad economy?

[soma_stardust]

everyone.
my guy/roomie/whatever was out of work for about 2 months. he's an electrician.
i haven't had any paid modelling jobs in forever...
*hi, i'm overdue for a new blueblood set...* u_u

[nathanmbailey]

That is one good thing about being in the military. I have a steady paycheck and I'm not getting laid off anytime soon. But, I already live in substandard housing (a.k.a. barracks room) that I don't have to pay for and lose part of my check to be able to eat somewhere I refuse to eat (chow hall, disgusting).

But, I'm feeling it a little bit because everything is getting more expensive, so that pay check doesn't last quite as long as it use to. And my friends don't go out as much because they don't have the money so I get bored more often.

[Bacchus88]

Feeling the hurt is understatement here. I own building material surplus, I have never been related to new housing market so to speak. More on the side of remolding, rental homes, personal home building. The fact no one has any money to do anything is pfth part of it. I am kinda making it, I keep all my employees even if i have not had a true paycheck in 6 months...

ill will be the first to see an improvement in the econ, being in this business. I have seen a little spikes here and there. For the most part it sucks...My last chance for goal here is to open a new store close to military base. Nathan is right, its promised money it will be there.Fort Benning is getting about 40,000 troops plus there supports. I hope that fact, changes things around the area i am placing this store.

[athenahollow]

I'm with Soma.
I have worked from home for a year and a half, doing camming, with small web design jobs to help w/ smokes etc. It's gotten to the point that being on cam twice as much, is garnering 1/3 of what I made before.

I'm getting more concerned as I'm behind on all the bills at this point, and going out and GETTING a job is out of the question. I have a 3 year old, and don't drive. My fiance has a part time job and is getting trained to be a manager at the restaurant he started working for last month. We're hoping that between his work and the websites, we can hold over till camming picks back up....

[ForrestBlack]

The economy is just in the gutter and from talking to a LOT of the people I know, people's reserve is running out. It's scary stuff. Friends of mine in all sorts of different job classifications are all freaking out. Businesses I really like are going under right and left. I had really hoped that bringing in a new administration would help jump start things, but all anybody seems to think will help is if we the people get out there and start spending. What I think they don't understand is that most of the people I know are struggling and don't have much left at all. It's depressing. I want to help but I feel so not in control.

I'm no expert and maybe I'm way off base and someone smarter than I am can correct me, but I think instead of health care, this administration should do things like lift small business taxes for a year, or something that will encourage actual production from neighborhood level industry anyway. Infrastructure jobs are what we need. Hell, I'd be happy to go help project manage bridge construction or whatever if it was for the betterment of my Country and it put some cash in the pockets of people around me that need it. Getting people to trade in cars for more accumulated debt isn't helping create jobs for anybody I know. More debt doesn't really help when the banks can charge 30% on top of all those fees, etc. It's challenging to hire new people when your customers don't have the money for what they need already and we're all clearly suffering from the effects of that financial death spiral.

Shelters and charities in our area that have been giving away shoes and school supplies to those in need since like 1944 are running out before they get to the end of the massive lines of people for the first time ever this year. Unemployment and homelessness are rising really fast here too. We've got squatters filling up burned out apartment buildings and this is Hollywood not Apple Valley or Hesperia. I am genuinely worried for a lot of people.

[LeilaHazlett]

I figured having a biology degree from a prestigious privet school would pretty much guarantee me a job once I graduated but with the way the economy is now my degree is pretty useless. Any bio-tech/research company that even is hiring doesn't have to bother hiring entry level grads since there are so many people with experience out of work. I can't pay off my student loans, I can barely even pay my bills because I can only find part time work. I know there are people much worse off than me but it is still very stressful and if i don't get a better job soon thing will be getting worse.

[TheDeathKnight]

Yeah, Forrest nailed it on the head.

Even if you are a millionaire, and own your own company, you are still being cautious.
The economy is still bad, so even if you have money, you aren't blowing that money on
non-essential things.

Everyone is being cautious, and that's affecting the whole economy.
And it's going to be a slow, slow recovery.

[mystoo]

Actually, it seems to be going back and forth for me. I just started working 4 days a week again and the gov't was behind on my workshare so I just got 6 weeks worth all at once. That was about $1000 so right now I'm flush and I can finally afford to go to the dentist (hoo-rah). All my bills are paid, there's food in the fridge, and I still get to go drinking and shopping.
I do hope things pick up soon for the rest of you. It sucks being broke.

[Mr Karl]

I'ts not so bad up here, it's actualy been a long time since I've had an even vaguely slack day, but then I service the printing industry and 90% of what that industry produces is going to be garbage in a few months, but some companies have fallen apart lately and the ones that held in there are scrambling to get everything done.............also I repair machines, and canadians just by nature spend so much time hmming and hawwing and 'kicking the tires' that they rarely buy anything new even when times are great so when times are bad they're old crap breaks down more..................good for me

[Bacchus88]

its always been good to talk about such topics here. Everyone has a good point of view on the matters. Something I have missed, glad I remember to come back here.

If can hang on and make it through this I should be ok.... This is my last chance to try to make something happen or I am gone out of business that is it...Its ok to be broke I can deal with that. To be broke and then owe the banks large hunk of money is a little different. The way they have changed the bankruptcy laws, I am up shit creek!! I do not even wait to think about that.

I hope that flood damages that have happen in Atlanta will help out the economy here. That is something I can look forward to and maybe people will come to me instead of Agent Orange or Agent Blue

Everyone is in the same boat, and it does not matter who we put up in DC. In the end, we the people are still going to get the shaft. I hope everything will work out soon, for everyone of us..

[One Eyed Cat]

The economy is just in the gutter and from talking to a LOT of the people I know, people's reserve is running out. It's scary stuff. Friends of mine in all sorts of different job classifications are all freaking out. Businesses I really like are going under right and left. I had really hoped that bringing in a new administration would help jump start things, but all anybody seems to think will help is if we the people get out there and start spending. What I think they don't understand is that most of the people I know are struggling and don't have much left at all. It's depressing. I want to help but I feel so not in control.

I'm no expert and maybe I'm way off base and someone smarter than I am can correct me, but I think instead of health care, this administration should do things like lift small business taxes for a year, or something that will encourage actual production from neighborhood level industry anyway. Infrastructure jobs are what we need. Hell, I'd be happy to go help project manage bridge construction or whatever if it was for the betterment of my Country and it put some cash in the pockets of people around me that need it. Getting people to trade in cars for more accumulated debt isn't helping create jobs for anybody I know. More debt doesn't really help when the banks can charge 30% on top of all those fees, etc. It's challenging to hire new people when your customers don't have the money for what they need already and we're all clearly suffering from the effects of that financial death spiral.

Shelters and charities in our area that have been giving away shoes and school supplies to those in need since like 1944 are running out before they get to the end of the massive lines of people for the first time ever this year. Unemployment and homelessness are rising really fast here too. We've got squatters filling up burned out apartment buildings and this is Hollywood not Apple Valley or Hesperia. I am genuinely worried for a lot of people.

We're in deep shit. If the taxes being proposed to pay for the health care bill are enacted, it will get worse. I'd go with some sort of movement towards credit through the SBA and infrastructure jobs.

OEC

[Cafe_Post_Mortem]

They tried to do infrastructure jobs, but the bill got pretty gutted right out the door.

A few are still in the works, but not nearly what was needed.

Personally I have always been a fan of those kinds of pushes cause, even if they don't repair the economy, you at least have a working infrastructure.

[Raza]

I try to stay out of economics as much as I can, but I think it can't be as bad here as it is in the US?

'n fact, I'm feeling encouraged to spend by getting 1.44 dollars and nearly a full pound for my euro. It dipped a bit earlier this crisis, but either everybody else sunk further or we're back up.

S'fine with me anyway. Squatting and charity are good things. Let people experience their value as they lose faith in stuff like credit and global economics. I'm sorry for anybody actually ending up jobless, cold and hungry, but if that's what it takes for people to start working on solutions rather than with the problem...

[Mr Karl]

We're in deep shit. If the taxes being proposed to pay for the health care bill are enacted, it will get worse.

OEC

up here in canada we love donating 50% of our income to the taxes that are chosen for us

[mystoo]

Hahaha..it's true, we really do.

[Mr Karl]

haha, yeah in fact we get a bit worried that maybe we're not getting enough deducted from our paychecks