Keep Trudging On

Last week marked our 2 1/2 year anniversary of moving to California. Thirty months in the Golden State and we still feel like newbies. Today, my husband is attending company meetings to discuss the 'future' of the IT department. Yes, for the third time in 2 1/2 years, they are downsizing IT.


Who downsizes IT in 2014? That would Mitt Romney, of course. Or, at least his old company, Bain Capital.

 So what is Bain Capital?

Glassdoor review:

“Bain Capital brought in to sell company once layoffs complete”

Contract Manager Power Procurement (Current Employee)

sssssssss, CA

I have been working at ssssssssssssssssssssssss full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – descent salary, excellent benefits plan

Cons – Highly political, laying off top performers and keeping dead weight in management levels, don't quit a job to join this company as there is no future here and you might be laid off even if you are a top performer unless you are in the good ole boys club

Advice to Senior Management – all political, useless meetings and powerpoint presentations, Bain Capital is going to sell you off so goodbye!
No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company ~~~

We still struggle to put space between us and that never absent trapdoor that threatens to open and drop us back into a pit we won't recover from. Others our age, at this same company, are looking at retirement as an option, as opposed to being laid off.


That is not even a slight possibly in our case.


Everything we had was lost to the Bush recession. Our home and all the equity that went with it was lost when we were forced to sell or lose it at the very bottom of the housing market crash. The retirement savings we had kept us alive during that same time.


Now, we barely make from paycheck to paycheck, while still trying to pay off bills that keep us going when everything crashed down upon us. If it happens again, there won't be any severance. Although, that was never anything we received anyway, thank to co-signing on student loans.


The government took it all because the kids weren't paying them, we couldn't pay them, and then they took the money we were supposed to live on.


Thoughts filter through my mind like flour through a sifter. Some lumps stay stuck forever in places I can no longer get to. I helplessly watch as my husband considers the harsh possibility of yet another job hunt in his mid fifties. The earthquakes around us seem metaphoric to our lives.

We spent the past few days cleaning, hiking through the desert, practicing Spanish. Last night the girls cooked dinner to a full blown acapella rendition of "Frozen". 

And for the first time in a year and a half, I got a new pair of shoes. So, I may soon be homeless, but at least I won't be left barefooted, as well. 

As we wait and wonder...AGAIN, what the fates have in store for our little family, we keep trudging on the best we can.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on,” Nick Fury


Avengers Nick Fury by JPRart

In the meantime, we take advantage of those things we can, like the perks of family working at Disneyland. Seeing Captain America is definitely one of them.

"In case it's unclear, if you try to escape, if you so much as scratch that glass...30,000 feet straight down in a steel trap. You get how that works? Ant. Boot," Nick Fury

Supply and Demand

Last night, on Facebook, that place I love to despise, 'friends' were discussing why the minimum wage should NOT be raised. And yes, these were, once again, the same people who post 'Praise God' in every other post.


Their argument consisted of " if people want more money, they need to go to school and get more

skills, first." Which is, of course, an entirely different argument, all together. Raising the minimum wage for EVERYONE in minimum wage jobs is not the same as an individual going to community college and taking a class in Poodle Shampooing 101 so they can earn 25¢ more an hour.


With an increase in the basic minimum wage, they will still have the opportunity to take Walking the Dog 326 (Or Wokking the Dog 326, for those culinary folks) to increase their job-ability, because suddenly they can AFFORD to go to Community College and EAT TOO!

Basic Economics 101: when people people make more, they spend more. When people buy more, stores sell more. Suddenly, stores have to hire more people~MORE people with jobs~to fill shelves, run cash registers, bag food (yes, they still do that out here in California). More, more, more people to SPEND $$money$$! 


The economy gets better.


What is missing in their argument? Save the 'Let's keep the Poor, Poor, so our life feels better than theirs' sentiment. What happens if EVERY SINGLE PERSON goes to college, to trade school, starts their own business? The better yourself argument only works, if you assume there will always be the gutter people...


Those throw away people who will work our late night McDonalds drive thru windows and stock the Vons supermarket shelves over night.


What happens if everyone betters themselves? No more Joes handing us our Venti mocha cappuccinos, our lattes with an extra shot of espresso and our vanilla bean scones at the local Starbucks on the corner? 


That slave labor class, that can't make enough to live on, while working full time, backbreaking, soul-sucking jobs, while you walk past them unnoticed on your way to your cushy desk job, will disappear.  

With all the 'skilled laborers' searching for not enough jobs in the market positions, the former minimum wage positions will be emptied. Instead of paying people livable wages to fill these jobs--that need to be done--employers will be paying the few ordinary Joes left, twice what educated Joe makes, to hand Educated Joe his latte. 

Supply and demand. 

Wouldn't it be better if, instead of seeing people as lazy, which is ridiculous. Or needing to improve themselves, which is the same. People just, finally, started seeing EVERYONE as a valuable part of our world.

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, "Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me." Matthew 25:34-36