During the 1990 - 1991 Desert Shield campaign against Sodam Husein in Iraq, the economy in the U.S. was really bad like it is today, and finding employment was next to impossible. I was living in Sanford, Florida at the time, and like nearly everyone else, been unsucessful in finding work. In December of 1990, I tried going to Labour Force on 3rd Street (temporary day labour agency) only to find out there was nothing going on there either, except for everyone complaining about there being no work (about 30 to 40 labourers there out of work)...It was like being aboard the doomed ship Down & Out with it's hopeless crew...I was 46 years old back then. Labour Force had a TV going in the lobby, tuned in on coverage of the Desert Shield campaign, before it became Desert Storm. I remember a young Afro-American man at Labour Force being so disgusted, he ranted that he wished Sodam Husein was running this country. Someone asked him, "Why do you wish a thing like that?" He replied, "Cuz Sodam Husein have jobs fo HE people! Bush ain't got no jobs fo he people!" One other guy commented, "I have to earn a paywage because of this bad habit I got...What is this bad habit you ask?...It's called paying my bills...Baaaaaad habit". And everyday at the labour pool, you would hear the disgrunteling all morning long; "Aint no jobs for shit, man". This really sucks, man". "Fuck this shit!". "We had our lights cut off last night". "Man, something gotta happen...SHIT". "Nothin' shakin', nothin' crackin". "SSDD, man...Same shit, different day". "I'm gonna have to go back to selling dope. I can't hang with THIS shit". "I guess I'm gonna hafta rob a fucken' bank or somethin'". "I ain't worked in goin' on two months. This sucks". "Eddie and his ole lady got kicked out by their landlord last night". "Richie and his ole lady been on the street for a week". "Yea fuck. An' Richie and his ole lady have those two kids". "This shit's really fucked up, man! FUCK!" Occasionally, the dispatcher would offer a 'feel good' comment like, "I realize it's looking bleak, guys. But hopefully, it will get better". There was even one guy on probation we knew who had to go back to jail because he had no money to pay to the probation officer that month. Along with people getting evicted, utilities shut off, car breaking down with no money to repair them, theft and shoplifting got really bad about that time too. Some guys would ride a bicycle to the labour pool only to have it stolen...and still didn't get out on a job. Seriously, it felt like I got in a time machine and travelled back the depression era of the 1930s. There were times I could picture in my mind one of those old phonographs playing a broken record that went, "No work, no work, no work", at a speed of three times per second...like the turn table was sped up to 180 RPM. There were some, including someone I knew who was in his early 30s, who either went crazy, or faked it, and got a disability pention for life. That guy I knew wasn't allowed to drive a car after that. And one day when he got a ride with me from downtown Sanford, he told me, "You know? I don't have anything to worry about. They declared me a bonified certified nut. I get a nutty check in the mail each month".
Sometime around April of 1991, the economy did pick back up...But by then, there were a lot of people whos lives had been turned up side down.
It is now 2017, and like 1990 and 1991, job oppertunities are virtually nonexistant...Except now, my situation has a fundamental difference...I have been 62 years old since May 1st, 2016 (elegible to draw Social Security). This past December, I filed for early Social Security retirement...I received my first payment of $811 on Wednesday (two days ago). I own my own place, which is paid for. I don't owe any money such as credit cards, mortgauge or car payments. I'm single. And the cost of living is not high...I can get by comfortably on $811 per month. I could have gotten $1,135 per month by waiting until I turned 66. But there's no telling how many problems would have arisen out of having no income between now and the time I turn 66.
There are two things a George Bush economy reminds me of; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZV2jvngnvqg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ehYkr0NhU I myself was one of among the chronically unemployed during George H. W. Bush's presidency. While Bush was busy wrecking the economy into shambles in early 1991, I was getting caught shoplifting a jar of Smuckers peanut butter from a Publix grocery store so I can have something to eat.
During hard economic times, I've never been the kind of person who asks for a hand-out...However, I am the kind who will ask for a chance to work.....Not a hand-out, just a chance...And during the months of late 1990 and early 1991, I never got that "chance".
Thanks. And that story wasn't just a story...unfortunately...It was actually one of the experiences I've witnesses from December of 1990...Of course there was no flying phonograph zooming by through the labour pool, LOL. It was a lot like pic #3.
Thanks. And that story wasn't just a story...unfortunately...It was actually one of the experiences
I worked until just before Labor Day last year. I had a week off and was preparing to go back the following Monday (I by then only had 1 (one)3-hr day a week). Then the prior Thursday I got this phone call, recorded on my answering machine. It said that due to budget CUTS, everybody's hours got cut, and I was -out of work. Haven't worked since. I saw the handwriting on the wall about a year before,so I wasn't totally surprized.
I am now 72 (less than a week to my birthday, and I see myself as 72 now.)and nobody hires peop at that age. But - I'm not complaining, just about Trump, the world situation, and Hawking predicting that man will be EXTINCT in a century. The last 2 times I was on unemployment, no responses came to my resumes. Not even acknowledgement of their receipt, Soon I just didn't bother...
I now collect SS and a pension from my last full-time job.
I worked until just before Labor Day last year. I had a week off and was preparing to go back the fo
