Second global recession is coming

Anytime I happen to be in a fast food joint and see a "Now Hiring" sign its always claiming something like $8.00-$8.50 an hour.

Of course, everytime I see these signs I also pause and wonder about "jobless people". I agree with the general sentiment here, there's always going to be SOME job you can do, be it manual labor, flipping burgers, or working at Wal-Mart. I remember when I lost my nice $15/hour job a few years back. After a few months I just sucked it up and went to work at *shudder* Gamestop for awhile. Then I got back on my feet, got a better job, and got on FASFA for my college stuff.

Of course, I did quit both jobs for a little over a semester and just lived off of selling my Saturn collection for awhile... :crying:

 

OK, there's no way I can't comment on this...do you have any translation-related education or anything? Because maybe the standards in Mexico are just lower or something, but it's almost guaranteed that any unqualified person's translations will suck. It's not as easy as it seems.

 

oh, I have no skills whatsoever and I'm severely underqualified in my shitty third world country. Only such a country with low standards would hire an incompetent such as myself, with only a masters degree in literature and a communications degree from the best university in Mexico.

I am sure I would only be good enough for manual labour in your academic utopia of a country. Sheesh.

I'm telling you, mate, because I HAVE DONE IT. I did go to an all-english high school and both my master program and college program are related to writing, so I consider it quite easy.

I am, after all, a published translator, and no, I'm no pro at translating. But you get good money for it if you're good and fluent.

 

Not to brag or anything, 7force, but I dug out the review of the translation I worked on.


Ni chicha, ni limonada
Unger, David.
tr. by Hector Ortiz & others. Guatemala: F & G. 2009. 212p. ISBN 978-99939-84-02-3. pap. $20.95. STORIES
Set in either Guatemala or Florida, these stories follow the sons of a Guatemalan Jewish family in the United States. The first tale describes the family’s migration to this country, setting the tone for the rest of the book. Told in third person, Unger’s (Life in the Damn Tropics, Univ. of Wisconsin Pr.) stories delve into a child’s mind, helping us empathize with the character's feelings. For instance, in "Canillas de leche," when Danny and Henry step out to buy their favorite treat while their grandparents are taking a nap, Danny is beaten up by a group of homeless kids. And in "Shabbat Shalom," the brothers decide to spend their stipend gambling at the fair during Shabbat, the sacred day for Jews, and must later face the consequences. Unger effectively illustrates with humor and candor what it is like to grow up in two different countries (Danny and Henry spend vacations in their native land with their grandparents) and to be Jewish in Guatemala, a predominantly Catholic nation. Also included is a brief chronicle of the author's encounter with Nobel laureate Gabriel García Márquez. It is easy to forget that each piece was originally written in English; the translations are impeccable. Full of nostalgia and charm—and likely inspired by Unger’s own recollections—these stories will surely stir up readers’ own childhood memories. Highly recommended for libraries and bookstores, especially those serving migrant communities.—María Elena Cruz, Boston, MA

(Yes, my real name is Hector Ortiz)

 

Even if it might be only a dream, have you considered trying to immigrate to a country where your education would actually net you some real-world benefits? I mean, you should be getting paid a whole lot more for what you have.

 

I always thought of that... but my family is here, and my sister and I take care of my mom. Maybe, I could go teach Spanish somewhere and send them cash, but I want to be with them. Who knows what the future brings, though.

 

(Yeah, I was being too harsh in my post too, because I was drunk...note to self, don't post drunk)

Well...if you've got a master's in literature, that pretty much makes you qualified in my opinion, even if it's not strictly translation-related (and it's not like most translations are done by people who strictly study translation anyway). It would probably be way harder for people without your education to get translation jobs unless they were somehow naturally talented or something.

 

Hopefully without any banks involved? I think we had enough of those, at least the privately owned ones disguised as "government banks" printing more (or less) money than they should.


BTW:

I can recommend this old video, still very true today:

"The Money Masters"
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936

It's over three hours, but educational.

 

So far, I've been in Germany for four and a half weeks, and I have to agree with assembler. Although some places are harder hit economically than others, the economy seems to be flourishing more than in America. In fact, it seems a lot better. We've been from the southeast, to the north east, to the north west, to currently, the south west. It seems like the hardest hit areas are places like Altenburg, in eastern Germany, where they were once soviet. It seemed to be the city with the most unemployment, from the people I talked to. When I stayed in Hamburg, they said that the port kept the economy thriving there. Here in Achern, there are tons of small shops, with people always buying, so I think the economy is a bit better than the US, but not by much, from the regions Ive been in at least, and some of the places arent even considered towns.

Overall, it seems like the euro is rising in value, compared to the USD.. When I first started this trip, the euro was valued at 1.19€ per dollar. As of last night, it is now 1.26€ per dollar. I wish I could just stay here, but I only have one more week left..

 

erm... 1.19 to 1.26 vs 1 usd would be a fall in value wouldn't it?

 

Must be nice to be you... Single with no depends to care for, But basically what you said takes money to do not to mention the fact you will have to try and make better lower prices to where people are more inclined to slide over to your shop for their needs. Here I do excatly all that your doing minus the eBay part cuz that's just gay they will ream and screw you for fees and so on via PayPal, and listing fees and "end of auction" fees etc..

I don't want them gettin a slice of my money even if it's just a bit I don't care I need all I can get! I've resorted to craiglist & golsn.com to do my listings cuz they're free and I get to keep selling my electronics and offer services for console modifications, but oh boy the first few weeks I started offering these services on golsn, I could see quite a bunch of nerds start offering the excate same types of services hell I've even seen a handful of them selling my modded units I've sold to them at a price even more than what they bought it for...

A lot of my business comes from computer repair work cuz I charge dirt cheap to where they don't even bother taking it out to the shop out in town but to ME, I even have a "No Fix no Pay" motto. It's ridiculous I have to jump way under the price these computer shops have setup ie. 45. for virus removal so I go down to 25. for removal of virus and any KIND of work at all! Plus parts if any is needed! Now that's pretty damn cheap.

Unemployment is not just for "older people" Belive me you'd think by now all these oldie jobs would be obsolete by now but realistically they're not... There's still a handful of companies thur out the US that stick to the old methods and just don't want to change or upgrade to a techy status in their company even tho it'd IMPROVE a lot of things and processes, and even maybe increase workforce! But naw they just refuse to change. Some places are just so scared of change I guess!

But I guess your just a nub and just getting started.... Trust me it's not that easy ;-) Unless you've got loads of money and all these chinese imports don't break or eff up your clients setups! I make sure my shit I work on is in solid condition and working as expected. I don't just rush around and plop on imported Chinese parts and then expect it to work and call up the client to come out and pick er up! I take my time I test run the units for a night or so to ensure the issue is GONE. As I want them to come back over and over for their future needs!

So True!

 

Nope, Euro is becoming more expensive than the dollar, therefore, the dollar is decreasing in value, and the euro is increasing.

 

Stop and think about what he said. If before 1.19 Euros would buy you a dollar, and now you have to pay 1.26 Euros for a dollar, the Euro has lost value.

 

The thing is, fifteen years ago one could live on $10 an hour. Nowadays there's no way, not even one person could survive on that. I don't know what rent is where you lived in Texas but here in Los Angeles I'd be living out of my car for that amount of money. I probably wouldn't even be able to afford a car. But shitty part is that job you mention you had way back then, there's a very good chance that today it still pays ten bucks an hour.

Yeah my first job was busing tables for $4.25 plus tips. That was shitty then, no one could live on it. Today min. wage in California is $8 an hour, and guess what? No one can live on that today either. Wages have not kept up with inflation. I don't disagree with you, it is possible to survive on small wages (lord knows I've done it enough.) But I'm just saying someone faced with the option of working his ass off at Taco Bell and still not being able to pay his bills vs. going on government assistance, I don't blame them for taking the assistance.

 

He means the other way around...1 Euro used to be 1.19 USD, now it's about 1.25.

 

Dude, California is supposed to be one of the most expensive states to live in. Of course no one in Los Angeles can live off of $10 an hour. I doubt anyone in California could live off of $10 an hour.

But if you live in say, Missouri or in a southern state. living off of $10 an hour isn't such a big deal.

 

Yeah, you're basing your assumption off of life in LA. While I know a lot of people live there, most don't. I agree w/ what your'e saying though. Texas minimum wage seems to be $7.25/hr now. Rent in Texas is substantially cheaper than Cali so I'm going to guess life would be far easier in Texas. Still no picnic, but hey.

I don't blame them either. I blame them for bitching about there not being work. Call a spade a spade. It's just work that person won't do.

 

Something tells me that a minimum wage, part time job in Texas or Missouri isn't going to pay the bills either. How much cheaper is it to live in Texas? When I made $7.25 back in the day an average paycheck came out to around $425 or so every two weeks (after taxes.) Is it really possible to survive with that little? Because if it is, then shit...

 

After doing a quick search I was able to find apartments in St. Louis for as low as $420/month.


Here in Huntsville, AL I actually live in the good neighborhood and live in a 2-bedroom upstairs apartment with a hot tub and I pay a whopping $590/month for it.

So at the original $10/hour assuming 40 hours a week and assigning 4 weeks to every month (low estimate) thats $1600 a month. More than enough for the aforementioned apartments + utilities + internet + taxes + food/transportation + whatever else thats reasonable.

Hell, even at $7.25 and with your estimate its $850 a month for full time work (or two jobs). Its a tight squeeze sure, but you can easily live off of it.

 

A *LOT*. One of my old bosses at Bank of America got an expat package when he moved to Tokyo. They give you a housing adjustment in your pay, no questions asked. Problem is, they adjust it off the nationwide cost, not the local, or even state-wide. He said on their scale, what he was paying in Texas was about half of the average of the US.

Another thing that most white people are going to be afraid of:
1) Overtime
2) A side job

I do both (and did even in the good economy) so for people that have been finishing work at 5PM for most of their life, I can only say boo-fucking-hoo. I've cranked it up to sick hours, but on corporate level and personal, you have to diversify to change w/ the times -- that takes time. Lots of it. If there's ever a time to suck it up and dig deep, this is it.