Oh no...it'll never happen?

[jms62]

Originally Posted by Nascar1966

I earned my pension by giving up 20 years of my life for this country? Maybe this country should go to a draft or make people after high school join the military like they do in other countries. Im sure if there was a draft you would have draft dodgers.

Please, we are a bit too smart to fall for this patriotic bullshi<t. You gave up 20 years of your life because it was a career path you chose. Let's call a spade a spade here. By your postings here we can go all in at 1 to 10 that college was never a realistic option. The military however was a choice where unless you totally fuc<k up will continue to pay a salary and provide an obscene retirement. Your job wasn't going to get outsourced or eliminated due to downsizing regardless of how well you performed in it. It was a very safe choice. So you post on here about all "worthless" folks collecting unemploymemt. Some of these folks have paid their SUI for 20-30 years but they are considered "worthless" to you because they won't take a minimum wage job to replace their 6 figure salary and instead continue to search. You continually complain about our debt yet find no problem whatsoever with governement pensions... You find no problem with someone who serves in the military for 20 years and collects 50% of their last paycheck for the next 45 years. You are exactly what is wrong with the country. Unwilling to see anything outside of their circumstances. I got mine fuc>k everyone else.

[Princess Doreen]

Originally Posted by jms62

Please, we are a bit too smart to fall for this patriotic bullshi<t. You gave up 20 years of your life because it was a career path you chose. Let's call a spade a spade here. By your postings here we can go all in at 1 to 10 that college was never a realistic option. The military however was a choice where unless you totally fuc<k up will continue to pay a salary and provide an obscene retirement. Your job wasn't going to get outsourced or eliminated due to downsizing regardless of how well you performed in it. It was a very safe choice. So you post on here about all "worthless" folks collecting unemploymemt. Some of these folks have paid their SUI for 20-30 years but they are considered "worthless" to you because they won't take a minimum wage job to replace their 6 figure salary and instead continue to search. You continually complain about our debt yet find no problem whatsoever with governement pensions... You find no problem with someone who serves in the military for 20 years and collects 50% of their last paycheck for the next 45 years. You are exactly what is wrong with the country. Unwilling to see anything outside of their circumstances. I got mine fuc>k everyone else.

I, too, raised an eyebrow about Nascar's remark "I gave up 20 years of my life". As you say, the military is a choice - it's not a sentence. However, the one thing you fail to take into consideration is that those who choose to serve in the military run the risk of getting nothing, as they stand a chance of getting killed in combat.

Not meaning for this to be about ME as I am so often accused - I'm just offering facts and figures, based on personal experience.

My husband served 4-1/2 years active duty in the USMC - two tours in Nam. His top pay as an E/4 over 4 (years) was $412/month. Hardly anything to get rich on - even back then. He then went into the Reserves and served for 22 years - one weekend a month and 2 weeks in the Summer in Panama; eventually back in the USA. Twice during his reserve duty, he was called back to active duty. His employers had his job waiting for him upon his return, but he didn't get paid by them while he was gone, and the amount of money the government paid him while he served active duty was about 1/3 of his regular wages. His top yearly income in the Reserves was $4,800 with a bit more for the two years in which he was called back to active duty.

His retirement income now is $574/month - and he doesn't have to pay for supplement insurance to Medicare which would cost us about $350/month if we had to buy supplement insurance on our own. However, we still have to pay for Medicare benefits.

If anyone wants to call those benefits obscene for putting in 26-1/2 years service with the military, sobeit. If anyone wants to say he doesn't deserve what he earned, sobeit.

If you say people who paid into unemployment deserve unemployment benefits, then the same holds true for people who paid into social security, medicare, and served in the military. They are not entitlements.

With regard to unemployment, I'd say that anyone searching for a job for xx number of months without success should consider retraining for another type career. And, sometimes taking a job at lesser pay and proving your worth to your employer with past experience and knowledge that you're bringing to the plate is a good shot at quick advancement and a higher salary. 75% of success in the workplace is just showing up.

A local used car dealership had a sign up for a number of weeks - "Car detailer wanted - $20/hour - will train." Our friend's son was on unemployment and supposedly looking for work, and we told him about it. His response - "That's hard labor. I still have a lot of time left on unemployment." He's 20-years old and collecting less than $200 wk, living home with mom and dad and not paying a nickle toward his keep. Parents may be pretty much to blame for his selfish/shiftless attitude. Not saying this is the norm for people on unemployment, but when people hear responses like this - it's bound to get them riled.

[jms62]

Originally Posted by Princess Doreen

I, too, raised an eyebrow about Nascar's remark "I gave up 20 years of my life". As you say, the military is a choice - it's not a sentence. However, the one thing you fail to take into consideration is that those who choose to serve in the military run the risk of getting nothing, as they stand a chance of getting killed in combat.

Not meaning for this to be about ME as I am so often accused - I'm just offering facts and figures, based on personal experience.

My husband served 4-1/2 years active duty in the USMC - two tours in Nam. His top pay as an E/4 over 4 (years) was $412/month. Hardly anything to get rich on - even back then. He then went into the Reserves and served for 22 years - one weekend a month and 2 weeks in the Summer in Panama; eventually back in the USA. Twice during his reserve duty, he was called back to active duty. His employers had his job waiting for him upon his return, but he didn't get paid by them while he was gone, and the amount of money the government paid him while he served active duty was about 1/3 of his regular wages. His top yearly income in the Reserves was $4,800 with a bit more for the two years in which he was called back to active duty.

His retirement income now is $574/month - and he doesn't have to pay for supplement insurance to Medicare which would cost us about $350/month if we had to buy supplement insurance on our own. However, we still have to pay for Medicare benefits.

If anyone wants to call those benefits obscene for putting in 26-1/2 years service with the military, sobeit. If anyone wants to say he doesn't deserve what he earned, sobeit.

If you say people who paid into unemployment deserve unemployment benefits, then the same holds true for people who paid into social security, medicare, and served in the military. They are not entitlements.

With regard to unemployment, I'd say that anyone searching for a job for xx number of months without success should consider retraining for another type career. And, sometimes taking a job at lesser pay and proving your worth to your employer with past experience and knowledge that you're bringing to the plate is a good shot at quick advancement and a higher salary. 75% of success in the workplace is just showing up.

A local used car dealership had a sign up for a number of weeks - "Car detailer wanted - $20/hour - will train." Our friend's son was on unemployment and supposedly looking for work, and we told him about it. His response - "That's hard labor. I still have a lot of time left on unemployment." He's 20-years old and collecting less than $200 wk, living home with mom and dad and not paying a nickle toward his keep. Parents may be pretty much to blame for his selfish/shiftless attitude. Not saying this is the norm for people on unemployment, but when people hear responses like this - it's bound to get them riled.

You are obviously retired.. Train for what job??

[Princess Doreen]

Originally Posted by jms62

You are obviously retired.. Train for what job??

When I was in the work force, I had to retrain for a job when the company I worked for went out of business. I didn't have/need heavy computer skills in the job I had, but if I wanted a job elsewhere, I had to train to get those skills.

If someone feels they have all the skills necessary and they don't need any more education/training and don't want to pursue another career, I feel bad for them in their job search. But sooner or later unemployment benefits are going to run out. What are the choices then? Take a lesser paying job or go on welfare?

[jms62]

Originally Posted by Princess Doreen

When I was in the work force, I had to retrain for a job when the company I worked for went out of business. I didn't have/need heavy computer skills in the job I had, but if I wanted a job elsewhere, I had to train to get those skills.

If someone feels they have all the skills necessary and they don't need any more education/training and don't want to pursue another career, I feel bad for them in their job search. But sooner or later unemployment benefits are going to run out. What are the choices then? Take a lesser paying job or go on welfare?

Different era Princess... You can train all you want but the fact of the matter is that the jobs are being sent to countries paying slave wages. This is BOTH blue collar and WHITE Collar. Can I recommend the following http://www.amazon.com/Race-Bottom-Wo...3818672&sr=8-1

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Princess Doreen

What are the choices then? Take a lesser paying job or go on welfare?

There are not enough of even "lesser paying" jobs right now for the number of unemployed we have times five, even if every single one of them was willing to wash cars or work the midnight shift at McDonalds.

Retraining is expensive and takes time. If you are an unemployed systems analyst making $80K/year, retraining as a licensed insurance salesmen is an option, sure. A CPA? Or you could work as a car detailer I suppose.

We've lost the large manufacturing base we used to have in this country, jobs that paid a wage where someone could support their family. In the northeast corridor you could graduate high school and go to work at the factory, and you knew you could work there for life, and advance if you were sharp.

We've lost that, and although we should be replacing that with growing or innovative tech industry-oriented jobs (think computers, green energy, etc), we in the US dig in our heels and don't seem eager to embrace such.

Meanwhile we continue to fall off educationally, taking us further out of science/research/medicine type fields internationally.

Seems the USA's fastest-growing and most thriving industry right now might be the cooking, serving, and eating of fast junk food. (Edit: which is why the healthcare industry is about 1/5 of our economy)

[Princess Doreen]

Originally Posted by Riot

There are not enough of even "lesser paying" jobs right now for the number of unemployed we have times five, even if every single one of them was willing to wash cars or work the midnight shift at McDonalds.

Retraining is expensive and takes time. If you are an unemployed systems analyst making $80K/year, retraining as a licensed insurance salesmen is an option, sure. A CPA? Or you could work as a car detailer I suppose.

We've lost the large manufacturing base we used to have in this country, jobs that paid a wage where someone could support their family. In the northeast corridor you could graduate high school and go to work at the factory, and you knew you could work there for life, and advance if you were sharp.

We've lost that, and although we should be replacing that with growing or innovative tech industry-oriented jobs (think computers, green energy, etc), we in the US dig in our heels and don't seem eager to embrace such.

Meanwhile we continue to fall off educationally, taking us further out of science/research/medicine type fields internationally.

Seems the USA's fastest-growing and most thriving industry right now might be the cooking, serving, and eating of fast junk food.

I don't disagree with most of what you are saying. I know it's not going to set well with you, and you'll say it's all Bush's fault - but I just wonder when all this Hope/Change thing is going to start kicking in.

[jms62]

Originally Posted by Princess Doreen

I don't disagree with most of what you are saying. I know it's not going to set well with you, and you'll say it's all Bush's fault - but I just wonder when all this Hope/Change thing is going to start kicking in.

It is Greed that has destroyed our country and the lobbyists that prevent government of doing anything to change it.

[Riot]

Originally Posted by Princess Doreen

I don't disagree with most of what you are saying. I know it's not going to set well with you, and you'll say it's all Bush's fault - but I just wonder when all this Hope/Change thing is going to start kicking in.

Actually I blame Clinton for initiating some pretty serious financial deregulation, the repercussions we see now. I agree Obama has to be more aggressive on the job front.

American wages have been stagnating for years, so Americans have spent the past 15 years feeding their consumerism via bad second mortgages on their homes. Now those homes have lost value so they can't borrow against it, neither can they pay back what they owe. Folks can no longer borrow against their home values to get money to feed their consumerism - whoops, our economy.

As jms points out, what's here isn't even American made any more. Go into a Target or WalMart, etc. Food is about the only thing in there made in the USA. American workers need real jobs (manufacturing, technology, etc) not fake jobs making money off of money, or in service industries.

[Nascar1966]

Originally Posted by Princess Doreen

I don't disagree with most of what you are saying. I know it's not going to set well with you, and you'll say it's all Bush's fault - but I just wonder when all this Hope/Change thing is going to start kicking in.

Im also wondering when it also will kick in. Blame it on Bush. Typical Democrat excuse.

[jms62]

Originally Posted by Riot

There are not enough of even "lesser paying" jobs right now for the number of unemployed we have times five, even if every single one of them was willing to wash cars or work the midnight shift at McDonalds.

Retraining is expensive and takes time. If you are an unemployed systems analyst making $80K/year, retraining as a licensed insurance salesmen is an option, sure. A CPA? Or you could work as a car detailer I suppose.

We've lost the large manufacturing base we used to have in this country, jobs that paid a wage where someone could support their family. In the northeast corridor you could graduate high school and go to work at the factory, and you knew you could work there for life, and advance if you were sharp.

We've lost that, and although we should be replacing that with growing or innovative tech industry-oriented jobs (think computers, green energy, etc), we in the US dig in our heels and don't seem eager to embrace such.Meanwhile we continue to fall off educationally, taking us further out of science/research/medicine type fields internationally.

Seems the USA's fastest-growing and most thriving industry right now might be the cooking, serving, and eating of fast junk food.

These jobs will also be shipped out of the country with the exception of Sales and upper management positions.

[Nascar1966]

Originally Posted by jms62

Please, we are a bit too smart to fall for this patriotic bullshi<t. You gave up 20 years of your life because it was a career path you chose. Let's call a spade a spade here. By your postings here we can go all in at 1 to 10 that college was never a realistic option. The military however was a choice where unless you totally fuc<k up will continue to pay a salary and provide an obscene retirement. Your job wasn't going to get outsourced or eliminated due to downsizing regardless of how well you performed in it. It was a very safe choice. So you post on here about all "worthless" folks collecting unemploymemt. Some of these folks have paid their SUI for 20-30 years but they are considered "worthless" to you because they won't take a minimum wage job to replace their 6 figure salary and instead continue to search. You continually complain about our debt yet find no problem whatsoever with governement pensions... You find no problem with someone who serves in the military for 20 years and collects 50% of their last paycheck for the next 45 years. You are exactly what is wrong with the country. Unwilling to see anything outside of their circumstances. I got mine fuc>k everyone else.

I wanted to go to college and couldn't afford the money to pay for it. I was told my Dad made too much money to get any financial aid. I wasn't going to stay at home and live off of my parents like other people like to do. As far as worthless unemployed people go time after time I have said they are the one's who are collecting that freebie while they are not pursuing a job. I did like the fact that I also had job security while in the military. No I don't have a problem collecting my pension. I EARNED IT!!!!!!!!! Be jealous at me that I collect a pension. I could give a F less about it. Between collecting my pension and work I can provide a decent living for my family, who come first. Why should I really care about anyone else? If I was too lose my job is anyone going to help me out? Is anyone going to help me with the cost of putting my son through college? No one is going to help me provide for myself and my family, so why should I care about the other person.