The recession, benefits, the safety net, and the learning curve

lostinrates

PasturesNew wrote: »

My friend just told me he's been laid off, in the US. He rents a 1-bed apartment and will now get 6 months' half pay, then absolutely nothing. The thing is, half his pay = his rent. So instantly nothing to live on. Mid-50s, nothing special about his skills/experience, I think it might be the end if he doesn't get something within that 6 months. He was about 4 hours from ending it all when I resurrected him last time. Poor sod.

What the hell do I do/say? I'm not a good people person, but I DO care.

What area of work? Anything along the lines of what you do that he can do?

fc123

PasturesNew wrote: »

Max has not yet shared with us what he did in his previous life.

I think it's time he did...

He mentioned it once before.

lostinrates

fc123 wrote: »

BTW Has anyone done the extra buttons yet? What happens if I click 'Like It'.

I think if it gets enough like its than it goes to a fron page of top posts ATM. I did read it...but....you know, got a bit bored. For me I would have considered something that appeared a lot of the latest posts/new posts list was a sort of mode snapshot of what was popular in any given second

lostinrates

fc123 wrote: »

He mentioned it once before.

I thought it was retail of some sort? High end retail Max?

SingleSue

Max_Headroom wrote: »

Aww that's so sweet, thank you.

I'd love to do it too, but I seem to lack the right idea and capital.

I guess I just want a well paid job and to start cracking on with life again, at the moment I feel like I'm just tearing pages out of life's diary and screwing them up and throwing them away...

Oh I know that feeling oh so well.....

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

What area of work? Anything along the lines of what you do that he can do?

Just basic office admin, non specific. He doesn't have the mindset or discipline to do what I do, but he has taken thousands of photos and has a big following in Flickr. I've been trying to convince him for 2-3 years to upload them to stock libraries ... I think this time he just might.

And talking of discipline, even I've not been doing "what I do", so June saw another 8% drop in income for me... I should do something.

I had this big idea about 2 months ago, got a fistful of domains for it. I must start that this weekend - need to invest some actual hard cash this time though. Speculative investment ... oh well, it will reduce my tax bill

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

I thought it was retail of some sort? High end retail Max?

Pick N Mix Manager at Woolies?

harryhound

Have a look at the headings to this amazing "viral" thread and I think it will demonstrate what becomes of the "like it" button.
I've a nasty feeling the new pink coloured "expired" button is to close down and clear away the old but still useful threads.
(So we can have thousands more newbies asking the question that has been answered a thousand times before and not be able to link back to the old discussion.)

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=22995339#post22995339

Phirefly

fc123 wrote: »

I posted up Susie Bubbles site only as an example because it doesn't matter if it's badly written or the content isn't liked.
Her Blog is just a reflection of herself, tastes and interests that she posts up.
Then others that share her interests or taste etc read it and it grew from there. I have no idea of her income from the site. Her About Me is a nice read..well I liked it.

Just that she started it from just a hobby...

Student work looked like that 26 years ago too..may have been guilty myself.;)

Max's Big Jobseeking Adventure could attract a following (with right keywords like job seeking and recession)...you could even end up with ads from Adecco or even The Job Centre..as they try to 'get in with the Blog world'. Thta's PN's speshiality.

Sorry for being so negative, its been a heavy week and I took it out on the blogger.

Completely agree with you though. The likes of You and Max and I sometimes lose sight of the fact that we can do something well that not everyone else can - creative talents come naturally and we forget that there's not many people who can write compelling prose or design great fashion.

I couldn't agree with you more that Max could turn his writing into a living and a good place to start is with a blog.

I can imagine Max's super-relevant and contemporary tales of recession and unemployment from the hither-to untold viewpoint of the educated, qualified and intelligent being compelling stuff as they have proved to be here in this thread. 39 pages and very little argumentative content that usually makes up the bulk of popular threads - the evidence is clear.

If you didn't see Danny Wallace on BBC Breakfast, Max, iplayer it. Now his books are screenplays he's set for life, and his skills aren't such a huge leap from your own. Be inspired, Max.

LydiaJ

harryhound wrote: »

Have a look at the headings to this amazing "viral" thread and I think it will demonstrate what becomes of the "like it" button.
I've a nasty feeling the new pink coloured "expired" button is to close down and clear away the old but still useful threads.
(So we can have thousands more newbies asking the question that has been answered a thousand times before and not be able to link back to the old discussion.)

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=22995339#post22995339

The "expired" button isn't appearing for me when I'm reading this forum, but it does when I look on the offers forum. I don't think it's for threads that are just old. It's for threads about special offers that aren't available any more. It seems sensible to me.