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I read this article in The Irish Times written by a guy who lost his job in January. It was hard to read his story without thinking that the guy should have gotten out the smelling salts a lot earlier and woken up to reality. It took losing his job for him to question whether heating his house was a luxury or not when everybody rich or poor should think about their energy use out of consideration for the environment as well as the financial impact. Of course buying books is a luxury for those on low incomes, that's why libraries are available in any country with a basic level of public service provision. The fact that he was able to spend €40 on the way home from work makes me wonder what habit the guy was fuelling.
He was working for a short time in a sales job, the function which is the most exposed to market fluctuations. How could he ever have felt secure in sales? It is an inherently insecure domain of work. To make matters worse he was in the red all over the place even before losing his job.
To me it sounds like his unemployed behaviour matches my high earning employed behaviour. Sure everybody can treat themselves to some luxuries when they can afford it, if your credit cards are maxed out you clearly cannot afford your lifestyle with or without a job.
Conservatives should be able to avoid asking for Clegg's help
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In the wake of the Observer’s Ipsos-Mori poll, which suggested that the
general election could result in a hung parliament, Nick Clegg has indicated
that, ...
3 hours ago
4 comments:
Yeah, I don't get the way people have been living on the never never over the last while. I tend to be prudent to the point of being a fairly poor consumer, but my wife makes up for that somewhat :-) Sometimes I blame my habits on being an engineer, as Dilbert's author put it, engineers are not actually stingey, they just view every purchase as an optimisation problem. That or the food in school prepared me for a life of doing without.
Well, my wife is Polish so she is even more parsimonious than I am, it's rare you meet a Polish person who doesn't shop around for the best deal. The only thing we spend a lot on as a family is holidays because travel really important for us. I spend more than most people on languages learning materials but it is nothing compared to the luxuries other people seem to enjoy as if they were born to it.
I don't know why we think like we do but I don't think its our schooling. Where did Ireland's Dear Leader go to school and which party was responsible for the irrational excess of the last decade in Ireland?
Ha! Fair point. No, I was being tongue in cheek about the food in school. I would guess (in my case) it comes from my up-bringing at home.
Mmmmm Holidays, I must book ours soon.
I suppose he was complacent about his lifestyle because as he said he had never been out of work and didn't seriously expect to be. Though at his age, he might well have come up against ageism sooner or later. At least he's doing something positive about his situation by writing a book about it and starting the Job Seekers Union, which sounds like a brilliant idea. Job seekers in the UK complain all the time about how little help they get from the government job centres.
If nothing else, his sacking has prompted him to think a bit more about the realities of life for other people and puncture the amazing naivety.
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