Recession // Current

A few of your Real Recovery college stories

This week, the Real Recovery is focusing on college graduates - recent, upcoming and... more

afitzgerald
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8 hours ago
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4 comments

San Francisco Chronicle Goes Glossy

With its circulation falling faster than any other major U.S. newspaper's, the San... more

ebindelglass
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15 hours ago
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0 comments

Bankrupt Batman

Gotham needs a bailout too..... http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/517289

happy3kmed
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1 day ago
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4 comments

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein: "I'm Doing God's Work."

Goldman's reputation is suddenly as toxic as the credit default swaps and other... more

atomiclegion
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2 days ago
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5 comments

Ford Unviels 2010 model: The 1993 Taurus!

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/ford_unveils_new_car_for_cash Each 1993... more

asherp
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3 days ago
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1 comment

Chopping Wood with a College Degree

College was always tough, as I had to pay my own way through. I never received more than the bare minimum of government loans, my parents made over 100000 dollars per year. So my loans just barely covered tuition...I had to pay for room and board. To do this I worked with mentally challenged people in a group home, which payed well for a college job. As rent increased and utility bills rose, it became harder to make ends meet. I began working 40 hours per week and going to school full time, needless to say my grades could have been higher. Several of my professors asked to speak to me outside of class because of my grades and low quality of work, many of them said it was unacceptable that I was working so much. My only reply was "how else can I pay to be here?"

Life was tough, but bills got paid and food could be bought. Typical college life really...donating plasma for a little extra money to go out on the weekends, eating lots of peanut butter sandwiches. But a just over two years ago, my car and my motorcycle broke down within two weeks of each other. I didn't have the money to fix my bike, and my car was shot.

I picked up two more jobs that summer. I walked a 1.5 miles to work at 5 every morning and worked in the group home until 8:15. I walked 2.5 miles to my second job, a tedious and menial inventory job at UNI. I worked from 9 to 2, then walked 3 miles to my job as a cook, at another group home. I cooked from 330-630, which was a hell of a deal, I got fed for free, and since I cooked dinner, there was always a little extra. After work, I walked another 1.5 miles, I usually arrived home at 7.

I put in 14 hour days for the summer, walking over 8 miles a day, mostly eating food from work. I learned to make high calorie foods for little money. I made biscuits from scratch and carried them around everywhere I went. I couldn't really afford condiments, so I ate them plain. I also made a chili like meal from cans of beans, tomatoes, corn, and rice. These ingredients were the cheapest foods that provided me the energy to get to and from work every day.

At the end of the summer I saved up a thousand dollars and got a car. The car was, and still is at this time, a pile of shit. I still didn't have money to fix it, I would either fix it myself on the side of the road, or I would do labor for a local mechanic, usually fixing his computer or making him food.

I moved late December, to student teach. I still didn't have much money, now I had a full time 'job' that didn't pay any money, and was taking night classes to graduate. I lived in my parents house, while they lived in Florida for the winter, so I didn't have to pay rent. The only way I paid for gas and the very little food I did eat was by donating plasma twice per week. Student teaching turned out to be more or less the same every day, kids complaining about lunch that I would have eaten in a heart beat and complaining about having too much homework. It got tiring very very quickly.

At the end of that spring, I had no money, no job, and was quite thin. Typical former college student. Due to tension between my parents and myself, which was nothing new, I had to find a new place to live...quickly. I ended up working at a 4h camp, off of a friends suggestion.

I had the summer of my life, ate my fill daily and worked very hard, as I was accustomed. During the summer I tried to apply for jobs as a teacher, but positions have been slashed, even here in Iowa.

So I find myself in my current situation, struggling to get jobs as a substitute teacher. Cleaning bathrooms and chopping wood with a college degree in biology education, but I get free rent and utilities. Donating plasma just isn't paying off the credit card I use to buy food and gas to get to schools. I can only hope more jobs are available soon... I'm not sure how much thinner I can stretch my budget and people are starting to comment about how baggy my cloths are.College was always tough, as I had to pay my own way through. I never received more... more

Jon_Cahill
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3 days ago
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Recession and the college graduate

It's been tumultuous for the economy in the half-week since we launched The Real... more

afitzgerald
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3 days ago
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10 comments

Kate Gosselin Interviews Herself

Conor Knighton takes a look at Kate's recent interview special as part of his weekly... more

Conor_Knighton
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4 days ago
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2 comments

Unemployment rate tops 10 percent

The unemployment rate has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983 - and is... more

ebindelglass
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4 days ago
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33 comments

Will Work For……….A Bloody Chance!

http://www.oneof365.com/will-work-for-a-bloody-chance/ The Blog Writer States:... more

jrn
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4 days ago
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0 comments

20 more weeks of unemployment

The Senate passed a bill yesterday to extend unemployment benefits for the jobless to... more

afitzgerald
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4 days ago
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10 comments

The Real Recovery - A Collaborative Investigation

We’re launching a big project today on Current News. And we’re going to need your... more

afitzgerald
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5 days ago
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8 comments

NY Atty Gen Files Antitrust Suit Against Intel

New York's attorney general has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Intel Corp.,... more

ebindelglass
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6 days ago
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1 comment

Retirement and the Recession | 2010 Economic Recovery?

Will the 2010 Economy give us a recovery from the most severe economic recession since... more

shapdawg
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7 days ago
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1 comment

Learn all about Recessions |Are we going to have a 2010 Economic Recovery?

http://www.erollover.com/blog/2010-Economic-Recession-Recovery

mikerowan
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8 days ago
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1 comment

CIT group files for bankruptcy protection

The bankruptcy of a key lender that helps retailers stock their shelves is adding to... more

ebindelglass
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8 days ago
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3 comments

Green Clean Institute, the janitorial business is no longer a mop and bucket project.

With greater demands for Green Clean Certification by government, schools, and public... more

3BLMedia
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8 days ago
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Obama's stimulus numbers look promising

FROM THE NEWS BLOG:
The Obama Administration has released its first broad report on jobs created or saved by the stimulus program. Focused on $150 billion in spending of the total $787 billion package, the report estimates that around 640,000 jobs have been created or saved nation-wide. The numbers are controversial, with Republicans already claiming that they're a bit to optimistic. But the actual impact of the stimulus dollars has proven difficult to nail down.

The Obama administration continued to maintain that the actual number of jobs created so far is closer to 1 million. The reports did not reflect measures such as tax cuts, boosted unemployment benefits or jobs created indirectly by stimulus spending. A total of $339 billion has been drawn down so far under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"Every dollar being spent from Recovery Act is helping put someone back to work," said Vice President Joe Biden, citing 80,000 construction jobs and 325,000 education positions created or saved by stimulus funds. "My message today is that we're on track."

Probably the best reporting on the subject out there comes from our friends at ProPublica who have been tracking the stimulus program all year.

We're keeping an eye on jobs and joblessness during the recession, so these numbers are definitely of interest to us. We've seen a few personal stories from users here on Current:
User diabolical44 writes:
"I graduated college with a Bachelors degree in May of 2008. The economy went to complete shit soon there after. Now , almost a year and a half later, I still have no job. I've worked here and there, waiting tables, delivering pizza, packing boxes in a warehouse, but no real job. No career to speak of. No sign of hope either."

Anyone out there gotten work thanks to the stimulus program? Tell us your story.

News Blog post: http://blogs.current.com/news/2009/10/30/obamas-stimulus-numbers-look-promising/
ProPublica's Stimulus coverage: http://www.propublica.org/ion/stimulus
The White House's stimulus page: http://www.recovery.gov/FROM THE NEWS BLOG: The Obama Administration has released its first broad report on... more