The zero-sum game of life in America.....

[marmar]

You go to college for at least four years, usually accumulating multiple thousands of dollars in debt, to land a job to begin paying it back.
Then it's on to a corporation, which you hope will offer a good pension and health care program, and you hope will not lay you off, go out of business or dump your pension in a bankruptcy filing. Of course there's always the 401K option, on which you stake your retirement future on the whims of the market.
You work at least 40 hours a week, looking forward to a short weekend that's often dominated by chores and more work. But of course there are those 10-20 days of vacation (for many of us, anyway) that you get each year.
As you're paying off your student debt, you're accumulating new debt - houses, cars, credit cards etc etc. And more than likely, you've experienced a job change, layoff, pay cut or some other interruption along the way, causing a temporary setback.
And if everything goes reasonably well during your 40-plus years of work, you can hopefully enjoy the last 10-15 years of life in relative comfort, unless of course you have multiple prescriptions that Medicare doesn't fully cover.
And of course, all of this can be wrecked by a Presidential administration of craven Neocons, seemingly determined to wreck government, loot the Treasury and outsource every job that doesn't involve ringing up a cash register or serving a burger.


Do you ever wonder, "What's the point of it all?" :shrug:

(Apologies fellow DUers: I'm having a Gen-X "What's the meaning of life?" moment)

[Horse with no Name]

1. Makes you wonder since so many are ending up at McD's

with tons of debt--why not just start there?

[lovuian]

2. Its not a great way to live ... you would have thought

we would have progressed not degress

[Snarkoleptic]

3. Europeans think we're batshit crazy...

they have a holiday every time the wind changes direction.
My wife used to work for a big German company and the transplanted Germans were stunned at the sheeple work deathmarch.
They had soooo many holidays, that there was actually one for spring cleaning.
Mebbe I'm just bitter because I work in the mortgage industry and it sucks more than ever right now.

[tom_paine]

7. Imperial Amerika IS insane, it has been driven so in a calculating manner

over the course of three decades.

This is identical, in a larger sense, to what the nazis did to Germany: drive them insane for personal gain (hey, that rhymes).

As then, it has worked amazingly well and, in spite of the pathetic machinations of the two branches of government in Amerika which barely exist as independent entities, will probbaly continue to work, even if a Democrat is briefly allowed to aaume the Throne of Amerika, which I seriously doubt.

[bleedingheart]

12. I have worked with a number of Europeans, Aussies and S. Africans

they all think we are nuts.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

4. Free advice from an older person:

Find out what your values are and what is important to YOU.
Do what you want to do that makes you happy in accordance with your highest values and goals.

You don't have to be a corporate drone. Nowadays they have killed the middle class. I once too thought that college and graduate school would make me a desirable employee. Wrong!!!!
And this was before everybody and his dog owed thousands of dollars in student loans. I managed to pay for graduate school myself thru my job, and my folks paid for college. It was much cheaper then.

Find out what your values are and what is important to YOU.
Figure out how to do what you want to do to accomplish your goals. Success is not measured in dollars, even though in America it seems like we should all work ourselves to death to make money.

Do some self introspection and make some lists. Loving and being loved, making a difference in other peoples' lives and your own, and meeting interesting people and exchanging ideas, and expressing myself as a creative musician, actress and artist do it for me. And even growing flowers and enjoying the satisfaction of watching them bloom, thanks to my tender loving care.

How do you make something meaningful? You say to yourself "This is meaningful to me."

GOOD LUCK!!!!

[JCMach1]

6. You can also drop out of the country... I moved to the booming UAE

When an excellent job offer brought me here...

I work about 8 months out of the year now... make more money than I ever did before... I don't pay rent, utilities, or taxes (including US up to $97,000) and I am still paying in to Social Security because my University is incorporated in the United States...

Oh yeah, and FREE health care too...

So, don't be afraid to make a BIG change. It can pay off.

[raccoon]

10. Well said!

"I once too thought that college and graduate school would make me a desirable employee. Wrong!!!!"

I had a similar experience.

I never even thought about age discrimination until I ran slam into it.

[JCMach1]

13. I faced similar discrimination on the different end-- working in a University Environment,

people tended to hire people who looked like them. That usually didn't include the freshly degreed 30 something just starting out. I had to pay a lot of dues... including a tour of duty in W's hometown of Midland, TX... No offense to TX, but this is one of the armpits of the Universe

[Virginian]

5. Not only outsourcing, h-1b, too.

That's where you get to compete for jobs against people from countries where education is free. If you are lucky, you work side by side with someone who is doing so much better than you because he started out free of debt.

If you aren't so lucky, you're flipping burgers with that degree.

[porphyrian]

8. We need to break the cycle.

As long as we participate, we will continue to be used as disposable tools for others' profits. Trade can be fair, it doesn't have to be predatory. I, for one, am sick of being used up for people who don't give a shit about me except for how I can make them more wealthy, and I don't think I'm going to do it any more.

[InkAddict]

9. You've been lucky if you've experienced just one.

"And more than likely, you've experienced A job change, layoff, pay cut or some other interruption along the way, causing a temporary setback."

Probably more like a dozen!

[sendero]

11. If I were starting out today....

... and know what I know now, I'd not waste time with the college bit at all.

Because now, even with a degree, you are competing with every tom, dick and harriett everywhere in the world, with people who got their education for a pittance but will work for one as well.

I have a son who will graduate from HS next summer and who plans to get into a top-tier college. I think it is a mistake but I have not been able to convince him - and so I will support his decision and wish him success. But I have no illusions that success will be guaranteed.

[Javaman]

14. Want the meaning of life? here it is...

your born, you die and you do as much interesting stuff in between so the the wait until you die isn't filled with boredom.