Did you know that being unemployed indefinitely is acceptable, joyful, and even cool?
Barack Obama has been president for a month. Despite all the promises of hope and change, Americans seem to be not very hopeful about the near future. Despite his promise to fix the economy with this shotgun trillion dollar Generational Theft bill, the stock market and economy overall are continuing to tank. And, despite his promise to create or save “7 to 9 million” jobs, unemployment is rising and rising.
But have no fear: The liberal mainstream media are here!
This piece by Jenn Abelson at the Boston Globe has to go up there with that McClatchy article about how Iraqi gravediggers were losing work because fewer people were getting killed over there.
It begins:
For now, laid off and loving it
Some are finding respite in a life without work
By Jenn Abelson
Globe Staff / February 23, 2009
A few days after David Adler’s wife decided to leave her law firm in December, he was laid off from his job designing software at Brightcove.
It was shocking. And scary.
Until it wasn’t. Adler has quickly learned to appreciate some aspects of his unexpected unemployment.
The 42-year-old spends his days doting on his 6-month-old daughter, visiting museums with his family, and preparing for a possible exhibit of his photos at a local coffee shop in Dedham. Living off savings, unemployment, and severance packages, Adler knows he has to get a job eventually and has started the search. But for now, he’s cherishing every moment. “It’s our first child and I love watching her grow,” Adler said. “And it’s nice to have time off and get in touch with my old hobbies.”
As the ranks of the nation’s unemployed grows, more Americans are facing the reality of life without work. Despite the grim task of making ends meet (firing the nanny [yes, folks, you read that right: firing the nanny! I guess that means Obama has caused the losing of two jobs: This schlub and their nanny.], bailing on Whole Foods, applying for unemployment), there is a newly forming society of people who are making the best of being laid off. They are rediscovering hobbies. They are greeting kids at the school bus. They are remembering what daylight actually looks like.
And the massive layoffs by companies nationwide—nearly 600,000 jobs were lost last month—has helped remove the stigma and shame of being unemployed, according to John A. Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago outplacement firm.
“There’s less of a ‘why aren’t you working attitude’ that is giving people some extra space and freedom to explore new directions and just take time off to do the things they’ve wanted to do, whether it’s spending more time with children, taking a class, or traveling around the world,” Challenger said.
John Stephen Dwyer so far isn’t missing his job or former office overlooking Chinatown. The 41-year-old Boston native was laid off in November from his $40,000-a-year job as education coordinator for the Clinical Research Graduate Program of Tufts University Sackler School of Biomedical Sciences. And he hasn’t started seriously looking for new work. […]
Is this woman for real? I will bet anyone a trillion dollars that an article excusing and even commending being unemployed would never have appeared if George W. Bush were still president. (Of course I don’t have the money but neither does the federal government but that’s not stopping them!)
P.J. Gladnick, who blogs at DUmmie FUnnies and quips at NewsBusters:
What elitist bubble is Jenn Abelson living in? Yeah, I’m going to tell my unemployed friend, Beercan Bob, living in the Alabama backwoods that he will need to make ends meet by firing the nanny while firing up the still and refrain from chowing down Whole Foods (no big deal since he is a KFC man). […]
And don’t be suprised if next year reporter Abelson writes a glowing story about the joys of hyperinflation as paper money becomes worth less and less due to Obama’s “stimulus” package. Prepare for stories about how much fun folks have living by barter rather than paying for things with highly devalued dollars. Such a creative joy!
How stupid does the liberal mainstream media think we are? Apparently, very. Seriously, is this a news piece or an Obama administration press release?
Only in the Obama-worshipping, hopelessly partisan and unobjective, yay-Democrats-boo-Republicans world that is contemporary American journalism, can this pathetic excuse for an article be published.
Nope, no liberal media bias here!
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