opening line:
When Philip Kowalski lost his job earlier this year as a USAID contractor working on aid to Ukraine due to Doge cuts, he was confident in his credentials: a master’s degree from the University of London and years of hands-on experience managing American foreign aid contracts that he thought would help him land on his feet.
poor Philip no longer has an email-based job doing imperialist world murder
Hey, I’m one of those people!
we’re in the news!
this was the whole point of raising the prime interest rates so quickly. the Fed said this was what they were doing and it’s what they did
This is something I would drive myself to madness with. Tuning in to NPR’s Marketplace show in the morning and they’d talk in their very clever and very polite ways about how the Fed wanted to raise interest rates to “slow the economy” to “combat inflation” and knowing that nakedly meant the plan was to immiserate working people.
Real cool and good how these wonks always decide the working class will take one for the team“for the economy” when if you want to stop inflation. Just whack porky’s trotters out of the way when he demands a raise. Because that’s what inflation is. Capital giving itself its own wage hike.
Even legitimate offers come with caveats. Hayden described one company offering higher salaries if workers declined health benefits: “They were going to give a substantial increase in salary if you turn down any benefits … $12,000 more a year if you did not use their medical, dental, vision,” he said.
Oh the innovations bred by capitalism
And it kind of demonstrates the source of the problem. Porky isn’t hiring because he doesn’t need to. He’s a happy camper.
This is the main problem with capitalism being dogma. The rich need problems, literally for their own good because if they’re happy, the economy goes down the shitter.
work 10 years in a certain software role
lose job
can’t find another tech job for 2 years, pivot to a 60K+ pay cut
Yeah, I’m doing work that actually helps the world and my city now, but like…I would be out in the streets if I wasn’t dating someone with a job that pays for the both of us. It fucking sucks, and I’m technically working for the government, who just announced no new raises this year because of funding cuts.
Luv 2 B an amerikkkan were at leest i no im freeeee (to starve)
Yeah that’s basically me.
Feels like unless your entire career is absolutely spotless you’re just lost in the pile. Job gap? Non-big-tech job? Anything slightly different than the exact stack they’re using? You’re lucky to get a rejection email.
If I ever go back I guess I need to lie a lot more
Its so fuckin demoralizing, and im one of the luckier ones.
