This is not a joke.
While reading the Sunday paper at brunch yesterday I found myself very disturbed by the Buffalo Job Finder section. I mean page. Don’t you need more than one page to be considered a section? And let us draw our attention to the 1/2 page Buffalo News ad on the right page that has nothing to do with jobs at all.
Ugh.
Wow. I feel bad for everywhere else if we are considered one of the STRONG regions. Tell that to the many, many friends of mine looking for jobs.
America’s Economically Strongest Metro Areas
Strongest metro: Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y.
Change in real gross metro product since peak: -0.9 percent
Change in no. of jobs since peak: -2.8 percent
Unemployment rate (Mar 2011): 8.1 percent
Change in housing prices since peak: -5.9 percent
No. 2 (tie): Rochester, N.Y.
No. 2 (tie): Buffalo, N.Y.
I suppose somewhere deep down inside we already *know* this in WNY, but reading it makes it…painfully clear.
From today’s Business First:GM engine plant announces layoffs
Nearly one-third of the hourly workforce at General Motors Corp.’s Powertrain engine plant in Tonawanda is being placed on indefinite layoff.
Set to begin Jan. 26, the layoffs, which are blamed on economic conditions that has cut demand for GM products, will involve about 342 workers in an hourly plant workforce totaling 1,139.
But when I heard this story coming home from work on NPR I thought twice about my habit of listening to NPR.
Unemployed Without Benefits: A Couple’s Struggle
Let’s pretend all you know about the story is this headline. Would you presume the story would involve a woman who was used to making $80-$100K a YEAR who is married to someone who RETIRED AT 60? And pays $1500 per month out of pocket for health insurance.
Um, yeah.
Boo fucking hoo.
Really NPR? Let me show you the plight of people who are unemployed without benefits.
I’m not shocked, but saddened that THIS is the couple they chose to profile.
Yeah, I’m not done.
“The largest group of people that do not qualify for unemployment insurance are the nontraditional employees,” says Howard Rosen, a labor market expert with the Peterson Institute for International Economics. He says millions who are not full-time, permanent employees are out of luck.
A growing number of people who are consultants, self-employed, temporary employees, part-time employees — a whole plethora of different kinds of arrangements — are not currently eligible for assistance, Rosen says.
RIGHT. Like waitresses/waiters/bartenders, home health care aids, PT clerks at a grocery store, date entry temp workers.
No, not in this story in this story they choose to feature…
Among this group are Barbara and Gary Ratner. Gary Ratner completed a doctorate in biochemistry from Emory University. Barbara Ratner has been a self-employed architectural illustrator since 1990, when she was laid off from a company in Atlanta.
“And I actually never had to worry about work,” Barbara Ratner says. “The phone just kept ringing. It was — it was like magic.”
She had so much work when she was laid off, she didn’t apply for unemployment benefits. Now, because she’s self-employed, she doesn’t qualify for them.
Um. Yeah. Wait, it does get better.
“I’m beginning to identify with the frog in the pan of water where someone turned the heat up and it took me a while to realize that yes, this isn’t like it has been before — and I don’t know where it’s going,” she says.
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Um, let me tell you a story or twenty my friend about what a frog in a pan of water really feels like.
The Ratners have already pulled nearly $10,000 from their retirement account. They are cutting back where they can — eliminating a phone line and canceling memberships to civic groups. Gary Ratner decided to retire late last year. And because they’re in their 60s and do not have a group health plan, the couple pays $1,500 a month for health insurance.
How they chose to profile a family who chooses to eliminated memberships to civic groups instead of choosing NOT TO PAY THEIR ELECTRIC BILL for a month, is seriously beyond me.Um, how many Americans who are unemployed don’t even have ANY KIND of a retirement account.
I’m not suggesting that this isn’t a difficult transition for this couple. But come freaking on NPR, let’s welcome ourselves into the REAL world for a change.
I’m embarassed to be a faithful listener after hearing this story.
Gary Ratner is hoping to get a biochemistry fellowship, while his wife continues to look for work. And both hope that President-elect Barack Obama’s economic plan will create new jobs and ultimately turn the economy around.
Thank God for President Obama who will save them.
For shame, NPR. For shame.
Soundtrack Playing: Miss Saigon
“I’m from a world that’s so different from all that you are. How in the light of one night did we come so far?”
(What possessed me to watch Bridget Jones Diary last night? Arugh. My life is not a movie. My life is not a movie. My life is not a movie. Or is it?)
New York Bonus:
I received another unemployment check today. My second one. $7.00 Seriously. for $7.00. A mistake on the part of the State, apparently I am worth $28 more per week than previously estimated. Why not $27? New York is not in the know about the 27 conspiracy.
Local News Alert.
I hate the news. Today I am about as annoyed with the News as Ticketmaster. A stranglehold monopoly on the people.
“Winter Mess” coined by Channel 2.
What? I might have slept through the morning commute, but I do think it is JUST WINTER. For the love of God! Did we get that much snow? The Retired Letter Carriers of Buffalo as well as the Positive Pet Training Center canceled their afternoon meetings. We got 4-8 inches of snow on average around the region, YET, yet…Channel 2 had an extended coverage broadcast and was taking YOUR CALL on the set to talk about the stormy weather! One caller, Evelyn, phoned in to say that it was sooooo bad this morning. Her kids went to the bus stop and then came back 15 minutes later and said “Mommy it’s cold outside!” So…? And…? PLEASE tell me Evelyn, that you sent your children to school, PLEASE? One caller in the country, where they had as foot of snow…called in and said. “It’s winter. I live in the country, I am used to it.” She obviously was not the sensational caller that Channel 2 was expecting. Arugh! I even heard reference top the Blizzard of 77 as well as the other big storms a few years back. Correct me if I am wrong but 4-8 inches? A child waiting 15 minutes for the bus because they are running late? NORMAL. Dear God people. NORMAL. What is wrong with these people? Grrrrr!
Buffalo Newspaper
I forgot to mention this before…but Buffalo Niagara was recently ranked 38th out of 50 in the “Annual 50 Hottest Cities” survey published by Expansion Management Magazine (rated and ranked out of 370 metropolitan areas in which companies might expand or relocate. Last year Buffalo was 50th.) And this was BEFORE THE GEICO DEAL was sealed. I see a 27 in our future… : )
Bratty Spoiled Teenagers
This might not be fair, since the references below are from the teen excerpt “NeXt” in today’s paper…but I am going to bitch anyhow. Grrrr to the teens. How do I think that somedays I could be a High School Social Studies teacher? (I am trying to convince myself that HS would be a better fit than elementary ed…although I do not know the presidents in order 5th-12th)
In an article about peer pressure a sophomore was asked how much of a role does the media play when dealing with peer pressure.
“A big role, you’re thinking the images you see on TV are right.”
A SOPHOMORE? Idiot. Comes from upbringing, her parents are probably idiots too.
And a SENIOR at Williamsville North said regarding the lack of parking places for juniors and seniors on campus that…it is a “bother to walk in mud and snow. my friends and I agree that this construction should have been done in the summer to avoid the mess and loss of parking spots.” A school official agreed and counteracted with the fact that their hands were tied because the State did not get their budget out on time.
My family was not college educated. But somehow, my brother and I learned the concept of TV PRETEND and built up healthy self-esteems and fought the peer pressure. Ugh. Maybe the little North girl should read the damn paper and see what serious consequences fall from the budget not being effective…laying of 500 teachers? Maybe funds should be reallocated? Amherst Seniors have to walk in the snow. Buffalo School children have to take hour long bus rides to the nearest school in the snow because the system shut down the school next door for lack of funds. Harsh, maybe. But I swear to GOD my children will not be this ignorant. I know, I KNOW I had a larger world view of life growing up.
While reading Madam President, I found this little ditty interesting. Kathleen Kennedy Townsend grew up in a home where her father RFK instilled in her a passion for public service at their dinner table Kathleen and her 11 siblings were grilled about what they did to help the less fortunate that day.
Do today’s children even know what less fortunate means? Unless they are the less fortunate? I want to be a teacher to get my ass in the schools and inspire this kind of passion to change their world, therefore changing OUR world. I know my children will be forced into intelligent dinner conversation. A family all around the table, talking? Gasp. It might not necessarily be a quiz to see how they have helped the less fortunate, or a quiz on presidential history or state capitals (sorry, baby.) But is sure can be about the headlines of the paper and news. Or what they did in school. If my senior bitches about parking to me, I am dragging her ass to the Buffalo schools to tutor. Simple. Dear God, I remember crying, over getting a coat for Christmas one year. This particular Christmas my dad had been laid off from the plant for a few months and money was tighter than usual. My m,om pulled me aside to tell me that we might not be getting as much for Christmas (lil brother still believed in Santa Claus) That Christmas I remember getting the usual stuff, and a coat. This strange coat…it was red and navy blue plaid with a white background and a light baby blue cuff around the collar and sleeves. I loved the coat. And I cried thinking that we didn’t have the money for me to get all of that stuff AND a new coat I loved so much…and I was MUCH younger than a SOPHOMORE! (Scariliy enough, I am now realizing the coat is the same design and colors that I decorated my living room in! How weird!)
