Any DU'ers out there, 55+ looking for a job?

[Timbuk3]

73. I'm 55

I was laid off nearly 3 years ago.

I saw the layoff coming and had applied for a job, which I was assured I would get, at an employer that hires at a glacial pace. I spent a year on unemployment, waiting, but finally the promise came through.

Now, I have to keep paying my mortgage in one town while holding an EXPENSIVE apartment in an EXPENSIVE town. I see my wife, who works every other weekend, a few hours a month. I'm going backwards, financially, but about $300/month, but that doesn't take into account my 401(k) contributions, so we're probably getting ahead a few hundred/month.

The Bush recession hurt college grads, and I don't want to understate the damage it did to people in their 20s, but the cruelty of the corps in cutting loose men in their 50s is difficult to overstate. Men and women who had worked for decades to earn their benefits; medical insurance when they're getting to the years where they need it, more vacation time than a new hire, higher wages, were left to fend for themselves in a rotten job market that had little value for experience. "It's better to hire the young guy, pay him less, give him less time off, and he's not as likely to get sick."

Years ago I read a book (How To Argue And Win Every Time) by Gerry Spence, the Jackson attorney who prosecuted the famous "Pintos explode when hit from the rear" case. He proved that Ford did a calculation and came to the conclusion that it was less expensive to settle a few wrongful death lawsuits than to recall all those Pintos.

Their decision was to let people die because they made more money that way.

Until America wraps it's stupid head around the fact that corporations aren't "people", they're not even the CEO, or the workers, or the board, they're legal constructs whose sole purpose is to increase the bottom line, we'll continue to suffer.

The question is, would you rather be governed by a government who you had a voice in electing, or a soulless legal construct designed to make money FOR ITSELF?

OK, a bit of a rant. I wish you well in your job search, and you have my sympathies (although I hope you have better luck than I did, even though I'm grateful I found SOMETHING.) But the main message is, you're not alone.