My story can be found on page 137 of 'How to Destroy the Middle Class' playbook ....

[hfojvt]

46. okay that was not a reply meant for me

but I already did that in the 1990s.

I have an MA.

The only reason I got the MA was because I could not find another job with my BA - any job, much less a "good" job.

That's what I get for majoring in math.

Then after getting my MA in 1990, I taught for one year for $8,100 part-time. I could have taught full time, but that would have meant a 50 mile commute and I did not own a car at the time. I lived without a car until 1996.

By June of 1991, I had $12,000 in the bank and decided to start my own used bookstore. Rented a building on the edge of downtown (in a town of 5,000) and then moved to the downtown in November 1991.

In December 1992 my landlord went broke and the bank took over the building. They wouldn't sell to me OR give me a lease, so I bought the bulding next door and got a job at a local factory to help pay for it. I started work in the factory in February 1993 thinking I would only work there until October when my business would begin supporting me.

HA.

In January 1995 I gave notice at the factory and asked if I could stay on part time. They let me. Until they laid me off on 28 March 1995, my 33rd birthday. Because I owned a business, my unemployment was denied (but one of my co-workers got his checks even when he was in the county jail).

The winter of 1995-96 I got a job shovelling snow. Figured it was time to close the store that was not supporting me, had a going out of business sale and started looking for jobs. Found one in March 1996 that was 23 miles away, paying $6 an hour or piece rate which averaged seven. Opened my store on the weekends because I still had lots of inventory.

Then the bar down the street hired me as a part-time janitor for $5.50 an hour. Figured that was better than two hours of commuting AND it allowed me to re-open my store.

So there I was with an MA, made $9,316 in 1993, $12,340 in 1994, $3,109 in 1995 and $5,529 in 1996 before I move to the big time, makine $10,295 in 1997!!!

In 1998, I sold the store and moved. Could only find temp jobs in Iowa, but the new Governor, Democrat Tom Vilsack was worried about a future labor shortage.

Was there a jobs program? Was there a safety net for me?

I got sick of reading how "great" the economy was when all I could get, at age 37 was a temp job with no benefits. The economy was not that great for everybody, but all the media and the politicians wanted to talk about was the record low unemployment rate.

Other than the job I quickly got fired from because I am bad at sales, I could not find a full time job until May of 2004.

I had 13 years where I made a total of $124,278. Living the American dream in the 1990s.