What if No?

I did interviews last weekend. I may find out if I have a job on Friday or Monday. If I do, it means moving. If I don't, I've applied for another position at the County, locally, but its 2 weeks before I'd hear from them and even with adjusting my resume to reflect my computer skills better, and their removal of obsolete requirements, its still not a sure thing to even get an interview. At the county, positions are often offered to a specific person but advertise to all-comers as if it weren't a huge waste of everyone's time. Its dishonest, but legal.

If I don't get either, I'm still stuck unemployed. Most of the local jobs are minimum wage, literally. Some are all of $9/hr, a whole buck more, for double the responsibility and worse hours. A community which mostly offers minimum wage is one that's committing suicide, job by job, driving away talent and corroding its values.

Like all the new HS grads, I've been looking further afield, of course, but most of the jobs down in the Valley are also minimum wage or obviously dishonest or require a lot of skills I don't have. Or boobs. I don't have those either. I am the wrong gender for many jobs which specifically say they are equal opportunity but seem to imply that in the most crassly sarcastic way possible. The economy sucks. I have learned to avoid any jobs that say "inside sales" because that's the modern term for telemarketing and boiler room. The local solar companies often want tons of electronics experience, yet pay less than $12/hr, which is too little to live on considering rent costs and fuel costs. And they expect you to do both fine level manufacturing as well as contractor level installation, both of which are $25-30/hr jobs. This is why they keep advertising. Nobody competent will do it for that. I run into unreasonable expectations from employers all the time. Its so dominating the economy that you hope they go under so somebody better and sane can take their place. The world needs more sane employers instead of sadistic narcissists.

I'm coming to terms with the possibility I may have to take a $10/hr job in Roseville or Sacramento and commute  home to this place, wasting 1/3 of my wages on fuel, but its cheaper than rent. And all places to rent down there? 12 month leases required. Who wants to stay in a place for a year when you already know wages are murderously low? And wages that low mean abusive employers, exclusively. That's why I drove all the way to Chico. Higher wages and lower living costs are a better deal than commuting to Sacramento and putting up with lower wages and nasty commute.

With the economy this bad, if I get the job up north, I'm thinking hard I'll offload various bits of furniture until I'm down to a bare minimum I can move easily by myself. Thus when collapse happens or I lose my temper and get fired or quit, its not a huge problem to pack up and leave. Minimalism is to be admired in the unsteady and abusive times we live in today. Staying in one place is enslaving yourself to whatever brute is in charge locally. Who needs that? I don't have a whiny wife or snotty kids to look after or make excuses for to cover my own cowardice against risk. I am okay with exploring more of my world. I just want to be paid properly, or failing that, live on so little that it doesn't bother me. In a world of minimum wage jobs, sometimes handing donuts across the counter is better than manning a cubicle for the same wage. This is what your Socialist votes got us. Poverty.