Have you lost friends on ATS to whats going on in the world?

Have you lost your job or your home, or are you on the verge of losing your job or your home?

Do you have health insurance? Or have you lost it?

Are you struggling to feed your family? Are you having difficulty finding quality food? Have you noticed your local grocery store having difficulty keeping the shelves full?

Have you noticed your world changing from what it was just 2 or 3 years ago?

Are the people in your world happy? or on edge?

Have you lost friends on ATS to whats going on in the world? Due to economic, or social reasons?

Have you noticed a marked increase in police activity including cameras and patrols?

LDgragonfire

I love your icon "Clock out and keep working". I always thought that here in USA we have labor laws, but from the last at least 20 years I noticed that the Government is looking the other way. It was the forefathers of this land that balanced everything, but the Mafia of twenties and their offspring not only took over labor unions, they learnt how to move into big offices. Do you think Bush would have made trillion dollars during his presidency and bought 100 thousand Acres of land in South America. A legitimate government investigate the behavior of their executives. They have to furnish annual reports. Part of that report, they have to provide assets information. When I was working as Engineer making 66K, I was working hard and yet I enjoyed it. Today I work as Electrician+instrumentation making 40K leave home in dark and come home in dark. Takes me at least 12 hours a day and my working schedule is 7 days. Please keep in mind that I am the best Engineer 40 years experience on my back with 2 Bachelor degrees 2 Associate Degrees and many Certificates. From Computer control to machining to instrumentation, hydraulics, you name it, I have got it. Yes your clock out and keep working is not the scenario just with me I see it all around me. No one would stand up and call it wrong but they all would be cheating at work. To me this is promoting cheating. You think employer is not aware of it. They are. But this is their game that people in general doesn't understand. For example where I work, there is no such thing as working 2 or 4 hours over time. They ask for 8 hours. I can write pages what it means to the Employers, to the employee and the Safety aspect of it.
In short, I can tell you the difference between 20 years ago and today. It was like sunshine of day and happiness and today it is like dark of night. No happiness but struggle for survival. As a kid I learnt a story that a jungle caught fire. Two men left behind, and they both were handicapp. One was blind that couldn't see the way, the other didn't have the legs to walk out. He said to the blind that if he get the ride from the blind on his shoulder, he can show him the way out.They agreed and they both survived. Trust is commodity that people don't have it. I tried to bring people together to help each other like blind man, but they all shrug their shoulders. We can force the Government to shift taxes from homes to Income. Job or no job your home cost be very low without taxes. We paid for everything in Taxes for Roads, Utilities etc. Today the Mafia has taken it away from us in the name of privatization. Watch it, next time you go to church you will have to pay for it because it is no longer Public. Even though you paid for it through your donations. I can talk pages about my retirement and social security and how I am not entitle for any one of them even though I worked 39 years in this country. Doesn't make sense does it. But it is happening to the majority of Americans.

Have you lost your job or your home, or are you on the verge of losing your job or your home?***No to the home, but as a worker in the food industry, job security is not really there. I get laid off and time busted frequently, it is not the most stable of jobs.


Do you have health insurance? Or have you lost it?***Yes I have health insurance.

Are you struggling to feed your family? Are you having difficulty finding quality food? Have you noticed your local grocery store having difficulty keeping the shelves full?***No, these are all negative.


Have you noticed your world changing from what it was just 2 or 3 years ago?***As a perpetual poor person, why and how would my world change?? This seems like a question to ask people who have had a whole lot more than me their whole lives. When you are poor, your standard of living pretty much stays the same, ime.


Are the people in your world happy? or on edge?***The same. I am happy, but my sister is on edge due to her disability. My coworkers are normal.


Have you lost friends on ATS to whats going on in the world? Due to economic, or social reasons?***No! Why would any of my friends on ATS dump me for world reasons? I assume they chose me for reasons other than this.

Have you noticed a marked increase in police activity including cameras and patrols? ***Not in my neighborhood, but we live in the richest neighborhood in town. When I travel about the city, I see pigs everywhere, but it IS Louisville, this is not exactly a safe town. I have not noticed new cameras, but will now be on the look out for them. If I find some I will try to post pictures.

Hope my answers helped!

Originally posted by hotbakedtater

Have you lost friends on ATS to whats going on in the world? Due to economic, or social reasons?***No! Why would any of my friends on ATS dump me for world reasons? I assume they chose me for reasons other than this.

Not "dump you" but lost as in they are now homeless or just not on the internet anymore because of economic or other social [like prison or criminal] reason.

I have two sons in the commercial construction industry, working for different companies. One son had his second paycheck in a row just bounce. This is a company he has worked for 5 years, no financial problems before, nice bonuses in the past, etc. But now things are definitely different.

Good question buddy.
Due to my own financial situation, being that my housing subsidy expired, and my rent increased by $700.00 in one month..(yep that sucks), I was forced to find many alternative ways of cutting my expenses.
I gave up my home phone, and now just have my cell. I gave up cable tv so I could keep my internet.
I started shopping exclusively at discount stores where as before they would get about half my business.
As for losing friends on here, well I've gotten used to that being normal, as everyone has reality issues that can keep them away from here for a period of time, or even permanently, myself included.
I miss the days when things came down in price after the "newness" wears off, instead of rising in price.

Interesting question. I'm only going to address the title question, since that is the most puzzling (for me).

Have you lost friends on ATS to whats going on in the world?

I honestly don't know, and that is what troubles me. I have lost contact with friends in other parts of the world, specifically Israel, and I do not understand why. What happened to them? One day we were in contact, the next....gone.

And it is not only Israel. Other people from other parts of the world have dropped out of view.

On the home front, there is one member who unexplicably has disappeared. She was a very vocal member; we often clashed, but only in good spirit, I hope. And she was (is) American.

Had a bit of a scare a couple of weeks ago; my wife works for a bank in the marketing department and she was told some people were getting laid-off. Fortunately, she wasn't one of them. Actually, she got a promotion and a nice pay increase

Unfortunately, I think it's only delaying the inevitable - the bank is in trouble and I don't think they'll last much longer

I have been homless for a year and a half, and out of work since November. I used to post here a lot, and just recently got my hands on an old computer and some free internet access.

I consider myself very fortunate to have a job now, and I have to work harder and travel more than ever to make far less than I did several months ago.

What has been most depressing for me is seeing people I know, especially friends lose their jobs and the impact on their lives is devastating.

Some had credit cards with money owed on them, house notes/rent, car payments children etc.... Not easy for them trying to get by on food stamps and unemployment.

I believe the bottom is near, perhaps soon things will begin to improve.

There are a lot of good people out here that need jobs and there are none.

Faith and prayers are all many have left now, and I'm not sure how long they can hold on.