Salon.com > F**ked

Can Occupy Wall Street work with the jobless?

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 15:30:00 +0000

In the sixth installment of F**ked, the long-term unemployed meet the occupiers at a General Assembly in New York City, never expecting the generational and culture clash that ensues.

The 99ers’ unemployment fix

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:50:00 +0000

For our 99ers, an informal group of jobless New Yorkers who have exhausted their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, the Occupy Wall Street movement came as a dream fulfilled.

As the protests took root in Zuccotti Park, the 99ers found a mass of people who care about the plight of the jobless and want to do something about it. As seen in last week's episode of our video series, "Occupy Meets MacArthur's Tanks," Occupy Wall Street is just the latest in a long line of American protest movements demanding economic justice. The emergence of the Occupy movement, one 99er said, felt "like the early stages of a revolution."

And then the question arose: What do America's jobless want? As the video shows, the 99ers have some answers.

Occupy meet MacArthur’s tanks

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000

When Occupy Wall Street burst on the scene last September, the movement seemed unique and unprecedented. The latest installment of “F**ked: The United States of Unemployment,” however, traces the long history of occupation as a strategy of the unemployed. The impact these earlier movements had is rarely acknowledged, but those uprisings inspired everything from films like “The Wizard of Oz” to transformative government programs such as Social Security.

Another similarity between the “unemployed armies” of yesteryear and the Occupy movement is the brutal response by law enforcement. Witnesses expressed shock when the Oakland police sprayed tear gas at protesters and complained about the liberal use of billy clubs by cops in New York, but imagine Gen. Douglas MacArthur unleashing a deadly offensive of tanks, bayonets and torches on military veterans camping out in Washington, D.C. It’s all captured in the chilling video below.

When my job stopped paying

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000

It comes up all the time in conversation. Most recently, I heard it from a stranger at the dentist’s office, talking back to the television news and those of us fortunate enough to be stuck in the waiting room with her. “High unemployment, my ass. Just a bunch of lazy people looking to sit on their sofa and watch TV while we pay their bills.”

Sorry, lady. You’ve mistaken me as a responsible, upright citizen. Allow me to introduce myself: I am a former sofa-lounger, and now I qualify as something even lower than that.

My last full-time job ended in January 2009. Everyone at our small pharmaceutical marketing agency received an email invitation to a mandatory staff meeting. And, much like a bad reality show, it was only moments before the scheduled time that we began to realize we weren’t all invited to the same room.

Along with more than 30 colleagues, I got voted off the island.

Those lucky enough to receive invitations to the other room were told to take a long lunch while we poor saps cleared our desks.

I spent the first several weeks in a daze. There is not a lot of room for pride when you’re a single mom, so I filed for unemployment benefits. And in the height of irony, I was told I wasn’t eligible for food assistance because my income was too high.

Is work worth it?

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000

Certain experiences will always force a reevaluation of life’s priorities. The birth of a child, a near-death experience -- or getting fired. The latest episode of Salon’s video series on unemployment in America begins with Theresa Iacovo, a laid-off truck dispatcher, reminiscing on all of the Christmases she missed during her 20-year career. “Why did I give up that time with my family that I can never give back?” she asks.

Several recent submissions to Open Salon on the topic of unemployment also question the relationship between personal fulfillment and work. Homeless Scribe aptly sums up the source of much frustration: “Fresh out of college, I expected job security in exchange for hard work. I expected fairness in exchange for loyalty. And I expected respect in exchange for respect. I lived up to my side of the bargain. It’s the other side that failed.”

The screwed generation: Libertarian, not liberal

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 20:26:00 +0000

There is an old adage that says, "If you're young and conservative you have no heart, if you're old and liberal you have no brain." The idea is that young people tend to make decisions more on idealistic views or out of passionate attempts at charity and altruism. While there is some truth to that for Generation Y (meaning people born in the '80s and '90s), the results are manifesting themselves in a totally different way.

We are the generation that continues to pay into Social Security with every paycheck but suspects we may never see the benefits of it. We are the recipients of degrees that don't mean much from educational institutions that teach less and cost more. We are the casualties of wars that have gone on for over half of the lifetime of 2012's first-time voters. In short, we are the screwed generation. The decisions of those before us has left us with an uncertain future and little opportunity to fix things through traditional means.

When I learned to scrape by

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 18:00:00 +0000

Three dollars in the gas tank, 49-cent burrito, a paper cup of water from the bathroom sink; I sit on the curb, eating my breakfast and listening to Javier sing. Every so often a car pulls up; Javier dips his brush in a bucket of suds and then scrubs gluey insects off the windshield before directing the driver’s tires onto the tracks of the auto-wash.

“You should try out for one of those singing shows,” I tell him, swaying to his melodic crooning.

Without looking up, Javier shakes his head, and snorts, “Who’d vote for an ol’ man, eh?” He yanks a hand-towel from his back pocket and coughs hard into it. His somber brown eyes meet mine for a moment.

“Fix your car, yet?” He asks brusquely, clearing his graveled throat.

“Nuh-uh,” I tell him, scraping the last shrivels of burrito cheese from the wrapper’s foil crevices. “It’s making a stinky smell, now.”

“Aye, chica, it's leaking coolant. You can’t keep driving on a blown head gasket.”

“Fix the car or pay rent,” I shrug. “I like my car, but I don’t wanna sleep in it.” I wad up the foil, and stand. “It’s almost 8. Catch ya later.”

When my retirement plan exploded

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 01:00:00 +0000

I was one of the lucky ones. A childhood friend loved to point that out to me, especially if I started to sound like I was complaining about my high-paying job. She worked just as hard as I did. She put up with just as much bullshit from The Man as I did. But, in her mind, she was entitled to a little whining. I wasn’t.

My friend believed my success was the result of things over which I had little control. Brains. Looks. Skin color. It didn't matter how hard I worked; it didn't matter how much pride I swallowed to survive the corporate cesspool. I was lucky. She was not.

My so-called luck wasn’t worth much when the Great Recession That Is Really a Depression set in. I was just as laid off as my next-door neighbor. One day I had a job, the next day I didn’t.

I had already retired from my 25-year corporate career when things started going south. Prices were skyrocketing, and my retirement money wouldn't last as long as it was supposed to. I would have to unload my beloved home of 17 years sooner rather than later. The house needed updating to be competitive in what was fast becoming a buyers’ market. I had hundreds of thousands of dollars in equity, so pulling some of that money out to remodel made all the sense in the world.

F**ked: Fighting the stigma of joblessness

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 12:45:00 +0000

Tens of millions of Americans are involuntarily jobless, but being unemployed still carries a stigma.

“Many people hadn’t told their families or friends, because they were ashamed,” explains Sam Talbot, an unemployed cook, in the second installment of our new video series “F**ked: The United States of Unemployment.” “Some people didn’t want to be on camera or mentioned by name because they were ashamed or afraid they would be discriminated against by employers.”

Watch the video below to see what happens when the 99ers decide to confront the unemployment stigma head-on by traveling to Washington, D.C., for the One Nation Working Together Rally:

The shame and pride of joining food stamp nation

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0000

"Mister Cook! Chris Cook? Mr. Cook! Window three!"

I walk through the pasty government-issue fluorescent light and bureaucratic cinderblock waiting room, ushered into the inner sanctum of welfare benefits review. I feel oddly privileged, striding past rows of glum, tired, bored and frustrated faces; how have I been picked out so quickly, after just 15 minutes of sitting?

Getting inside doesn't mean you'll get approved, but, like waiting in a doctor's lobby, sheer movement into a different room gives one hope. Progress.

My benefits counselor, a tall, stocky, healthfully heavyset Indian man, speaks like a machine gun. "Fifty-five," he says brusquely as he waves his arm at a numbered booth in a long row of numbered booths. I'm still non-caffeinated so it takes me a moment to realize what "55" means, then I take my seat across from him. It looks (and feels) like I'm in prison.

The caseworker, whom I'll call Chakim, is vigorous and businesslike. "ID? Social Security card?"

I quickly hand him everything: my driver’s license, threadbare Social Security card with my awkward childhood signature, and my passport complete with its January 2011 stamp from India (I hope he notices).

The GOP’s unemployment trap

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:00:00 +0000

The unemployment rate is gradually trending down. That's the good news. The bad news is that by any civilized standard, the current state of the labor market in the United States is an ongoing atrocity.

As of December 2011, there were 13.1 million unemployed workers in the United States, an increase of more than 5 million since the Great Recession officially began in December 2007. Even worse, 5.6 million of those workers (42.5 percent) fall under the category of "long-term unemployed" -- they've been jobless for 27 weeks or more. Since the end of World War II, we've never seen anything close to such a disaster; the previous high, in the aftermath of the 1981 recession, was only 25 percent.

No matter what your political persuasion, those numbers hurt. The distressing plight of the long-term unemployed has been well-documented. The longer you are out of a job, the less likely you are to find new employment. And if you do find a new job, it will probably pay less and offer worse benefits. Extended unemployment is bad for marriages, physical and mental health, and plain old self-respect.

The real story of America’s unemployed

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:30:00 +0000

Before “We are the 99 percent” emerged as a rally cry from Zuccotti Park to the Port of Oakland, another group identified with this number -- but for a very different reason. A handful of New Yorkers whose 99 weeks of unemployment benefits had expired were frustrated that political leaders seemed resigned to a future of austerity instead of figuring out how to put Americans back to work. These “99ers” realized that if they wanted to change things, they would need to get organized and fight back.

In “F**ked: The United States of Unemployment” -- a new Salon series that will chronicle this important yet largely untold story -- Academy Award-nominated director Immy Humes traces the birth and evolution of the 99ers movement. Over the course of the series, Humes will explore her personal struggle with long-term unemployment, the struggles of her fellow 99ers, and confront the stigma of what it's like to be jobless in America today.

We want you to get pissed about “F**ked”

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:46:00 +0000

Update: Announcing the F**ked Sneak Preview Webcast – See Details Below

What happens when your 99 weeks of unemployment benefits expire and you still haven’t been able to find a job? Academy Award nominee Immy Humes explores this question in Salon’s upcoming video series premiering Jan. 24.

Humes follows “99ers” in  “F*cked: The United States of Unemployment,” a documentary about the long-term unemployed and their struggle to survive and fight back.

“The mystery of our day is why 30 million Americans remain so invisible, and silent, after so long a time in the hell of unemployment,” said Humes, a filmmaker who has faced the grim reality of unemployment herself. “This series gives a voice to these people who are so often ignored as they hunt for jobs, organize to fight economic injustice, and deal with the stigma of being out of work.”

“F**cked” follows a diverse group of New York City-area 99ers from food pantries to marches to tense confrontations at Occupy Wall Street, tracing the roller-coaster lives of those desperately struggling to survive in the worst economy since the 1930s.