Hi. I'm AR2. MFP is that my life has sucked for years now, and I have lost hope that it will ever not suck. It isn't just the usual things, but the fact that they get worse the longer they go on.
Observe a moment of silence for the orange future-divining entrails. When you feel you've paid sufficient respect, continue on.
My job, which I got in 2011 through voc-rehab, is A FULL YEAR BEHIND in paying me. Like half the businesses where I live, it's a small family-owned operation depending on each individual job for income. This means my boss didn't always have money to pay me. I didn't realize how far I let it slide until I asked her when she was caught up to. October, 2014. Even though I was unemployed six months before getting
this job, I'm not going back. I can be broke at home, thanks.
My second job is probably over, since the place was sold. I doubt the new owners are going to keep on the temp crew of disabled workers (me, among others). I'm still listed at the temp agency, but I'm not optimistic. Several area factories have shut down/moved/been bought and I have to compete with more non-disabled applicants than usual. Seems like no one hires full time anymore if they don't have to (thanks, Bush!)
The house my roommate owns has several broken windows and no working furnace. Those are the biggest problems, as winter's coming. There's quite a few more things that could be improved, since it still has all its original 1940s parts: windows replaced with something newer than float glass, insulation in the walls, siding to replace the cracking paint, rewiring so we don't blow a fuse every time we run the microwave, a back door that actually fits, sills and jambs replaced because they have the texture of a dried sponge, shower walls redone so they aren't crumbling into the tub, toilet to replace the Eljer we have so I don't have to break up my crap with a Q-tip before I flush…
But my roommate is as broke as I am. He hates billing his clients, and he has one company he billed EIGHT MONTHS AGO who haven't paid anything on the couple thousand they owe. He'd present them with their invoice in person, if it didn't involve driving several states away on bald tires in a car that needs work. He's perpetually behind on bills and I end up covering out of my monthly disability payment. This makes it difficult. Retirement is as distant a dream as winning the lottery, to say nothing of planning any fun time-off distraction.
All through this is the right-wing war call: “HATE! Hate the different! Hate the eaters, the takers, the people living off YOUR money! Hate those who need healthcare, they'll get a better plan than the one you pay for! Hate the ones getting SNAP, they'll eat better than you do! Hate the elderly, for living even one day past retirement so they can use up your paid-for benefits! Begrudge the poor having anything in their lives beyond the barest necessities, they don't work hard enough to deserve more and they should be grateful they have even that! Hate anyone you suspect is getting a bigger slice of the pie than you who you feel doesn't deserve it!” I have no chance at being anything but the villain in the current congress's national narrative, whether I work or not. Why have I been busting my ass to keep two jobs if I'm going to be demonized, and STILL broke? Why even look for work, for as little as I get out of it?
I see help diary after help diary at Kos. Not only can't I contribute, but also so many others here are as bad off or worse than me. (Hi homeless readers!) I don't want a fundraiser...so what help would I ask for? Is there any?
So, what's everyone else's FP tonight?