Some more observations - how is the employment situation/economy impacting our lives...

[NRaleighLiberal]

I read this interesting post - http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024435809

And it made me think about how my wife/my life has changed over the past 6 years. 2008 is when my company let me go (after a 25 year career) - it was clearly due to economics - about half of our group "aged out" (early 50 somethings that were much more costly to retain than the late 20 to early 30 somethings that replaced us) - that's fine; I never got bitter and understood both sides of the story (kinda, anyway). I actually went back and consulted for nearly 2 years - but as of 2010, that was it - I was now clearly "aged out" and decided to not bang my head against the wall trying to get back in (other friends of my age did, and none have yet to find anything even remotely comparable). So I decided on a career change instead (to one that won't really offer much in the way of income for a few years yet). But I get to work at home, it is far more aligned with my interests...

But the point of this - from that point on - 2010, in my mid 50s, we stopped shopping pretty much (except for essentials, of course) - it was about making the money we managed to save during my consulting years stretch. We got rid of most of our cable, newspapers except on weekends, stopped eating out (except for a rare lunch), reduced holiday and special occasion gift buying and giving to token and bare minimum. We are happy with that - in a way, our lives are more on the edge, more in the moment, more about enjoying each other, music, books, nature, etc.

But if we are at all typical boomers, and this is happening en masse - we are clearly not stimulating the economy, reducing the stuff on the shelves, driving the economic engine from the bottom. Because I aged out early in my career and there was no good opportunity, we reduced our spending by a huge amount.....and that is how it will be for the rest of our lives. We have old cars, and will drive them until they die.

It is kinda of amusing - we watched the Super bowl last night and it was just as much about the ads - selling stuff. And we just chuckled at all of those car ads - Maserati? Jaguar? We chuckled because the ads not only didn't apply to us or our tastes (Bud? bud light?!!!) - but what we are ever planning to purchase - ever.

I know that my 2 girls aren't stimulating the economy in any ways but the bare necessities - they can't. Either their debt is too high, or their income is too low.

And so when this increasingly happens to people - and those who need to buy the "stuff" can't - so the "stuff" no longer needs to be made.....

It strikes me that although I am a really optimistic, upbeat person, my OPs on DU (no more acronyms, promise!) tend to be pretty pessimistic. But that is not the intent. I am aiming for realistic.....for my POV, anyway.

[antiquie]

1. Interesting and truthful does not equal pessimistic.

I appreciate your OPs and have been uplifted by knowing others have gone through similar career trauma.

P.S. I have flowers and tomatoes on three of four over-wintering plants.

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. I really appreciate your comment - thanks.

Lucky you - I've got to finish planning my garden and get some greens seeds planted...soon!

[handmade34]

3. not only middle income boomers

but all social safety net programs... increased SNAP payments help local business, as do housing subsidies, unemployment benefits, and the like...

Well, here’s a reason to root for the Seattle Seahawks in tonight’s Super Bowl: Denver Broncos icon John Elway’s comment: “I don’t believe in safety nets”

"...safety nets have the potential to overcome constraints on growth linked to market failures, and is organized into 4 distinct pathways: i) encouraging asset accumulation by changing incentives and by addressing imperfections in financial markets caused by constraints in obtaining credit, and from information asymmetries; overcoming such failures helps households to invest into their human capital or productive assets; ii) failures in insurance markets especially in low income setting; safety nets are assisting in managing risk both ex post and ex ante; iii) safety nets are overcoming failure to create assets and other local economy complementary factors to household-level investments; iv) safety nets are shown to relax political constraints on policy Safety nets have a dual objective of directly alleviating poverty through transfers to the poor and of triggering higher growth for the poor However, the trade-off between the dual objectives of equity and growth is not eliminated by the potential for productive safety nets;..."

http://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/book/10.1596/1813-9450-6437

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. indeed...thanks for the added info.

[LiberalEsto]

5. Our lives have changed

After being unable to find work (except minor freelance and translation gigs) for 5 years, I've given up and applied for early Social Security. My husband works his tail off to hang on to his IT job, but there is always the fear that he can be replaced by someone with a, H1-B visa, especially as he gets older.

We share one car, 9 years old, and have no idea if we can ever afford to replace it. We almost never dine out. We quit eating meat, partly for health and social responsibility reasons, but also because it's expensive. We put a stop to home repairs and improvements unless it's an emergency. Saving for retirement is not possible - we live paycheck to paycheck.

We gave up hope that either of our adult daughters will ever be able to take over paying their student loans. Neither finished college, and at the moment neither has a job.