Rejection update...
During the great depression, many people were, uh, depressed. I am reading a book right now called "Dark Age Ahead," by a woman names Jane Jacobs who predicts the coming of a dark age in our culture, signaled by a breakdown of a few important aspects of our culture. Family and community (thanks to our car culture), education, (hello worthless university degrees, and schools unable to support demands)... I'm only halfway through, there are more.
Anyhoo, Jacobs uses the Great Depression to foreshadow what may lie ahead. She lived through it the first time. She says it was unemployment that made life hell for people, and differed greatly depending on what part of the country people lived. The constant rejection for work was overwhelming for many people, especially those supporting a family. It was hard for people in their 20s, I understand, and harder for those in their 30s who may have gotten an education and a start to their careers before feeling useless and idle. But it hit hardest to people in their 40s with a family, many males who were the sole breadwinners for their families.
I wonder what it would take to send the country into this sort of thing again? Here in Portland I know there are many people feeling symptoms like this already. I feel like I am personally going through my own Great Depression. This city is unique, but maybe not that unique. She also talks about the time when homes were truly affordable to the majority of people.
What a time that must have been! When people did not expect to dump half their (and their spouses) income into a mortgage payment!
"For more than 40 years starting in the mid and late 1930s, the median income of an American family was sufficient to cover the mortgage costs of a median priced house or rent payment. Median means statistically, that half of whatever is being measured falls below the median, and half above... But at some point in the 1970s, the two figures--median shelter cost and median income--slipped seriously out of whack..."
Oh, my point was that I got rejection #2 from Portland Community College's nursing lottery. I was not one of the 100 candidates randomly selected out of a hat for entrance into the program. Big surprise!
Anyhoo, Jacobs uses the Great Depression to foreshadow what may lie ahead. She lived through it the first time. She says it was unemployment that made life hell for people, and differed greatly depending on what part of the country people lived. The constant rejection for work was overwhelming for many people, especially those supporting a family. It was hard for people in their 20s, I understand, and harder for those in their 30s who may have gotten an education and a start to their careers before feeling useless and idle. But it hit hardest to people in their 40s with a family, many males who were the sole breadwinners for their families.
I wonder what it would take to send the country into this sort of thing again? Here in Portland I know there are many people feeling symptoms like this already. I feel like I am personally going through my own Great Depression. This city is unique, but maybe not that unique. She also talks about the time when homes were truly affordable to the majority of people.
What a time that must have been! When people did not expect to dump half their (and their spouses) income into a mortgage payment!
"For more than 40 years starting in the mid and late 1930s, the median income of an American family was sufficient to cover the mortgage costs of a median priced house or rent payment. Median means statistically, that half of whatever is being measured falls below the median, and half above... But at some point in the 1970s, the two figures--median shelter cost and median income--slipped seriously out of whack..."
Oh, my point was that I got rejection #2 from Portland Community College's nursing lottery. I was not one of the 100 candidates randomly selected out of a hat for entrance into the program. Big surprise!
Comments
I think economy is gonna tank. The whole housing bubble and so on. Just wish I'd gotten in on it.
Tim