How things has changed so far since the crisis

[downtown]

It has been tough, but I've done alright.

I got a decently well-paying job as a teacher after I graduated in 2009, but was laid off after a year when tax receipts in Louisiana, along with public spending, floundered. I was never unemployed for very long, but I was without medical insurance for about a year and a half while I started entry level work.

Because of my long resume and my personality, I've been able to scratch my way into a decent living for a 25 year old, and will be entering a field that was previously left for dead (journalism) in the next 2-4 months. It's hurt my wife a lot more, who has a low paying job with virtually no benefits, even though she speaks three languages. Being a Liberal Arts major without practical work experience hurts.

My family unquestionably makes a lot less money than if we had graduated in say, 2003. People with our educational background started off much better before the crash.

 

[Zelig]

My family unquestionably makes a lot less money than if we had graduated in say, 2003. People with our educational background started off much better before the crash.

However, evidence points to economic downturns as being the best time to have kids if you want them to do well.

 

[dusters]

Latvia:

Lots of shops got closed down. Unemplyoment was 21% at it's peak, fallen down to 11, 5% now, but it's still quite hard to get a job with a salary higher than minimum wage. And people are very stingy, they steal toilet paper in hotels and go to supermarkets for food which is about to rot soon, just to spend less.

Bosses in companies take so much profit for themselves and just pay minimum to others. Working conditions are bad.

To sum it up - we are still Eastern Europe, we may get Euro in 2014 if everything goes better than expected, but middle class is quite poor and eldery in countryside is literally slowly starving to death.

 

[History_Buff]

Nope, O&G doesn't particularly appeal to me, so I haven't made any effort to get a job in that sector.

I was working in research at the university, now I'm with a startup doing software/services.

It's not oil money, but it's not fast food or big 4 consulting either.

Same thing here. I'm doing GPS/INS and other navigation type stuff up by the airport.

 

[BornInCantaloup]

How things has changed so far since the crisis
Here, things are as usual. We've done better than expected so far, but as a whole - it doesn't look good.

Have anything changed for you or those around you since the start of the economical crisis?

Is it noticeable where you live?

Mostly good, thanks for asking. A little bit of this, a little bit of that.
One of my housemates moved out but it proved easy enough to find another one. Very cool dude, I wish you knew him.
The man doesn't cook but I don't mind taking up that chore. I mostly cook Chinese now that I've bought some oyster sauce.

I've started yoga again! I love it! Still debating when I'll quit.

I bought my first 2 vynils ever. I love them! They're authentic oldies: One Nation Underground by Pearls Before Swine (1967) and a double LP from Tyrannosaurus Rex, with their first two albums: Prophets, Seers and Sages, The Angels Of The Ages as well as My People Were Fair And Had Sky In Their Hair... But Now They're Content To Wear Stars On Their Brows (1968 - longest titles ever )
Just like with tatoos, once you start, you can't stop! Next LPs in line are Paternoster from Paternoster (1972) and Throw Away The Books, Let's Go Into The Streets by Tokyo Kid Brothers (1971).
Unfortunately - or is it fortunate? - I don't have any money to satisfy my materialistic impulses.

Some things don't change. I hate the cinema releases these days. Also, the prices are too high.
With the crisis, it's far easier explaining some people that I work without a wage. They find it... oh so very natural! Like everybody does. I always wished I were unique... On the upside, I'm slowly getting better at what I do, and we aren't that many doing that unproductive thing. A couple of years and I'll be the single best.

My cat has learnt to purr! That was very reassuring. The little lady (the name is "Choup-Choup") was given to me when she was only 1 month old and her mother couldn't complete her education (not properly weaned): as a result, she can't miaow and used not to purr.
Now my favourite Choup-Choup can almost behave like a real cat and is the pride of my home!

A supermarket opened in my street, killing all the older, smaller shops. That has been a really sad view. The new tenants are very dynamic, talking loud and doing jokes all the time, especially if there are customers around they can annoy.
They're most creative when they can sneer at their competitors and express how dumb they think those are. Like the time one other shop was put on fire: they did so many jokes it wasn't funny. I tell you but it's a secret: I hate those new tenants!

I'm sure some more happened that I should tell but... oh! Maybe I'm off-topic? What exactly is that crisis you're asking about and when did it occur?

 

[Zelig]

I had awesome housemates and they both moved out.

 

[innonimatu]

No reports from southern Europe?

Nothing much to report from my corner of Iberia. Personally I can't complain. Unemployment is slowly climbing but nothing catastrophic yet. A recent attempt by our government to reduce workers wages by changing social security deductions (to the benefit of employers) floundered after a big demonstration against it. Our "entrepreneurs" got cold feed and pulled the rug from under the government. They're probably now busy plotting some other way to use "austerity" to transfer more wealth to themselves.

 

[warpus]

Here, things are as usual. We've done better than expected so far, but as a whole - it doesn't look good.

Have anything changed for you or those around you since the start of the economical crisis?

Is it noticeable where you live?

Unemployment is high in the city where I live (just looked it up, 8.4%.. that seems rather low actually) , but it hasn't affected me personally or anyone I know.

Canada's banking & housing industries are heavily regulated (at least compared to the U.S.), so we haven't really been affected there, other than very low interest rates, which are very welcome.

I actually bought a house (Disclaimer for Perfection: yes, it's a duplex) in 2008.. the value of which has been going up since then.

So it's all rosy in the Great Free & White North, at least as far as me, my family, and my friends are concerned

 

[ace99]

Graduated with more student loans then I should have for a state school because budget cuts caused obscene tuition increases. Wasn't able to really establish a solid career path for myself after graduation, but that's true for a lot of people. I'm in the process of joining the National Guard and Americorps and then we'll see where I want to go from there. But given what I majored in I may have done that, crisis or no crisis. Though I remember distinctly one of my retiring professors telling our class that he feared for those of us who were going to graduate because in his memory we were the first generation where we would be worse off than our parents.

 

[Integral]

I entered university in the fall of 2007, just as the crisis hit. In that sense I weathered the majority of the storm in safety; our graduating classes of '08 and especially '09 were hit extremely hard. I was in the economics department, and we typically sent about 2/3rds of graduates into finance and banking. It wasn't pretty after the panic months of Fall 2008.

I ended up in a graduate program ranked about, say, 10 places lower than I would have gotten into, during normal times. I base this on our department's graduate placements from 2000-2007 and then from 2007-2012: the average placement dropped about ten to fifteen places. Not life-ending, and I ended up in a great spot, but certainly not the spot that I expected to end up in circa 2007.

Family income dropped by about a quarter during the 2008-10 years. We're in a particularly cyclical industry. We got through.

 

[bugwar]

I don't think my dad escaped communist Poland, worked 3 years as practically a serf in Italy, and collected a huge debt and worked his ass off in university to work at Walmart or Burger King.

Gotcha.

No pay is better than low status pay.

Must be fun when the bill collecters show up.

 

[bugwar]

Graduated with more student loans then I should have for a state school because budget cuts caused obscene tuition increases. Wasn't able to really establish a solid career path for myself after graduation, but that's true for a lot of people. I'm in the process of joining the National Guard and Americorps and then we'll see where I want to go from there. But given what I majored in I may have done that, crisis or no crisis. Though I remember distinctly one of my retiring professors telling our class that he feared for those of us who were going to graduate because in his memory we were the first generation where we would be worse off than our parents.

Just gotta ask. What was the major that you incurred obscene tuition increases for?

 

[King Kalmah]

I don't think my dad escaped communist Poland, worked 3 years as practically a serf in Italy, and collected a huge debt and worked his ass off in university to work at Walmart or Burger King.

Gotcha.

No pay is better than low status pay.

Must be fun when the bill collecters show up.

bill collectors are thugs....

My grandfather did start at a minium wage position,but its how you work with upper management.He proved himself an asset to the company and was giving stock options and other benefits...

He escaped communist Hungary and I kinda wished we stayed...everyone is rich except my family...we moved to a really rich town,but we live in some apartments that offer deals to broke people so the "poor" is close by or some BS....

Orange County California is nice if you are rich and fake...

 

[bugwar]

Orange County California is nice if you are rich and fake...

That pretty much applies to everywhere. Being rich generally improves your physical environment no matter where you reside.

 

[sophie]

It's been a bit of a struggle for my family, but I fear the worst is yet to come. The sole money earner in my family was in government, so we didn't really feel other than in raising prices, particularly on food and gas (my dad commutes 40 miles to work every day). We started feeling it a lot more when I started going to college, as we don't qualify for grants, and I didn't really get any major scholarships. We've started noticing the laggy recovery now though as my sister is off to school and my mom has been having trouble finding non-temp work (she's been out of the workforce for the last ten years, so that gap in her resume has really hurt her). As I said though, the worst is yet to come as the union my dad (and I, for a time) was represented under now is starting to negotiate with the government for lower pay and benefits, which is really going to hurt when it comes, and we're barely staying afloat now as it is. Lots of worry in our family.

 

[Leifmk]

Norway is opposite country, in large part due to the oil money. We're not really hurting at all.

Another contributing reason besides the oil is that we have some pretty strict controls on the financial sector. And I happen to work for the agency responsible for keeping up with those controls. Our budgets got increased.

 

[aelf]

Gotcha.

That Walmart or Burger King job must afford you plenty of time to be playing this on a message board.

 

[utgotye]

Economic crisis? When was this?

 

[bugwar]

That Walmart or Burger King job must afford you plenty of time to be playing this on a message board.

Ya know, there is a benefit to being independently wealthy.

Oh yea, I can afford to play on message boards. Yea for me!

 

[aelf]

Ya know, there is a benefit to being independently wealthy.

My apologies. I thought you were a genuine member of the working class.

Continue with your faux-moralising.