$8 an hour. But I don't have to drive anywhere or dress!

I would like you all to read this article....Ignore the advertisments.....This is the town the PontiacFamily live in:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...103946_pf.html

Another one:

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/n...7-eff2973c4362

50% of the town is without work. We have families being torn apart because the husbands have to leave to find work. O'Neil and I love this town, but there is nothing here, I am sure I will be out of job next year, and so we will have to sell our house (hopefully) and move. We are far more fortunate than some other in this town, that O'Neil still gets a paycheque and I am still working. Things are going to get bad here, at least in the short term.
So when you say 50% of your friends are not working, imagine an entire town.

Cleveland isn't as bad as that, but it has massive unemployment troubles ever since the GM plant closed. Any economist who insists we're not in a recession should me mercilessly kicked in the nuts until it'* certain he can't breed, and then kicked in the a$$ for good measure...

Come to Flint. Been that way in Flint since the mid-80s when Buick City closed up shop.

This type of news is second nature for Michiganders. Sorry.

Pretty sad state of affairs right now. Fortunately for us here, the job market (outside of manufacturing is strong). Things over the long term will get better thanks to demographics. A huge cohort of boomers will be retiring in the coming years and there will be a vast hole in the trade industry.

Putting together car parts and assembling couches may be shipping overseas, but we'll always need plumbers and carpenters. If architecture fails for me, I'm learing a trade.

there will never be a slow time where I work. I work at a law firm, IT dept., we are always busy.
People always need attorneys. We are always expanding/ hiring.