This week started off on a very positive note with the 1-2 punch of MLK day and the Inauguration. I wasn’t fooled into thinking that a new president in office would make life easier, but did hold out some hope that some good news on the economic front was out there waiting.
And for a day I bought into this optimism even more so as Silicon Valley titans Google and Apple both announced their quarterly numbers, beating expectations by a good margin.
Also Comedy Central has been upgraded to HD for many viewers including myself which served as another little pick me up.
But today I came across a slew of bad news that really has lingered with me all day.
First and foremost, I have been unemployed a month and have been actively seeking a new kick ass job. I filed for unemployment a month ago and received some literature and more information. In a nutshell, I did what I needed to do to get a check and was looking forward to getting some money to help ease the burden while not having a job.
One problem though. I still haven’t got a check.
So I started calling the phone number on my claim form. I always got a message saying they were inundated with calls and I should call back later. For the past 10 days I have been calling with more frequency daily until today I called 15x none of which resulted in me getting through (it hangs up on you because lines are too busy and yes I have emailed them too).
On a hunch I did a Google News search and found this LA Times article that goes into great detail about how the whole system is totally fu##ed. Here are some highlights.
“California’s unemployment insurance fund, which is funded by payroll taxes paid by employers, is expected to run short of cash within two weeks. The state is paying out $30 million to $34 million a day in benefits. During the week of Jan. 5, its balance fell from about $500 million to $270 million.”
“Millions of calls to state unemployment insurance processing centers continue to go unanswered, a problem first reported by The Times in April. A 30-year-old computer system is overloaded, and stressed clerks are swamped by backlogged applications.”
“Chad Boyer, a laid-off newspaper advertising salesman from San Diego, had an even harder time. In November, he called the state’s toll-free number 802 times over a three-week period to check on his claim. He didn’t get through once.
“I think it’s easier to call a radio station and get free tickets to a Pink Floyd show than to get a live person at EDD,” he said. “It’s a nightmare.”
So obviously, that really sucks to put it frankly. A lot of this trickles back to the fact that California has not approved a 2009 budget and is pretty much in the worst financial crisis during my lifetime. So how is the government floating all this cash without a budget?
Well simply put, they are spending my money. Below is the headline, here is the article link
In a nutshell, my tax return which is pretty damn big this year is not coming my way now and maybe ever.I don’t want to be that pessimistic cynical whiny blogger, but this is pretty shitty.
In a nutshell a program built to help people get buy when they lose their jobs is essentially out of money and won’t pick up the phone and a large amount of money owed to me is frozen via a budget that is as broken as Owen Wilson’s nose.
I will be fine and I am feeling pretty good about some of the people I am talking to at some pretty cool companies, but these are two huge examples of the government completely failing at a time when I and others need it the most.
Other bad news that’s lingering with me tonight is the news AMD, Intel, Sun Microsystems, IBM, Microsoft (big office in SV), Digg, and Google are laying people off. Most of these layoffs are in the mid thousands.
None of these companies (minus Digg) were really on my radar, but it will hurt me in two areas.
1- More people trying to get unemployment……Its like bread lines 2.0
2- More competition on the job front although most of these companies have no overlap in what I am looking for and probably are not as awesome as I am. Still they will be out there.
Another thing that irked me is the report of the new Obama regime being pretty perturbed (some would say posh) about the technology at the White House.
“Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.
What does that mean in 21st-century terms? No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a staff that helped sweep Obama to power through, among other things, relentless online social networking.
“It is kind of like going from an Xbox to an Atari,” Obama spokesman Bill Burton said of his new digs.”
While a lot of the new regime’s gripes has to do with being forced to use a PC over a Mac, the issue is more complex then that.
“I’m sure the sketchy gear in the West Wing came as a rude shock to Obama’s staff, which dazzled the nation during the campaign with its technical prowess and social-networking wizardry. But then again, government is probably one of the most tech-adverse institutions around, right up there with schools (pretty sad).”
It’s no secret that government and academic usage and efficiency through new technologies is way behind the curve which is sad because these are probably the two groups after the business world you would hope would be next in proficiency utilizing technology.
For the new white house, I hope they are able to bend or change the rules as well as implement the technologies that made them so prolific on the campaign trail.
Silicon Valley employers in the 2 years I have been here have gone from being mostly PC only companies to now giving all new hires the option between a Mac and a PC. While Mac’s are a bit more expensive, the technology is there to have both in the same office. More importantly, if you are going to be working on a computer 50-90 hours a week shouldn’t you have the choice or perceived luxury of having the product you are most efficient with?
Maybe this is not neccesary for all jobs, but I hope that the people now in charge of this country can get away from the sketchy new setup they inherited. Hell you can even use my tax refund and unemployment money to get a couple of Imac’s and powerbooks.
