I haven't touched welfare yet, but I've been unemployed since early March. My benefits ran out in September, so my current existence can best be described as "The Return to College Living." In other words, I've rediscovered the joys of frozen burritos and other cheap supermarket food.
I had a nice job lined up several months ago, but they switched the job to another department, I had to apply again, and lost out on something that I thought was sure thing.
The job market for techies, even in a tech area like Washington, is really tough right now. I hang out with all kinds of marginal anarchists who don't work much, but many of the techies I know have been out of work at least part of this year.
Oh, and it looks like I may finally be taking some of Doug's advice about my personal finances.
Capitalism is organized crime.
<< Chuck0 >>
Infoshop.org -> http://www.infoshop.org/ Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/ Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/ Anarchy: AJODA -> http://www.anarchymag.org/ Factsheet 5 -> http://www.factsheet5.com/ MutualAid.org (coming soon) AIM: AgentHelloKitty
INTERNATIONALISM IN PRACTICE
An American soldier in a hospital explained how he was wounded: He said, "I was told that the way to tell a hostile Vietnamese from a friendly Vietnamese was to shout ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ If he shoots, he’s unfriendly. So I saw this dude and yelled ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ and he yelled back, ‘To hell with President Johnson!’ We were shaking hands when a truck hit us."
(from 1,001 Ways to Beat the Draft, by Tuli Kupferburg).