We all have heard stories about American families struggling to put bread on the table, especially where either spouse has been unemployed. Unemployment rate is only rising every month. For someone affected by this recession and had his/her job taken away, it is hard to watch you bank balances go down, credit card debt go up and possibility of foreclosure looming in front of you. If you have a family with kids, its even worse. You wonder about their future , every money spent feels like as if you are depriving your kids about something. Apart from mental tension related to finances, unemployed person also has other things going on, which present even more challenges. The daily routine of sending resume to employers /recruiters and impatiently waiting for some kind of positive response takes it toll on your mind.
If the current situation continues, it will only get worse for the people who are currently looking out for work. The recent reports suggest that the unemployment rate is only going to increase for next few months even if we see some positive trends due to the effects of stimulus package. Don't know how much ( or how less) the government efforts will change the current scenario.
Having seen families going through a terrible time and sometimes through depression in recent months, I always felt that people could connect with each other to help ease out the pain and possibly even help to get them out of this situation faster. And I do feel that I am not the only one and there will be others who might be thinking about the same line. To start with , heres are some of the things we could do:
Unemployed individuals team up and produce work
I don't know if people have thought about this as a possibility. If someone is unemployed and currently drawing some money through Unemployment insurance, they can team up with people with similar profession and together offer to work for no salary. ( Alternatively, people who team up offer their services to businesses who can pay “whatever” amount at the completion of assignment ).
As an example, construction workers who were laid off and who find themselves unemployed, can get together to build a team and work for an employer /township for free initially. They keep track of hours spent and get commitment from the company/township to pay back once they have funds. The work they do could be on “part time” basis for certain hours per week equivalent to the weekly salary they get from Unemployment insurance.
Another example would be: A computer system analyst could offer to work for free for certain hours for companies /Non-profit organizations / Townships with the commitment that he/she gets paid at a later date. In this case, the person had additional advantage of maintaining/sharpening or even acquiring new skills while on the job.
Another possibility : An investment banker team up with programmers, shares his/her knowledge, identified existing limitations and opportunities for building new software systems. Replace investment banker with person having specific, in-depth business knowledge about an industry and you have possibility of developing new software system for that industry.
These are difficult times and there are no “quick fix” solutions. The bottom line is that economy is dependent on work produced within a nation, and if significant number of “unemployed” people offer their work as described above or some other fashion such that some “work” is produced, I feel there should be some positive impact on the economy.
This might not be the brightest idea but there might be others who might be able to come up with or already have thought of better ones. The key thing is keep thinking about new ways to survive in this changing global economy.
I would certainly like to know what do you think about this. Lets make a difference.
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