Nothing wrong with that, but it’s not going to get you a lot of sympathy points either.

So any “solution” for me would have to involve doing something else. And I don’t see others similarly situated getting management-track positions at 50+.

Yes, I have flipped burgers. That, along with tutoring college math, working at a local computer store, and tutoring high school math paid for my undergrad tuition.

You woe is me act is old. I was offered store manager within a year of starting at BK, and BK corporate offered to pay all my tuition if I would accept a regional assistant manager job with corporate after school.

Hillary -

I did not sidestep your criticism, I said that if you wanted to give money to homeless shelters, go right ahead. I just don’t like hearing how it’s my responsibility to “help the less fortunate” or other rubbish like that. I choose to keep my money, as I believe a vast majority of the “homeless” could obtain gainful employment if there weren’t so many enablers giving them handouts.

I worked on 8 Mile. Yeah, THAT 8 Mile. With thousands of office workers within blocks, who would slam us every weekday at lunchtime.

I used to do the opening stuff, including scrubbing the grills which had soaked overnight in an acid tank. Then I’d do the setup and get everything going. Then we’d get slammed. When I got home I was soaked.

A few times I got some extra hours staying until some late evening shift employee straggled in. Now that shift was a joke. There was NO dinner rush because everyone who works in or near Detroit scrambles home - nobody stays around if they can help it. And there was a lot of employee scamming in the evening. So I guess in the “right” place and time you can flip hamburgers without working hard, but in most cases it’s hard work.

You’re not going to convince me there was only one entry level IT job available and your only alternative was minimum wage employment. If this is the economic condition where you live, its time to move.

This was Rust Belt, 1981. I had a liberal arts degree wqith a minor in CS, most IT employers wouldn’t even talk to me because I didn’t have the right degree.

I ultimately did move, but my problem now isn’t the economy, it’s my age and my lack of career advancement, and both are getting harder and harder to overcome over time.

Luck means nothing, hard work means everything. If you don’t like where you are in life, do something to change it, don’t complain about it.

Have you ever flipped hamburgers for a living? Or had any sort of minimum wage job? If that’s not hard work, what do you call it?

Two-thirds of graduating students were leaving the state to find jobs because the area economy was so bad.

The emerging PC soon rendered my mainframe skills obsolete, or at least unsaleable - there were far more experienced mainframers than the shrinking number of available job openings.

As if my lack of skills weren’t bad enough, now my age and job stsgnation surely must be powerful obstacles to advancement.

I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone defend Scrooge, but whatever. I need to stop reading this blog, it puts me in a bad mood. Have a great Christmas, but that’s probably not possible because it involves giving to others and engaging in other altruistic activities.

If you want to give money to shelters, feel free, but don’t tell me I need to help the “unfortunate” or “unlucky” when they don’t see a need to help themselves. There are plenty of opportunities for everyone to earn a living, they just need to actually put forth some effort.

The Christmas Carol was a great tool for demonizing people that put themselves first in life. I am selfish in the true denotation of the word; concern with one’s own interests. If you attach moral evaluation to it and call it your conotation of the word, fine, but don’t try to make others live by it. I don’t accept the ethics of altruism in the least.