Debating if I should get a job or wait for economic meltdown

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Hi WrongPlanet,

Well I'm in a bit of a dilemma at the moment.
Man it feels like yesterday...

Last year was a pretty damn good year for me. I was doing well with my miserable life for once.
I was doing well with college and on my way to possibly university to start working towards a Teaching degree.
Life was pretty good.

Then it all went from down hill.
The economy started to get worser. The Coalition morons under Cameron decided to just go and hike up the tuition fees.
It was going to be difficult to begin with but now I couldn't even survive the expense!
So I ended up having to leave college and debate what else to do.

Since then I've done a bit of traveling, visiting family abroad by myself.
I did a job at McDonald's but didn't last for too long. A few months but I hated it. I felt like a machine and couldn't hack it.
So what do I do now? It seems economic Armageddon is around the corner and more people seem out of work then before.

So what I want to ask is what should I do? Just wait for the impending economic collapse? Or try to do something in the meantime?

Get a job.

Economy may falter but it will recover and fluorish once more, bigger and better than before. The ups and downs are pretty much built into the system. This is peanuts compared to The Great Depression. And yet the economies were thriving by late 1940s.

The entire world was at war, TWICE. There was a civil war raging at one time. A 3rd of the population died of plague at one time. Etc etc... And yet the world recovered and prospered.

There is no end.... short of a global nuclear war or a cosmic impact. Ups and downs have always been with us.

Don't wait. Live now. Etc etc... You get the idea.

I thought the economy already collapsed.
I my opinion the world is going through some major changes and with change comes opportunity.
There are many reason, really you could write a book about this.
You could check out Revolutionary Wealth by Alvin Toffler
If things are really bad and you have absolutely nothing things can only get better, I would say do something definitely.

Well from what I've read, this is bordering on Great Depression mark II.
The only reason we've not seen a huge expansion of the tent cities as of yet is due to the welfare state.
But that can only last so long. Once thats gone, expect it to look like the 1930s.

Also you forgot something.
It took the Second World War to get the economy booming against by the late 1940s - 1950s. It was ultimately the big reset.
Which is what the world is heading for now. Another reset.

However...I can see your point. Live for today and don't give a hoot about tomorrow.
Hmmmm....



Alright I can see your point.
Basically if you have nothing to lose, what else have you got to lose?

I think my only issue though is working in jobs I'm not really that good at.
Its getting the jobs I could do like clerical, etc.
It seems aside from McDonald's, no one is really hiring.

Damn its a bad economy.
Anyone else got any advice also?

Be sure to check Revolutionary Wealth whilst I'm at it.

Get a job.

Here's why: There are two big massive red flags an employer can see in a resume: One is an extended period of unemployment with no rational explanation in the cover letter. The other is an extended period of job hopping with jobs lasting only a few months. In the event the economy turns around, coming into an interview with a solid work history puts you on a more solid footing than candidates with either of these red flags in their work history. In the event the economy crashes entirely, if your employer is able to keep your position open you will be working when other people will not.

Here's something else to consider with the current state of the economy: It's an employer's market. All manner of people are job hunting. If, say, fifty people apply for a single job (yes, this is happening), an employer has to narrow that down to maybe five to ten who will be phone screened. Of those two to three will be brought in for an interview. Of those, one may get the job. Or the employer may say they want to post the job again and get a new pool to work from. They have to narrow the field. They can't interview everyone. So having even one red flag in a resume can be the difference between getting a phone screen and not being called at all.

If you can type or you can file or you can answer a phone, apply at a temp agency. If nothing else, while you are on their books, technically speaking you are employed by them. Even if none of your postings last more than a week, it shows up as one solid block of employment. And if any of the companies who are using the temp agency wind up having open positions, you become a known quantity. It's a foot in the door. If you have experience in a particular field, look for recruiters or contract companies in that field. A recruiter can help line up resumes, and contract companies work the same way as temp agencies.

I'd join the military.

Need money? Need something to do? Then a job is a place for you!

(I'm sure someone could craft that into a catchy jingle.)

Civilizations rise and fall. It's what they do. Where are the Roman, Babylonian, Egyptian, Assyrian superpowers now? Of course, I'm going against the flow with my theory. Saner heads will tell you that we are the ones who got it right and will last forever.

But for those on my side of the fence, use your time to learn useful skills and re-embrace resilience. Our modern lack of resilience is what makes us so different to those in the last Great Depression. Most of their food wasn't flown in from other countries, there wasn't much plastic or personal transport or fast food, and they didn't hire electricians to change their lightbulbs.

Get a job. Then you'll have more money (which will be worthless is currency hyper-inflates), but you'll buy tools and anything else that might improve your chances.

Brace for impact.

Definitely get a job. http://ferfal.blogspot.com/ Read this guy's blog, he survived Argentina's economic meltdown. Very realistic practical advice.

Basically, in an economic meltdown, all your problems just get worse. Also, generally you don't realize you're in a meltdown, great depression, etc when you're in one until much later, it's just the ways our brains react. So yeah, it won't be zombies and UN troops and Escape From New York probably ever.

So due to the impending economic collapse, now is the best time to get a job. But, don't save your money in the bank for retirement. Get everything you can in order, get spare food, get spare auto parts, cosmetics, potentially defensive measures, too. Get a generator, too, when economic collapses happen, rolling blackouts all the time, and you obviously want to keep power. Basically, with your job, build yourself up to self sufficiency, so you won't have to rely on the government or others to support you. That's my opinion, and it's personally what I'm planning to do. I'd like to buy a cheap house in another state, you can get houses in New Hampshire for like $20,000, because New Hampshire has few jobs. Get a job where I live in CT, pay off my house in CT, once my house is paid off in my mid 20s, see where I'm going...? Try to be as self sufficient as possible, you don't want to be at anyone's mercy in an SHTF scenario.

Got his book. A good read.