I am a full-time Ph. D. student, in my very late thirties. I am presently very underemployed and underpaid as a part-time private music instructor. As a result I am having to rely on my mother for nearly half of my financial support, which is extremely hard for me to cope with — I feel at this point in our lives the situation should be reversed.

Jared Bernstein has just joined UP’s board of directors. He is a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute and author of  just-released “Crunch: Why Do I Feel So Squeezed (And Other Unsolved Economic Mysteries)” Below is an excerpt from the TPM Cafe Book Club at http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/tpmcafe-book-club/ where Jared, Barbara Ehrenreich, and others discuss today’s economy [...]

Until the beginning of this month, Americans seemed to have nothing to say about their ongoing economic ruin except, “Hit me! Please, hit me again!” You can take my house, but let me mow the lawn for you one more time before you repossess. Take my job and I’ll just slink off somewhere out of [...]

From the Milton, Pa Standard Journal:
“LEWISBURG — Replete with humor and a tinge of acerbity, investigative journalist Barbara Ehrenreich called for an uprising of sorts against poverty-level wages and the disparity between the privileges of the wealthy and the working poor.
Imploring to an audience of college students, professors and community members, the noted author declared [...]

55 years old, former corporate/university employee, now supporting husband (retired physician) and self on salary as medical transcriptionist. Threat of outsourcing jobs, medical debt to another hospital (and I believe politically on blacklist at my workplace for this as administrators are colleagues/talk). Many jobs including temp over the years, in NYC, DC, Los Angeles, and [...]

I am in my late thirties, and still searching for that perfect job. Been on the job hunt for about five months now. After countless hours on job sites, an occasional career fair, and once-in-awhile a “networking” party, I’ve come up with nothing memorable or promising, and it’s begining to get me down.

How much lower can consumer spending go? The malls are like mausoleums, retail clerks are getting laid off, and AOL recently featured on its welcome page the story of man so cheap that he recycles his dental floss – hanging it from a nail in his garage until it dries out.

Here’s a healthcare horror story on a national level: 60 Minutes’ report on Remote Area Medical (RAM), which sets up emergency clinics in the world’s neediest areas. Recently, though, RAM set up its massive clinic, for a weekend, in an exhibit hall in Knoxville, Tenn. Founded to transport U.S. doctors to truly remote areas to provide medical service, RAM is now running weekend clinics in urban as well as rural U.S. areas.

At 35, I’ve been laid off from 3 jobs - within an 18 month period before I was 31 years old. A single teen parent, I put myself through university in 4 years to earn a BA. I didn’t have parents who could help me. But that’s not impressive. My drive and determination and strength have threatened every supervisor I’ve had to date. Not really laid off - fired for speaking up or standing up for myself.

 When I was growing up it never occurred to me that you could have too much education. My parents were first-generation college graduates and this meant they achieved much more than their own parents and grandparents. Going to college was assumed in my home and education highly valued.My brother ended up as an engineer. His [...]