There is a slump in the housing market. A slump in the housing market means fewer new houses are being built. Fewer new houses means fewer new air conditioning units are needed. Fewer new air conditioning units means fewer new evaporator coils are needed to put into those units. Fewer new evaporator coils means no over time for us. The bosses say we are going to stay on 5 days a week as long as possible. We're lucky in a way. Some companies are cutting back to 3 days a week, 3 weeks a month.
So many of my coworkers are saying that they just can't make ends meet on 40 hours a week. That's just like all those people who say you just can't survive on one income these days. Sure you can. I've done it my entire adult life. If you couldn't survive on one income, I'd have starved to death long ago.
Yeah, you can survive on one income. You may have to do without a few luxuries, but you can survive. You know, luxuries like cell phones, Internet, cable/satellite/direct TV. Heck, TV itself is a luxury. I told one of my coworkers this once, and she said, "It may be a luxury at your house, but at my house it's a necessity!"
Makes me wonder how our ancestors survived without it.
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3 comments:
"It may be a luxury at your house, but at my house it's a necessity!"
Ahhh...SO many things are necessities these days, eh? On the one hand, I can relate. But OTOH...like you, I think "WTF?" When my Dad was stationed in Paris in the mid-50's ...PARIS, mind you, the freakin' CAPITAL of La France!... we didn't have either a phone or TV. For three years.
As a matter of fact, we went five years without either of these "necessities," as my Dad's follow-on assignment was to Turkey (that was in '56, IIRC). And I'm none the worse for the experience. I think.
I could live without a tv and all that goes with it, but then there would be the book expense.
Buck, my cousin grew up without either a TV or an air conditioner. She turned out ok. We had a TV, but it was a black and white one. We used to go spend the night with my grandparents on Friday nights because they had color TV and we could watch Saturday morning cartoons in color. We thought that was a big thing back then.
Lou, in my case, it would be the yarn expense. Though I do love to read, I'd probably make more use of my public library than the local book store.
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