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PAIN REMAINS AFTER UNEMPLOYMENT
Posted by: Darrell Castle
February 08, 2010
Topic: Bankruptcy

This startling news can be found in a front page article in the New York Times Saturday February 6, 2010. I know that you are all as shocked as I was to learn that finding a job after months or even years of unemployment often leaves lingering problems. The consequences of unemployment continue to ripple through the lives of many who have returned to work. Some are forced to declare bankruptcy, many return to lower paying jobs and must find the discipline to live a different lifestyle. Many live with the anxiety of knowing that the rug could be pulled out again at any moment.

Some people are left with a massive amount of past due bills including mortgage payments which they will struggle with for many years. Sometimes the changes are of a positive nature such as a commitment to live a more frugal life or a commitment to quit drinking. Often there is a determination to set money aside for hard times which could come again at any moment. Children who observe their parents' struggles with unemployment after working most of their lives are left with a sense of unease about the future. Many are determined to study harder to get a scholarship because they know their parents might not be able to help them.

Some couples have trouble dealing with the stress and pressure on their marriages and many marriages end in divorce. Especially for those left with custody of small children, the decision to divorce sometimes leads to a life of irreversible poverty. According to the Times articles, attitudes about work are often changed by the experience. ""Mrs. Newby's attitude toward work has shifted, driven in part by her Christian faith. In an all consuming advertising career, she is now less inclined to throw herself completely into it. " I gave so much of my life, so much of my energy and time to serving this company and clients and for what?" she said, "Where did it get me?"

Well sister, it does sound like you finally have it figured out, but weren't you really after money, fame, power, self satisfaction, recognition or whatever? Didn't you find that you received those things from your work until your company was forced to cut back? Perhaps you found that those things are all liars and do not deliver the promises they make to us. Since you have it straight now, get out of debt and live a free person's life.

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TOYOTA CRASHES
Posted by: Darrell Castle
February 05, 2010
Topic: Personal Injury

What caused Toyota, for many years the gold standard of reliability and quality control, to have so many problems with crashes, sudden acceleration, catastrophic injuries, and deaths? According to Ralph Nader, consumer advocate and former Presidential candidate, Toyota should carry much of the blame for its complacency and loss of control over quality control. Nader asserts the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) must also shoulder its share of the blame. "NHTSA has conducted at least six investigations into Toyota's gas pedal problem in the past several years and closed them with no actions. The agency has refused to subpoena any tests and other information from the company...NHTSA has never issued a mandatory safety standard for gas pedals."

Many lawsuits have been filed against Toyota resulting from sudden acceleration crashes but one filed in Genesee, County Michigan alleges that Toyota and one of its suppliers, Denso, a Japanese firm, were negligent in manufacturing an electronic throttle control system in Camrys and other Toyota models. Toyota said that it had found no problems with its throttle control system, which it began using in 2002. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has said that federal regulators will "continue to look" into whether Toyota's electronic systems pose a safety concern.

Is Mr. Nader correct in his assertion that NHTSA is negligent and bares part of the responsibility for all the crashes and deaths? Hopefully, time will tell who is responsible and who should compensate the families of the victims. In the meantime, if you have been injured in a sudden acceleration crash seek legal advice immediately.

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JOB SEARCH TACTICS
Posted by: Darrell Castle
February 04, 2010
Topic: Bankruptcy

According to a February 3, 2010 article in the Denver Post, many people are unemployed because they use the wrong tactics in seeking employment. People are unemployed longer than before and therefore they are competing for jobs with yesterday's job search skills the article said. The collapse in the Nation's economy has left so many people unemployed that it is now a buyers' market and the employers are screening much more stringently than before. If a company laid off 500 or 1000 employees, that company will probably hire back only 200-300 and the burden is now on the candidates. What worked before is not working now.

On average women remain unemployed three to five months and 80% of men for at least a year. Some of these people have great backgrounds and are finalists for 6 or 8 jobs. "The successful candidate is the one who builds value, with a strategy on the hiring company. Fewer than 10% of all jobs are gotten via job boards, yet better than 80% of job seekers focus their efforts there, studies show." Translation: Employers do not care about you no matter how grand sounding the propaganda from their Human Resources Departments. Doesn't the term human resources say it all? You are a resource and that's just the way it is in the work world. Employers have to keep an eye on the bottom line if they are to survive and potential employees need to be prepared to let the employer know what value they will add to the company. In other words, you can't afford not to hire me and here's why.

Many people are unaccustomed to selling themselves but in order to find work today, you had better not be one of them. Every person is a business person but few know it. Each worker has a commodity to sell-his or her labor. The employer is a reseller of that commodity. He buys the labor at one price and hopefully resells it for a higher price. The employee, therefore, must know the value of the commodity and become a very good sales person in order to remain or become employed. Show the potential employer why hiring you will be profitable for him. Survival doesn't allow him to run his business based on how badly his employees need work. He must instead hire people who will be profitable for him.

My advice: Become a personal marketer and, by any means necessary, get out of debt.

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JUDI CHAMBERLIN 1945 TO 2010
Posted by: Darrell Castle
February 03, 2010
Topic: Personal Injury

Judi Chamberlin, a woman who spent almost her entire life as an advocate for the freedom of the mentally ill, died January 16, 2010 at the age of 65. In 1966, then Judi Ross, age 22, was involuntarily committed to a mental institution in New York City with a diagnosis of chronic depression. She had suffered a miscarriage and wasn't able to get over it or deal with it as some women seem able to do. After voluntarily hospitalizing herself severaltimes, she was involuntarily committed.

Judi was struck by the life committed people are forced against their will to live, even in one of the better hospitals such as hers. "There are real indignities and real problems when all facets of life are controlled; when to get up, to eat, to shower; and chemicals are put inside our bodies against our will," Judi told the New York Times in 1981. There was a lack of activity and fresh air. There were seclusion rooms and wards for noncompliant patients, even those who were not violent. Drugs which made her lethargic and affected her memory seemed intended to control rather than cure. She referred to herself as "a prisoner of the system."

After her release she began working with organizations in the mental health rights movement. In 1978 her book "On Our Own" was published and it became the "bible" of the movement according to Daniel B. fisher of the National Empowerment Center. The book is a set of beliefs and principles which are reflected in the subtitle, "Patient Controlled Alternatives to the Mental Health System." In 2000 she was the primary author of a federal report by the National Council on Disability called "From Privileges To Rights." The report held that in the old system patients had to earn privileges and she advocated for basic rights such as the right to see visitors, to leave the grounds, and to have their own clothes.

Quoting from her book: "The public dislikes mental patients, mentally retarded people, the physically disabled, the deformed or disfigured, and often such people are incarcerated in institutions euphemistically called hospitals, schools and homes. The public's aversion to people who are different is not sufficient reason to justify locking them up."

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WHEN BANKS SAY NO
Posted by: Darrell Castle
February 01, 2010
Topic: Bankruptcy

According to an article in the business section of the New York Times, Sunday January 31, 2010, when small businesses and entrepreneurs lose their source of bank credit, they must go to unconventional lenders or close their doors. A great deal of employment in the U.S. is provided by small business and when financing for day to day operations is not there, many jobs are lost.

Often small businesses need what they refer to as purchase order financing. In the case described in the Times article mentioned above, a small business in New York had a solid order contract for one million dollars of business and needed a one million dollar loan to purchase that inventory. Today, most businesses are purchase order in that they purchase inventory in China or some other country, perhaps do some final assembly, and resell it for a profit. In the case presented, the business, by contract, would purchase one million dollars of inventory and resell it for one and a half million dollars. The business owner went to his old bank, Chase, which had always financed him before, but Chase said no and so did all the other large banks he approached.

Individuals face this same dilemma today. When denied credit to financially survive, what do they do? Often, individuals turn to unconventional sources such as pay day loans and title loans which provide short term financing usually at extremely high rates of interest. This type of financing is impractical for business but there are private lenders who specialize in short term, purchase order financing. The business owner borrows the money to make his purchase and repays it from his profit. If his can't miss product misses, he is stuck and so is the lender. I will add that all his employees are also stuck looking for jobs.

Contained in the new federal budget just out this morning, is a proposal for one hundred billion dollars to aid small business. I wonder what happened to the seven hundred billion dollars already pumped into banks to aid business lending. I wonder, but the Federal Reserve won't tell us because it's a secret. How presumptuous of us to question what happened to our money. Perhaps this time the banks actually will loan the money.

When individuals reach the point of needing pay day or title loans, it is quite often too late to financially recover. The high interest loan simply starts an unstoppable chain of events that leads inevitably to bankruptcy. It is usually better to deal with the problem instead of following the government example of search and avoid the problem. More trouble is on the way so get out of debt as quickly as possible.

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