Update: I'm unemployed again

There has been a change in my situation effective today. My temp assignment as a customer service rep at DHL ended Friday, which means I am now unemployed. I have also left the downtown YMCA where I have been staying since last July and I am in a Knights Inn in Mesa as of this afternoon. I will be here all this coming week and most likely next week. Where I will go next depends on how much money comes to me in the next 7-10 days, from work or the generosity of friends and/or strangers.

Immediate needs: If I can raise enough money to stay in this new hotel room for the rest of February that should be enough time for me to find new employment or figure out what else to do. The temp agency I worked for has said they will keep an eye out for new assignments, but I have nothing lined up, and this is after sending out several resumes over the last few weeks.

One job I did have an excellent and promising phone interview for about three weeks ago was placed "on hold", apparently for budgetary reasons. Very disappointing as this would have been a nice opportunity for me.

Money for food and mass transit is critical this week and next. I am short on cash immediately because of the new hotel. I have enough for some groceries to get me through the week, but that's about it.

I owe an outstanding balance to the YMCA based on their allowing me to stay there during this past fall when I was in between jobs and unable to pay weekly rent; management has indicated they are no longer willing to work with situations like mine going forward, and I decided it was better to leave and be in slightly better accommodations if only for a couple of weeks. I have one paycheck coming next week from the DHL job.

What I really need are clients willing to commit to my designing their brand identity and willing to accept my payment structure, which involves a limited-time royalty period of a small percentage of gross revenues. My website explains everything in detail.

And what this nation needs is for a stronger job market and a stronger social safety net. I've discussed this at length in previous posts. I'm getting very tired of having to struggle to survive, and equally as tired of hearing about people experiencing worse hardship than even myself. All for no good reason. The economy needs to provide a decent living to all citizens. No excuses. That's our fundamental human right. It's hard to not be in support of strong social programs and "progressive" political policies when you are directly affected by this ongoing recession, and adversely so.

Five things the US can do right now to improve the economy

The following are all hypothetical situations that do not really exist, but they are sorely needed, critical to the long-term success of our economy, and can be passed by Congress Monday morning and on the President's desk by Friday to sign.

1. Repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) and implement the United States National Health Care Act (HR 676), to establish a universal single-payer health care system in the United States. Estimated savings: $500-600 billion per year, compared with the current system dominated by the private insurance and the pharmaceutical industries.

2. Implement a 15% federal value added tax (VAT), levied by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), on most goods and services provided by businesses in the US, and some goods and services imported from outside the US; exceptions can be made for food and childrens' clothing items (0%) and services like hotel room rates (10%), and for sales of books/magazines, admission tickets to cultural events and travel within the US (5%). This is intended to replace and/or reduce state and local sales taxes as the localities so designate, with the IRS and US Treasury reimbursing the states/cities accordingly on a percentage basis. Estimated revenue: $750-800 billion per year.

3. Implement a financial transaction tax as proposed in Congress by Tom Harkin, Bernie Sanders, Peter DeFazio and others. Estimated revenue: $50-100 billion per year.

4. Raise the federal minimum wage to $11.25/hr, and require the US Department of Labor to make a cost-of-living adjustment to the minimum wage each year based on the federal Consumer Price Index. If a state minimum wage is higher, that higher state MW still applies, but must be pegged to the CPI.

5. Expand eligibility for unemployment insurance (UI) to anyone who has worked at least six months in a 12-month period, and at least 80 hours per calendar month, and becomes unemployed regardless of the reason for separation. Benefits shall begin at 80% of income earned in the immediate past position for an initial period of 42 weeks, with extensions granted on a case-by-case basis, and automatic extensions in cases where the national economy is poor or the federal unemployment rate is above a specified target level. UI recipients will still be expected to actively seek work and be willing to relocate to another city if necessary to find work (there should be federal financial assistance given to such people relocating to seek work). UI recipients shall also automatically qualify for and receive SNAP benefits if not already.

More things to do after that:
1. Require all public four-year universities in the US established under the Morrill Act, including the related branch/sister campuses of university systems with historical roots in the Morrill Act, to eliminate in-state and out-of-state tuition, as well as certain fees, for admitted students. The US Department of Education will provide block grants to these universities (and also to HBCUs).

2. Require all community college districts in the US to eliminate tuition and fees for all students admitted and enrolled in programs intended and designed for university transfer.

3. Implement fines and other civil and criminal penalties for employers of any size who terminate, penalize, threaten, intimidate or otherwise prevent any or all of their employees from joining a labor union or organizing in large numbers to join a union. Companies who choose to shut down or close a location in response to union organizing efforts will be fined, and if they received economic development benefits in the form of tax incentives, such agreements will be considered nullified and the taxes retroactively assessed to the date of signing of such agreement.

4. Implement fines and other civil and criminal penalties for employers of any size who refuse to hire an applicant on the basis of a consumer credit report or credit score, if the position is not specifically within the financial services industry. If the position is within the financial services industry, the company must not discriminate on the basis of credit score if the position does not involve direct handling of currency and/or confidential customer information.