I should have studied Chinese

From watching the news and reading I've heard that unemployment is now at 9.9%. But wait! The government's statistics count as "being employed" those people who have returned to school (and likely are taking out megaloans, which can't be good for the future) because they can't find work, whose Unemployment Insurance has run out, half of a couple who've gone down to one income from two, and prematurely "retired", as being employed. I figure that a realistic unemployment figure is at least double, or 20% plus. This is a real Depression, folks, not a "recession".

It's amazing how much one can learn, without even paying for a school's tuition, just by observing, when one has the time due to lack of work. One thing I've learned is that it takes one to two years before the employment rate starts catching up to the recovery of a stock market. There are many conceivable reasons for this: companies benefiting from foreign trade, resurgence of profits from derivatives, collection on loans, new loans, what have you. But for those of us who were not in a secure spot before the fall, things won't be getting better for a long, long time.

This has got me to reconsider an idea from the recent past: Is it better to be homeless in the U.S., or in, say, Amsterdam? If one winds up losing one's physical home, and one is not tied down with a family, how much of a hardship would it be to just uproot, and "walk the earth"? My Oldsmobile is on its last legs unless I pour some major maintenance money into it. Replacing it with a van or RV would open up some seemingly practical possibilities. No one should count on finding permanent work anywhere, much less in only one location. Mobility is a valuable advantage in such an environment. This could be the rebirth of a nomadic culture. Such had occurred in the 1960s, although for very different reasons. But humans were nomadic hunter-gatherers for most of our existence, hundreds of thousands of years. This time instead of chasing after berries and meat those of us who hit the road will be chasing after bread, cheddar, sustenance.

Some future postings will detail such experiences as result from actions taken along these lines. Anyone with constructive experiences in these topics, feel free to post a reply here (at least, unless there's literally hundreds of you!).

By The Way: I, myself will not very likely go to China or India, but Latin America, Canada, and Europe are distinct possibilities. All I need is a passport.

"It's after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything!" - Tyler Durden.