Also, more than half of those surveyed plan to save more in 2010 for things like retirement and emergencies, and 58% think fewer people will lose their jobs this year.
Careers & Workplace
Downsized? Why Not Become a Homeless Squatter?
After a 26-year-old woman in London lost her job and her apartment, she decided to squat in abandoned buildings and live off of food, clothes, and household goods that’d been thrown away. The takeaway: Living on less than $2 a day isn’t so bad.
You Will Be Living in a Place that Resembles Europe. Or Perhaps China or Australia
Because of changes to health care, the credit card industry, personal savings habits, and other parts of the economy, observers say that in the near future the U.S. may not look like the U.S. as we now know it. Instead, it may look a lot like … somewhere else.
Top Speculative Quotes About the Economy
Are we heading for a boom time? A slow slog? Another recession? A ’90s-Japan-like lost decade? A full-on depression? The experts have weighed in, as they’re apt to do.
How Some Guy Named Jorge Made $6,000 Selling Zhu Zhu Pets on eBay
One man in southern California jumped with both feet into the game of snatching up the holiday season’s must-have, can’t-find toy, buying something like 500 robotic hamster Zhu Zhu Pets, which he then sold to desperate parents on eBay for handsome profits.
Check out the story on CNET, so that you can be disgusted and/or learn what to …
Why People Are Poor: No Savings Accounts. Also: Booze, Cigarettes, and Whores
One reason people live poverty-stricken lives in developing countries like Nicaragua is that jobs pay meager wages. Also, there aren’t that many places to save your money. Also, workers spend a big chunk of what little money they do make on vices, including alcohol, prostitutes, and Coca Cola.
Got Money?
Some people are lucky enough to be wondering not how to get money, but what to do with a sum that’s landed somewhat surprisingly in their laps.
Great Expectations in 2010: More Personal Savings and Cheaper Food, Heat, Electronics, and Homes
As we leave 2009 behind, there are many signs that life will be way better in the year to come.
COBRA Still Bites: Opting for No Health Insurance, Even When Gov Pays 65% of Tab
For many unemployed Americans, health insurance isn’t remotely affordable—even with the government subsidizing 65% of former workers’ policy premiums.
The Top ‘Recession Porn’ Stories of 2009
With an apparently resurgent economy, the media genre known as recession porn may be gone for good. What, exactly, is recession porn? You know it when you see it. Basically, it’s the fascination with all the weird ways the recession has affected different groups of people—the rich and privileged especially, because everyone knows the …
Higher Incomes, Less Happiness
A recently released study by the CDC reveals that people who live in sunny, warm states—Hawaii, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee, and Arizona are the top 5—report the highest levels of satisfaction in their lives. But what I find most interesting is what’s going on at the bottom of the list: The states with the least happy people tend …
You Need to Save. But Collectively, We Need to Spend
Does anyone see a conflict here?
