The Bad Economy

I drove to the restaurant Saturday morning listening to a Wall Street Journal podcast that covered most major news of the preceding week. It went through the Dow's movements, China's unfair yuan valuation, yada yada yada. I slouched in my driver's seat as mundane stories rolled out of the little black cube. Then I heard a story that piqued my interest. Unemployment rates! As soon I heard those two keywords, I elongated my spine and improved my posture as to better comprehend the words being emitted from my static-laced speakers. I assumed it would be more bad news about the job market, but, to my surprise, the report stated that job prospects had risen sharply and the unemployment rate had fallen! Hallelujah! My reaction? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

You see, there's an interesting dichotomy associated with my job search in a slumping labor market. I want a job. I want an entry level job in accounting or financial services (ok, sports teams, I'll work for you too if I HAVE to) in New York City. I want to learn how these organizations operate, what services they provide, and how these services effect inviduals and companies that use them. I want to be good at my job. But at the same time, virtual unemployment(restaurant work requires the IQ of the pizzas being served) is, well, easy. It's not exactly difficult to wake up whenever you'd like to do whatever you'd like however you would like to do it. So while the job market is weak, I can prance around town with a verifiable excuse for my unemployement. I even receive pity on occasion for my situation. But if the job market were to come back, what excuse would I have? What if I could't find a job when there were plenty available? On one hand, I'm excitedly applying for jobs, but on the other hand, I'm using the bad economy as an excuse to not look hard enough.

I love this idea that the economy is bad. It becomes the foremost excuse for just about anything. Lindsay Lohan's back in rehab? Well, she can't find work with this bad economy. Ford's closing down 175 dealerships? That damned economy. Hitler's ghost has risen from the dead and is waiting in the Rhineland to resume his oppressive regime? Stupid move on his part, that job isn't available in this economy. There is a large part of me that feels like our culture has become one reliant upon excuses, and the "bad economy" of this era is serving as the primary get-out-of-jail-free card.