What it means
Unemployed: soon invisible,
�after a while, unemployable,
�unwanted, with your future
�eroding along with confidence,
�sense of self, the family
�cracking along old fault lines.
�And what do you do? Age.
�
Out of work: out of security,
�out of value, out of the routine
�that organizes the days, out
�of health insurance, out of
�the house when the mortgage
�can’t be paid, out on the street,
�out of society, out of luck.
�
Your job was shipped
�overseas. Your job and two
�others are being done now
�by one frantic worker.
�A robot replaced you.
�Your company was bought
�and demolished.
�
Somebody elected you
�superfluous, a discard.
�Somebody made money;
�somebody bought a yacht
�with your old salary. Some-
�body has written you off,
�somebody is killing you.
�
At night when you can no
�longer sleep, don’t blame your-
�self. What could you have
�done? Nothing. Choices were
�made to fatten dividends,
�bloat bonuses, pay for a new
�trophy wife and private plane.
�
You did nothing wrong
�except your birth. Wrong
�parents. Wrong place. Wrong
�race. Wrong sex. If only
�you’d had the sense to be
�born to the one percent
�life would be truffles today.
�
�
