"Older job seekers face age discrimination, some face death"

Sad stuff courtesy of Zingularity (scary that the two victims in this story are right around my age)…

I’ve known two friends who died over the last year because they were unemployed. One was an architect, the other an engineer. They were both laid off early in the recession and could find no gainful employment, not even temp work in their field, no matter how many resumes they put in or how many interviews they went on. They exhausted unemployment insurance, savings, retirement savings, and charity. Is it at all unsurprising that eventually, they might have succumbed to depression from time to time, or had a difficult time getting fired up about that next job interview?

Over and over, as months turned into years, they had to make brutal financial choices, power bill or medications, gasoline for the car to get to an out of town job interview or risking a lapse on car insurance, etc. The very first thing that gets sorted to the bottom of the deck when you are facing that Faustian bargain are routine check ups and basic meds. One of them had developed borderline diabetes, one day they got into the bath tub, apparently their blood sugar crashed, they passed out, hit their head on the side and drowned. The other one got up one morning, was sitting on his bed, fell forward and there was no one there to reposition his body, check his airway, or call 9-11. They were 49 and 47 years-old respectively. They both probably fell prey to conditions that could have been easily prevented, or at least detected and managed. Neither had been to a doctor in years. 

When this happened the knee-jerk reaction of almost everyone I saw, in one way or another, was to try to figure out some way that it was the deceased’s own fault. They didn’t try hard enough to get a job, they had a bad attitude, they got depressed and drank too much or laid around too much, their expectations were unrealistic, they didn’t know how to manage money — that last one is particularly hilarious. I would love to see how one manages money when fixed monthly expenses vastly exceed monthly income. Without engaging in fantasy, like step one: find an apartment or buy a house costing $50 a month...

People would hang this post mortem diagnosis on the flimsiest of evidence, some offhand comment one made on the phone about wanting to get a pair of used ski boots. That single hearsay comment was used to justify the conclusion that that guy just didn’t have his priorities straight. Even though he never got any boots, he just supposedly mentioned one time to one friend that he saw some on Craigslist. 

What Was He Doing Wasting Time On Craigslist Looking At Used Ski Boots! Aha! He Wasn’t Even TRYING. That explains everything. 

And this wasn’t done by detractors or cruel people, this was what transpired among the closest friends who dearly loved the these guys. Because I assure you, this isn’t rare, it’s human nature. I’ve experienced it first-hand, blame and shame the unemployed or underemployed. 

There was only one guy I know, in one case, who tried to intervene near the end and get one those friends some help. And the rest of us should have taken that concern a lot more seriously than we did. 

They were victims of the recession, a recession they had no hand in at all, and they are just two out of uncounted thousands of middle-aged unemployed who never had a fucking chance.