Our jobs, our bosses, our masters.

Well, it's time to go get my unemployment review. I despise this, but it's the price I pay for taking advantage of a social insurance program.

I was laid off for 11 months, worked hard to get a professional certification, ran out my unemployment, waited three months while an employer told me I HAD the job, I just needed to wait... I even passed on other jobs while waiting.

They employed me two months, and laid me off again.

Now, I'm on the unemployment extension. I'm getting interviews, but it takes everyone months to decide these days.

This is for a man with a degree, professional certifications, and over 15 years of experience in the field.

Meanwhile, my girlfriend, a lady with some college, and over a decade of experience as a legal secretary, is working at a local bakery for little pay, no insurance, and virtually no experience.

Employers in the U.S. have dangled the horrors of offshoring our jobs and the false rationalizations of "foreign competition" in front of us to turn the upper levels of our corporations into their own personal, highly paid fiefdoms. In my last job, I BEGGED my boss for vital information about the project he'd handed to me, but he spent all his time downstairs in the cafeteria flirting with the Starbucks girl. Eventually, I managed to put together the plan, partly on my own, partly with the help of vendors, partly with the advice of other departments, and the project was clicking along.

But, that period when I was lacking essential info showed up in some of the reports. When those hit the committees, I got shit canned by my boss to save his own worthless skin.

This is our life these days. While the right wing rants about the opressive government, our lives have been taken over by the private sector, which is not accountable to us in any way. They can use us, discard us, limit our advancement on a whim, work us whatever hours they want for no pay, and exploit us in any way they see fit to.

It's maddening.

Where is our dream of a meritocracy?