Yes, I do have a full-time job, and I even enjoy it, but it doesn’t pay enough to survive in this hellscape of a world we live in. I lack the college degree required to get almost any decent-paying job (plus my last job hunt took MONTHS to get a lead), I don’t have the skills or originality to become an online content creator, nor the artistry or patience to create and sell trinkets on Etsy (plus, that would require an initial investment which I simply do not have). Should I set up a GoFundMe? OnlyFans? I wouldn’t really be offering anything except a charity basket/collection plate so that feels dishonest at best. Idk, I’m quite literally having a breakdown because I’m probably going to lose my car soon, and then my job, and then my apartment, and then my life. Any help at all would be appreciated. Thank you
I don’t know what your current job is, but assuming you work 40 hour weeks, a temporary bandaid is a second job. Wait staff, coffee shop, moving company, landscaping, local bike shop, grocery store - all these offer $16/hr or more for “unskilled” (no college degree) labor. Pick up weekend and evening shifts. You’ll burn out after a few years of this, but it can tide you over while you work on upskilling yourself.
Fuck you and this mindset, I’ve been building on this “model” for years and even in the best of times it’s a crapshoot. My life has been rocketing past me despite the years of skills and experience i have built. NO ONE should need a second job to survive and it is shit even as a bandaid. These jobs are not transitionary jobs for too many people who have children and dont get any healthcare, for too many that can Barely afford a decent life. These are real fucking jobs that deserve compensation.
So once again fuck you for intimating that these people are unskilled or worth less for their work. Fuck you for trying to normalize the working class having to double their shifts to survive. As an educated and experienced person who has struggled, fuck you
I feel like you took this very strangely… I’m in no way degrading these jobs. I brought them up because they have more flexible hours than a 9-5, and therefore you can use one of these jobs to supplement a 9-5 if you need to.
I very intentionally put the word “unskilled” in quotes, and then clarified that that means “no college degree necessary”, because I do not believe these are skill-less jobs - that’s just a common term that people might see and I was literally clarifying what it actually means.
I am an educated and experienced person. I also worked like crazy during college to afford food, school, and my rent. In addition to sometimes having an internship, I worked extra hours at a moving company running boxes up and down stairs all summer or in the dead of winter during break for $12/hr. I worked 70-80 hour weeks, 7 days a week, every week I was not actively in school classes.
I absolutely agree that no one should need a second job to survive. The working class in the US (where I am from and assume OP is from) is subjugated to all hell. Plenty of studies have shown that employees are happier and more productive overall with 4 day work weeks instead of 5, 36 hours instead of 40, etc. Our tax dollars should be going to infrastructure and education and social health care for everyone, instead of the weapons contractors and military size that no one fucking needs. We are worked too hard for the benefit of the select few at the top and it’s fucking terrible and I hate it.
But OP asked for a solution to his problem, right now. Systemically we have so, so much to fix. But today, literally today, OP could walk into a coffee shop or grocery store or moving company and ask for a part time job and likely start one by the end of the week. It’s horrible that he should have to do that to afford his car and his rent and his food. But I just wanted to share that this is something he can do, right now, to avoid finding himself homeless. That is what I meant by “band aid” fix. I truly hope that he is able to find something more stable soon. And while it feels almost impossible, I hope our society somehow learns to value the lives of individuals over the demands of lobbying corporations.