***My husband has two business degrees. When he got out of college, he worked in management for a large corporation. What does he do now? He is a truck driver. Why? The money is good and there is a LOT less BS involved.*** My bro's college pal makes $50K a year and drives all over the country and is only home two days a week. My cousin who just got his CDL and is making $35,000 a year living in NYC and is working locally. His friend (operator of truck company) makes $100K a year but he also has to make payment to his $100,000 truck, pay his own insurance, his own fuel, etc. I agree that the national average for truck trucking is shabby, not to mention time away from home and the stress dealing w/ safety on the roads and the hazards. If you get several tickets, you get suspended so I am not sure how that is not stressful. You have to be alert all the time and deal with the BS on the roads. I drive 14 miles to and from work and I can fully understand why road rages occur. People drive like idiots!

As a former business owner, I agree with this. DH & I were providing good, above-average for the area jobs for 3-4 full-time employees & one part-time. Sometimes we didn't get a paycheck ourselves, but we always paid our employees on time. We always had to make sure to set money aside to pay our business taxes. We could have used some of that money to give raises or bonuses to our employees, buy new equipment, etc. We could have also used it to pay down our debt, because we did incur some in starting two businesses. We didn't really have any time off. We worked whatever hours we needed, which was frequently 70-80 per week for each of us. Finally, we decided it was just too hard & we sold one business & closed the other. DH's boss is an excellent example. He took a small company started by his father & has grown it into a pretty large regional business, with offices in several states. He has so far avoided laying off employees or cutting wages, though there is a wage freeze in place. He & the rest of the management team there manage their business carefully & they were at least in a pretty good position to deal with the downturn. He does not like layoffs & has always tried to avoid them. Thankfully, he understands that the loss of an employee is also a loss of knowledge & that may not be easily replaced when things start to turn around. Recession is a natural part of the business cycle & we will come out of this. It makes me angry, though, to hear the talk of tax "refunds" to people who don't even pay taxes. DH & I have lived pretty carefully too. Our required expenses like mortgage, etc. are kept so that we can live off of just DH's salary (or any equivalent of the two of us together making that amount). We have no car payments & only a small amt. of debt besides our mortgage. We lived in a small, fixer-upper house for many years. During the years that we had our business, there was no fixing up going on. We finally, at age 40, built a nicer house. The main reason for that was a move for DH's job. When we started dating in 1992, he was making $8.50/hr & I was making $6/hr. We've worked very hard at our jobs, gained experience, & worked our way up to better paying jobs. Do we own some nice things & splurge on a nice dinner out sometimes? Yes. But we've WORKED for that. As the letter above says, there is a back story. That is the case with most people I know. They didn't start out wealthy, they lived within their means & worked hard to get what they have. I remember once I was talking to a visitor in the office about my commute. I said that I just turn on my iPod & it isn't too bad. A co-worker overheard me & commented that "Not all of us have an iPod." I decided to be nice & not say anything to her, but I wanted to mention that the total price of that iPod, which was over a year old at the time, was probably about equal to one payment on her new SUV. People see what they want to see. They are jealous when I can afford an iPod, but don't think about the fact that I drive a 2000 car that was bought used in 2005 while they are making monthly payments on a new vehicle. The people who own businesses & provide jobs should be rewarded, as should those of us who have lived within a budget & saved for our future. I get so tired of hearing about what people "deserve". So many people think that they "deserve" to sit home, watch tv & have kids they don't take care of while the rest of us pay for it. Why should those of us who really work have to pay for the others who won't? I'm not talking about people who actually have unfortunate circumstances due to things they can't control, I'm talking about the ones like in the letter - the ones sitting home waiting for their next welfare check.

That's a good guess. Yes, it is a tech job. I've worked with tech guys for years, so I'm used to them. I well know the "I know everything" attitude of many techies. He is pretty much free to do what he wants. However, I must stay updated about what's going on. I don't ask that this be any more than an email or a quick phone call. I don't expect constant progress updates during the day, just that I'm informed so I can do my job. He's about nine years younger than me, so not a tremendous difference. He's certainly not an all-bad guy & I wasn't trying to imply that he is. He just doesn't seem to take direction well, even when it's legitimate. He seems to want to do his own thing. He doesn't apologize if I talk to him about problems. For instance, the cell phone issue. When I told him that other employees & I needed to be able to reach him & that he should begin carrying a spare battery & make sure to fully charge both at night, he just shrugged. It was if he was telling me that he didn't agree but he'd do it anyway. I don't have the time or desire to micromanage. I just need someone who'll get out & get the job done. I want someone who doesn't need constant supervision, someone who will get the job done without me checking up on them. I sent John an email several weeks ago asking for his input on some things. I was hoping that would make him feel that we were really a team. I didn't get a response. I sent another similar one a few days later, basically asking what goals he'd like to see our dept. work on for the year & what would be important for him. I got no response to that one either. I've asked him to help me research solutions to various problems & to give his opinions on products. I've told him more than once that he was welcome to make suggestions & that I'd consider all of them. I meant it. I've had employees over the years make excellent suggestions. You're right that this is a lose-lose situation for everyone.

My DD's MIL and FIL both retired young. They both worked for the State (as do I) and he retired at 58 but she kept working so they would have the insurance. She finally burnt out and left and they have purchased insurance through our State's exchange-it is far less for them than paying the COBRA premiums. I haven't yet had a chance to ask her about the plan they got, but she said it's quite affordable. Once I hear from her that will determine if I retire in August or wait till next December. Or do I look for another job with insurance for DH and I. Hopefully your state has expanded their health care under the ACA. Thankfully I live in a very Blue state.