Interesting story today on MSNBC.com about how bad credit can keep you from getting a new job: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35512038/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy
What a bitter pill in today's economy. People have bad credit histories for all kinds of reasons, but that doesn't necessarily make them bad people or unreliable. Stats show that more and more employers are checking job applicants credit histories before hiring. The good part is that there is some backlash. Checking people's credit should be limited to those occasions where an employee would be handling money for your company, critics say.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
How Money Or Lack Thereof Can Define Us
Last week I stumbled upon two very different blogs--one was by a homeless man and the other by Alexandra Penny, another victim of Bernard Madoff, who lost everything. They came from two different perspectives, but their stories sounded eerily similar. There lack of money was, at least at this point, the total focus of their lives.
I suggest that most of us, including me, plod through life, going to work, having fun, paying the bills, without thinking much about what if we were unable to do these things. What would it mean to our daily lives, our social lives, our self worth?
To the homeless man, it means hardly ever getting a good night's sleep, because when he sleeps on the street, he is so wary he wakes up at every little noise. When he sleeps in a shelter, he never gets to sleep past 5 a.m., as all the shelters wake the homeless up that early and send them off for the day. The result is chronic sleep deprivation. It also means maybe judged too harshly or dismissed as worthless by others because of his homelessness. There are too many other complications stemming from homelessness to go into them here.
For Alexandra Penny, an editor and artist, to lose everything in her late 50s or 60s must have been frightening, especially when she had worked so hard to save to take care of herself down the road. Penny got chastised from readers who left comments indicating they thought she was a diva or spoiled brat. Join the real world, they said. We don't have multiple homes or wear Manolo shoes. Maybe there is some truth to that, I don't know her. But no matter who you are--to suddenly lose your safety net and your status quo would be terrifying for sure.
Penny will turn out OK, there is no doubt. She is part of a great and powerful network; the homeless man is not. But just for a short time they had the same concerns: Where will I get money? What if I can't pay my bills? Does this define me to the point that people think of me differently?
I suggest that most of us, including me, plod through life, going to work, having fun, paying the bills, without thinking much about what if we were unable to do these things. What would it mean to our daily lives, our social lives, our self worth?
To the homeless man, it means hardly ever getting a good night's sleep, because when he sleeps on the street, he is so wary he wakes up at every little noise. When he sleeps in a shelter, he never gets to sleep past 5 a.m., as all the shelters wake the homeless up that early and send them off for the day. The result is chronic sleep deprivation. It also means maybe judged too harshly or dismissed as worthless by others because of his homelessness. There are too many other complications stemming from homelessness to go into them here.
For Alexandra Penny, an editor and artist, to lose everything in her late 50s or 60s must have been frightening, especially when she had worked so hard to save to take care of herself down the road. Penny got chastised from readers who left comments indicating they thought she was a diva or spoiled brat. Join the real world, they said. We don't have multiple homes or wear Manolo shoes. Maybe there is some truth to that, I don't know her. But no matter who you are--to suddenly lose your safety net and your status quo would be terrifying for sure.
Penny will turn out OK, there is no doubt. She is part of a great and powerful network; the homeless man is not. But just for a short time they had the same concerns: Where will I get money? What if I can't pay my bills? Does this define me to the point that people think of me differently?
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