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Surviving in a "rigged" economy

6/4/2018

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Here’s a very good—if not downright shocking--exposition of how the deck is stacked against 90% of the population, and how income inequality is being programmed into our system at this time in America. It’s worth reading 45 printed pages, if you want to understand what happened and how it affects YOUR PERSONAL PLACE in our society.

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/06/the-birth-of-a-new-american-aristocracy/559130/

What do you tell yourself and anyone who may not be born to the 1% class or the 9.9% class?

Think of our system as a game with rewards and penalties. Figure out how you can play to “win” a “decent life.”

THINGS WE CAN CONTROL

ONE: HAVING A CHILD TOO SOON

Don’t be a young, uneducated single parent. Learn about sex and contraception if your school and parents don’t teach you. Know how to use contraception, and use it. This knowledge & practice may make the difference between life-long poverty and “a decent life.”

Know your options for accidental pregnancy. Young fertile women: go back to old times if you have to, GO UNDERGROUND, REBEL. It is a different world now with the Internet, books and pills via online order. Women from the beginning of time have helped each other.  You can avoid unplanned pregnancy.

When I read about unwed girls who are eighteen and have three children, and they are crying about not being handed a “decent life,” good luck. You needed to be smarter. Would you change places with your first, second and third baby? Our society may try to support the babies but see below (mean times in the USA…)

Be the best parent you can be, because, Stewart notes, “the single best predictor of [a good life] … is the performance of his or her parents.”

TWO: EDUCATION

Get an education that gets you a living wage.  At a minimum, a technical certificate through a community college. Do you want to spend your life in poverty? Don’t give yourself a mountain to climb. Not everybody likes school. But minimum-wage jobs will not support a family, and without benefits, the minute you hit back luck, you’re out (of the running for “a decent life”).

THREE: VOTE

If you did not vote, or you voted for the people in authority now, watch how your safety nets are being cut: health care, child care, minimum wage, food stamps, unemployment, subsidized housing, pensions. Schooling for your child. The ability to earn a living wage AND take care of a family. There is one tiny POWER that you have: you can vote for people who believe in helping people, and who will try to reverse the trend toward growing the under-class and leaving the 90% to fend for themselves.

FOUR: MARRY WISELY

Sure, fall in love. Young and old. But you do not have to marry somebody right away, to start building a relationship that is the foundation for a marriage. Postpone children until you have confirmed that you have a partner who will help you, not ruin and break you. Marriage is a financial contract. You give control over your life to another person and maybe their family. If your judgment is off, or you were wrong or misinformed, bail out.

Again, women from the beginning of time have had networks that helped other women get out of a bad situation. We have never had so much information available on signs of danger, advice about domestic violence, Help Lines, shelters for women and children. Women before us, and in some cultures, are consigned to be victims in a bad marriage for the rest of their lives. Exercise your choice and ask people to help you.
 
​THINGS WE CANNOT CONTROL (YOU NEED LUCK)

BAD HEALTH

Some of us inherited mental illness and it might kick in around your early 20’s. Inherently, you are not rational and capable of coping. You have to be lucky in having parents and other adults figure out what is happening, and get you good care, and bail you out. You might have an accident before you are covered well by insurance, or fall ill. Catastrophic bills, inability to work. Nobody plans for this.

ADDICTION

Your circumstances, or a serious illness, can lead you or your family member down the path to addiction. There is public-funded rehab, but that’s the kind of service that is being cut. There may be detox and jail. Stewart notes the rise in “deaths of despair.”

BORN THE “WRONG KIND” IN YOUR WORLD

You may grow up and realize you are a member of a group that is disadvantaged, a thousand and one ways. You are female, gay, dark-skinned, a believer in a religion that has been stigmatized. Toxic things can happen to “your kind” on the street and in the workplace. You might try inoculation: learn about the toxic things, how to respond so you stay alive and mentally well, and how to thrive in spite of the adversity. Don’t be naïve. Try not to be killed, beaten, raped, fired. You are navigating a zone of hostility. But you can learn about MANY people of “your kind” that have made it to success and who will support you, and advise you, and heal you. (Yes, you can RESIST. See “try not to get killed,” and “VOTE” above.)

BLOCKS TO EDUCATION, JOBS

You can find yourself in an environment where education costs too much, there are no jobs right now (depression, recession), or people will simply not let you have them. (e.g., Unconscious or conscious discrimination) Immigrants in America have shown us that you can come in from outside and beat “the system.” You may have to have extraordinary grit, savvy, and luck. Take the hand that’s dealt, and play it.
 
The irony of our young people, more boys than girls, is that they learn complex online games that have esoteric, bizarre rules, with points and scores, and with surprise enemies and obstacles built into the game. That is what life is, except that there aren’t enough help tutorials to tell you everything you need to know up front. And losing really hurts. You discover some of the obstacles through experience, and sometimes you cannot recover. It can be “game over” regarding success, security, and comfort—happiness. Or, you have to muster really hard. You have extra mountains to climb, in this game.
​
As a holocaust survivor advised: “Try to make a life.” [-per Margot Friedman’s mother]
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The writing life and people in it

3/17/2018

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Even if I don’t make serious money by writing and publishing, the satisfactions of this hobby/activity are GREAT. I highly recommend it, if you can afford it.

For example, a big challenge after you have published a book is getting POSITIVE reviews. You ask your friends to post reviews. You ask your friends to VOTE DOWN bad reviews (on Amazon). People count reviews. People discount the power of reviews.

Basically, a review enhances the summary of the book that comes with its “For Sale” posting. Readers might relate the story to themselves, and they might recommend it.

If you think writing the book was hard, and getting it published was hard, welcome to the world of “getting reviews.”

Because we have the Internet, we have thousands of opinions about what is “good” and “bad.”

Yes, people knock on your door and offer a review for some compensation.

I have an offer from people who will display my physical book in a national book fair and “give it some attention” for $600-$1500. (I pointed out that since the book we were discussing is sold for 99 cents, with no royalty, I would be INVESTING in GIVING AWAY MORE COPIES.) Will it make me rich or famous?

I just commissioned Aimee Ann of Red Headed Book Lover Blog to write a review of My Boat Is So Small. It is a positive review. Her blog is a big library of beautifully displayed books that she has reviewed. I was concerned about her scope, and taste. She includes spiritual non-fiction, Zen Buddhism, erotica, and dystopian fantasy, along with romance. (That’s been a problem: it seems to me that most volunteer reviewers want to review romances, and they might hate your book—on the Internet—for not being a romance, especially not a “clean romance.”)

I read a discussion panning Aimee Ann’s reviews: “she didn’t read the book,” “wanted money,” etc.

But what if I thought of her work as PROMOTION, and MARKETING? She emphasizes interaction with readers. She puts your book up beautifully, with the dozen related links, especially the “buy” links. What if her review isn’t a “highly credentialed” comment on your book and your writing, but an enhanced summary, in language that many other people might even prefer to your own language?

What’s wrong with a BIG LIKE?

As a former librarian, I like having my book in her library. I don’t mind a few glowing words in its favor. She is reaching people I will not reach.

She describes herself as “a redheaded wife of a perfect Marine and a mother of four beautiful red-haired children.” That suggests to me that she’s found a way to be part of the literary scene and work from home. She’s created her own job. She’s an entrepreneur. She’s resourceful. And talented. And passionate about books. Like a self-appointed librarian. Who likes finding good things to say about a wide variety of books.

See here: https://redheadedbookloverblog.com/2018/03/17/my-boat-is-so-small-ruta-sevo/
​

I’ve asked her to do another book, which is the novel written by my great-grandmother. It might find a few more readers. I think Sofia Zubov will smile in heaven.
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Careers, fantasies

6/24/2015

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When we talked about “careers and you” in middle school, I thought I wanted to be a surgeon or a nuclear physicist, because they earned a lot and they had infinitely interesting work.

When I was in college in the 1960s, I met a female surgeon in the airport. She said she was one of four female surgeons in the country. I asked her if she would recommend that career. She said you have to expect harassment all the way, and lots of push-back. “You’ll have to be very, very tough.”

I didn’t feel tough. I learned there were quotas for females in medical school. I had no idea how you financed a dream like that. My major was literature, because that door was open and fun.

Recently I did a reality check. Late in life I am aware of MANY careers that I would have liked. Who knows if I would have liked being a doctor? Many are unhappy because of paperwork, pressures to turn over patients, etc.

Here’s what might have worked had I known about them:

Surgeon
Psychiatrist
Psychologist
Mediator
Think tank/policy analyst & researcher
Successful novelist
Herbal medicine
Documentary film maker
Journalist
Translator/interpreter at UN level
Graphic artist
Science data simulation expert
Girl Scout professional
Forest ranger
Prosthetics designer
Doula/nurse practitioner w/refugees

Many kids head for careers that someone in their family already has. They choose majors in college having no work experience, with no idea what it costs to live, well or simply.

Advice I wish I’d gotten early:

Open your mind to a wide range of careers that match your personality. At twenty or so, your work experience is limited, even through your family and friends. Before you commit to a career and invest in years of preparation, get an assessment of personality and your fit with certain kinds of work and environments.

One example is the Birkman Method (https://www.birkman.com/). Or the Strong Interest Inventory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_Interest_Inventory). Also Myers-Briggs for generally, how you interact with the world (http://www.myersbriggs.org/my-mbti-personality-type/mbti-basics/).

For example, I know a number of ex-lawyers who passed the bar and three months in, found they hated the work, the conditions of work, or the culture. Teachers who love to teach and find out they can’t stand a room full of kids every day. People in academics who discover that they really like doing projects for clients more than writing papers and putting up with academic politics.  (That was me, a very unhappy starting academic.)

A few hundred dollars can save you regretting years and thousands spent on a degree.

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    Ruta Sevo

    Writer, Advocate,
    Crone, Boomer,
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