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OddTod Laid Low by the Law
nickynicky9doors writes "The International Herald Tribune has a NYT article on the recent woes of Tod Rosenberg who started 'Laid Off: A Day in the Life'. Mr. Rosenberg started www.oddtodd.com to tell the tale of a laid off guy who spends days watching TV and eating chips. Oddtod became so successful Mr. Rosenberg reaped cash donations and national TV exposure. Unfortunately it also brought the attention of the Department of Labor who have explained the catch of having to be actively looking for work while collecting unemployment benefits. Another dot com bust."
I bet the Department of Labor just wishes they were as successful as this "unemployed" guy.
"Will work for 15 minutes of fame"
Money for nothing, pix for free
"$405 a week..."
That's about 4x as much as I make as an employed college student. Somebody sign me up for unemployment!
Mr. Rosenberg started www.oddtodd.com to tell the tale of a laid off guy who spends days watching TV and eating chips.
I didn't know CowboyNeal's first name was 'Todd'....
I wonder if the same argument would apply to someone collecting donations on the street. While it is likely that these people are not collecting unemployment how do they define "earning money". On the same note would gambling also be considered "earning money", I know in Canada winnings are not taxable yet there are some professional gamblers that Revenue Canada is attempting to tax due to the fact they consider it a job.
I stole this Sig
I've been (mostly) unemployed in NYC for almost 8 months now. I've spent much of that time on a new web project:
http://subintsoc.net
If someone actually buys the t-shirt we've got for sale on the site, the Dept. of Labor could come after me for making money while collecting unemployment benefits. Then again, technically, it's not a dot-com...it's a dot-net. So maybe Microsoft will come after me instead...
If you visit, try the new do-it-yourself Terror Warning Generator!
And remember, Cogito Ergo Rebello...
Nobody is better at doing nothing than me. To prove my point; he's doing a show about him doing nothing while I'm doing nothing about me doing nothing.
There, I beat him fair and square.
Leave it to our good ol' Merkin government to make sitting on one's ass and eating potato chips a crime punishable by back taxes.
Looking at some unemployment requirements, most of them require you to be making "contacts looking for work". If his web site has had a million visitors, well I think I could argue that he's made a million potential work contacts. I suspect if times weren't so bad in his chosen field, he probably would have had dozens of job offers by now.
After all, isn't looking for a job simply marketing? I think he's done a pretty good job at marketing, although I'm not sure what type of picture he's portrayed of himself...
Answering emails all day could also count. Perhaps he was answering emails to prove to people he could be useful. Perhaps each email is a job contact.
I could go on all day. Someone could really have fun with this....
You too can be a drain on society! Join one of our groups listed below. Be as funny as possible while you're at it and no one will think poorly of you.
1. Rich people who file for bankruptcy
2. Able people who file for unemployment
3. Healthy people who abuse insurance claims
4. Smart people who don't apply themselves
Seriously, unemployment benefits are a lifesaver for many people who don't have the ability or the opportunity to quickly find new work. Don't be surprised if one day it gets as screwed up as medical and car insurance by people screwing the system. YOU ultimately pay for it.
As somebody currently collecting unemployment, I can say that it's bullshit. First of all, the "maximum" is ridiculously low. Secondly, unemployment benefits are taxed. Thirdly, you don't get to collect unemployment if you earn a fraction of your measly unemployment check. Meaning, I'm bored to tears. They want me to be employed. But, if I get a MINIMUM WAGE job while I'm waiting for a REAL job, then I'm ineligible for unemployment. In essence, instead of getting some grunt job while I'm waiting for a real job, I'm encouraged to stay COMPLETLELY unemployed. It's complete bullshit.
Myth 1: You make that much on unemployment? You lucky fuck!
Reality: If you filed after Jan 6th, 2002, the California state employment maximum is 330.00 a week, for up to 26 weeks. You can't file again for a year, and you have to have worked a substantial amount during the benefit year to be able to get more. That's 8580.00 to last a year, before taxes. Yes, it's taxable. That's well below the national "poverty line".
Myth 2: Well, still, it's enough to live on, you lucky fuck.
Reality: Maybe where you live, but not everywhere. In most major cities in the US, it's not enough for basic living expenses. Move to the country? Well, there aren't any jobs there, either, and less infrastructure. Oh, and if you have any other expenses, you're pretty much screwed. For example, I pay 100.00 a week in child support (a very modest sum), so I have to live on 230.00 a week. If I had a car payment, student loans, or other debts, I'd be toast. As it is, my lease locks me into over 1500.00 a month in rent. Hey, you do the math -- it's pretty grim.
Myth 3: You're better off getting a job at Wal-mart or something.
Reality: A "good" basic job might pay the same as the unemployment, but it'll also eat 40 hours a week of job-hunting time -- and management at that McJob isn't going to let you go on interviews every other day, either. Even if the McJob might pay a little more, it may hinder your ability to get Work In Your Field, which is a net loss in the long term.
Myth: People on unemployment are lazy anyway.
Reality: A lot of people treat job hunting as a full time job in and of itself, spending hours a day sending out resumes, querying employers, researching, etc. Do they sometimes get depressed and do nothing? Sure -- and that's perfectly normal for such a demoralizing, life-changing event.
Myth: You're supposed to take any job you can get.
Reality: In California, at least, there is no expectation that you will "take any job". The state expects you to look for work in your field, and to accept a reasonable offer of work, or explain to their satisfaction why you didn't. A job offer asking you to move 2000 miles is not reasonable, but one with a 20 percent cut in pay may be.
I could go on and on here, but the bottom line is, it's not a day in the park. I'm one of those people trying to do the best I can to get a job, while working to improve my chances -- which can be tough. For example, I had to get special permission from the State to take college credit classes -- they had to be things that would help me gain job skills, and I couldn't take the classes during any time that would prevent me from working or looking for work. I ended up taking internet-based community college courses that required no deadlines or class meetings.
People have asked me, "So, that Odd Todd thing, is that how it is?" and I've told them that it's a lot like that, yeah. I get up and I feel crappy that I can't find a job. Like many of my unemployed friends, I don't go out the way I used to because it costs money. There's a lot of inertia involved -- but it's not about laziness and it's not about "scamming the system." It's just about unfortunate economic realities, folks.
C'mon, guys, give him a bit of credit. He's followed the dotcom business plan to the letter and made a few bucks!
Step 1: Register domain name.
Step 2: ??????????
Step 3: Profit!
Hey Taco! Looks like you're using the "infinite monkeys and typewriters" scheme to generate Ask Slashdots again...
Oddtodd's animation is obviously fictional and hyperbolic. It isn't a videotape, and there is no guarantee it matches reality. I hope the Department of Labor has better proof than the Flash file.
:-)
Besides, setting up a website that generates lots of traffic in order to promote oneself is in my opinion an EXCELLENT way to seek employment.
Myth 6: The benefits system has any kind of internal consistency.
Reality:
I was pretty young and naieve then, you can tell. The trouble was that I didn't understand that the system is set up to support binary states: In work. Out of work. Nothing in the middle, no gray areas. You practically have to lie through your teeth (with the state's tacit collusion) to get enough to live on, and at some point when you get a job that pays a living wage, you're expected to stop lying.
Trouble is, once you get used to the idea that pretty much everybody in the benefits system is involved in a huge scam (and that the benefits office colludes out of compassion), it begs the question: at what point exactly does it become wrong to lie, when at $1 a week less, it was OK?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
This guy was supposed to have been head of business development at a dot com but you'd never know it from looking at his Web site. His sad sack sense of humour may have gotten him some sympathy and attention but I doubt if an employer would hand him responsibility based on what they see at his site.
If he's in business development you'd expect him at least to use the success of the site to promote his skills to a potential employer. There's not even a resumé. He actually has some ads at the bottom of the home page and buried behind a link called Odd Todd Officials, but even when you find them they're so poorly done you're not sure what you're looking at.
From the point of view of getting a job, his site is worse than useless. Let's see how his goofy outlook holds up after another few months of eating potatochips.
The article said "unemployed people are supposed to be actively looking for work, not spending all of their time answering e-mail, drawing cartoons and getting interviewed on television about being unemployed."
Well, what does Todd say on a page behind a like entitled "Gimme a JOB"? "you'd have to really pay me alot to take me off schedule on producing cartoons for this site."
Sounds to me like they have a case.
Cheers,
Philip
Esli epei etot cumprenan, shris soa Sfaha.
In fairness, though, unemployment is meant to keep you afloat from week to week while you look for a job. It's not not meant to be a long-term anti-poverty program (those exist but unemployment isn't one) and it's misleading to talk about as a year's pay.
Not to disparage you or anyone who is out of work -- some of my friends are going though the same thing and it breaks my heart to watch. I wish I could be more positive, but I think the reality is that the days of high-paying web development and admin jobs for high school dropouts and liberal arts majors are over, and they're never coming back.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
I have no way of knowing, but I am wondering about the people complaining about their meager benefits, and talking about how they can't afford to pay their bills with their unemployment checks, and how they can't afford living in a $1500 apartment (but would never get a roommate).
I am wondering if they are the same people who, a year and a half ago, were all buying copies of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged and constantly posting to slashdot that government has no business taxing the wealthy (and therefore deserving) to help out the poor (who should just get up and start their own businesses).
The reason I wonder is that there seem to be fewer Randroids, "you don't work... you don't eat" people, people who complain and whine that underemployed people complain and whine. And there are more people talking about inadequate unemployment benefits, and how the government should help people pay their rent and food while they go to school to improve their job skills.
I know that it could be a coincidence, but I keep wondering if they are the same people.
God is real unless declared integer
is downright depressing.
I would know.
You send 3 million resume's out to the world no one calls.
As a goof I listed as experience:
God/Emporer Of Networing
One company called and wanted to know what that entailed...
"You know, setting upsacrifices, virgin burning, the usual."
I don't blame this guy for blowing off a little steam.
This
And now they won't get you a suitable job? The cads! When will it stop? When will the promise, nay, the guarantee of low-cost (actually, NO cost) cradle-to-grave care be realized???
What's more, almost no Wal-Mart or K-Mart or any other retail store is going to give you a full-time job. You'll be stuck at 25 hours a week, maximum, because if they let you work any more they'd have to pay you benefits--and they'd rather have twice as many half-time workers and not pay the benefits.
Editor Emeritus and Senior Writer, TeleRead.org
$1500.00 for rent... Holy crap.. I strongly reccomend moving to the midwest or other technical center and get your cost of living to a reasonable level
I see this working...
Welfare Social Worker: So you got laid off in California and you moved here to collect benifits?
Me:Yes, A poster on slashdot told me it was cheaper to rent here.
Welfare Social Worker: You know you have to live and work in THIS state for X months before you can collect benifits from our state?
Me:You mean that poster didn't think seriously about it before he said it?
Welfare Social Worker: Exactly! Have a nice day!
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