I doubt I'm going to add anything here that someone else hasn't already said, but I can tell you about my own experience (in order of importance):
1) Your current job sounds like your best asset. Someone hiring for basic tech support will at least look at you more closely, as opposed to someone who might not have any troubleshooting experience. Look for a different company that needs first-level support and start there. If you find something, expect to have to start out doing more phone work while you demonstrate that you're learning enough to move up into something else.
Failing that,
2) Find somewhere to do something that demonstrates to people the knowledge and skills that you have and how well you learn. Volunteer if you need to--schools, senior organizations, community organizations, maybe even at your current job--anywhere someone can witness the value you provide. Working for free is not glamorous, but if you can't find a paying job to help you with this then you'll find out just how dedicated you are to accomplishing your goal.
3) Play at home with what you want to do. Force yourself to work on projects that you know will be difficult, and when you're done, start over and do it again better. (Yikes, I sound like Principal Skinner) Build a home network. Build a media center PC. Run a mail server. Run a web server. Learn how to image PCs. Create a hardware independent image. Build a systems management server. Host your own blog. Host your friends' blogs. Write a program. Anything technical that you might enjoy that will teach you more.
On a side note, when I was teaching basic computer classes, I was absolutely astonished at the number of students who honestly believed that just by taking community college courses they would land a dream job at US $50000/yr. Some of them didn't even have a computer at home--honestly! I tried to get through to them over and over again that unless they were passionate about learning computers independently--examples similar to what I listed above--they weren't going to learn enough to get where they were trying to go.
4) Network (socially). Tell people what you're interested in and what you're doing to get there. Someone might provide a lead to a job. Someone might have a project they would like help with. Most of the jobs I had in my life were not found in the newspaper, I was referred to them by a friend who had similar interests to mine. I even found one job at a job fair just by dropping off my resume at the booth run by a local catalog retailer. The job I was looking for wasn't available at the time of the fair, but two weeks later one opened up and I was the first person they called.
5) Continue your education, but focus more on a degree rather than certifications. In my experience, degrees become very important once you're on a career path. If you are at all considering management, finish your degree as soon as you can. Your major is not necessarily important, but completing it is. Certifications are nothing more than a bonus. I wouldn't even bother with them unless you can pass the tests right now. If you don't already know enough that you would need to take a class to pass the tests, then I refer you back to #3 above.
6) Stay off drugs. Nothing sucks more than missing out on a good job op because the company drug tests.
7) Keep your credit clean. Maybe missing out on a good job because they run a credit check sucks a little more than a drug test.
I assume you don't live in the US, so you may not have to worry about these last two, but more than once I've either skipped applying for a job or have withdrawn my application for one of those reasons. (Back in the day:)
From my experience here in the state of Washington, lack of an income tax can be both a benefit and a burden. We pay no state income tax. Sales tax is 8.8%, but it's zero for basic food items. My property tax (in a suburb of Seattle) is about 1.5% of the assessed value of my home. Right now I'm paying about $3/gal for gasoline (I'm not sure how much of that is tax).
While that's great for keeping money in my pocket in the short-term, I've been disaoppinted with the lack of state spending on basic needs--and that leads to expenses that you don't see right away. For example, what would be a 30-minute drive to Seattle under 'normal' traffic conditions turns into 60-90 minutes during your average weekday commute. Rather than build new highways or expand existing highways, the state has focused on expansion only for the purpose of adding HOV lanes. Don't even get me started on the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the SR520 floating bridge, the Tacoma Narrows bridge, or the average state of the asphalt on any major roadway around here.
Police? Ha! I can count on one hand the number of people I've seen pulled over in the last three years. Drivers around here run red lights, pass in no-passing zones, speed, and weave through traffic with impunity. Two weeks ago I was threatened with a gun because I honked at a guy who almost hit me when he made an illegal left turn.
Environment? Ha-ha! The trees and water here are beautiful, but it's sometimes hard to see them past the piles of cigarette butts, dumped mattresses, empty beer cans, and other trash that piles up on the roadsides.
I understand that these are the same issues that people face every day in other communities all across the country--even ones that do pay state taxes. But I can't help but wonder what could be accomplished with the steady income provided if a state tax was implemented.
The question posed here is one that I have asked myself again and again: Is our current administration completely oblivious to the fact that many of their policies are inciting the "terror" in the "war on terror"?
It's a self-fulfilling propehcy. 1) Piss off a wildly passionate group of people. 2) Feel their wrath when they demonstrate their dissatisfaction. 3) Establish reactionary policies that piss them off more. 4) Rinse and repeat.
Military might and occupation will not help us out of this rut, only diplomacy will. Unfortunately, this administration does not seem the least bit concerned with diplomacy. It appears to me that they have adopted the the "my way or the highway" approach to foreign relations. I know how I react to that attitude in my little corner of the planet...
The article was pretty weak--it's just a human interest story--but I understand how its subject feels. As someone who is trying to pay down his own debt, I would be upset if a payment was held up simply because of a government policy. How involved should the government be with the people's money? You'd be better off asking that question when you fill out your tax return each year (assuming that you do).
Isn't the whole point of Slashdot to provide readers a community with which to share experiences, ideas, and opinions?
I don't know about you, but I can read these news articles in any number of other places on the web. I come to Slashdot to read what this community has to contribute to the topic. I use Google to find links to information about a product, but I'll still seek out opinions from people I trust.
Jesus. Needlessly rude Slashdot users make me sick. You missed my point, and then insulted me for your own misunderstanding. I would expect an intelligent poster to be capable of commenting without calling names.
I wasn't looking for technical consistency (real science). I wasn't looking for consistency within the story (the book was funny largely because it was quirky and inconsistent). I was looking for a movie that was consistent with the original plot, characters, and dialog found in the book.
Maybe what you're trying to say is that Adams was inconsistent within all of his work, so I should expect the same in the screenplay. I can accept that. That doesn't mean I have to be happy with major plot changes.
I've seen a lot of people post here who were fiercely upset with changes to something in which they had an emotional investment (Greedo didn't shoot first). I'm upset with the changes made between the book and the movie. If the screenplay writers for The Lord of the Rings decided that Frodo wasn't going to quest to destroy the ring, but rather set out to save his lover from the clutches of Sauron, would you insult a disappointed poster by suggesting that the whole series was fantasy and therefore the changes were just a natural extension of that?
And I am fully aware that Adams wrote/blessed the screenplay. I lost some respect for him because of it. I refuse to believe that he was actually happy with it, but you know, I never spoke with Douglas Adams, I don't honestly know how he felt about it, and I won't proclaim to. I do know that from this fan's perspective I wasn't happy with it.
Your views of what a fanboy should or should not know, or should or should not believe, are irrelevant, and your reference to Babylon 5 and how that applies to my comments was lost on me, as I was never a fan of the series.
I read comments like this and have to wonder if I saw the same movie that you did.
I found HHGTTG in my middle school library in the mid-80's and read the whole thing in one sitting. When I found out there were sequels to Hitchhiker's, and later two Dirk Gently books, I ran out and bought them and also read them in one sitting. More than 20 years later I *still* pick up the "trilogy" and re-read them once per year (except for Mostly Harmless--what was up with that one?).
My point is that I have a lot of emotion invested in the works of Douglas Adams and I was devastated to see how poorly the movie was done. That's not to say that I didn't expect it, but I had hope that someone would stop the madness before it dragged the cult of Hitchhiker's down with it.
The movie was horrible. It wasn't even funny. It followed the book only when necessary to keep it "Hitchhiker's". I couldn't believe it when I read that Adams was apparently happy with how it was progressing before he died. My only consolation is that he never saw how Hollywood massacred his work. I refuse to even buy the DVD.
HHGTTG was funny because Adams wrote it. It's tough to duplicate a voice like his on the big screen. I can't help but think, though, that Hollywood missed a grand opportunity to show that they "got it", because from my perspective they missed the point completely.
I can now only hope that they never try to do "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish".
Written by someone who clearly has never had the experience...
Unless you have a degree in psychology, or more on-topic, are a psychiatrist, I wouldn't waste your effort dismissing what we are "supposed to get from researchers tripping on LSD".
I'm neither a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but I can tell you from my experiences in the drug culture that there is certainly something about LSD that warrants more research into its effects on the mind. I've read that some researchers suggest it could benefit people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, such as rape victims and war veterans. If improving the life of a trauma victim is not a worthy cause, I'm not sure what would be...
Look closer at the earlier lawsuit. He didn't sue his employer, he was suing the Dept. of Labor and Industries because he was injured while he was on the job. He was not seeking awards from his employer, rather, he was seeking an award from the State, and he received it. Ultimately, it was decided that he was on the job when the candy he ate caused his crown to fall out. He felt that the claim should be handled by L&I, and eventually so did the State.
I am not suggesting that I think he was in the right, but the precedent from his case could help others who might be more dramatically affected by similar injuries. Don't be so quick to bad-mouth the guy.
I only fear the HR people that toss out my resume because it is not a carbon copy of the requirements.
You've hit on a very good point, here. I was laid off from my tech job in mid-2001, right as the bubble was bursting. My attitude was that I had too much experience and knowledge to go jobless for long, and I expected to be back in the workforce within weeks. Over a year later I had been through four interviews, and only one was a second. I wasn't selected for that job, either. After submitting hundreds of resumes, I was finally offered a job by a company who FOUND MY RESUME ONLINE and thought I would be a good fit. It would have been more funny to me at the time if I hadn't been on the verge of bankruptcy.
Now my contract is almost up again. I've been applying and interviewing for almost two months. Fortunately, I've already been through more interviews in that time than I did the entire year I was unemployed. The bad news is that I still have not been selected for a job.
Very few companies tell you why you were not selected, especially ones where you don't even make the cut for interviews. One said that they found other candidates with more experience in the banking industry. Others wanted MCSE certification.
What is frustrating me right now are those front-line HR folks. I've applied for jobs that are geographically convenient for the employer and me, that I am *perfectly* qualified for, and that have a company culture that fits with my personality. I have to wonder why I am not being called for interviews. I have a 2-year degree, am an MCP, and have over six years of professional experience with some highly-respected companies. I have great customer service and communication skills that *many* IT folks lack, but in most cases even this combination is not enough to get me in the door.
The idea that a degree or certification qualifies someone for a job is laughable. I provide better support than most MCSEs that I know. I know more about computers and how they work than some of the instructors that I have had in my classes. I am one of the best desktop and network troubleshooters that I have been in contact with. (And I'm humble, too;) Most importantly, I believe, is that I can learn anything that anyone needs me to know, and I can do it in half the time as other candidates, but how do you quantify that on a resume? How do you convince an HR drone that you just need to get your hands on the technology and everything will come together?
The earlier comment that you should only hire someone with a CS degree is crap, IMO. I was lucky enough to gain almost all of my knowledge by preforming functions, rather than reading books. I buy technical books to try and further my knowledge, but I find that until I toss the book away and simply dig in, I'll never learn as much as I am capable of. Unfortunately, that doesn't translate into a screaming resume.
I'm hoping that the economy and the technology industry will pick up again soon, at least to the point where my skills are harder to come by. Until then I have to hope that the HR folks are really taking the time to see me for what I have to offer.
If you know anything about the south Puget Sound area, then this would come as no surprise. I was surprised when I was able to get DSL service when it first came out.
My buddies and I collectively decided to flunk our ASVAB test at the end of high school (a day out of class, and a jarhead who gave us coffee and donuts, what more incentive do you need?). We were later surprised to be called (out of our AP English class) into the guidance counselor's office and grilled about how we defied the law of averages, and didn't even get one question right.
I think the scariest thing about that whole incident was that for years I STILL received calls from our armed forces asking when I was going to come in and enlist.
It wasn't more than a week ago that I was commenting to my girlfriend about this very topic. This was exactly what I considered to be the peak of Saturday morning cartoons, too. I lived for those three hours...
I remember how pissed off I used to get when they'd preempt Bugs for a college basketball game, or something. Oh, and all of the "In The News" tidbits that they'd show during commercials. That's the first place I learned about the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano, and the fabled treasure buried in a mine shaft on Oak Island. Man, I wanted to be a treasure hunter for weeks! Ranks right up there with Schoolhouse Rock.
My opinion? A viscious cycle of bad cartoons and low advertising revenue killed the Saturday morning cartoon. Now, of course, I actually want to watch Saturday sports, so I'm not complaining. Almost all of the cartoons that I still love to watch are on Cartoon Network, save The Simpsons.
Granted, the folks in this forum are already more likely to buy online than your average Joe, but...
I have shopped for virtually all of my non-food items online for years for two reasons: 1) Lower prices can be found online than in my local stores. 2) I haven't had to pay taxes on what I buy fron the net. Throw in the fact that many online retailers will ship for free if you spend enough, and you've got all the reason you need to wait a few extra days for your toys to arrive.
Now, throw on a tax. Add to that a poor economy where deals are harder to find, and where free shipping isn't as common as it used to be. Consider, then, that I am a huge fan of instant gratification.
I no longer have any incentive to buy online. Even with lower prices on the net, tax and shipping will now add up to more than what I would save, and I'd have to wait a few more days to receive it.
Consider, also, what kind of effect this will have on companies that deliver these products to your door.
If the goal is to drive more people into local stores, then this will work like a charm. If the powers that be are sincerely interested in developing e-commerce, they'll re-think this idea. If the States need more money, perhaps they should consider doing a better job of spending they money that they already get from my property, gas and vehicle taxes.
Did it occur to you that he might have had a *savings* account. Jesus, not everyone lives paycheck-to-paycheck. Not everyone who is unemployed accepts unemployment, either.
Grow up.
Slashdot Mirror
1) Your current job sounds like your best asset. Someone hiring for basic tech support will at least look at you more closely, as opposed to someone who might not have any troubleshooting experience. Look for a different company that needs first-level support and start there. If you find something, expect to have to start out doing more phone work while you demonstrate that you're learning enough to move up into something else.
Failing that,
2) Find somewhere to do something that demonstrates to people the knowledge and skills that you have and how well you learn. Volunteer if you need to--schools, senior organizations, community organizations, maybe even at your current job--anywhere someone can witness the value you provide. Working for free is not glamorous, but if you can't find a paying job to help you with this then you'll find out just how dedicated you are to accomplishing your goal.
3) Play at home with what you want to do. Force yourself to work on projects that you know will be difficult, and when you're done, start over and do it again better. (Yikes, I sound like Principal Skinner) Build a home network. Build a media center PC. Run a mail server. Run a web server. Learn how to image PCs. Create a hardware independent image. Build a systems management server. Host your own blog. Host your friends' blogs. Write a program. Anything technical that you might enjoy that will teach you more.
On a side note, when I was teaching basic computer classes, I was absolutely astonished at the number of students who honestly believed that just by taking community college courses they would land a dream job at US $50000/yr. Some of them didn't even have a computer at home--honestly! I tried to get through to them over and over again that unless they were passionate about learning computers independently--examples similar to what I listed above--they weren't going to learn enough to get where they were trying to go.
4) Network (socially). Tell people what you're interested in and what you're doing to get there. Someone might provide a lead to a job. Someone might have a project they would like help with. Most of the jobs I had in my life were not found in the newspaper, I was referred to them by a friend who had similar interests to mine. I even found one job at a job fair just by dropping off my resume at the booth run by a local catalog retailer. The job I was looking for wasn't available at the time of the fair, but two weeks later one opened up and I was the first person they called.
5) Continue your education, but focus more on a degree rather than certifications. In my experience, degrees become very important once you're on a career path. If you are at all considering management, finish your degree as soon as you can. Your major is not necessarily important, but completing it is. Certifications are nothing more than a bonus. I wouldn't even bother with them unless you can pass the tests right now. If you don't already know enough that you would need to take a class to pass the tests, then I refer you back to #3 above.
6) Stay off drugs. Nothing sucks more than missing out on a good job op because the company drug tests.
7) Keep your credit clean. Maybe missing out on a good job because they run a credit check sucks a little more than a drug test.
I assume you don't live in the US, so you may not have to worry about these last two, but more than once I've either skipped applying for a job or have withdrawn my application for one of those reasons. (Back in the day :)
While that's great for keeping money in my pocket in the short-term, I've been disaoppinted with the lack of state spending on basic needs--and that leads to expenses that you don't see right away. For example, what would be a 30-minute drive to Seattle under 'normal' traffic conditions turns into 60-90 minutes during your average weekday commute. Rather than build new highways or expand existing highways, the state has focused on expansion only for the purpose of adding HOV lanes. Don't even get me started on the Alaskan Way Viaduct, the SR520 floating bridge, the Tacoma Narrows bridge, or the average state of the asphalt on any major roadway around here.
Police? Ha! I can count on one hand the number of people I've seen pulled over in the last three years. Drivers around here run red lights, pass in no-passing zones, speed, and weave through traffic with impunity. Two weeks ago I was threatened with a gun because I honked at a guy who almost hit me when he made an illegal left turn.
Environment? Ha-ha! The trees and water here are beautiful, but it's sometimes hard to see them past the piles of cigarette butts, dumped mattresses, empty beer cans, and other trash that piles up on the roadsides.
I understand that these are the same issues that people face every day in other communities all across the country--even ones that do pay state taxes. But I can't help but wonder what could be accomplished with the steady income provided if a state tax was implemented.
(Any bets that I'd still bitch?)
It's a self-fulfilling propehcy. 1) Piss off a wildly passionate group of people. 2) Feel their wrath when they demonstrate their dissatisfaction. 3) Establish reactionary policies that piss them off more. 4) Rinse and repeat.
Military might and occupation will not help us out of this rut, only diplomacy will. Unfortunately, this administration does not seem the least bit concerned with diplomacy. It appears to me that they have adopted the the "my way or the highway" approach to foreign relations. I know how I react to that attitude in my little corner of the planet...
The article was pretty weak--it's just a human interest story--but I understand how its subject feels. As someone who is trying to pay down his own debt, I would be upset if a payment was held up simply because of a government policy. How involved should the government be with the people's money? You'd be better off asking that question when you fill out your tax return each year (assuming that you do).
I don't know about you, but I can read these news articles in any number of other places on the web. I come to Slashdot to read what this community has to contribute to the topic. I use Google to find links to information about a product, but I'll still seek out opinions from people I trust.
I wasn't looking for technical consistency (real science). I wasn't looking for consistency within the story (the book was funny largely because it was quirky and inconsistent). I was looking for a movie that was consistent with the original plot, characters, and dialog found in the book.
Maybe what you're trying to say is that Adams was inconsistent within all of his work, so I should expect the same in the screenplay. I can accept that. That doesn't mean I have to be happy with major plot changes.
I've seen a lot of people post here who were fiercely upset with changes to something in which they had an emotional investment (Greedo didn't shoot first). I'm upset with the changes made between the book and the movie. If the screenplay writers for The Lord of the Rings decided that Frodo wasn't going to quest to destroy the ring, but rather set out to save his lover from the clutches of Sauron, would you insult a disappointed poster by suggesting that the whole series was fantasy and therefore the changes were just a natural extension of that?
And I am fully aware that Adams wrote/blessed the screenplay. I lost some respect for him because of it. I refuse to believe that he was actually happy with it, but you know, I never spoke with Douglas Adams, I don't honestly know how he felt about it, and I won't proclaim to. I do know that from this fan's perspective I wasn't happy with it.
Your views of what a fanboy should or should not know, or should or should not believe, are irrelevant, and your reference to Babylon 5 and how that applies to my comments was lost on me, as I was never a fan of the series.
I found HHGTTG in my middle school library in the mid-80's and read the whole thing in one sitting. When I found out there were sequels to Hitchhiker's, and later two Dirk Gently books, I ran out and bought them and also read them in one sitting. More than 20 years later I *still* pick up the "trilogy" and re-read them once per year (except for Mostly Harmless--what was up with that one?).
My point is that I have a lot of emotion invested in the works of Douglas Adams and I was devastated to see how poorly the movie was done. That's not to say that I didn't expect it, but I had hope that someone would stop the madness before it dragged the cult of Hitchhiker's down with it.
The movie was horrible. It wasn't even funny. It followed the book only when necessary to keep it "Hitchhiker's". I couldn't believe it when I read that Adams was apparently happy with how it was progressing before he died. My only consolation is that he never saw how Hollywood massacred his work. I refuse to even buy the DVD.
HHGTTG was funny because Adams wrote it. It's tough to duplicate a voice like his on the big screen. I can't help but think, though, that Hollywood missed a grand opportunity to show that they "got it", because from my perspective they missed the point completely.
I can now only hope that they never try to do "So Long and Thanks for All the Fish".
Unless you have a degree in psychology, or more on-topic, are a psychiatrist, I wouldn't waste your effort dismissing what we are "supposed to get from researchers tripping on LSD".
I'm neither a psychologist or a psychiatrist, but I can tell you from my experiences in the drug culture that there is certainly something about LSD that warrants more research into its effects on the mind. I've read that some researchers suggest it could benefit people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, such as rape victims and war veterans. If improving the life of a trauma victim is not a worthy cause, I'm not sure what would be...
Not to be confused with linuchs.
I am not suggesting that I think he was in the right, but the precedent from his case could help others who might be more dramatically affected by similar injuries. Don't be so quick to bad-mouth the guy.
You've hit on a very good point, here. I was laid off from my tech job in mid-2001, right as the bubble was bursting. My attitude was that I had too much experience and knowledge to go jobless for long, and I expected to be back in the workforce within weeks. Over a year later I had been through four interviews, and only one was a second. I wasn't selected for that job, either. After submitting hundreds of resumes, I was finally offered a job by a company who FOUND MY RESUME ONLINE and thought I would be a good fit. It would have been more funny to me at the time if I hadn't been on the verge of bankruptcy.
Now my contract is almost up again. I've been applying and interviewing for almost two months. Fortunately, I've already been through more interviews in that time than I did the entire year I was unemployed. The bad news is that I still have not been selected for a job.
Very few companies tell you why you were not selected, especially ones where you don't even make the cut for interviews. One said that they found other candidates with more experience in the banking industry. Others wanted MCSE certification.
What is frustrating me right now are those front-line HR folks. I've applied for jobs that are geographically convenient for the employer and me, that I am *perfectly* qualified for, and that have a company culture that fits with my personality. I have to wonder why I am not being called for interviews. I have a 2-year degree, am an MCP, and have over six years of professional experience with some highly-respected companies. I have great customer service and communication skills that *many* IT folks lack, but in most cases even this combination is not enough to get me in the door.
The idea that a degree or certification qualifies someone for a job is laughable. I provide better support than most MCSEs that I know. I know more about computers and how they work than some of the instructors that I have had in my classes. I am one of the best desktop and network troubleshooters that I have been in contact with. (And I'm humble, too ;) Most importantly, I believe, is that I can learn anything that anyone needs me to know, and I can do it in half the time as other candidates, but how do you quantify that on a resume? How do you convince an HR drone that you just need to get your hands on the technology and everything will come together?
The earlier comment that you should only hire someone with a CS degree is crap, IMO. I was lucky enough to gain almost all of my knowledge by preforming functions, rather than reading books. I buy technical books to try and further my knowledge, but I find that until I toss the book away and simply dig in, I'll never learn as much as I am capable of. Unfortunately, that doesn't translate into a screaming resume.
I'm hoping that the economy and the technology industry will pick up again soon, at least to the point where my skills are harder to come by. Until then I have to hope that the HR folks are really taking the time to see me for what I have to offer.
DWS
If you know anything about the south Puget Sound area, then this would come as no surprise. I was surprised when I was able to get DSL service when it first came out.
So his lunch break is now "your dime"? Sounds like you've been taking lessons from the sweatshops.
I think the scariest thing about that whole incident was that for years I STILL received calls from our armed forces asking when I was going to come in and enlist.
"A few good men." HA!
I remember how pissed off I used to get when they'd preempt Bugs for a college basketball game, or something. Oh, and all of the "In The News" tidbits that they'd show during commercials. That's the first place I learned about the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano, and the fabled treasure buried in a mine shaft on Oak Island. Man, I wanted to be a treasure hunter for weeks! Ranks right up there with Schoolhouse Rock.
My opinion? A viscious cycle of bad cartoons and low advertising revenue killed the Saturday morning cartoon. Now, of course, I actually want to watch Saturday sports, so I'm not complaining. Almost all of the cartoons that I still love to watch are on Cartoon Network, save The Simpsons.
It was the first thing that came to my mind.
Here this? Better grammar check your posts before commenting about others' poorly written drivel.
I have shopped for virtually all of my non-food items online for years for two reasons: 1) Lower prices can be found online than in my local stores. 2) I haven't had to pay taxes on what I buy fron the net. Throw in the fact that many online retailers will ship for free if you spend enough, and you've got all the reason you need to wait a few extra days for your toys to arrive.
Now, throw on a tax. Add to that a poor economy where deals are harder to find, and where free shipping isn't as common as it used to be. Consider, then, that I am a huge fan of instant gratification.
I no longer have any incentive to buy online. Even with lower prices on the net, tax and shipping will now add up to more than what I would save, and I'd have to wait a few more days to receive it.
Consider, also, what kind of effect this will have on companies that deliver these products to your door.
If the goal is to drive more people into local stores, then this will work like a charm. If the powers that be are sincerely interested in developing e-commerce, they'll re-think this idea. If the States need more money, perhaps they should consider doing a better job of spending they money that they already get from my property, gas and vehicle taxes.
Did it occur to you that he might have had a *savings* account. Jesus, not everyone lives paycheck-to-paycheck. Not everyone who is unemployed accepts unemployment, either. Grow up.