Bait and Switch

Barbara Ehrenreich intended Bait and Switch to be a follow-up to her Nickel and Dimed, except that she’d try out a mid-level corporate career instead of menial labor. However, despite being intelligent and educated, she didn’t receive an offer, or even an interview for a salaried position. Instead, she wrote about her unsuccessful efforts, along with the harrowing job market that people without specialized skills face.

Ehrenreich was very naive at first, being surprised, for example, at the detrimental impact of having gaps in your resume. However, her depiction highlights how difficult it can be for many people to find employment, since none of the fellow job seekers managed to find decent careers. Bait and Switch was less compelling than Nickel and Dimed, partially because a stymied job search isn’t exciting and partially because I’ve known several people who’ve struggled with periods of unemployment. Still, it’s a quick and easy read that emphasizes how tough the American economic system is for large segments of society.

Medicare phrasing

The San Jose Mercury News has a Medicare story that begins,

Medicare's long-term financial woes deepened over the last year as the program's main funding source for hospital care is projected to go broke in 2018 - two years sooner than predicted last year, according to an annual report by the program's trustees.

However, when you read further, it turns out that the 2018 is the first year in which Social Security benefits exceed revenue. In reality,

The program will no longer be able to pay benefits at promised levels in 2040, one year earlier than predicted last year.

That's like saying that someone is broke the day after they retire, since their expenses exceed their income. Unfortunately, most people will take the newspaper headline Study: Medicare to go broke in 2018 (which doesn't appear in the online version) at face value.

The IT Crowd

There's a British TV comedy called The IT Crowd, about a small IT department led by a computer-illiterate manager. I heard about from Ned Batchelder's blog, which includes YouTube links to each episode.

The first episode was silly, but it was funnier and more entertaining than any US sitcom I've seen in a while. Other geeks, or people who deal with them on a regular basis, might want to check it out.