Experiencing furloughs

In California many state workers have been put on “furlough”. These forced days “off” are accompanied by a reduction in pay. Though temporary, they are particularly difficult for those with lots of obligations. It’s a relative, right? Someone pulling down $600,000 a year with multiple mortgages, loans, and college tuition for several kids might find it hard to deal with a 10 or 20 percent cut. Although it is difficult to imagine that such a scenario trumps the lower wage worker who also suffers a 10 percent cut.

NPR had a story recently on the plight of the workers taking the immediate hit and the general economy that gets hit right along with them. Are furloughs a way for states to staunch the bleeding? Are they effective? Maybe not. Interestingly, two of the academics interviewed (John Sullivan – SFSU and David Levine – UC Berkeley ) are themselves being furlough: faculty from both the University of California and the California State University systems have been furloughed.

I’ll post here how I’m coping. I still believe (despite the silence of the blog) that we are experiencing an experience much like our grandparents did. It is relative: we don’t have the soup lines. But then again, we do have the soup kitchens who are suffering from the effects of the recession even more than the rest of us. For those angels live on the “leftovers” (sometimes literally) of those who are doing well, or well enough. What happens when that bedrock of support collapses? The support for the supporters is diminished.