Wednesday, 11 March 2009

• "Top Vacation Destinations For the Newly Unemployed"... What?!

  

  Seriously, isn’t that what everyone does when they get the proverbial “pink slip?” I was gathering my daily dose of news on another repetitive news weekend and found an article promoting traveling after losing your job. Give me a moment here while I pick my jaw up off the ground….
  
  The article begins by saying:
  
  "If you’ve lost your job, you’re in good company. Nearly 2.6 million jobs were lost in America in 2008, the most since 1945. And while lachrymose columnists often paint employment losses as a personal tragedy, you could also look at the situation this way: fate has given you a clear directive to figure out what you most want to do with your one short life on this planet — and what better way to do that than to travel?" 
  
  ARGH! We are in the worse recession in more than half a century, many of us are trying to figure out how we are going to pay our bills, others lay awake at night wondering if tomorrow is their day to be without a job and the Travel and Leisure department at MSNBC News posts this article. Granted, farther on into the article it defends itself by saying that it’s not necessarily self-indulgent or stupid because it can turn “unexplored talents into marketable new skills”. Excuse me a moment, I need to sneeze…”BS!”
  
  Isn’t it that kind of mentality that got the industrialized countries of this world into the economic mess we are in now?!? Self-indulgent weenies want what they want and damn the consequences! Well I’m tired of paying for YOUR consequences! I haven’t had a “real” vacation in 10 years. I’ve been too busy working to pay the necessary bills to support my family, helping the less fortunate and if I’m lucky to be able to attend a local area attraction or have a meal outside the house. These people will take their savings to pamper themselves on the premise that life is too short. Then come back broke and unemployed, expecting the fatted cow to be dropped on their doorsteps. After all, they just took the opportunity to “…regain your equipoise, perspective, and energy — you’ll need them, after all.”
  
  My favorite line of the whole article reads: “your savings or severance pay will go a lot further in some parts of the world than it will at home, and using your reserves to invest in a new life makes more sense than watching your bank balance dwindle while you gloomily thumb through your battered copy of “What Color Is Your Parachute”?” So does that mean we should all just chuck it all, head to some third world country where we can become burdens on THEIR societies? I’m in! Where do I sign up? I prefer a place with great beaches and a “who cares” laissez faire way of life. That way I can lay around complaining about those who want me to actually DO something in a day and get a great tan at the same time. 
  
  Do you think it's okay to travel after you've lost your job given the state of the economy?

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