Whether you're an optimist or a pessimist, getting laid off from your job in the shittiest economy in decades isn't exactly swell news, but certainly we live in one of the best cities anywhere to be jobless and broke. In addition to a multitude of cheap food options and pretty parks to sit in and drink beer, there are free outdoor movies and wine country right up the road where some wineries still don't charge for tasting. And there's also the laid back, relaxation-before-ambition ethos that's endemic here and that we all know and love.
This week's piece by Peter Jamison on so-called "Funemployment" in the Weekly trots around some fuzzy ideas about overachieving Millennials being influenced by Gen Xers' slackerdom and coming around to the idea that they should just enjoy themselves while collecting government checks. There's nothing too groundbreaking being said here, but this one hateful pullquote did stand out to us, from a certain well-to-do techie named Grace who writes an overly precious blog called Stuff Unemployed People Like:
"The people I know, nobody's strapped for cash," says Grace, a laid-off tech company worker who splits her time between San Francisco and Sunnyvale... (Among the entries: "Buying Game Consoles with Unemployment Checks," "Buying Perrier with Food Stamps," and "Shunning Public Transportation Because 'It's for Poor People.'"...) "We didn't live above our means. We didn't get involved in the real-estate market. For me, it sucks not to have income, but I'm definitely laid-back enough about it that I can make unemployment work."
You know what, Grace? We think we speak for all the unemployed people who are getting by okay, going to Dolores Park (by bus), catching up on their Netflix but still feeling fairly anxious and screwed by their current predicament when we say, Go fuck yourself.