Two posts from the blog They Pay to Kiss Your Feet, written by an unemployed copywriter, deal with a couple of issues very much on the mind of many people this year–jobs and health care–and the interrelationship between them.

First, from March: day 16. the ugh.

today was by far the lowest day i’ve had yet. i mean low. like crying a lot low. not eating low. wanting to start drinking at noon low. and this is what a friend told me. he said i’d be on this emotional roller coaster. where one day, i’d be great (yesterday) and the next, i’d be wondering why i’m even breathing (today.) and the thing is, in the thick of today, i saw no way out. none. i was so utterly depressed that i just didn’t care. and it’s like i’m so envious of anyone who has a job. and how all day, they get to be working. are you hearing me? they GET to be working. okay, see? this is where i’m at. and then how at night, if there is nothing to do but eat leftovers and watch crappy television, it’s okay, because their mind has been so challenged all day, and because they’ve attended so many meetings and have pleased so many people, they can just become a couch vegetable. and it is satifying.

but not me. no. all day i sit. i check email. i check the job boards. over and over and over. i go running. i go to the gym. i eat. i snack. i drink carbonated beverages and talk to my dog. i go on a walk. i call my sister. i call my dad and hope he remembers what we talked about yesterday. i wait. for a big break. or for a phone call. or for someone to say “hey, let’s go do this friday night.” or “i know you’re going through a hard time, here’s what i did for you.” “hey look, i got you a new shirt even though i shouldn’t have.” and see, that’s so silly. because like that would make any sort of difference. i’d still be sitting there. all day. on the couch. looking for jobs that don’t exist. wanting to just finish my new york times best selling memoir. and then retire. it’s just that when i’m going through the depths – absolute depths – of the deep…i just really need something to look forward to.

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You know what might get me to cut down on my purchases and stay within a budget? Making a rule that I actually had to draw what I bought.

Artist Kate Bingaman-Burt has been doing just that since 2002. She posts and archives illustrations of everything she buys on Obsessive Consumption. One commenter on the blog Love. Obsess. Inspire. wrote:

Hmm. Hard to say. All I know is everything’s here — dresses, cans of black beans, facial tissues, silver pumps (shoe variety), combs, Listerine, coffee-to-go, Mac computers, staplers — everything and anything that a modern human being might purchase.

Since she also sells her work, this is the perfect GDP-enhancing system. Buy something then sell a drawing of it, you’re twice contributing to the net flow of goods and services.

Check this stuff out on Flickr as well…

Nothing says “I couldn’t afford to buy you a present” like a Merry Recession Christmas card.

Twenty-three-year-old Charlie Hoehn says the best way for a recent graduate to get a job these days is to first offer to work for free. He explains in this slide presentation. (Hit “full” on the bottom-left menu to be able to read the slides.)

Pixar University‘s Randy Nelson speaks last year about the company’s corporate culture and what it looks for in a new hire. (Disclaimer If you’re an animated character looking for work, there is a different hiring process.) From Edutopia.

Last month we posted an entry about being unemployed for one year from the blog Jobless and Less. Now, here are two posts about that same depressing milestone from the blog State of the Unemployed Union. The feelings of self-doubt, depression, and finally growth may be familiar to anyone who has gone through such a long-term period of joblessness.

First, a post called Gain & Loss:

Nearly one year ago I lost what was the best job I had ever had… Eight months into this job, two of the owners asked to meet with me privately. They immediately got down to business. I was a wonderful person, they explained, and they really liked me, but economic conditions dictated that cuts be made and they had to let me go.

My head spun. I cried openly. I had loved that job with all my heart. I liked my co-workers, had the respect of my superiors, loved the clients, and enjoyed the work I was doing. This was supposed to be “the” job. The company I would grow with and eventually retire from. But it was not to be.

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So here’s something I just learned. Frequent flyers and miles’ junkies have their own online community, consisting of web sites littered with ticket-buying lingo. If earning frequent flyer points or scoring the absolute best deal from the airlines lifts your inner 747, then click yourself on over to forums like FlyerTalk, FlyerGuide.com, and View From the Wing, written by Gary Leff, a university chief financial officer with a “miles and points obsession.”

Here’s an article from the LA Times about the U.S. Mint putting in place a safeguard against a scheme that spread in the FF community. The Mint sells dollar coins with the likenesses of presidents on them, at no cost to the purchaser. Some enterprising air travelers bought huge amounts to rack up frequent flyer points on their credit cards, then simply deposited the coins in the bank.

Here’s an example of the type of deal you can find out about online before the rest of the world gets in on it. View From the Wing first tipped frequent flyers off to the recent and now-ended British Airways Visa promotion, later reported in the New York Times Bucks blog. Leff wrote:

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Just how did mortgage-backed investments that were rated AAA by the ratings agencies Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, and Fitch, wind up as “toxic assets” that precipitated a financial crisis that nearly brought down the world economic system last year and fed straight into this vicious recession? After all, investors depend on the agencies to assess risk, and investments rated AAA are supposed to carry virtually none of it.

Clearly, many think, new regulatory rules are in order. From the blog of the investor web site Small Cap Visions:

Where’s the accountability?

I have been a proponent of directing responsibility in last year’s credit crisis for some time now…There has been little talk up until now of (the ratings agencies) and the role they played. Quickly, rating agencies are responsible for assigning risk default likelihood on everything from government debt to junk bonds.

Much like short-term government T-bills that receive AAA ratings (considered to be risk-free), these mortgage-backed securities were being slapped with the same grades. Basically, the agencies were proclaiming that these subprime-backed securities posed as little risk of default as debt issued by the U.S. government. A monkey could tell the difference.

While I feel it was the responsibility of investors to do their own homework and see through this deception, I also feel the rating agencies have a moral obligation to correctly rate these securities. Agencies knew full well these were not AAA material, yet most likely the pressure to generate profits for the firms led them to do so.

When the same firms issuing the securities are the ones paying you to rate them, there is a flaw in the system, as obviously a conflict of interest exists.

Until now, the rating agencies have come away clean. There is chatter sometimes but the media tends to point to the banks as the major culprit. While this is true to a point, the rating agencies have not been held accountable as of yet…

As hard-working Americans deal with the aftermath of the mortgage meltdown, the rating agencies have up until this point escaped unscarred…

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Click on an image to see it full size.

More photos here.

As mentioned in previous posts, fewer people eating out means less in tips for waiters and waitresses.

But in some New York restaurants, at least, the wages ain’t so hot either. From the NY State Dept. of Labor last month:

Comment from the FriendsEat blog:

The exploitation of restaurant workers is by no means confined to Brooklyn. There are roughly 200 million international migrants working globally, or three percent of the world’s population; the leisure and hospitality industry accounts for eleven percent of those workers. Some 4,000 workers are currently striking in Paris, among them are Africans, Sri Lankans and Asians; many work as chefs, assistant cooks, waiters, plongeurs, and dishwashers. While most of us face economic hardships, the global economy extracts a much harsher toll on the world’s poor.

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