ajanelle

Pretty good advice. I'll tell you, too, if you really care about somebody who is depressed, you need to realize how serious their problem can be, and you need to realize what a huge help your continued harrassment can be.

Wow, read this garbage. Sorry Penelope Trunk, your advice certainly will work for some, but not most. Most of us would never be able to 1. move to NYC, 2. See $200,000 in income in oh say, less than 10 years, 3. Or move anywhere for better opportunity. And I say this as someone who has had the good fortune to move across the country on a whim and in search of a better way, surviving only 6 months and going into a huge amount of debt to get back... Most people will not even be able to do this. They will be stuck picking from the fast food, retail chains, and insurance companies or manufacturers that make up the economy of their towns. These job choices pretty much being ones that NOBODY would ever really want. Most towns don't even have a restaurant with $70 bottles of wine. Entertainment opportunities for millions of Americans consist of high school football or watching television at home.

If she is speaking to an audience of people like herself, upper middle class executives with livable savings, I'm sure this is excellent advice, but for the rest of us- whom she addresses the article to, it's kind of a joke.

Additionally, a woman posts a comment about her inability to find decent work in Los Angeles, relegating her to secretary for her entire life. Her comment mentions that she works in a "rat-infested area of the city", that employers can find "cute little 20-year-old undereducated, inexpensive, submissive immigrant girls to do their bidding" and that Angelenos spend 80% of their take-home income on their rent or mortgage".

One of these comments (and I included the last one, because life has taught me never to overestimate the intelligence- of anyone) incited this comment from the author, Mrs. Trunk, "Normally, I would delete a comment like this because it's racist. But I am leaving it up because it's a great example of how the genesis of racism is so often someone who wants someone else to blame for their problems"

If you can see the racism of this woman's comment, well I must be blind. Most likely, she is referring to the immigrant comment. Thanks, we're not allowed to speak truth, I suppose. The truth very likely being that young, uneducated immigrants probably are being hired for the jobs this woman is applying for. Mrs. Trunk, of course, has no idea as to the ethnicity of the commentor (correction, the commentor has a link to her own blog, but it is still true that:) or of the immigrants who are being hired. No consideration for the probable truthfullness of the statement, or the fact that it is an attack on the employers and not on any "immigrant girls". For an author lauded as someone not afraid to say the things others won't she sure seems... uptight, to say the least, closed-minded, and intolerant.

And, Mrs. Trunk, if you ever happen upon this (I can't imagine why you would) I hope that you will not consider this a personal attack on your character, I know nothing about you. I only disagree with what you have written to the extent that it is supposed to be applicable to everyone.

Ugh, disgusting. Wonder if I'll see any of this tonight.