When your brother-in-law is unemployed, it's a recession;
When you are unemployed, it's a depression.
These song lyrics are from the album "Words We Can Dance To." It was copyrighted in1975, Big Ears Music, Inc./Red Pajamas Music Inc., ASCAP.
UNEMPLOYED
(Steve Goodman)
When I got up this morning I walked down to the plant
I wanted to go to work but they said you can't
When I asked the boss why I got canned
He said something 'bout the laws of supply and demand
Now that's just the kind of thing
That gets a man annoyed
When the wolf is knocking
And you're unemployed
I filled out the forms they had in personnel
There's twenty men applying for every job to fill
Some men in line are just bums like me
And some of them got sheepskins and PHDs
It's a sorry situation that you can't avoid
When you're overeducated and unemployed
I don't want to be told how long I have to wait
Don't want to be no number in no jobless rate
Don't want no welfare from the welfare state
I just want to put the groceries on my baby's plate
When I die then I'll get my just reward
When the devil makes me chairman of the board
Whenever they had the hard times in this land
Before then they said the way you stop is to start a war
Well I don't want to hear any of that stuff from any politicians no more
Or next election day they'll be unemployed
Steve Goodman had a few lines in there I can really relate to, especially if you change all the gender terms. The lines that hit me the hardest are: "It's a sorry situation that you can't avoid, When you're overeducated and unemployed," and "Don't want no welfare from the welfare state, I just want to put the groceries on my baby's plate." Everyone is always saying how education is so important to enhance your career, but so far it hasn't helped me much in mine. Helping my daughter out in her schooling by watching my grandson has put me in the unenviable position of having two college degrees and living at the poverty level with tens of thousands of dollars of debt from student loans and no job prospects. And now, instead of there being "twenty men applying for every job to fill," there are 200 people applying for each job. Talk about depression!
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