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'I Played By The Rules' -- 'The Rules Have Changed'
Arthur Delaney - HuffPo
First Posted: 05/23/11 08:56 AM ET Updated: 05/23/11 06:01 PM ET

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She's right: It is getting harder.

President Obama, in his 2011 State of the Union address, talked about how most people could remember the good old days, when getting a job meant showing up at a factory after finishing high school. "If you worked hard, chances are you’d have a job for life, with a decent paycheck and good benefits and the occasional promotion," the president said, adding that he understood "the frustrations of Americans who’ve seen their paychecks dwindle or their jobs disappear -- proud men and women who feel like the rules have been changed in the middle of the game."

"They’re right," Obama continued. "The rules have changed."

Indeed they have. And for many who have been out of work for a long time and are willing to share their thoughts with a reporter, the new rules are merciless.

"Good, decent people who worked hard, did everything right, believed in the American Dream have been destroyed," writes a Californian who said her brother killed himself after job loss collapsed his financial situation.

"On the eve of my 60th birthday and without marketable skills I have no chance of ever finding a job again in the traditional economy," writes a North Carolinian who's been out of work nearly two years. "I am determined to survive this horror show. But my survival will not be determined by our broken economy. It’s 'think outside the box' time. Traditional methods obviously won’t work for people like me."

“I did everything right, I played by the rules, I got skills, I excelled in my job, all to no avail," writes a New Jerseyan who said he lost his job in 2010. "I don’t know what I’m going to do. All the years of both parties talking about free trade agreements and how we will retrain America was just a bunch of BS; it was easy to say all that when times were good."

And so on. By the way: Just what the hell are the new rules? What follows is a brief handbook...

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More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/05/23/long-term-unemployment_n_864873.html

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