Stultus Valley Days - I Make a New Start

First post in a recurring series

I got an email a while back from a friend I hadn’t heard from in a long time, informing me that a mutual acquaintance from Stultus Valley had passed away. 

Stultus Valley…God, hearing that name takes me back!  I’d only lived and worked there a short time, less than two years in all, but the experience left a lasting impression.

I landed in Stultus Valley after the Great Recession very nearly ended my academic career before it could begin.  I was working toward my doctorate at a research university when budget cuts eliminated my teaching fellowship and with it my ability to cover tuition and expenses.  I tried, unsuccessfully, to land an adjunct position that would have kept me in the game for the time being.

Since I enjoy eating and having a roof over my head I clearly needed to get a job, even if that meant getting a “straight” job.  Fortune soon smiled upon me.  Scouring the interwebs for a viable situation within a 50-mile radius of where I was living, I found one.  On Craigslist, no less.  It was a civil service post with a social services agency in a town called Linden.  I’d never heard of Linden even though it was only 48 miles away according to Google Maps. 

A few mouse clicks later I discovered Linden, population 650, was located in the remote Stultus Valley.  Remote…and yet still within my geographical distance criteria.  Intrigued, I uploaded my resume. 

To my great surprise, I was notified just days later that I had received a civil service exam waiver and when was I available for an interview? 

My luck held as I made my journey through a light snowfall to Linden.  The interview was brief, but pleasant.  I’d gathered what scant data I could concerning Stultus County and its social services programs and used it to good effect answering the questions posed to me. 

I’m not much of a charmer usually, but I clearly made a good impression that day.  Within an hour of leaving the interview, I got a message on my voicemail telling me I’d landed the job.  As it was the best (and only) prospect I had at the moment, I accepted.  What else was I going to do?

And so, inside of two weeks, my life changed completely as I blindly followed my chosen course.  I withdrew from graduate school and moved into a rented house in Linden. 

I started off with enthusiasm and hope at my new job.  My naïve optimism soon foundered as I got to know my new neighbors, a breed of folks I found at once strange and familiar.  Stultus Valley and its residents were to leave a lasting impression, memories which I now feel compelled to revisit.

Next installment: Meeting the Neighbors

© 2013 The Unassuming Scholar

Feeling the Pain

The Cyprus bailout is going forward, with a modification or two.  Fortunately for Cypriot workers, their bank deposits will be safe, at least for now.   The imposed deposit tax will apparently only affect large accounts.

Meanwhile, the banks in Cyprus remain closed…

Austerity

The European Union and the International Monetary Fund have agreed to assist the cash-strapped government of Cyprus with an emergency infusion of € 13 billion.

Naturally, there are strings attached.  In this case, the austerity measures demanded by the EU and the IMF include a 10% forfeiture of savings bank deposits.

The bankers and politicians fail.  Innocent people pay the price, as they have throughout the global economic crisis.  First, they lose their equity in stocks and in their own homes.  Now they are being penalized again for their own hard work and thrift.

And so the greatest wealth transfer in modern history continues apace.  How soon before austerity comes home to roost in the United States?  How will we respond? 

I truly want to believe that there would finally be a backlash against the plutocrats, a true occupation of Wall Street, but I cannot.  Sadly, the public will do what it’s done since 2008.  It will blame the Democrats, shiftless welfare cheats, and spendthrifts who owe more than they can ever pay.  In the end our false consciousness, our willingness to be capitalism’s useless idiots, will be our undoing.  We’ll lick our masters' boots even as they kick us into our graves...

© 2013 The Unassuming Scholar