Funployment

Gawker lays down the the law on bourgeois upper-middles partying it up on funployment.

So if you're a typical bitter struggling member of the creative underclass for whom both "severance" and "Funemployment" are both rage-inducing, untouchable fantasies, take heart in the schadenfreude provided by the stories of the once-affluent who fell so fast, so hard, so dumb. One 50 year-old ad exec married a 32 year-old woman in a $40k wedding, had a baby on the way, and was promptly laid off. So he did the prudent thing:

Although their rent was cheaper, Mr. Hipsher says the family continued to spend like before. They moved with three cars — two BMWs and a Chevy Silverado. They continued to buy cases of $36-a-bottle wine. They spent $250 a month on a cleaning lady, and Mr. Hipsher dropped $50 a week on flowers for his wife. The couple still dined out regularly.

Now that's all gone (including the wedding ring), and the couple is $70k in debt. Feel better now? Funemployment is for the weak. Bask in your poverty. It makes you tough. For when shit really gets bad. Like now!

I find myself justify a creative career in a number of ways and I've used the "toughening" argument before. It certainly doesn't make you soft - working hard for little pay, scrapping by, peddling material - and I guess that was my big fear of sucking off the corporate teet, ultimately, the fear of going soft.

Nevertheless a 401k would be nice. And a condo or starter home.