Gas prices too high for low-wage commuters

Gas prices have exceeded the maximum amount necessary to allow for minimum wage earners to commute to bedroom communities to work.

As an employee paid only $8.25 per hour, my taxes withheld bring my net hourly wage down to around $6.20 per hour. I work in Jacksonville, Illinois, but rent there is too expensive so I live with my mother in Springfield. Unfortunately, gas prices have gotten so high that I may need to terminate my own employment because I can no longer afford to commute all the way to Jacksonville to work. It has become cost-prohibitive to commute to Jacksonville from Springfield, and back every day.

Unfortunately, I was recruited from Springfield because my expertise is too specialized. The previous employees of my skill set who worked for my employer and lived near enough, have all been fired, quit, or were recruited by more appreciative employers.

There's nothing left at the bottom of that barrel to scrape.

Sales jobs in Springfield, Illinois

If you are good at sales, you could come to Springfield and try your hand at it.

But I must warn you that you will probably not have much luck finding more leads for your company than it already has, because the only people around who have so much money that they may be persuaded to buy something they don't need have already been customers.

In fact, many previous customers are busy getting themselves out of debt around here. Face it, anything that doesn't sell itself and requires a sales person to push it isn't fit for the new economy we have today.

The last two big recessions occurred during a period of time when communication among the public was unprecedented. They were Zeitgeist changing recessions that will forever scar the prospects of high-pressure sales.

There are a lot of business models in Springfield that require sales people if you're interested, but don't be surprised if you're accused of being bad at your job and shortly fired.

The Internet has taken the job of pitch-man away. If you manage to find a good product and just happen to be the exclusive supplier, you are very lucky.

If you can build a website for your product or service and then buy advertising on popular search engines and social sites, you might have a shot, but everyone has their teenage nephew building their own websites, so don't think for a minute you'll get rich doing that for anyone else.

In Springfield, the same companies keep advertising for sales people again and again. They probably lose their sales people because they get scapegoated over lack of customers or bad products or services.

I suggest going back to school and getting into some kind of medical, financial or legal field.

Porn as an excuse to save money

If your boss doesn't like you and you use a computer at work, imagine the possibilities of you getting accused of something you had nothing to do with.

City Water Light and Power (CWLP)employees are being accused of viewing pornography on a computer at work, according the the State Journal-Register:

City workers face discipline for viewing pornography - Springfield, IL - The State Journal-Register

Justice Potter Stewart of the Supreme Court of the United States could only arrive at the following definition of pornography "I know it when I see it."

Since CWLP workers are union, the only immediate damage can be suspension without pay for a period of time. In this case, only five days.

Perhaps if enough suspensions are issued, the city will be forced to examine the books again and hopefully, ignorantly, trim a little less fat away from CWLP because they suspended workers and saved money. If the accountant has any brains, he or she will add back into the books the original expenses without suspensions, and arrive at the real budget from which to make cuts.

Since pornography was identified and defined by the Supreme Court so vaguely and arbitrarily, the term can be used with a much wider scope to net more cost-saving suspensions of line-workers while saving much needed gold for the parachutes of management and other political patrons ghosting salaries at the power plant.

So the next time you see a computer at the office with free Internet Access that requires no login or password, chances are you will find yourself lumped in with some perverts in your office and get suspended under false pretenses.