Just joined

[Liondancer]

I'm not sure if I should introduce myself as a martial artist or not. I just had to quit my martial arts school where I've been studying for the last several years. Because of the recession, I haven't been working steady for several months, and I ran out of savings and unemployment benefits. Everything had to go except absolute necessities.

Even after I get a more stable income, though, I've been thinking seriously about whether I should go back. I loved the school, had a lot of fun in the class, and had a lot of respect for Sensei. But I had issues and questions that were never answered or resolved. Questions were shrugged aside because, after all, we weren't supposed to question our teachers. We had to trust their judgment explicitly.

But I'm a little hesitant to go into it here. The last time I did in a martial arts forum, I got yelled at and basically told to **** off, so I did. But the questions remain, and I have no way of resolving them.

And that's where it stands. Hello to everyone here and sorry if I'm starting trouble right away.

[sirdarksol]

Welcome. We will not be telling you to screw off. Trust me, many of us have had similar issues in the past or in the present. So start a new thread in whatever section you feel it is most applicable (maybe General MA or Philosophical, if it's questions about the amount of trust/power one should grant a sensei), and see where it goes.

I understand what you mean about money. I have taken up karate at a place where it's much more expensive than what I had previously been studying (it's also a better matched art for me), and I'm scrambling to be able to afford it. Lack of ability to pay doesn't mean you aren't a martial artist. You can always practice what you've learned on your own to maintain your knowledge. Further, while books and videos offer limited aid, if you can find a cheap book on your style, you might be able to learn one or two new things during your time away from the dojo.

[disgruntled]

welcome to the forum... feel free to post the quuestions that you are dealing with, as long as they are not offensive i am fine with it.... we could use some cotraversy around here anyway, we all get along too well

please read the forum rules:

http://martialartsmeta.com/forum/guide-forum/1435.htm (Rules of the Forum)

sirdarksol wrote it and he is a good writer so it is a good read and informative. it should put your fear aside.

are you from the US?? you have mentioned the "resession" on another thread and here in canada we are doing crazy good business so i was kinda put a back by the comment. the biggest problems we have here is the cities growing too quickly and are really short labour. housing was a problem, but it has finally calmed down. you can find places now and the prices stoped sky rocketing.

it is so weird, i cannot even conceive of a resession right now. but then again my country is not racking up massive debt because of their need for neo-vietam wars. even that *questionable leader* Harper is not that bad.

[Liondancer]

Here in the US, the housing market has tanked. I bought my house two years ago. I now have negative equity. I've been out of work for seven months, and although I'm college educated and have years of experience, I can't even get an interview for a short term contract job. Bush's so-called stimulus package only stimulated false hope. I never got it. Neither did anyone I know. Foreclosures are becoming commonplace, and a lot of people who get kicked out of their homes have nowhere to go but the streets. I'm trying like blazes for that not to happen to me, but like I said, I can't get a job. I did manage to get some temp work this month and last, for about 20% of the going rate for my field and experience.

After over six years in martial arts, I had to quit this month because I simply can't afford it. I can't even afford my basic expenses anymore.

I will find the appropriate forum and lay out my MA concerns. I always try to be nice and not offend people.

Thanks for the welcome!

[sirdarksol]

I got the stimulus package, but it was only like a thousand dollars. Yeah, a thousand dollars is nice, but in the end, it's a drop in the bucket. If my wife wasn't a nurse, we'd be in the same situation you're in. I wish that money (and all of the money spent sending all of the self-congratulatory letters saying "Hooray for us, we're giving you money") had been applied to the national debt, or to developing a necessary technology like alternative energy.

[disgruntled]

wholly!! i cannot even imagine this. i seriously don't get it. i honestly did not think that our economies were that different. i know that the automotive industry is struggling in ON, but that is to be expected everywhere with gas prices. but those people can just move west where we are dying for employees. hell fast food emplyees can make $10-12/h. it is not that great of pay because cost have gone up, but you can totally afford to live on that kind of money. granted AB is just making money because of the oil, and we are far to depended on it, so our ecomomy will crash in about 10 years..... this province is way to short sighted..... (so shouldn't the economy be great in TX?)....... but now SK is coming into a lot of money too. they work primarily with gain and bio-diesal but they also have strong scientific infrustructure (which we need in AB) so there economy is booming too, and they have more of a sustainable economy........ shouldn't your prairie state be experiencing a similar boom?

and because there is a lot of cash flying into canada and around canada, it has stimulated economy because we keep buying stuff.

i would be the first to say that canada is very different from the US, but i did not think it was this different.

[sirdarksol]

See, the difference in the US, I think (I don't know because I haven't studied Canadian economics, I'm just basing this on a few comments elsewhere) is that Canadians don't have quite the same level of a feeling of entitlement that every US citizen seems to be born with. This is how we get people like that one guy at another forum we've been on who felt that, because he was handed a sweet position when he was barely in his twenties, he only has to give his tithe back to the community (as dictated by the Bible, according to him), and then the rest of the money can be wasted on whatever. This is happening everywhere. The only economical cars as far as gas mileage goes are far from economical when considering buying price, because the average citizen wants an SUV or a Hummer. We've got an extraordinary number of wasteful vehicles, and it's a huge struggle to get any mass transit going. The average family doesn't make their own meals anymore, they eat out or buy pre-made stuff. The average wedding (which marriage tends to only last something like six years) costs tens of thousands of dollars (mine was something like five thousand, and I think that's a lot).
The list of this stuff goes on and on.
The end result of this wasteful economy is a widening gap between the rich and the not-rich. Even the upper middle class is severely in debt. In a writing community I'm part of, we just got a new member whose significant other is a call girl because they "can't afford" to live on both of them being office workers. The kicker is that it's this same entitlement that makes it impossible to live on this. They both want lots of money so they can get nice things. And thus, she throws her dignity away to buy things that put money back in the pockets of the people that she thinks she's robbing.
Our government is increasingly supportive of the rich, which funnels even more money away from the working class (upon which every civilization is formed). Tax cuts are repeatedly given to those who make well above the median salary in the country. The politicians claim that, because these rich people then spend their money, it "trickles down" to the rest of us, which is total bull. If that were the case, the US wouldn't be spiraling into a recession right now.

To give you an idea of the difference, fast food employees here make $7 if they're lucky. US law gives more protection, rights, and power to the fast food corporations than it does to the employees. I would love to be making $10 (especially Canadian) an hour and be able to work thirty hours a week. I make $12, but I have limited hours.

[Liondancer]

I don't understand. So you think it's a "sense of entitlement," a bad thing, to want to live in a house and eat food and wear clothes? In that case, I guess I am one of those horrible people with an arrogant "sense of entitlement." Yes, I do want to pay my mortgage. Yes, I do want to eat well. City law says I have to have grass on my lawn. I have to wear clothes nice enough to not get me fired from my job, if I could get a job. I want to get health care and be treated when I'm sick. And sometimes, yes, I want to eat out or go to a movie or buy a CD.

I guess I'm dumb, but I don't understand why those are bad things. I'm depressed and frightened because I can't pay my mortgage, and you're saying I don't deserve a mortgage anyway, because I shouldn't feel a "sense of entitlement"? I'm educated, intelligent, and experienced, and it's a bad "sense of entitlement" that makes me want to earn a middle class living and live in a house?

The problem will be solved soon. In a month or two, unless a miracle happens, I'll be living on the street, anyway.

Thanks for making me feel better about my crappy situation.

I don't want an SUV or a Hummer, btw. I don't own a car. I take the bus.

[disgruntled]

I would love to be making $10 (especially Canadian) an hour and be able to work thirty hours a week

30h a week?? is that a normal week of full time hours in the US? here is is 40 hrs.

Canadians don't have quite the same level of a feeling of entitlement

yes and no. we are still greedy SOBs, but are ever so slightly more reasonable. polls show over and over that canadians are willing to pay more taxes if the money were to go to protect the environment or to create better social programs. we do not get too uppity if we know where are money is going and if it is a good cause. however, especially in AB (i don't like my province), we are greedy and stupid. honestly the difference comes down to our governments and most likely foreign policy. if they stopped wasting money on arrogant wars, i think that would help greatly.

So you think it's a "sense of entitlement," a bad thing, to want to live in a house and eat food and wear clothes?

i think you misunderstood his point. those are not bad things.... but people who feel they need a 5 room house when they live alone, or a eat out every day when it is cheeper to cook at home. and for frack sake, the stupid money people spend on brand named clothes makes me physically sick. it is not about a sense of entitlement for standard needs (even though our concept of those are out of wack), it is about feeling entitled to have an extravagant life even though it is not necessary and is detramental to society.

Thanks for making me feel better about my crappy situation.

i do feel for you. but i also am scared for you guys. i do not want to make you feel worse, but i really do not see the situation getting any better in the near future. even if the leader changes, although i do not see that truly happening, the country is in a major crisis and no one wants to see it. every empire crumbles and i have been seeing the signs for awhile now.

what the US need is a revolution, and i do not see that happening. what the country needs to do to save itself is to focus inward. stablize their own country and make it work and stop wasting resources else where. and i don't mean focus inwards like nazi germany and restricting travel.... althought that is happening..... i mean setting up social programs, regain a sense of community in your country.... but the only way that can happen is if there is an out cry from the public. the public must demand their government to care about the people, but not as individuals, which is what is causing so many problems right now, they must make a demand as a community.

the key to sustainable economic success is to think local.

[sirdarksol]

Entirely changing the first half of my post here.
Like disgruntled said, you're not thinking big enough when contemplating "sense of entitlement" and Americans.

It is not the wish for shelter that I am referring to, but having a shelter that is ten or twenty times the size that one needs, when others must go without because not enough new affordable, reasonably sized houses are being made.

It is not the wish for transportation that I am referring to, but the belief that one deserves to have a fancy, gas-guzzling vehicle, despite the oil crisis. A small, two-seat car or, better, mass transit, would do just as well for day-to-day driving, and would stretch our oil supplies greatly.

It is not the wish for entertainment that I am referring to, but the purchase of hundreds of CDs in a year. My iTunes is loaded with something like two thousand songs collected over five or more years (and some of those songs are from CDs that I bought before I got iTunes). There are people, TEENS! who buy that much music in a month.

Which makes me think of a good way to put this:
For sense of entitlement, look at American Idol. Not the later shows, but the audition shows. All of those people who can't sing worth a lick, or don't have the body of a pop idol (I don't like it, but that's what the majority of pop idols are about- body image), they truly believe that they stand a chance. They should know better, they're the ones who made the last pop idol, and I can guarantee you that they made their choice on one of three things: a) looks, b)insipid, catchy lyrics/tune, c) following the crowd. The last doesn't happen unless someone else starts one of the first two.
And yet, despite the fact that they should know better, they show up in droves, not just wanting to win, not just hoping to win, but really, truly expecting to win. You can see on their faces that, prior to Simon telling them off, the thought that they wouldn't make it to number one didn't even cross their minds. This is similar to a trait of the samurai (ignoring likelihood and just forging ahead), but the samurai didn't wage war on the ocean just because they didn't comprehend failure. By and large, they picked their battles.

Disgruntled: The revolution will happen if things get bad enough (and I just went on an FBI watch list for saying that ). I pray that things won't come to that, but if they do, I believe that Americans will fight for the change that is needed.

Edit: And no, 30h a week is not a normal full-time job, but I'm in college, help my parents care for my brother, and am trying to break into writing, so I wouldn't be able to handle 40h a week.