Dan Holt: not necessarily the case. I know attorneys who were laid off from private practice, corporations (in house) and the government. And you can’t just switch fields that easily. Putting aside that you should like what you do for a living (I know, novel concept), you can’t just open shop on a whim because you’ll need clients and a good amount of overhead expenses (rent and malpractice insurance, to name 2).

Again, there are some very good points here. My argument is that it’s industry-dependent.

Right on Flexo. Candide, I’m gonna run with your attorney laid off example. When we say she was laid off, I assume she worked for a corporation that was downsizing, and was therefore in some field of corporate law. Now, there are plenty other fields of law, and some of them are in fact growing as corporate lawyers are laid off. Civil litigation, small business start-up law, criminal law, civil rights law, education law, employment and labor law, environmental law, health law, and the list continues. 14.5 million people and growing are unemployed. It’s almost certain that a small proportion have been discriminated against (even 0.1% would equate to 14,500 potential lawsuits.)

Flexo: “You may also be entitled to health benefits through your former employer and COBRA. This means that you can still pay group rates for coverage rather than finding individual coverage. Group coverage can often be much less expensive, but you may find that you will still have to pay more than you did as an employee.” No joke about having to pay more than I did as an employee. My first month’s COBRA bill was 500% bigger than my payroll deduction.

You have an interesting point about unemployment. Prospective politicians probably shouldn’t patronize prostitutes or proliferate pornography, either, if they’re worried about perception problems, but that doesn’t stop some of them.