When a Good Job Ends for Good

From time to time, “Around Town� will sit down with Southern Californians to talk about their hopes, fears and concerns.

Peter Thierry, 40, of Canoga Park joined the ranks of the once-affluent unemployed last summer. For 15 years, he had been a technical writer in the hard-hit defense industry.

He is angry. While America’s richest have become richer--helped along by deregulation of industry--he says the workers are picking up the tab for leveraged buyouts, junk bonds and failed S&Ls.; And he is saddened to see other countries gaining on America.

What were your first thoughts when told you were being laid off?

I was terrified. I knew there was nothing out there. I’m still afraid. This is not a short-term thing. There’s going to be a horrible job crunch for people like me for the next several years.

Are you optimistic that the Clinton Administration can turn the economy around?

In the long range, yes.

Do you blame George Bush for your troubles?

To blame Bush is like blaming the figurehead on a ship if the ship goes on the rocks. I blame the “me thing.�

What kind of jobs have you found since you were laid off in August?

I answered an ad in Western Horseman (magazine) for a ranch in La Quinta. I thought I’d be involved in desktop publishing. When I got down there, they found out I could cook. I cooked for 15 cowboys for five days, 14 hours a day, for three meals and a bed in a leaky cargo container. If I’d stayed a month, I would have gotten $600. That’s $320 less than I get on unemployment.

I interviewed at an Andalusian stud farm and for a job at a dude ranch. But I’m 40 years old, and I’ve been sitting on my butt for 20 years.

What now?

I have no idea. Hunker down and wait for things to improve. I got 26 weeks of unemployment benefits that started Aug. 27. Then there’ll be extensions.

How bad is your financial situation?

I had $6,000 in savings when I was laid off. I have about $1,000 left. So far, I haven’t had to ask anybody for anything, except for a place to live. (He and his wife, June, a computer training coordinator for Hughes Aircraft, had separated, but he has now moved into her apartment.)

What was your lifestyle like when you were making good money?

I had a new Toyota MR2. I made the down payment with a couple of paychecks that had been floating around in my briefcase. When June and I were married, in May of 1990, I bought her a $1,400 horse saddle for a wedding gift. I had a fancy stereo, two guitars and $3,000 worth of SCUBA gear--but now I don’t have the money to go diving--at 70 bucks a pop.

How far has the mighty fallen?

I traded the MR2 for a Dodge Ram van. I lived in it while looking for work. I sold the electronics. The Kawasaki motorcycle will be the last of my toys to go. I’m leasing my horse. Other people are paying the stable rent and shoeing.

You said you’d lost your job, your apartment, your toys, but you feel that you’re getting back a piece of your soul. Will you explain?

Well, the money I made when times were good seduced me into believing the lie. When the bottom fell out, I realized that I wasn’t special or great. I was just lucky. When I was making really big money, I was, as the British say, “a right bastard� from time to time. I thought I was doing something special that was bringing all this to me. I could be a little condescending.

Those cowboys up at La Quinta showed me more dignity and kindness, willingness to share and comradeship. . . .

At 40, you have no job, no medical insurance, little savings and, obviously, no long-term career plans. What are some possible options?

Whatever I can put aside is my “Alaska money.� Maybe I’ll head up there. I’d be a good navigator on a boat. They run cattle up there, and I can ride pretty good.

You see America as having taken a wrong turn. Where do you think things went wrong?

I think it went wrong when the liberals got arrogant in their power. I think Lyndon Johnson is as much to blame as Ronald Reagan, throwing money out there without accountability. And I’m a liberal.

Where did you, personally, go wrong?

(The good times) lasted just long enough for me to become complacent. I should have gotten out of aerospace and started a business of my own. When I began seeing the handwriting on the wall, there was no place to go. When you hit the end of the Cold War, there’s not much you can do about it. At the temp agencies, the telephone operators don’t even know what a technical writer is anymore.

‘More Dignity and Decency’

With time on his hands, Peter Thierry has been writing essays he calls “Letters to America.� It’s his therapy. His message is: “Hey! Wake Up!� Here are excerpts:

� With the layoff imminent and the classified ads a horror story, I stopped by a Jack-in-the-Box for lunch. It was the same Jack I had worked at when I was in college. As I stepped up to the counter, suddenly it hit me: I didn’t know whether to ask for a hamburger or a job application. “

� I used to look at (Latino immigrants) and sneer. Now I look at them and see something else. Survivors. People born on the dirty end of the stick who never complain and who never stop climbing. They can’t afford decent cars, but every one has jumper cables. Don’t get mad, get it started. One more time. “

� Oliver Stone ( should ) do a modern version of ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ Labor has been denigrated almost to a sin in the last decade. Yet there is more dignity and decency among the poor and struggling than among the snobs that call them rabble. “