Land of Opportunity

[Updated: I was popping up on a search engine because there was a community name in this post. I've added some asterisks so I don't show up on the search engine.]

A couple of years ago, Steve told me I had to stop telling people to move to I**vik.

I couldn't help it. I would talk to people who were complaining about how they didn't have any money, or couldn't get enough hours at work, or couldn't find a job that paid more than $6 an hour. They didn't know how they would pay off their student loans.

This completely blew my mind. In I**vik, secretaries make $20 an hour, even if they haven't graduated from high school. You can get a job in less than a week, and there is no such thing as a part-time job. I knew many people with two or three jobs. One job was for paying daily expenses. The cheques from the second job went into a savings account. The third job was for "fun money".

So I started telling people that they should move to I**vik and look for work. This idea was not generally welcomed. One person asked Steve if I was having trouble making friends in the Arctic.

I still don't understand this. I know people who work part-time at minimum-wage jobs (or close to minimum-wage) and refuse to look for better work. I'm not sure if this is because they think they'll never find anything better or because they are secretly quite happy about being able to complain.

Here's something to think about: Many companies pay moving expenses for their new employees. Yes! When the MotherCorp moved me to I**vik, I didn't pay any of the costs. They put me up in a hotel and paid for all my meals while I looked for a house. When my current employer moved me out of I**vik, I didn't pay any of the costs. They put me up in a hotel and paid for all my meals while I looked for a house.

There are tons of jobs out there. You just have to apply for them, and you have to be willing to go wherever the work is.