: Shoot, that's precisely what I have been doing for the past four years. Got
: laid off in January '99, and it was pretty much the END of my career.
: Since then I have been eking out a living doing woodwork out of my garage
: shop. Since I became poor, I've never been richer! No more daily commuting
: gridlock, no more stupid office politics, no more wolf-down-your-lunch at
: noon whether you're hungry or not, etc., etc. Today, I prefer to work on
: weekends so I'll have the water all to myself during the week. It takes a
: little getting used to being poor, but it sure is a lot more fun!!

: Cheers,
: Kurt

I think that more and more people are beginning to think like this. I know I am richer today than I was when I was "working" for a living. Maybe not financially richer, but my life is less stressful and I have time to do the things I've always wanted to do. A less is more kind of thing.

Too bad someone doesn't say to our young folks: "You know you'll spend most of the rest of you life working to make someone ELSE rich don't you?" when they start thinking about finding a job. Might make some of them drop the idea of corporate employment in favor of more Mom & Pop endeavors which help local economies more than wall street and multi-millionaire tycoons have ever done.