In fact, the length of Lady Liberty’s sandal is 25 feet and her picture adorns the 1 million dollar bill.

I just have to talk about something that has my hair standing on the back of my neck. This diatribe will be about the fleecing of America’s unemployed.

It’s not a government thing. Although some may think that the government is trying their best to do in the unemployed. Nope, this about those folks who are doing a favor for the unemployed… at a price.

For those of you who know me, I have been actively looking for steady and stable work for the last six months. Making others aware of my status revolves around posting resumes on job sites and employment job feeds. While the response from employers looking for qualified (or not qualified… it all depends on how you look at it) employees is not stuffing my e-mail box full, what is causing my SPAM/JUNK filters to go nuts is the number of companies/in-duh-viduals(sic) that are promising to help me find a good paying and lucrative job by;

• Redoing your resume
• Targeted job search placement with specialized training
• Provide help in the prospective interview
• Executive search placement

And now we get to the part of the fleecing of America’s unemployed. I will refer to the above members of those companies mentioned above as “con artists”. And you know who you are.

Being unemployed usually means no active income. If you are so lucky to get unemployment benefits, they can hardly be used for anything more than keeping a house and home together. The basic living expenses are all that could really be expected out of unemployment income. Others may have a small amount of saved funds that could help keep one’s head above poverty level for a longer period of time. But with today’s economy, spending those funds like you do when you are working could be a disaster if you don’t find full time employment in the near future. Those folks who have an inexhaustible source of funds… stop reading. This does not apply to you.

All of the con artists involved with the items in the list above want to be your friend. They tell a good story, promise you the world, get you excited about the possibility of getting that dream job just by following their program. They may even offer you a free trial of their service. Then comes the “good” news… it will only cost you about six hundred dollars for their services, and if nothing comes of the effort, oh well. No wait… For executive search placement, they want five thousand dollars for the first thirty days and only two hundred dollars for each month until you gain employment. Some even ask you to sign a promissory note for twenty thousand dollars and you can repay it once you get employment. Oh, and don’t forget, they tack a nineteen percent interest charge on that amount from day one.

The part of all this that really gets my goat is that the unemployed fall for this crap. They send in their resume and the con artists at the other end tell them that the resume is junk (even though you’ve had it professionally done six months before). The con artists proceed to tell you that with a resume done by their professional staff (usually a monkey that has just learned to type on a keyboard), you are as good as hired. In reality, all these con artists have done is separate you from your money and rearranged your resume to look something like a billboard. Maybe it’s the fault of the unemployed. What did P. T. Barnum say… “An unemployed person and his money are soon parted”?

The con artists that provide a supposed “specialized training” have a canned class concept that either has nothing to do with your area of experience or coincides very closely with what you had hoped to get out of a class, but in no way is focused on what you really need in the way of training. However, due to the situation you are in, you are required to go along with the idea and you will come out the other end owing about twenty-five thousand dollars and having no hope of getting any type of work through their placement system.

Sad as all of this is, it’s a fact of life for the unemployed. Each and every one of these con artists prey on the trusting and live a very good life on the gains of those who cannot live comfortably while out of work. The motto amongst these criminals is “whatever the market will bear”. It seems to me that all of those in this con artist practice have a true business policy. And that policy is to get the unemployed and gullible to open their wallet, take as much as you can and give them back false expectations.

I wouldn’t be so harsh to judge if some of these companies offered their services for a rate that would help the job hunter instead of just taking money out of their pocket. For example, a resume writing service that offered a rewritten resume for 20 bucks and then allows the job seeker a chance to critique the final product (don’t kid yourself, most resume con artists state you get one resume and if you don’t like it, tough). How about posting of sample resumes that have done the job for someone else in the past? At no charge no less. The problem is that those people who would like to do all of those things cannot get started as the big con artists make sure to black ball and bad mouth anyone who wishes to really help the unemployed. It’s also thought that getting something for nothing is not going to help you in the long run.

Or maybe a “specialized training” concept that really does give a class in something that they say they will give a class in. I don’t have a problem reimbursing for a course that was taken. I do object to the obscene amount they feel they have to have to charge for a course that was misrepresented and the outrageous interest they feel they must tack onto the charge for the course.

There are those in this con artist community who feel they give a good value for the dollars being spent. However, the fleecing of America’s unemployed who have no steady income at the moment is just that; a fleecing. It’s a crime and should be treated as such. How would you feel if you are a passenger on a ship sliding into New York harbor and Lady Liberty says “Bring me your tired, poor and unemployed… and for just $249.00 or a valid credit card, we will take your money and tell you that your problem is not our problem.”

Until next week…