SIGNING ON:Our unemployed columnist finds it impossible to muster any sympathy for ex-colleagues who are working harder for less cash

IN THE SAME way he was made aware of a community of tweeters (now silenced) commenting on his column, he is informed that his weekly series is being used as a talisman. According to a former colleague (not a friend), the managing director of a company they both worked for now orders that the column be distributed first thing on a Tuesday. The unemployed man has become a bogeyman, a warning to disgruntled employees.

His former colleague says that three people in his department have been let go. He and two others now do the work of six. This on top of a significant reduction in pay. “What choice do I have?” asks the caller. Subtext: “I don’t want to end up like you.”

There is indignation in the former colleague’s voice. Ours, he says, was a generation that believed it would always have choices. We believed that if we went to college, made sacrifices, worked hard, we would be able to educate our children, blah blah. The unemployed man hardly listens, holding the phone away, every now and then saying, ‘yeah, I know’.

The caller has had to take his children out of private school. He hasn’t had a holiday in three years. He can afford to pay only the interest on a €600,000 mortgage. He meets most of his obligations, but sometimes when he and his wife go out to dinner they wonder: “What’s it all been for?’’

The unemployed man is tempted to outline his own situation. In graphic detail. But feels that would be petty. Reverse one-upmanship. Instead, he says he has children to feed, hangs up, storing the caller’s name in his phone.

So he will know not to answer next time.

***

On the radio, some right-winger with a dreadfully affected accent is arguing that Irish welfare payments are among the highest in Europe (as is the cost of living, pal). That with a “modicum’’ of restraint, ends can be made to meet. This is not a lie.

If he had never bought a house, had no debts, and if he were in receipt of rent allowance, and if his wife were not ill (or if they separated and filed individual claims) he and his family could sometimes manage on the benefits they receive – if nothing unplanned ever befell them.

It would mean doing without a car (though by his wife’s calculations a car is cheaper to run than four people using public transport), mobile phone (they share one), internet (where most jobs are advertised) and many basic necessities of 21st-century living (Skyplus – there’s one for the tweeters to get worked up about). For the middle classes, who often enter unemployment with serious debts and savings wiped out, living on the dole is not just about budgeting. It is about a slow, weekly descent. (Into what?)

The truth is, the actions of a myopic few have trapped a naive majority, indefinitely. If there is no debt forgiveness, there will be no recovery.

***

His Romanian friend returns. The trip was a success; he will emigrate. In any event, his job as a security guard for a multinational company is under threat. The unemployed man wonders what his friend will do about the hefty loan he took out to help his brother’s ailing business. “I will walk away. Same as your big developers.”

(Good for him).

***

He is taken to court by a debtor. The amount is trifling. He agrees to pay €15 a month (he had promised to pay €45 but couldn’t). Stays to watch proceedings. One impressively relaxed man in a suit that has seen better days takes the stand.

The judge asks him why he has been unable to meet a €300-a-month repayment to a credit institution? “They shouldn’t have given me the money so readily,” responds the witness.

The judge says he is not listening to the “blame game”. How much can the man realistically afford? “Fifty,” says the man, stepping down, smiling.

***

They have a smoke outside. The unemployed man’s hand is shaking as he lights up.

“You’re taking it too seriously,” says the man in the suit. “Relax, it’s just a numbers game. Anyway, this won’t last forever. You’re old enough to remember the 1980s aren’t you? This is the same . . .”

(Actually, he is old enough to remember the 1970s, but were the circumstances really the same? Had private debt been made public back then? Had the country been sold?)