I was talking to some folks who had to talk me off the idea of a hiring blacklist. It's not like there's been a complete wall: warm referrals still make it. But cold applications? I might as well have a name on some nginx bad bot list with the turn around time for rejections. And I wasn't the only one (similarly aged folks with more contracting backgrounds, different ethnic and national backgrounds) feeling it. It doesn't shake off the sharpness of the lack of income nor the numbness of feeling more than incapable of taking care of oneself. Like I'm more scared than I expected of catching COVID or having some life event that I can't even begin to afford. If employment is so tied to one's ability to take care of themselves, how are we not all living in a feudal state? The social net is of different sizes - if it exists where you live - Florida's unemployment services (aka reemployment support, their words) do more to drill and shame than to support and direct.