It ruined my life. I never found another good job. Getting laid off from an imploding industry— newspapers— when you’ve hit an age at which nobody wants to give you a chance in a new industry — just ended me. I cobble together Medium and Substack and freelance and books. I’ll never reach the ability to even worry about the garage door breaking, because I’ll never be able to afford an automatic garage door opener. I have a good marriage and wonderful kids and grandkids and friends. But I’ll never achieve any level of financial security even though I’ve worked hard my whole life. It happened in July 2015 and I was never happy it happened.