I'll take a shot at addressing your suggestions. Write a book, song, game, movie? For income? Are you serious? Even if you are of the type to pull that off, ho

I'll take a shot at addressing your suggestions. Write a book, song, game, movie? For income? Are you serious? Even if you are of the type to pull that off, how will you support yourself as you create these things? It's not the same as a job with a weekly income. Grow some food? Actually, more people should do this. Hopefully the local government won't stop you from doing it because your neighbors whine about you growing tomatoes by the side of your house. Sell a service? Plausible, if you have a skill that fits a niche because otherwise you're probably already entering a highly competitive and low margin industry. Also, depending on the service you sell, the local government may want to have a word or two with you which will likely require capital. Invent something? See the part about writing a book, song, game or movie above. Same thing, if not worse because lawyers. Sell some clothes? True, you could sell just about everything. In some cases that might be ideal because you might be able to downgrade your lifestyle just a tad to lower your expenses. But good for you that you had a skill that translated into a freelance contractor market. That doesn't work for everyone. I've never heard of freelance contractor cashiers for instance. I guess they could learn a skill first but, again, how do you support yourself during this time? It's good for you that you're willing to exploit someone's skills at half their value but not every business looks at it that way. I would imagine most managers would not want to hire someone at lower value or being over-qualified for because often that means the job is often a stepping stone to a better job. They see it as a risk of losing the investment they made in an employee that left at the first opportunity. Not that I'm saying your suggestions are necessarily bad ideas. It's just not always so easy a solution, such as people who suggest just picking up and moving to where the jobs are. With a little thought one can see that things are not always as simple as what they sometimes should be.