Zach, your experiences make me sick!
The point of life is to find a purpose for your life.
Jobs are often in the hands of others, but finding a meaning to life is in 
our own hands.
I am personally struggling with my choice of making adaptive technology 
support and training available to everybody I can help.  I use a sliding fee 
scale down to $10 an hour, so people can afford my services.
Guess what, I am getting calls from people who do good for others, have 
nothing for themselves, can't afford that, and need my help.
So what do I do?
I try to help, enjoy their company, and share lunch for my efforts.
Its not what I want to do, but it is the best I and they can do.
I also contract with agencies, and charge half of what the big companies 
charge.
I don't need more than $50 from them, because I don't have overhead.
That allows the client to get twice as many hours for the same expenditure.
Its not a job, it is what I could create in my current situation.
The point is that it gives me a reason to stay healthy, organized, and 
hopeful.

Everybody needs a meaning for their life.
With out that, a person is only consuming the earth's resources until they 
die.
Maybe the meaning to Mike's life is to irritate the hell out of us all.  If 
so, I pity him and the girl friend who for her sake; I hope is imaginary.
If she is real, she really has major issues.