Tuned in to listen to Bill Cunningham briefly today in the car. For those of you who aren't from the Cincinnati area, Bill Cunningham is our local version of Rush Limbaugh. Anyway, he was whining today about something I've been hearing a lot about lately, the controversy over extending unemployment benefits, which has historically been done in times of financial difficulty. Our president is a proponent of extending these benefits, as are most in his party, which means the Republicans are throwing a fit. The argument against extending unemployment benefits seems to be primarily that paying people who aren't working encourages them to continue to not work.
Now, I can't honestly say that there aren't some people who fall into that category, but I don't know too many unemployed people who enjoy being unemployed, and I know a whole bunch of people who complain that they are severely underemployed (that is to say, they aren't working as many hours as they want to be working, because the hours aren't there to be worked). I fall into this latter group myself. Most people don't want a handout, they want to be paid, but they want to earn it. Don't get me wrong, I like my free time, but I want to work, damn it!
If you're in the camp of those who don't want to extend unemployment benefits, or even worse, want to end it altogether, what is your defense for this position? Probably, it's something like, It'll get these people off their butts and back into the work force again! Well, golly, that sure is a great argument. Oh, except for the part where there are five unemployed people for every available job right now. Math was never my strong suit, but that doesn't seem like a situation where there are just a bunch of lazy people who don't want to work. It seems a lot more like a situation where there just AREN'T ENOUGH GODDAMN JOBS.
Strangely enough, when our President wants to create new jobs (for instance, he just proposed adding 20,000 new IRS agents), people start screaming that we don't need that! Seriously? Let me explain, briefly, why that is exactly what we need. 20,000 new jobs for the government means 20,000 more people earning a living wage, something that will pay for their home, their food, their car, and all of that stuff for their family, with a little left over. That means 20,000 more people with DISPOSABLE INCOME, which is a crucial little thing that capitalism thoroughly depends upon. When people don't have disposable income, they stop buying things, and the economy crashes. Is this crystal-fucking-clear, people?
Once more: there are actually people out there who want people to get off of unemployment and get out there and get a job, yet they bitch and moan when somebody tries to create jobs for some of these people. Look, you can't have it both ways, folks. That's called a double standard, and I see so much of that, you'd think you can just drive down to McDonald's and order a Double Standard Value Meal for lunch! Hot molasses! That value meal should come with a side of Logic Fries and a nice tall glass of Shut the Hell Up!
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I kind of agree with all points here. I know several people who are on both sides of the issue: one girl who refuses to apply for jobs until the state is threatening to take her benefits away (the rest of the time she is content be pretentiously unemployed and traveling on everyone else's dime); but at the same time, I know people who apply and apply and are incredibly qualified for jobs, but are in poor industries and the jobs don't exist.
ReplyDeleteAnd at the same time, I was laid off myself in '09, and took $10,000 less a year to get a new job just to be WORKING, even though I could have been making MORE money on unemployment than my salary currently (sad truth).
So really, it's hard to say, but there certainly people abusing the system, who refuse to lower their employment standards, and people who still need it, who can't help themselves any other way. I see this a lot seeing as how I'm working in the foreclosure department for a bank. For every person who caught a bad break in life, there is one person who made poor decisions to even it out.
First off let me correct your misconception about unemployment benefits, the main reason why the GOP didn't want to extend them wasn't because "people are lazy" it's because the Dems wanted to put us further into debt
ReplyDelete“The president knows that Republicans support extending unemployment insurance, and doing it in a fiscally responsible way by cutting spending elsewhere in the $3 trillion federal budget,” Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio
PayGo is actually something the Dems passed if you don't remember.
Now as far as your claim about 20k IRS jobs, you do know how public vs private sector jobs work right? Public sector jobs are paid for with taxes. Meaning what if you hire 20k more public workers? (If I need to spell it out for you from here then I know what bus you ride). If you think public sector is the way to go, you dont have to go far to see a prime example. Cuba where 95% of the population is employed by the Government. With an average pay of $20 a month, but their unemployment rate hasn't gone above 3% in like 10 years. Go Team Cuba!
I'm getting the feeling from this you believed in the "Hope and Change" garbage without even thinking "Change isn't always for the better"
From where I'm sitting, 20,000 jobs is 20,000 jobs. Private or public sector doesn't matter a bit. If they're government jobs and they come out of my taxes, that's fine, because it's 20,000 more people who can spend some money in a retail establishment such as the one I work at, which means more business for my company, which means more hours for me, and I come out of it smiling. It's all well and good to say you don't want more taxes, but you don't stop to think about where paying those taxes will actually help you down the line.
ReplyDeleteThat's the problem, it may be fine from "where you sit" but that adds more spending, that's already at an all time high. We may be in a period of deflation but when that passes we have to be seriously concerned about hyper-inflation.
ReplyDeleteAlso do you think that those 20k people who were hired will be spending or doing what over 2/3 of Americans are doing and saving money?