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Yes, the best way to encourage people to find jobs is to give them free cash. Government logic at its best. Or is it liberal logic. Whichever.
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@Radi0logy: I might say your point had some merit if the unemployment rate wasn't primarily caused by a contraction across most if not all industries in America. The unemployed were not bums sitting on park benches. They were gainfully employed, producing goods and services, and drawing a paycheck for their work which went right back into the economy. The fact that people stopped buying cars was not the fault of the assembly line worker at GM; the fact that Lehman Brothers failed was not the result of someone patronizing Netflix instead of Blockbuster.
While no one wants to call it by that word, the present economic debacle is the worst since the Great Depression and could easily be called a depression. Like the first one, this was principally the result of excess in the financial industries and when the bill came due, the first thing cut was financing for business, especially small and medium business which employ the majority of US workers.
So while it is easy to blame the laid off worker, it's also bullshit. The CEOs of Lehman, AIG, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, and B of A did more to destroy the economy than any person drawing an unemployment check.
@Radi0logy: @Radi0logy: Everyone else appears to have already said what I wanted to say about you being a meathead...
But I am partly on yourside. I was thinking this morning when I heard on NPR (what i consider liberal douchebag radio, even tho I am an avid fan) that they were extending the unemployment benefits was \"gee... My grandfather had the CC camps. Why cant they just have something like that. I mean, the infrastructure is crumbling. Pay people to work fixing it. Or at least picking up trash.\"
@Radi0logy: Yea. Like during Bush's reign when they decided to cut off the extension. Meanwhile people in my profession were literally working at Walmart, fast food or taking a 50% pay cut in order to just have a job.
It isn't like unemployment is even desirable. Unless your already a poverty stricken deadbeat unemployment comes nowhere near replacing enough income to make basic expenses.
@bohemian: I'm just curious as to why you feel entitled to make $100,000 a year. Just because you buy a half million dollar home doesn't mean that job will always be there. And then you go spitting on the people that work at Wal-mart or McDonald's, like they aren't even good enough to look into your halo.
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@Radi0logy: It's not half million dollar homes. If you have children, working at McDonald's or Walmart alone is not going to cut it.
@hotdogsunrise: Yeah. It's the kid's fault, not the twin beamers, mortgage or maxed out credit cards.
@Radi0logy: No one is denying that some people went crazy with their money and lived way above their means. However, there are so many people out there without a job who are struggling, and oftentimes failing, to make ends meet. It's not fair to say everyone who is unemployed who had a great job lived above their means. It's simply untrue.
@hotdogsunrise: As the people here have been pointing out so faithfully, they are just 'above' working at those pittance jobs like Target and KFC. Nevermind that for a working father and mother putting in 40 hours a week at 10 bucks an hour that is almost $40k a year before taxes.
No, its not glamorous. No, it isn't something to be proud of. But I wonder how many people draining unemployment and losing their homes would be OK if they could get over their ridiculous pride and overblown sense of self worth.
I am very sorry, but if you are so ostentatious that you cannot live on $40k a year as a family of four for 1 year without having to go heavily in credit card debt then you are living too luxuriously. If you make/made enough to save up enough to pay your way through a tough time then good for you. But don't go sucking up unemployment to cover the dues at the racket club.
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@Radi0logy: You might have hit on something there. I think a lot of people are used to a standard of living that is beyond their means. Back when credit was super easy to find, it was easily possible to get all sorts of nice toys on only $40K a year, now the equation has changed.
I can understand the dignity thing, I realize that moving to a lower income job feels like going backwards, but a lower income job is sometimes better than no job as it keeps you occupied, helps build your resume and can lead you to a better paying job. A friend mine worked as a clerk at a hobby shop and then moved on to a much better paying job because one of the regulars at the store really liked him and had an opening available.
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That is true but it rest on the assumption there are in fact jobs. Normally I would agree with you, especially when the unemployment rate is low such as in the late 1990s. At the current time this does not apply.
Also, this is more pragmatic than an optimal solution in my opinion. Since we can not expand the money supply anymore and additional stimulus will either we a.) wasted on none stimulus stuff or b.) be politically possible to implement.
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@yellowlight: Yup, a person making $75K a year who loses his job and get just over $15K a year in unemployement benefits (ational average $293 a week) will be totally unmotivated to find work.
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@SkokieGuy: Here in NY, it's $405 per week for the 26 weeks. Granted, right now we're getting extensions and what not, so by the end of the year, I will have received $21,060 plus that extra Federal $25 per week that started for us folks earlier this year. And as you pointed out, I am so unmotivated to find work, well, I just read Consumerist all day. ;-)
Seriously, my fear is losing the house. I'm burning through my savings and it's been 10+ months so far.
Thank you for saying what I have been telling people.
Let's not forget that a lot of people refuse to find work that's below their expectations of income.
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@Hogan1: Yeah, but these are also probably the same people who refuse to utilize unemployment benefits. I've been there - jobless, no income, and a false sense of dignity preventing me from filing for unemployment or working at a job two or three steps down the income rung than what I was accustomed to. But then again, I don't have a family or kids to feed.
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@Radi0logy: I can't help but wonder if the people who most scream at the benefit of helping our fellow citizens are the ones who least feel like they would ever need that assistance themselves.
It seems obvious to me that -outliers aside- assisting our fellow citizens to get /back/ on their feet is the best thing for our economy.
FAIL. When there aren't enough jobs to go around, all the motivation in the world isn't going to get everyone a job.
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@Cant_stop_the_rock: I heard there's huge demand for cleaning car windshields at traffic lights with dirty rags.
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this is a great thing for those it helps, but how will it be paid for, the country is running a dangerously high deficit (but what other option do they have)