Why is what I said not the issue. You ask why people can't stay on unmemployment indefinitely. Because there is no money is my answer. I gave you a real life look right here in NJ. My company has not drained the system yet I will pay a huge surcharge in addition to the regular money grab to keep the checks coming. As soon as Obama's multitude of tax hikes kick in maybe I'll be forced to send another 18 into the unemployment line. My neighbor's scam illustrates how easily the system can be gamed.
Gipper....you truly are elitist and you aren't listening. "like you who think that they should be entitled to a job just like the one that they lost and if they don't get it, they're going to take unemployment rather than take a job beneath them" As I stated....unemployment was actually less than 1/8 of my take home pay. And by the way....I created my job...achieved a hell of a lot to get where I was....not a damned thing was handed to me and that really pisses me off that you make the "entitled" comment. I am in sales.....and beginning in about 1995 I managed to take a 2 million dollar segment of business with my former company and take it up to a 5.5 million dollar segment within a few years and I was rewarded accordingly. That growth and maintaining that growth did not just materialize. It came about with a lot of blood, sweat and tears and skillful sales management. If you want entitlement......ask my former company how they are doing now with that segment since my lay off. OK....I'll tell you.......it is now back down to under 2 million. When I was laid off I was 54 years old......with a house and a family and all of the assorted bills that go along with it. Do you think I could afford to take a 40 hour per week job that was "beneath" me and be successful at the same time in landing a decent job that would keep my financial head above water? I wonder now if I haven't screwed myself forever of making anywhere near the kind of money I used to make because that is what the experts have to say about that. But I had no choice....my time of unemployment was too long for me. I was on unemployment for only 6 months before I was able to find something much more tenable than unemployment.....and I think it was because I said FU to Michigan and went to Florida. Good luck up there. Most people will need it even if you don't.
So Dave, you prove everyones point but yours by stating what you did. You got up off your rear end, found a better situation for your family, and made it happen to get off unemployment in 6 months. If you can do it, why should anyone need to have their benefits extended to more than double what you collected? If the jobs are not where you are living, the choice is to relocate to where they are. In 1989, I decided that the jobs were just not there in Tennessee. I relocated to Texas, to California, to New Mexico, and then back to Texas following better opportunities. In 2009, you relocated to find better opportunities. Can these other people not do the same? Unemployment will become a way of life for some just like Welfare has. I am all for extending a helping hand. But I am not going to become the cash cow for those that will not do what it takes to find means of employment.
Longterm unemployment is a cancer. It might seem like it's a great thing to "help" families maintain a min level of living. But it's a cancer, esp for many untrained people, they will find ways to supplement their income in the cash economy and continue to take unemployment benefits. This country has gotten along just fine with the unemployment system we have had in place, this recession is hard on a lot of people, but long term unemployment isn't the answer. Not to mention it's extremely expensive and moves us closer and closer to a Euro Style Socialism. Which btw they are starting to grow weary of over there from what I read.
I agree that I took the bull by the horns and was very aggressive by relocating. That said.....my wife is an RN...easily the most portable job out there. I also received a severance from my former company that enabled me to withstand some of the significant expenses associated with relocating including having to pay two separate housing payments and energy bills at one time for 9 consecutive months. Just re-plating three cars in Florida alone was $1400.00 !!! Additionally, even though I sold my home in Michigan for the same damned price I paid for it in 1992 at least the mortgage was 18 years old and I was not under water on the house as are 50% of Americans. In other words....without the assistance of the severance it would have been much more difficult to do what I did in this abysmal housing market so perhaps not having the same factors to work with as I did is another reason good, honest people get left holding nothing in the bag.
That's the issue. Difficult, not impossible. The difficulty factor is what makes some rely on unemployment. If they know that safety net will always be there, they will not take the difficult path. If they know that there is an end to the free money, they will make the effort or they will find the best weight reduction program in the history of man.
Tom, I had a few more tools at my disposal.....excellent track record and a transportable job for my wife. It still is a challenge even today but we are doing it. Yesterday I moved for the third time in a little over a year when I hadn't moved in 17 years before that. I'll probably have to move again next summer if I want my son to go to a H/S that I feel is more than average. Of course.....some would say......"Oh....and that is why we have private schools....." :roll: :roll: Or.....maybe I should just take that ghost equity from an 18 year investment and purchase another castle here in sunny F...L...A... :roll: :roll:
Half a million in deep... well you know... And Obama is loaning 2 billion to one of the wealthiest Americans to drill for oil off shore in Brazil to benefit Red China. And you thought that Bush was affiliated with big oil??? Big Oil Obama... just not for the US
That's only half the story Tom http://frontpagemag.com/2010/06/22/soros-oil-spill-payoff/ Obam's goal of course is to make billions for Soros so that he will reciprocate and funnel millions of dollars to Democrats for reelection especially BO. The hypocracy of Democratic supporters about how the Republican party is the party of the rich and the Democratic party is for the little guy is laughable. And just so there's no doubt here's a list of the wealthiest members of Congress. By my count 8 of the top 10 are Democrats http://www.rollcall.com/features/Guide-to-Congress_2009/guide/38181-1.html?page=1
Come on Dave... you were so quick to accuse Bush of having his "big oil buddies". What do you think of this catering to big oil that will benefit China with not a drop coming to the US?
Obama is looking more and more like a one term president. Front Page is what kind of newsprint.....are they right leaning? I always wonder about articles written by right or left leaning writers for that matter. In any event the politics seem to be playing an untold part in this catastrophe and there is no room for it. The public will not stand for it. I suspect both sides will spend the better part of two years trying to pinpoint just how the other party played political gamesmanship while the Gulf was being ruined. Noses had better be clean in this one or political careers will be toast.