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With Unemployment Benefits, It's the Invisible That Matters
With a vote on unemployment-benefit renewal set to come before Congress yet again, a great deal of discussion about its impact is to be expected. If so, it should be hoped that this time around the less visible effects of jobless benefits can be considered.
By now the visible impact is well known. At its core, unemployment insurance pays individuals out of work to stay unemployed. Though the benefits aren't substantial, the funds paid out are a cushion of sorts that make finding the work necessary to feed oneself less of a near-term necessity.
Not only does jobless compensation make securing work less of a pressing issue, it also raises the cost of luring workers from the sidelines. Indeed, in deciding whether to take on new employment, the unemployed must consider the wage offered through the prism of what will be lost thanks to the cessation of government paychecks.
Looking at the above, jobless benefits in a very real sense artificially prop up wage demands, and the results are predictable. Much as a typical convenience store would suffer slow inventory turnover if it failed to adjust prices to market-clearing demand, at present there's a great of human inventory that has yet to be cleared.
Unemployment benefits with no endpoint make the clearing of employment inventory a difficult concept because they don't allow wage demands to adjust to present realities. If the alleged benefits were voted down, there would be an immediate wage-demand adjustment on the part of most unemployed on the way to them finding work at wages that reflect actual demand for labor in the marketplace.
All of which brings us to the invisible aspects of unemployment benefits offered by states and the federal government.
Economist Alec Phillips of Goldman Sachs remarkably argues that benefit cessation would shave a half a percentage point of growth from the admittedly unreliable GDP calculation. The thinking there is that without government checks, the unemployed would consume less on the way to lower GDP. That's what's visible.
But what's not visible is how many sidelined workers would in fact be employed minus benefits that create incentives for them not to be. Absent benefits that are delaying wage-demand adjustments, it's a fair bet that many of the unemployed would be working now, and their work efforts would drive up real economic growth on the way to consumption that would increase GDP even more than handouts presently do.
More important to this discussion, however, are the positive behavioral implications that would arguably result from governments not offering up unemployment insurance to begin with. Unseen here is how much harder the average American would work if it were apparent that there would be no check waiting once the ax falls.
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For that alone, it's easy to argue that working Americans would be far more productive if aware that their joblessness would not be met with a check from the state, and their productivity would attract greater investment on the way to more job security. Productivity is an investment magnet that perpetuates work.
Secondly, if unemployment insurance were abolished altogether, this would profoundly impact the willingness of the average American to save for a rainy day. Simply put, individual savings would rise in concert with the abolishment of jobless benefits. The positive results of such a development should be very apparent.
Indeed, company formation and the jobs that result are solely a function of delayed consumption on the part of individuals. Increased savings would increase the stock of capital necessary on the way to plentiful jobs. A higher savings rate would create a more vibrant employment cushion amid corporate downsizings that would make the very notion of jobless benefits less of a factor in our economic life.
Basically the increased savings would ensure constant new company and job opportunities that would replace the businesses and jobs lost. Even better, thanks to the abolishment of the benefits, companies on the way up would no longer be forced to bid for labor made artificially expensive by benefits paid for at least in part through taxes foisted on job-creating businesses.
Of course if individuals were drawing down their own savings while unemployed, the pain of raiding their own next egg would surely increase the sting of joblessness, and concentrate the minds of the unemployed on the way to quickly finding work. As the late Milton Friedman used to say, we're a lot more careful with our own money than we are with that of others.
Through the creation of state-subsidized unemployment insurance no one pays for their own unemployment benefits, but everyone pays for everyone else's benefits. In that case, is it any wonder that these supposed benefits continue to be extended?
Ultimately the only cure for recession and joblessness is production itself. What's visible in this case is the unemployed continuing to spend the money of others while unemployed. What's not visible is all the wealth creation lost thanks to the employed being depressed so that the unemployed can be stimulated away from productive work.
So while the visible negatives that reveal themselves through unemployment insurance are well noted at this point, it's essential to consider the unseen, or invisible. Unemployment benefits foster an environment of lower productivity and greater prodigality that necessarily make downturns more painful for the capital stock being depleted. If this is to be fixed, it's important to remember the invisible, as in how would Americans behave if they knew the government wouldn't be there for them in times of distress?
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About John Tamny:
Mr. Tamny is a senior economic advisor to Toreador Research & Trading, columnist for Forbes and editor of RealClearMarkets.com. Mr. Tamny frequently writes about the securities markets, along with tax, trade and monetary policy issues that impact those markets for a variety of publications including the Wall Street Journal, National Review and the Washington Times. He’s also a frequent guest on CNBC’s Kudlow & Co. along with the Fox Business Channe
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I'm very bipolar when it comes to these unemployment benefits. I don't want people starving on the streets, but I also know there are plenty of shysters defrauding the system.
My uncle has received benefits for close to a year. He works at a construction company for cash 2 days a week and complains about Obama/Republicans/ green jobs the rest of the week. (while on his computer in just his underwear). I don't think he'll be leading the next revolution.
I worked a seasonal dump truck job in addition to other small skills with heavy equiptment and when it was chain season (Oct 15 to about March 10), my Boss will say ok boys, take off and get your unemployment and get warm, strong and well fed in the winter and come back here ready to go in the spring.
I recieved some resentment from those I thought were good friends and being diligent about going to thier office or school work that requires skills I will never learn or understand.
God gives us all different gifts. But more importantly the State allowed my boss/employer to give unemployment to his workforce for the winter so that they may be fit, healthy and strong come spring.
Those that abuse the system will be ground to dust and I weep not for them.
If I ever return to that particular company, I would be handed the keys and told to get a load of apsalt and take it to a point for a new driveway on the spot. And I can make it happen. No training necessary.
We were so local that Federal Motor Carrier Regulations other than weight, equiptment and safety did not apply to us very much. You could be casterated, one leg with wood peg and blind in one eye and still drive it legally.
There's quite the skill in being able to handle that kind of machinery. I sure don't have it.
QUESTION TO EVERYONE:
How many people do you know that were hired for a job as a direct result from government job creating initiatives/stimulus?
As for me, ZERO.
Well, I'd start believing a bit more in the market thesis when high unemployment starts exerting meaningful pressure on salaries/bonuses for executives and bankers.
Until that happens, though, I'm afraid it's a bit obvious who is *really* gaming the system.
i have worked two jobs for the last 13 years. I was laid off recently from a company after 10 years, still have part time employment with an employer that I've been with for 11 years. I'm still on my 26 weeks of unemployment I live in a small midwest town in a state with lower than the national unemployment average. Today there were 12 jobs in the local paper and an accouncement that a large local health insurance company was laying off 132 workers. I suppose I might be able to get a job as a robosigner or TSA worker if I could relocate but that means I'd have to sell my house first like that's going to happen soon. Welcome to my world!!!!!
A quick search of Mr. Tamny reveals all kinds of useful employment advice, such as this on outsourcing American workers:
As Blinder no doubt knows, the surplus of any good, be it boxed or sent electronically from overseas, creates new wants among people. To the extent that U.S. firms send work to India or China to be done more cheaply, the lower cost associated with the move frees up capital for new investment by businesses stateside. The lower cost of goods and services also accrues to consumers in such a way that they have capital beyond life's daily necessities, and through savings, help to fund the formation of new companies that will create jobs in place of those lost.
As a free trader, Blinder also surely knows that the quickest way for a country to impoverish itself is to engage in labor that could be done more cheaply elsewhere. Indeed, labor is wasted when it is geared toward something that others can do.
And don't forget to count the unemployeds who failed to meet the minimum wage citeria to get a check in the first place. Those are never counted.
By the way, I had a friend that worked at IKEA 5 to 6 days a week in the morning, for min wage, to get enough hours to qualify for health benefits. He was a freelance graphic designer when he got done with stocking IKEA shelves from 5am -10am and by working 40 plus most of the time doing graphics and 30 some hours at Ikea to get health benes, he made a good middle class salary.
Almost everyone he worked with at IKEA stocking the shelves was working class and had second jobs that were essentially full-time, paid a bit more than min wage but had no benes. These people worked there butts off physically at IKEA and then went to their next job, usually clocking 60-70 hours a week, to make maybe 20-25k a year, and there always people wanting these IKEA jobs. These were all people that had HS degrees or better, all were American citizens, spoke English and were reliable workers and reasonable smart, literate, some were laid off from much better paying, higher skilled manufacturing jobs such as running high end equipment or doing Autocad drafting etc jobs they got after doing a 2 year degree, one guy was a fired northwest airline baggage handler (their union was busted), one was a guy's whose family roofing business died because of competition of cheap illegal immigrant labor.
And this was over 3 years ago, when economy was doing much better. They probably have lines of people for these jobs now.
This lead me to believe that there were many hard-working Americans willing to work their tails off for min wage, if that was all they could get. And getting a little bit of education and good job experience didn't pay off if you were at wrong company at wrong time. These are the types of people (show up to work every day, get along with everyone, have some sense and pride in their work etc) that 30 years ago would have had a manufacturing job for a US corporation, working 40 hrs a week, making far the equivalent of 40-50k in todays dollars, with health and pension benefits.
Attention John Tamny:
If "It's Just That Easy", as your article implies, perhaps you could point me in the direction of a good paying job. It can be in an office, in the weather, or on the battlefield - I really don't give a damn, as long as the pay's there.
I'm betting you won't be able to, and just like the rest of your ilk, it has everything to do with the fact that people like you are completely clueless about the reality that life in America has become for most people.
Try looking for a job in the private sector, before you publish bullshit like this please! You only make yourself look stupid in the eyes of people who live "in the real world".
I'm a 25 year toolmaker from Michigan. Unemployed past 99 weeks. Am I going to feed the beast and apply my hard-won skills for 1/3 of what I used to earn?
Not likely. I'll take what I can find "under the table" and fall back on savings. If the JOs in DC give me another tier, I'll take it. Shit, they're just printing it anyway.
As for this post: Fuck Off.
Here's a good idea. Just have the Fed lend all the unemployed ! billion each @ 0% interest with the understanding they must buy 10 year Treasuries.
I could squeak by on 25 mil.
I'm a 40 year on the job toolmaker with my own shop. I have never taken a penny from the goomint for anything ever excepting aprimary and secondary education up to age fifteen. I have paid that back with massive interest.
I pay into unemployment comp for all of my employees yet I am ineligeable for anything. I pay 100% of their health insurance less their deductible, and much of that is covered by HSA payments to their accounts. I supply work clothing, dental insurance, life insurance, and have averaged 14.5% of their gross pay into their SEP IRA every year for the past fifteen.
It is true that there is an incentive to get onto unemployment comp, especially if one can wangle SSI benefits on top of it.
I despise all goomints for wrecking the free market in labor and manufacturing, and everything else that the grifters glom onto. I resent what the goo has and will do to those like you and me have "saved" through our forced "voluntary contributions" to SS and Medicare.
The TARP and stimulus and Queasing have gutted the savers like me that refuse to use banks. My company has not taken a bank loan for fifteen years.
just realize that there are many in labor and many companies that game the UEC for far more than it is worth.
Governments were totally bought off by the bankster enrichment schemes and frauds. I exhorted my employees to raise hell with the gombit to stop the frauds going back to 2004 and earlier. Not one ever thought anything about it other than to mock me for my bearishness. Three out of nine of them are bankrupts and two more had pissed away their IRA's on junk.
Sorry, I cannot carry them any more. I have only mentioned a few things that are of extreme importance to them, that being the Irish and the reasons for "Homeland Security". IMO, these are inseparable as applies to American middle class. I get a yawn and more scuttlebut about how I have gone off the deep end for buying them long term food supplies.
Feck'em I quit.
thank you DICK, you justified the article perfectly!! remember your only worth what someone is willing to pay you, not what your union says you should make. Good luck in ol' Mich! (you) DICK.
I junked you because who could blame Dick for working the system? Why pay into it if our tax $$$ continue to get funneled into the Too Big To Fails? There is no capitalism left in America, just a massive kleptocratic tumor where once was a republic that, as imperfect as it was, was the envy of the world. If I were in Dick's shoes, I would do the same. Fuck those assholes and you can take your douchebaggery comment and shove it.
Jane, you ignorant slut! (Jane, you ingnorant unionized slut??)
For YEARS these michigan unionized clowns ruled the roost. Even as more companies fled the GREAT UNIONIZED STATE, these fcks kept up their greedy bllsht.
The DICK isn't protesting the end of capitalism, he just feels he is worth a whole lot more than the market is offering. There is a guy right now putting windshield wiper blades on a new Chevy Malibu (in Michigan!) who will gross $85,000. When he loses his job should we put him on unemployment for 99 weeks so he can sit there while he waits for the next $85,000 a year job? or should we assess his skill set (nothing) and send him right to McDonald's? Which do you think will force him back to reality with the lowest cost to taxpayers?
The problem with unemployment is that is doesn't match skills to the current local market, it looks at wages earned.
LOL. 90% of the people I have experienced during work are WORTHLESS! They could give a fuck about threats. The US could operate fine with 25% UE. Seriously. And Govt workers, omfg, get rid of 40-50% and you'd never notice a drop in service.
This article is total BS. there I said it
'Human inventory', eh? I bet this guy thinks it's just fine if the rich are 'prodigal' and unproductive even if they inherited the money or they are bailed out by their family when they lose a job, etc. But if someone who doesn't have that kind of help is in the same situation, they are expected to take any crappy job at minimum wage and that's somehow supposed to INCREASE consumption and stimulate the economy? Good luck with that, his argument is partisan and doesn't hold water. There is no doubt in my mind that the unemployment rate would be way higher right now if there were no benefits, because people can't spend money they don't have, and cutting benefits would only add to the downward economic spiral.
Great article, who can argue with common sense.
I had a neighbor who worked for American Axle doing a hot knuckle popping job. Got laid off and stayed on unemployment for over a year. 2 weeks before the money ran out he got a CDL license. WASTED MONEY!
I suggest ceasation of this hobby-horse attack on the unemployed. There aren't enough jobs to go around in this time, don't 'cha get it? Pick on someone larger than the weakend American worker !
...i would agree with this stupid article written by a stupid idiot, if and only if (iff), our federal government removes all subsidies for all corporations and deregulates all utilities and the sec enforces their own rules and fin reg is null and void with the ending of the federal reserve and tariffs reinstated for all imports (as it used to be) to fund what was once the i.r.s.,...oh, almost forgot,...and all unconstitutional laws rendered as such. now, you can see all this is not likely to happen. so, my little comment here is as stupid as the article, however, i'm not sure i would call myself the idiot in this village.
good point, when we end any form of "welfare" for budget balancing its always regular folks that get stripped first, not defense, nor corporations, not farm subsidies, not 0 percent FED loans to big banks so they can buy Tbills and collect risk free income from us etc...
There are no jobs.
Under 30 over 50 pick your number and stand in line.
I like lurking this site as there are gems of intelligence to be found, but 30ish financial guys truly suck when it comes to understanding life.
thank you, good point,...there are asset bubbles, and there are people that live in bubbles.
What a piece...I am soo NOT convinced by it. Nice try at sounding learned.
If and when there are jobs to apply for, perhaps then the unemployment rolls will decrease. I don't know too many people who enjoy the 20%-40% reduction of their previous pay that their unemployment checks amount to.
To hear it said by some, unemployment is a panacea. Really?
Keep trying. If hating and blaming the unemployed doesn't work, try accusing cancer victims next or perhaps blame the elderly for being pigs about Soc Sec or Medicare. Gotta destroy that social net somehow someway right?
Arr, another corporate talking head (knowingly or not) spewing more of the same BS. Unemployment benefits are designed to reward the lazies, not like the financial deregulation which benefits those out of this earth geniuses on 5000 dollar suits, and well, "financial innovation" whatever that means. Those are the good incentives I guess?
This is the same stupid bullshit spewed by those crooks at Inflation.us, who said that Chinese workers are better educated than American ones because they don't have unemployment insurance, and that such a lacking made them better... WTF?
There are few people I know that have been on long-term unemployment that will suddenly start doing work they avoided as long as they had UI. These are the categories of people I know on UI, I don't think most fit the generalizations of this articles analysis.
- Professionals - still looking for a professional jobs commensurate to their skills and experience who have been doing lesser jobs while on UI (part-time at retail store, bar-tending, an occasional independent contractor/consulting/sales rep gig within their industry, etc) whenever they have gotten such short term work in dribs and drabs, they have foregone some or all of their UI until gigs run out, while still leaving themselves some time to look for full-time job, interview, network, intern in related industry (technically not legal but no money trades hands, so...) whatever they can do to try to get better job. What will these people do when UI runs out, more of the same I suspect but with less disposal income, I don't think it will make them go get different lower job unless they already concluded, independent of UI, that getting back their former profession is completely impossible, not just tough, but hopeless. Some professional folks I know on long-term UI gave up looking and took full-time job in anything to get benes before UI ran out, some have a spouse with benes, so they keep cobbling together income and keep working to find better job, regardless of whether they are on UI or not. UI to them is a critical supplement but a small portion of their former wages and does not seem to decide when they can or will get full-time employment again. Sometimes these folks, if older, like 55 can never get full-time employment as no one wants to give them a job they are over-qualified for, and no one in their field is hiring.
- People who benefitted from UI but didn't really need it. Say a married parent with young children who got laid off and used the time to take over full-time child care. Such 2-parent families may not have been netting much more from 2 parents working and paying child care but they were doing it for stability (if one gets laid off, at least other has job) or to keep both parents on a good career track etc...so when one at home no longer gets UI, it may still make sense for one parent to stay home and care for young children as any job they might find will not net enough to pay for child care. So again, work habits don't change, just less disposal income for family.
- People that are leaching off family, such as single parent or loser adult child...UI is nice for them, but they won't be homeless without and may still not get much work beyond cash work occasionally, live in mom's basement, eat lots of her leftovers etc...basically mom loses disposal income when adult child loses UI, but they may not work anymore than already doing.
- trades,skills people that can't find any pemrmanent employment, so are surviving by cobbling together working for cash under table (construction for friends and family, fixing computers, yard work, whatever) and UI...these folks just can't find jobs, so when UI stops, they just have less money...and they continue to do whatever cash work they can find
- people who are abusing system like small business people that are hiring and firing each others wives or some such and just take all the UI they can...they will not work more when UI runs out, they are lazy pigs, once UI runs out on them, no more working, just less disposal income.
I could go on....sure some people can survive relatively okay on UI but I think people at least 6 months in on UI are tyring to get whatever work they can, either legit or under-table. I would argue that is is fair to cut off UI to peopel who are actually making money under-table or obviously, for people who are abusing system, but that is not the same as saying suddenly more people will be working for lower paying jobs once UI ends...that's what this article is saying.
The big fat assumption is that these people will find "real" jobs once they get off their cushy UI butts. In reality, they might start taking cans out of trash where as when they were on UI they just did cleaner cash work...but I don't know of a single person in my personal life that turned down a full-time job for anything at or more than 50 percent of what they were making before because they felt fine on UI.
A older single friend of mine got fired from his job 18 months ago, so he got no UI, but he exhibited almost the exact same behavior as my friends on UI. He ran up credit cards and favors from family and friends while trying to find a manufacturing job consistent with his experience, he took some temp, part-time jobs like sorting Netflixs DVDS in late night/early am, did odd jobs, yard work, stuff for friends and family, all while looking for jobs, in that period he turned down 1 full-time job that was for min wage in 6 months in...as manufacturing picked up in our area, in Nov he landed a full-time job payin $18/hr applicable to his previous experience. If he had UI or not, he would have likely done the same thing, kept looking for a better job, cobbled together some income, favors and debt to get by, he would have just had more money.
There are many things we can argue about UI but given we are all paying a tax to support it, it seems simply to be simply a safety net provided from large pool of taxpayers instead of individual savings...may or maybe not some peoples idea of a good way to go but not so clearly a perverse incentive as this article makes it out to be.
Just as with private car insurance, while there is some fraud and abuse, most people won't crash their car simply because they know they are insured. While most of the loss is covered by insurer, it still harms onces pocketbook to have a crashed car. If you got rid of car insurance, would there be less accidents...maybe, a bit, but really its not going to cut in half all accidents, as most are simply, accidents.
Looks like some spineless fool junked you.
I'd give you a thumbs-up if we had that option.
Agree with your conclusion(s) or not, reasonable thought should be appreciated.
The arrogance in this statement goes off the chart:
"More important to this discussion, however, are the positive behavioral implications that would arguably result from governments not offering up unemployment insurance to begin with. Unseen here is how much harder the average American would work if it were apparent that there would be no check waiting once the ax falls."
What?
"How much harder the average American would work if it were apparent no check would come once the axe falls."
The corporations lobbied to bring in as many immigrants as possible, destroyed the unions, pressured wages by pitting immigrants against existing wage earners. The list is endless, ....and its not about us competing head to head in a global economy. None of the heads of the banks, or most corporations have done their jobs anywhere near satisfactorily and yet are paid like they have done an exempliary job. Where's the hard work and competenance you speak of?
Or, how about this, if Reagan had been tried for TREASON when he negotiated with IRAN to hold the hostages, instead of becoming President, the whole mess wouldn't have started with the Air Traffic Controllers.
Or, the U.S. spent trillions protecting our military and trade secrets for 40 years, with military force and intelligence only to let the Republicans and the Corporations give it Gratis, to China and other former adversaries.
The good news is something much more fitting comes your way.
Its about power, its about destroying the middle class, its about privitizing the gains and handing off the losses to taxpayers, its about selling out the country for 30 pieces of silver (like Judas), and a lot more.
"When the axe falls" was a good choice of words, and it won't just apply to the poor worker who loses his paycheck and has no unemployment benefits.
Yup. That "falling axe" thing was a very poor choice of words. Apropos of Thanksgiving, and our author is the turkey.
I think the author is spot on. The existence of unemployment benefits undoubtly has unaccounted for externalities in promoting bad behavior - not saving, not planning, driving up wages. To further that, I believe that unemployment benefits should not kick in immediately, nor should they go on indefinately.
The existence of unemployment benefits to this degree has had a tranquilizing effect on the public and allowed jobs to be shipped overseas. So in effect, had the pain been allowed to be felt a lot earlier, in the case benefits were not so generous, TPTB might have had to reconsider the policies that allow shipping jobs overseas in the face of rising public discontent.
UI is insurance, public insurance. I would argue is a lot cheaper and more efficient to buy UI and/or life insurance from a pool than simply having each person, family, try to save enough money for relatively uncommon things that will hit some really, really hard and some people may never be affected. Even in this great recession, 80 percent of people have likely not lost their jobs. Are you telling me eveyrone, young, old, with kids in college, with a sick familiy member, everyone should have 2 or more years of salary saved up rather than all us simply paying small installments over years to cover a big risk event?
Do you save for the day your $30 k car crashes, the day you suddently have a stroke at a freakishly young age, or do you buy insurance and spread the risk across a pool? Those lucky enough not to crash their car or get have a stroke, pay for the unlucky ones.
UI is similar, we all pay for it via taxes, to give us a cushion...many people will be lucky enough never to need it...but in my industry, construction, even really really good employees at really good companies got laid off and UI really helped them. These are not people that never saved for a rainy day, but the UI, that they contributed to for 20-30 years thru their taxes, sure helped cushion the blow from working in the wrong industry when the music stopped.
I agree with that aspect of it, and did not say UI was not necessary. But most all types of insurance I am aware of have 1) deductables, and 2) limits to coverage. Right now, how the UI system is constructed, there is no deductable as there is no waiting time, and the coverage keeps getting extended. It would be nice to pay for auto insurance on a $30K car and have it later cover a $60K care because more people got in car wrecks that year...
No waiting time? What gave you that idea? It's become SOP to protest an employee's claim to keep the insurance percentage down. Many companies have been created so that management can outsource firing. As an added service these new GDP additions, come complete with services on how to get employee benefits denied. They are very good and very busy.
Then it takes 10 weeks for it to either come to a favorable or unfavorable outcome for the employee. Meanwhile no money is coming in.
Here it's 10-14 days if unopposed which is getting more and more rare. If one is in a state that has less that 8% unemployment 26 weeks is the max and that is only of they had worked the requisite minimum time. There are temp jobs all over that are calculated to end so no benefits can accrue. Some temp jobs seem to be more and more available everywhere you don't live. People take them and find they have to collect them in the state they worked which more often than not is not the state they live. That's the new thing. Get the unemployed to relocate with no allowances, no guarantees and no benefits all paid by an off shore temp agency so employer rates are down and they can disobey employment laws with total impunity.
It's obvious that there is no stomach for a further extension of UI benefits, so 99 weeks it is for the hard hit states only. Of course if people go to North Dakota where unemployment is sitting pretty at 4.5%, they may get an entry level job with one small problem. There is no place to live. Nothing. As the North Dakota official said : "Put your hand in a freezer for 5 minutes and then take it out. That's N. Dakota in the winter time.
Now go ahead and compare that with a distant cousin like disability insurance, either private or public.
The only ones getting over on us are boarding their helicopters bound for the Hamptons right now. Their enablers knock off at 4:30pm sharp in DC. Then the punditocracy like the author of the post, who are self-appointed guardians of all that are wealthy , come out at night to condemn anybody not willing to work for a $1.00 an hour to help make the gap wider and wider.
If your for all that , I certainly hope you've had live combat training.
Maybe the govt should implement a guaranteed minimum income for all citizens.
Fuck this asshole, probably republican. Better yet, let him clean toilets... I hear the re are some jobs the there with only ten applicants per job. The fact is that there are very very few jobs abailable. Value Expectations is number one on my shit list ... no wonder he appears frequently on CNCB, the biggest whores of the establishment.
"At this festive season of the year, Mr Scrooge,'' said the gentleman, taking up a pen, ``it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir.''
``Are there no prisons?'' asked Scrooge.
``Plenty of prisons,'' said the gentleman, laying down the pen again.
``And the Union workhouses?'' demanded Scrooge. ``Are they still in operation?''
``They are. Still,'' returned the gentleman, `` I wish I could say they were not.''
``The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour, then?'' said Scrooge.
``Both very busy, sir.''
``Oh! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that something had occurred to stop them in their useful course,'' said Scrooge. ``I'm very glad to hear it.''
``Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian cheer of mind or body to the multitude,'' returned the gentleman, ``a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I put you down for?''
``Nothing!'' Scrooge replied.
``You wish to be anonymous?''
``I wish to be left alone,'' said Scrooge. ``Since you ask me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make merry myself at Christmas and I can't afford to make idle people merry. I help to support the establishments I have mentioned: they cost enough: and those who are badly off must go there.''
``Many can't go there; and many would rather die.''
``If they would rather die,'' said Scrooge, ``they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides -- excuse me -- I don't know that.''
``But you might know it,'' observed the gentleman.
``It's not my business,'' Scrooge returned. ``It's enough for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. Good afternoon, gentlemen!''
Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point, the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed his labours with an improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper than was usual with him.
I was unemployed from Jan 09 to Nov 09. The amount I received on UI was less than half what I was making at the job I, and 250 others, were layed off from when the plant closed. During that time I applied for many jobs that would have payed me the same, or slightly less that the UI.
Guess what, during that 11 months, I had two interviews. And someone else got the job, not me.
So all this blather about UI keeping people unemployed is pure BS to me. There are still people I worked with, to this day, that remain unemployed with no income. And from talking with them, they experienced the same thing I did. Applying for many jobs and never hearing a thing in return.
Really, this time it is different, there just are no jobs equal to the amount of folks looking for them.
"Really, this time it is different"...., there just are no jobs equal to the amount of folks looking for them.
Actually, during the entire history of man there haven't been enough good paying jobs to employ the people looking for them.
This is likely to be a forever thing, since we can't invent the industries that will utilize 6.3 billion, then 7 then 8 then 10 billion people on earth.
A new way of getting to the burgeoning populations, that which they need to survive, will have to be created.
Work as we have come to know it is becoming an ancient concept. I have no doubt the guys at the top are already well aware of the coming permanence of 'unemployment' and disconnect between what our school and universities are turning out on graduation day and what economies need to grow.
The vast majority are living like poor people UNLESS THEY invent their way out of the mess they are in. Whatever it takes, do not count on the government to do any more than they can, which is the province of the welfare state which will always find a way to feed and house its people or face the wrath of hundreds of millions with nothing to do all day but plan for a communist style revolution.
don't agree....monetary policy and economic swings can turn a thriving low unemployment economy into a horrible high unemployment economy within a year...no difference in how motivated or inventive and willing to work people were. Study what happened to American colonies when Britain stopped they ability to issue their own script that practically overnight shut down the colonies economies. What about farmers or bankers in Iowa during depression. In one year, the revenue from selling their crops went from being slightly above their cost of production to being a small fraction of what they had spent to raise the food. Instantly, banks and farmers all unemployed. At one point in Iowa, there were NO banks in numerous counties. These were not exactly lazy people, they were somewhat self-sufficient but had cash crops that became worthless over night.
Fascist idiot.
Rand 'fascist fuck' Paul is my hero.
Schumpeter, Hitler, Hapsburg - Royal Austrian School
Creative Destruction
It's all Greece and Ireland's fault. Not to mention every country in the world, every pension fund, etc, etc.
Fight for scraps.
Forget the real economy, it's the beholden to paper fraudulent debt we must make whole by austerity.
Like I said for a long, long time.
One side is the big printers.
The next step to the same fascist assholes, come the big deniers.
So the 1-2 punch is....Ben Bernanke/NerObama/Timmy/Hank/Bush and the other side is....NerObama (he switched to a republican after the election in REALITY) and Rand 'dickless fascist idiot' Paul.
The saddest thing this asshole fascist doesn't understand is this.
He's calling, no DEMANDING, for reductions in the current deficit account of the nation in paying for it's needed, lifesaving services.....meanwhile.....the federal reserve is HYPERINFLATING it's account.
Meaning, no matter what people do on the gov't level, as long as the big banks are getting the big fraudulent bailouts for fraudulent non-claim holding things, no amount austerity by the world will offset it. Hell not even 1 percent would such action offset it.
Instead of cracking on the people mein father, dur hitler, how about cancelling all the fraud instead?
It's not the gov'ts, FUCKING IDIOT, it's the banks...who happen to USE gov't. But the top in this system IS NOT THE GOV'T, the gov't is just the patsy, the banks are the initiators of fraudluent claims.
That and these Fascist clueless fucks like the author of this, Rand 'no brain cells fascist fuck' Paul, and his even more clueless father.
Everybody wants to end the fed, other than that, these guys are plain one tooth fools. Get a clue Cletus the slackjawed Yokel. It ain't about your fellow trailer trash sitting at home watching Jerry Springer, wish his life story could be told, and meanwhile filling up on Lloyd's bbq tubs and red baron pizza. Aghast. You are antithetical to the American spirit. Hell you ain't even American IN SPIRIT. You just THINK you are Cletus. You must have expectations, and boy are they all wrong, slack jawed yokel style. Pure fascist Rand Paul style.
who pissed in your oatmeal?
So it's ok to bail out bankers and ensure they get a fat bonus check, but to hell with the working-class hero and his minimal $400 a week benefit? Not to mention, it was the fat banker that caused this catastrophe!
The only difference between the great depression and now is unemployment assistance. The govt can claim that this time is not nearly as bad as the 30's, but that's because all those unemployed are at home watching cable, rather than lining up for soup.
This joker obviously hangs with some conservative fat cats.---- Wall Street Journal, National Review and the Washington Times. He’s also a frequent guest on CNBC’s Kudlow & Co. along with the Fox Business Channel ------
His rant against the middle class and lesser class shows lack of ability or lack of interest to grasp the Great Depression state that we are approaching, (and gross lack of respect). There are VERY FEW JOBS. In some employment areas, like construction that carried the nation for 8 or 10 years, THERE ARE NO JOBS. The right wing concept that the population is lazy schemers and the left wing concept that the population needs more education to get jobs are both cruel, sociopathic lies.
I was happy too see the Pelosi oppressors voted down. They did not create the jobs they promised and have not owned up to the failure. IF the Republicans think they can play to their base by shutting down unemployment without a job market as an alternative so that the masses can just eat cake, you have the ingredients for masses in the street.
I am incensed, angered and revolted by your post. Your post says to hell with the middle class and the poor. I say to hell with you and your kind. UNLESS, your bunch has a little mercy on the down and out and can get real with corporate welfare and off shore mischief, and the blatant criminality of the financials, there will be the devil to pay. America is not longer asleep.
I am incensed, angered and revolted by your post. Your post says to hell with the middle class and the poor. I say to hell with you and your kind.
Fukk yea.
I am incensed, angered and revolted by your post. Your post says to hell with the middle class and the poor. I say to hell with you and your kind.
Fukk yea.
"THERE ARE NO JOBS. The right wing concept that the population is lazy schemers and the left wing concept that the population needs more education to get jobs are both cruel, sociopathic lies."
Simple truth.
The author's opinion is for the American poor to be damned. That's shameful.
John... You're Fired...
Here is your last check. No severance, no bonus, no nothing. And in particular... our attorneys have determined:
Since Amerika's university have miss allocated resources turning out a bubble of discredited PhD Economists...
Your employment prospects are slim.
HoHoHo, Merry Xmas.
Your Former CEO.
If this is to be fixed, it's important to remember the invisible, as in how would Americans behave if they knew the government wouldn't be there for them in times of distress?
Well said there Hankyzooka!
You and yours wouldn't know what a real productive job looks like.