Posted on 02/22/2014 11:18:24 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
(VIDEO-AT-LINK)
On Dec. 28, 1.3 million Americans lost their unemployment insurance when an emergency federal unemployment insurance program expired. Critics of extended unemployment benefits say the benefits raise jobless numbers by allowing people to stay unemployed longer instead of taking an available job. But people like Trista Selmar-Steed, a 38-year-old former medical biller who lost her job in 2012, say the benefits have kept her family above water while she looks for work. Special correspondent John Carlos Frey reports from Georgia.
TRANSCRIPT
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: I open it up and just rip it down the middle. Separate it.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: Trista Selmar-Steed cuts a lot of coupons these days… In fact she’s becomes a bit of a fanatic about it.
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: This is my coupon box, container, I carry it with me to the grocery store. Coffee, cake, butter, milk, pasta, sugar — this one here is for household goods and personal items.
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: You never know that coupons will save you as much money as you– it actually has.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: The 38-year-old who lives in a suburb just outside of Atlanta, Georgia, has been saving all these coupons because as of December 28th, she has no income. She was one of 1.3 million Americans who lost their unemployment insurance when an emergency federal unemployment insurance program expired.
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: That same week that I expected to get that next check was the same week that I had a bill that was due — but I wasn’t able to pay it. I had to ask my husband to start paying my part of the bills and that’s the sad part, not being able to help my husband pay– pay the bills.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: Trista, who used to make $30,000 a year working for a medical billing service, was laid off from her job in November of 2012, and hasn’t been able to find a job since.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: I sensed a year out there in this job market has kind of beat you up a little bit, yeah?
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: It’s very sad that– to have the qualifications and not be able to actually work, you know, get a job in your field. And I’ve been doing this 2007.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: Why do you think it’s so hard for you to get a job?
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: I’m not sure. A lot of companies are still laying off.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: Trista has now been without her benefits for 8 weeks. To make matters worse, her husband who is a truck driver was hurt on the job and is now on what’s known as light duty, working fewer hours and only taking home about 60% of what he used to which now equals about $2000 a month.
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: So that’s another whammy, you know, something else that started– started the down spiral, excuse me.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: They say they now have to dip into their savings just too pay their bills. She says things have gotten so bad, that when she’s not at her computer for several hours each day looking for work, she’s and her husband spend their free time watching TV just to lift their spirits.
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: Cartoons and comedy, it have us laughing. It takes your mind off of the things that you might be going through.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: There’s some people who would say that people who are on unemployment don’t want to look for a job. They just want to live off the unemployment. It’s– it’s a free easy paycheck.
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: It’s not a free easy paycheck. That’s what– for me, it’s not. I know what I like in life. I know what I strive to have in the future. And I can say some people might try to use that, but me personally, I– that’s not me.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: While Trista believes that extending her benefits would give her the cushion she needs to get another job, Economics Professor Jeff Dorfman, who teaches at the University of Georgia, says that the extended unemployment benefits ARE the problem.
JEFF DORFMAN: The studies show it raises unemployment more by allowing people to stay unemployed longer, still searching for a really great job instead of taking a job that’s available.
Dorfman points to North Carolina. Last July the state legislature cut unemployment benefits from 73 weeks to 19 weeks. In the months since the state unemployment rate dropped from 8.9 percent to 6.9 percent.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: And you attribute that to cutting 50 weeks of unemployment insurance.
JEFF DORFMAN: When you suddenly get cut off, you realize, “You know, I need to take a job.” And people in North Carolina apparently found jobs.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: Others attribute the decline in unemployment there to unemployed workers giving up their search for work. And they note the drop in unemployment has been coupled with a big increase in the number of people there on food stamps.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: As for Trista, she says she’d be happy to take a job outside her medical billing field. She says she’s applied for all kinds of jobs during the past year, everything from driving a school bus or a truck to clerical jobs at CVS and Wal-Mart. Even as a flight attendant with Delta. All of them met with rejection.
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: We regret to inform you that you have not been selected for this position at this time. Thank you for applying and best wishes for success in your future endeavors. Delta talent acquisition team. And I’ve gotten that three times from Delta, so…
TRACY MOSLEY: You hear the– the theory that some people are just a couple paychecks away from homelessness. Well, we actually see that.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: Tracy Mosley is the Transition Program Coordinator for the Urban League of Greater Atlanta, an organization that helps African Americans find and train for jobs. He warns of dire consequences unless unemployment benefits are extended.
TRACY MOSLEY: We actually see people that– had a sustainable income, that had a good job, good employment. But all of a sudden they find themself homeless.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: The problem is particularly acute in the African American community where the unemployment rate is nearly double the national average. Mosley says the interview and job prep classes his organization offers have been filled to capacity with people like Trista Selmar-Steed, who he says are desperate for work. She recently met with a job counselor here.
COUNSELOR: so you are being recommended for a position with MARTA, which is the transit authority for Atlanta, that our bus railway system that we use here. That’s one of the opportunities you’ll be considered for. So I wanna make sure that you are going to be available on March the 3rd so I can have you lined up for an interview.
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: Ok, well thank you so much, I really appreciate this, this is a big help.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: Trista is crossing her fingers that this lead might just pan out… but for the time being just getting to the Urban League’s office in Atlanta, a 45 minute drive from her home in the suburbs is a financial burden now that she doesn’t have an unemployment check every week.
TRACY MOSLEY: And so if their source of income, of temporary income, is cut off — A lot of them cannot even afford to come down here for their training.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: But Professor Jeff Dorfman says that government benefits can’t go on forever.
JEFF DORFMAN: Our compassion has never been unlimited in this sense. We always eventually cut people off. We already had some mechanism for deciding at some point we’ve gotta stop paying for you.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: And some would argue that we’re not there yet. We’re not at that point in the recovery where we should start cutting back. We still need to fund for an extended period of time.
JEFF DORFMAN: The longest we’ve ever kept benefits before is 35 months after the end of a recession. And we’re at 55 months now. So we’re 20 months, that’s over a year and a half longer than we’ve ever provided these extended benefits for.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: Dorfman believes that if the government is going to intervene, that money could be better used retraining the unemployed for new jobs. For now, with Congress at an impasse, it looks like Trista, and nearly two million others, will have to survive without the federal life line they’ve come to count on in these hard times..
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: I mean, it dampens your spirit a little bit, but the only way you can prosper, I’ve learned, is to keep a high spirit // And so I just look at it as where one door closes, someone will eventually hire me.
JOHN CARLOS FREY: After a year, you still feel that way?
TRISTA SELMAR-STEED: I still feel that way. Yes.
Thank you. My thoughts, too. The leftist media always has a story if they generalize from the specific, akin to (at the risk of sounding “racist”) claiming the best NBA players are not most often black by exemplifying Larry Bird.
Where do you live? Have you considered moving to Annapolis Maryland? We do have quite a few job vacancies all over. I am not being glib, but serious. You would do well in Annapolis for sure.
Good for you. Most wouldn't even know that they misspelled the word. More than more half, it seems, think that you put all verbs in the past tense by adding "ed" to it. I suppose they don't know that English is a highly irregular language.
Same here. I finally got a job last month. So there's hope, but the job market is brutal.
According to Fred Sanford, Larry Bird is black, he's just trying to "pass" for white.
The last stable job I had was shoveling horse sh!t.
Regards,
“As benefits expire, long-term unemployed make do with less”
If an unemployed person was living paycheck-to-paycheck when they were employed, they’re probably making do with less even with their unemployment benefit payment. However, the clock is still ticking. When their benefits are completely exhausted the countdown continues and it runs much faster. For some, a growing sense of dread comes with situational awareness, especially if they have aspirations to excel in their chosen profession. More and more it becomes a rare thing that a person has the luxury of loving or even liking their job but it’s not just unfortunate, it’s traumatic (”by no fault of their own”).
For this kind of thing to be happening for the past 5 1/2 years is not attributable to some kind of new “normal”, it’s Obama’s way of abusing his authority for the purpose of making people “feel him” and because this has been going on for so long, it’s not inappropriate to regard he and his administration as serial economic molesters.
The most tragic part of it all is that some people seem to have volunteered for that kind of treatment.
And therein lies an OldPossum screw-up. The "it" should be "them."
I hear you. My kid has been unemployed now for far longer than he considered. He has dual degrees, hard degrees, not fluff, and has taken more courses to up the ante, but he keeps getting the same refrain: we aren’t hiring right now.
Applying for any job is useless. Once they see his resume, he’s overqualified.
Starting a business is being considered but that’s a long shot as he would have to take on a loan and the prospect of finding business is pretty bad.
For those who think its just a matter of grabbing a lawnmower, you need to consider just how very bad it is out here.
Send him to Texas.....they will put him to work.
He’s applied all over. Believe me, it isn’t easy getting a job when you are competing with the tens of millions who aren’t counted on the unemployment roll as he is not on it either.
My great relief is that he is not depressed ... yet.
I looked for a part time job so I know how it is. When I was in management I was taught that if someone didn’t come in and apply 3 times not to hire them.
I refuse to apply online, I did not want a job filling out resumes, I wanted a job. I went from business to business sometimes multiple times until I got face to face with someone who could hire me. I did not give my personal info to any 18 year old who said the manager is busy, I said I will come back and give it to him personally.
I did not sit on the couch watching cartoons and for those that think watching The Three Stooges with give you a few pointers, let me know how that works out for you.
If you really want a job, go out and take the damned thing.
Maybe she isn’t quite the one to hold up so we can all feel sorry, $2,000/ month isn’t bad and at least they have savings to tap into to pay bills. She didn’t complain about missed payments and collection phone calls.
How can you take a job like that?
I was out of work for an entire year. My wake-up call was after being out nine months, a career counselor said if he was a hiring manager looking at my resume he would feel like asking "So, how was prison?"
While the checks were coming, I could justify not taking a lower-paying job but when I realized I needed to still look employable, I took a job at 60% what I formally made with a contractor agency and continued job-hunting in my off hours. Nine months later, I found a job that paid 50% more than the job I had.
The long-term unemployed send a silent message that they aren't really willing to work or are a problem that nobody wants (drugs/alcohol/lazy/abusive...). It may not be true but how is the prospective employer going to know that?
If you are a long-term unemployed and your benefits are either expired or soon to be, take whatever you can - even convenience store clerk or washing dishes at your favorite restaurant - and start back up the ladder one rung at a time. The longer you stay out, the bigger a red flag you make for yourself.
Those aren't easy words but they are essential in climbing out. I know. I've been there.
May God bless all of you stuck in this mess. Those of you in hard-core unemployment areas may also consider relocation with your meager funds. Living in an area of 6% unemployment improves your odds compared to an area of 12% unemployment.
The unkindliness here is disturbing.”
***
Government should not be doing charity. The programs we already have are loaded with waste, fraud and corruption. Another thing: With government, our “charity” is forced through taxes.
I would rather government get out of the charity business and out of everything business-related. Maybe then our taxes would be lower, people would be employed and we would all have enough money to help those in need — voluntarily.
I feel for the unemployed but if I was out of work for 4 years I would be one buff dude.
The media went into full crisis mode and sent a live tv remote for the five o'clock news. The infobabe, tears welling in her eyes, asked one "poor black" woman how she was going to continue to live without natural gas to cook with.
"Dass okeh," said the woman. "I jes cooks now in my microwave oven!"
There used to be a picture from a TV station or newspaper in Georgia that was on the web. It showed a woman who was holding up her utility bill (electric, I think) demanding help on paying it. The photographer evidently saw something besides the bill.
In the background was a Widescreen TV, A full-blown Xbox or Nintendo, separate electric heater, plus DVD player, etc.
I’ve tried and tried to find a link to it. I believe it has been scrubbed from the internet, frankly.
Democrats have come a long long way baby in hiding the unpleasant truth.
“I think there is general agreement that there should be a safety net”
There is a safety net of 26 weeks of unemployment where there is consensus.
Most moderate rino republicans support 26 weeks, not 99 weeks or almost 2 years.
Mostly the democrats support 2 years.
“Whatever. Walmart & Wall Street had a HUGE role in putting us in this situation.”
Go into any reputable stock brokers’ office and they will tell you to put away 6 months of expenses in an emergency cash account before you invest a dime. And 6 months can be stretched into 9 under difficult circumstances.
Govt. of course refuses to say anything like that. Govt says “no problem. we will bail you out. all we ask is your allegiance, faith and continued support for our stupid ass policies”
AND THEN, YOUR TRIP TO THE DARK SIDE WILL BE COMPLETE.
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