Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Are jobless benefits keeping unemployment high? (Rats create permanent welfare nation)
MSNBC ^ | 8/31/2010 | Roland Jones

Posted on 08/31/2010 3:39:14 AM PDT by tobyhill

Does handing out unemployment benefits to out-of-work Americans discourage them from finding a job?

In an op-ed article in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, Harvard economist Robert Barro argues that the current unemployment rate would be 6.8 percent rather than 9.5 percent if the Obama administration hadn’t extended unemployment-insurance eligibility to up to 99 weeks from the standard 26 weeks.

(Excerpt) Read more at lifeinc.msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS:
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-29 last
To: tobyhill

I can imagine that anticipating anything more than about 6 months of unemployment benefits creates an opportunity for procrasination rather than urgency. Once you’re enjoying the laxitude of unemployment without the daily routine of work, psychologically you find that the work habit is a difficult regimen to realign with. Potential employers see the long drought as a negative and pass you by. You are now likely to be among the perpetually unemployable.


21 posted on 08/31/2010 5:00:21 AM PDT by omni-scientist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bill1952
How is this not blindingly obvious?

Paying people not to work results in people not working...


Just like subsidizing low salaries (via various entitlements) for illegal aliens, guest workers, and legal immigrants results in more illegal aliens, guest workers, and legal immigrants.

Currently 8 million illegal aliens (40% of whom are visa overstays) have jobs and 125,000 new legal workers (a combination of guest workers and green cards) are brought into the country each month.

The lowest estimate of people entering the work force I have found is 100,000 per month; we need 225,000 net new jobs per month to tread water.

In July, 2020 there were 7,288,000 fewer people employed than in January 2008.

If unemployment were calculated as it was in Reagan's day it would be >20%.
22 posted on 08/31/2010 5:39:56 AM PDT by algernonpj (He who pays the piper . . .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: I_Like_Spam

I have suggested that instead of paying unemployment, that the government pay the difference between what unemployment would be and the job that a worker can find. 26 weeks of unemployment, and then X weeks of “gap” pay.

The advantage is that it lessens the cost to the treasury, but it also gets people off the dime in finding a new place of employment, and many of them will find they can move up the income ladder in that new place if they keep their nose to the grindstone.

I can imagine that being a means for emerging companies with lower pay scales to find qualified, trained workers and strengthen their businesses. Also a way for the newbies to move up in a new world toward what they were formerly making.

When that “gap pay” comes to an end, then the encouragement would be for that family to find an additional part-time job. Our parents and grandparents worked multiple jobs to make ends meet. We aren’t better than them, and we aren’t princes and princesses.

But it all is focused on WORK and not on handout.


23 posted on 08/31/2010 5:58:55 AM PDT by xzins (Retired Army Chaplain and proud of it. Those who truly support our troops pray for their victory!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Labyrinthos
I have known several people over the years (including a sister), who miraculously find jobs about a week before the unemployment benefits run out...And as soon as they are hired, them seem to spend their time looking to get fired so that they can start the pattern all over again.

My soon to be ex-husband did exactly that. Unemployed for 9 months, left me the day after I got home from hip replacement surgery, moved in with his ex-girlfriend he has admittedly been sneaking around with the entire 16 years we were married, "miraculously" got a job the week his unemployment ran out in June and then managed to get get laid off right after August 1st when he could reapply for unemployment again. He's also been working "under the table" for a friend of his. He says the Judge will look at the fact that I have a good job (24 years) and that he is on unemployment and he won't have to pay for anything in the divorce. Fortunately, my attorney says the Judge will see right through his ruse.

His girlfriend is on disability for no apparent reason and has been manipulating him royally to be a parasite on society like she is. He had been harping about going on disability for several years due to a heart bypass he had 3 years ago (that I paid for and supported him during recovery), but I told him I personally know of at least 10 men who have had that surgery and have gone on to live full productive lives. I told him to apply for a job at Home Depot in the electrical department. I bought him a computer and tried to teach him how to use it so he could maybe get a job in a parts warehouse or as an estimator, but he refused to learn. I guess he finally got tired of me trying to make him live up to his responsibilities while she was playing to his pity party.

Although there are honest people out there on unemployment and disability, I am finding more and more that they are in the minority these days.

24 posted on 08/31/2010 6:01:16 AM PDT by ravingnutter
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: tobyhill

Last week FoxNews ran a news feature. The gist was that many employers were refusing to hire anyone who was unemployed.

I recall a similar attitude in the early 90s recession.

Finding work during major recessions is like walking a tight-rope —

Too much experience...
Too little experience...
Unemployed too long...
Won’t hire an employed as they will probably job hunt while employed...
Won’t take a 40% cut on pay...
Too much education...
Too little education...

Many companies reverted to using Temp agencies both to fill temporary positions and as trial positions from which they would possibly offer full-time positions.


25 posted on 08/31/2010 6:11:36 AM PDT by TomGuy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tobyhill

I think in a typical scenario the generous benes may indeed add a point or two to the unemployment rate. But right now frankly there are just very few jobs to be had.


26 posted on 08/31/2010 6:27:23 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: tobyhill
I should have added a post script to that: while he might be enjoying himself, everyone in the family who has to go to work to pay for my wife nephew's laziness are very mad with him and this government. And they wonder why we have the Tea Parties.
27 posted on 08/31/2010 6:33:07 AM PDT by HarleyD
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: ravingnutter
Everyone knows someone gaming the system, and unless we all know the same person, that means there are a lot of people collecting unemployment because they don't want to work. If they spent as much time looking for a job as they do trying to screw us, then they probably wouldn't be unemployed, at least not for very long.

I own several businesses, and over the years, I have had to lay of a few people, mostly from the unskilled/semi-skilled ranks. The vast majority of these people collected unemployment for nearly the entire benefit period — regardless of the strength of the economy — and just as the benefits were about to expire, they would suddenly find a job.

True story: I had an a problem employee who seemed to think that I worked for her, rather than the other way around. She was an administrative assistant, and she was pretty good at her job, when she showed up. The problem was that she would use all of her vacation, sick, and personal time in the first month of the year, and after that she would show up late, leave early, take two hour lunches, etc., and sometimes not show up at all. I had every reason to believe that she was trying to get fired, so that she could collect unemployment on the belief that I wouldn't challenge the claim or that her poor work habits didn't rise to the level of “cause” for termination, which is a real possibility in a liberal blue state.

In March, 2009 — in the middle of the great recession — she gave me one weeks notice that she was quitting her job. I made the mistake of telling her that she should leave at the end of the day because there wasn't much going on and I really don't want employees, once they give notice, to have access to customer lists, financial information, and other proprietary information. She filed for unemployment the very next day, and when I challenged the claim, the unemployment judge ruled that I had fired her without cause because I terminated her prior to the date she intended to quit. 18 months later, she is still collecting unemployment, and has even bragged to a former co-worker that she has turned down job offers because she doesn't have to work.

28 posted on 08/31/2010 8:24:11 AM PDT by Labyrinthos
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: doodad

C’mon now, you’re just living the high life, jet setting around the world and kicking your feet up.

(or so goes the out-of-touch thinking here)


29 posted on 08/31/2010 5:56:15 PM PDT by Red in Blue PA (Anti-Gunners suffer from Factose Intolerance)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-29 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson