Posted on 10/04/2010 4:09:02 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
If you were making $1 million per year or more, but lost your job, would you file an unemployment claim? Nearly 3,000 American millionaires would have answered "yes" to this question in 2008, according to an article by Ryan J. Donmoyer at Bloomberg. IRS data shows that a whopping 2,840 households earning at least $1 million in 2008 also filed for government unemployment payments that year. There are two sort of immediate questions that arise from this fact: what were they thinking, and should this be allowed?
What They Were Thinking?
To non-millionaires it might seem absurd that people who had such a staggering income recently would turn to the government for help after losing their jobs. But it shouldn't. First, most wealthy people didn't become that way by accident. They tend to be pretty savvy about money. So if the law entitles them to collect unemployment when laid off, then they aren't the type to turn down free money. Only a fool would do that.
Moreover, for many millionaires, they might see their layoff as the one time they can finally get back some of the hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars they've paid in taxes over the years. Many tax credits don't apply to them, if they're phased out for people with income above a certain threshold. They may as well cash in this once, just for principle's sake. After all, once they get back to a high paying job, they will have to revert back to paying the government a lot and getting little in return.
Should This Be Allowed?
Unemployment benefits are actually a type of insurance. And just like other kinds of insurance, it is paid out regardless of how much money you make...
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
Class warfare!! Get the guillotine! Damn those dirty little mustachioed Monopoly men!!
It’s insurance, not a handout. He’s no more guilty than a millionaire who collects the Social Security due him after decades of paying into it.
Both programs were set up that way back when people still had some pride about such things, even on the Left.
they all paid for it, why not get it..
Many years ago, I worked at a convenience store. One day I was sweeping up the parking lot and my boss, who owned a small chain of four stores, walked up. He saw a few pennies on the ground and he asked me if I was going to pick them up. I said, “No, it’s just a few cents.” My boss reached down and scooped up the pennies and while sticking them in his pocket, he said, “That’s why I own all these stores and why you just work at this store.”
They pay into the system and I think the top paying check is small compared to their earnings.
They probably never will get all they paid in back in benefits.
They pay into the system and I think the top paying check is small compared to their earnings.
They probably never will get all they paid in back in benefits.
They pay into the system and I think the top paying check is small compared to their earnings.
They probably never will get all they paid in back in benefits.
More than $69 million in California welfare money, meant to help the needy pay their rent and clothe their children, has been spent or withdrawn outside the state in recent years, including millions in Las Vegas, hundreds of thousands in Hawaii and thousands on cruise ships sailing from Miami.
State-issued aid cards have been used at hotels, shops, restaurants, ATMs and other places in 49 other states, the US Virgin Islands and Guam, according to data obtained by The Times from the California Department of Social Services.
Las Vegas drew $11.8 million of the cash benefits, far more than any other destination. The money was accessed from January 2007 through May 2010. Welfare recipients must prove they can't afford life's necessities without government aid: A single parent with two children generally must earn less than $14,436 a year to qualify for the cash assistance and becomes ineligible once his or her income exceeds about $20,000, said Lizelda Lopez, spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services.
Round-trip flights from Los Angeles to Honolulu on Orbitz.com Sunday started at $419 — more than 80% of the average monthly cash benefit for a single parent of two on CalWorks, the state's main aid program. "How they can go somewhere like Hawaii and be legit on aid … they can't," said Robert Hollenbeck, a fraud investigator for the Fresno County district attorney's office. "This is money for basic subsistence needs."
The $387,908 accessed in Hawaii includes transactions at more than a thousand big-box stores, grocery stores, convenience shops and ATMs on all the major islands. At least $234,000 was accessed on Oahu, $70,626 on Maui, $39,883 on Hawaii and $22,170 on Kauai. (Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Actually, in most states the employer pays, not the employee. During the flood in Des Moines back in 1993, an exception was made and owners of a business could collect, too.
Absolutely I’d file for it under the same circumstances. The same argument will be brought up when social security goes to means testing to deny payments to those who paid their entire working lives
“Actually, in most states the employer pays, not the employee”
Do you believe your employer pays for your unemployment insurance? Do they also pay for half of your health insurance and social security? You are paying for it. It just isn’t included in your taxable income. Businesses are just used as tax collectors for the government
Actually, that's nonsense. Everything paid by an employer, on behalf of an employee, reduces the amount that the employer pays directly to the employee. This should be taught in Econ 101.
But you do agree that the funding comes from the employer’s account, not the worker’s?
Yes, but that means nothing, in terms of who really pays.
“Yes, but that means nothing, in terms of who really pays”
And who really pays is the employee and the consumer
J.D. Rockefeller once made the coopers at Standard Oil justify the number of nails they used in making oil barrels. He stood in the shop and forced them try different configurations until they were able to make a stable barrel using two fewer nails in each barrel. The savings for the two nails multiplied by all the barrels they made over the years ran into the millions. He called it the fortune he saved.
What does it matter? If he made $5m in a year, odds are he paid more than $1m in taxes... Isn’t there a cap on the amount anyone can get on welfare? Like $300/wk ... Assuming no kids
If so, it’s nothing compared to what he paid in
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