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 ...
Not in the case of unemployment insurance.
Congratulations! You just flunked Econ 101.
That those who paid the most into a system should be denied any benefits will ensure that they will go Galt.
Oh, I agree with you 100%. I just wanted to let everyone know how Unemployment Insurance works.
Galt’s Gulch?
http://www.LivingInThePhilippines.com
I guess before they write an article, they first ought to get a hand on what a millionaire is. It’s not someone who makes a million a year... rather, it’s someone who as accumulated $1 million or more in net worth (assets less liabilities). Geez.
I guess before they write an article, they first ought to get a hand on what a millionaire is. It’s not someone who makes a million a year... rather, it’s someone who has accumulated $1 million or more in net worth (assets less liabilities). Geez.
Took it years ago and passed out with an A.
Unemployment insurance is a government operated scam. The flaw in your thinking is that you believe an unemployment insurance premium "paid" to an employee to be a beneficial payment that accrues just to him. "Everything paid by an employer, on behalf of an employee". The employer is not getting a dollar worth of value for every dollar paid to an employee through the system. And there is no efficient market that tells the employer what the true value of the "insurance" payment should be for each employee. The employer can't shop the "insurance" on the open market. No real insurance company would write a policy that covers all workers in a company at the same rate.
You clearly don’t understand the point I was making.
True, the employer pays everything.
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