Posted on 10/07/2010 5:51:06 AM PDT by varyouga
David McGlynn
First the good news about Chereen Marshall. The 26-year-old Brooklyn woman spent months studying cosmetology and scored a job this spring. The bad news: The year before, she made a lot more money collecting unemployment insurance She got $325 a week for being jobless. As a wage-earner, she takes home $215. "It's hard to pay my rent," she said. She has no land-line telephone, and has to use a cellphone to stay in touch. "I spent $100 a month on my cellphone," she said. "I can't even afford cable." When she collected unemployment, she had enough money to eat out a few days a week. Now she can't, and has to spend a lot more on groceries.
(Excerpt) Read more at m.nypost.com ...
Welcome to the New Normal!
The subject may be competent to cut hair, although spending $100 a month on cell service makes me wonder if she's even that bright, but the author who thinks eating out costs less than cooking at home shouldn't be allowed near any sharp implements.
And I swear, if someone was giving me their poor-mouth act and said, "I can't even afford cable," I'd hit her in the head with my purse.
That doesn’t make sense! I make the max on NY UE because of my salary. She made under $12,000 annually and should have gotten much less. I was amazed at a woman who made $24,000 per year and she was getting only $200 a week. Something is rotten on this gal’s numbers...
The same thing happened to me in the 70s during Carter-nomics. I was laid off and made more take-home cash on unemployment than I did working for the job I quickly took because I had a 3 year old and needed health insurance for him.
Uh oh .. someone crunchin’ numbers on zero.
Why is a Brooklynite getting minimum wage for doing hair? Seems it would pay more than that....especially in NY.
This excerpt does little to set me up as a sympathetic reader of this woman.
$100/mo. cell phone and eats out a few times a week? Poor baby.
That woman is only 26?
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This is precisely why we are where we are.
When poor folks are belligerent about spending $100 a month on a cell phone as if it is a necessity and think buying groceries costs more than eating out “a few times a week”
Yes, something's not right. You can get an unlimited text and talk plan from T-mobile for $50, if you bring your own phone.
$100/month indicates that she has probably has a data plan, perhaps for an iPhone. You can't get service for an iPhone from AT&T without including a dataplan.
One possibility is that she bought the phone on a 2-year contract (hopefully BEFORE she was unemployed) and has to either pay the monthly fee or pay a contract termination fee.
MetroPCS would be a good cell phone choice lady.
lol
>> I can’t even afford cable
LOL! It’s AMAZING how poverty has been redefined.
When the price of being downtrodden in America is to not have a landline AND a cellphone... and not have cable... and cut back eating out from six nights a week to two... no WONDER everybody and his brother wants to come here!
I am surprised she pays taxes, I suspect she means payroll, SS and medicare taxes, not income taxes which funds Obama spending.
Heartless Republicans, call them now and ask them to extend UI benefits to the 99 weekers (as Ed Schultz calls for) so she can eat out again, and get cable TV (she should look at all the taxes on that bill), get her land line back, and get out of paying taxes.
“She has no land-line telephone, and has to use a cellphone to stay in touch.”
I know people who ditched their landline YEARS ago by choice precisely because they had a cell phone.
“I spent $100 a month on my cellphone,” she said.
Then you TALK TOO MUCH ON THE PHONE!
“I can’t even afford cable.”
I couldn’t afford cable for years. I read books instead. Even now I find myself only watching about five channels on cable: Foxnews, AMC, TCM, Syfy, and one or two others. You don’t need cable. I went years and years without cable.
“When she collected unemployment, she had enough money to eat out a few days a week. Now she can’t, and has to spend a lot more on groceries.”
Uh, groceries are CHEAPER than eating out.
Now the million dollar question:
Is this because:
A: Many jobs pay too little
B: UE pays too much
C: Both A and B
And if A or C, WHY do they pay too little?
“I spent $100 a month on my cellphone,” she said. “I can’t even afford cable.”
Girl, you’re doing it wrong. I spend $7 a month on my cellphone. I wouldn’t have cable if they paid me. But if you’d get yourself one of those pay-as-you-go phones, and basic cable for $53 a month, you’d have $40 lying around so you could eat out once a week, and have to think about who’s cooking that food, how well, how clean it is, and a few other criteria that never enter your own kitchen.
It IS the LOW PAYING UNEMPLOYED that MAKE MONEY on unemployment. Those in decent or well paid jobs SUFFER financially. Many of the LOW PAYING PEOPLE, use unemployment like a game. They work just enough to qualify and they get “laid off”. Then they go back to work again. For the LOW PAYING PEOPLE, it’s a joke on YOUR DIME.
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The only thing left for the Democrats to do is form the Non Employees International Union, put them on buses, and issue them all maroon shirts.