Let's think this one through for a moment. An AVERAGE engineer makes around 70-90K/yr, or $1,350-$1,750/week before taxes. You are stating, as fact - that he is going to feed his family, make his house payment, provide medical care, pay his utilties, make his car payments on $346/week (maximum unemployment in many states)?
I think you are horribily mistaken - what he will do is lose his house, lose his car, lose his retirement and savings and declare bankdruptcy and hopefully not lose his marriage and self-respect. Anyway you look at it; his life's savings, his retirement, his 401K is gone and likely will never come back in any meaningful way.
Now, a person making ~$20K/yr is in a much better position to economize and survive off welfare benefits.
Thank you. I have been saying th is for years, and nobody understands. I am an engineer in that salary range, and I would be out of business in a matter of a few months, if I lost my job. Three to four hundred a week would be like putting bubble gum in the hole in the Titanic. If you are the only bread winner with a good salary, and have expenses, you are done like stick a fork in it done, if you lose your job.
Maybe some people need an incentive to not climb out on a limb that they can’t survive having cut off.
When I had no car payments, cheap mortgage, and otherwise few/no expenses, ‘twas “funemployment” indeed. Considered myself a good example of why the system was broken.
Own the house. Own the car. Eat cheap (see tagline).
We’re wallowing in luxury, and have gone to great lengths to screw it up such that a short interruption risks losing everything.