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800,000 Jobless Americans to Lose Aid
USA Today / AP ^ | 12/28/2002 | AP Staff

Posted on 12/28/2002 11:13:08 AM PST by ex-Texan

Edited on 04/13/2004 1:40:14 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

WASHINGTON (AP)

(Excerpt) Read more at usatoday.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Front Page News; Government
KEYWORDS: dimsstupid; joblesscheckslapse
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To: gcruse
Good luck to you too!

And Best Regards.
201 posted on 12/29/2002 3:37:42 PM PST by UnBlinkingEye
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To: gcruse
The best revenge is knowing they will probably have to do the same someday.

I usually would not with it on my worst enemy ... BUT there are some out here that need a comeuppance. Unfortunately they probably wouldn't "get" it anyway ... losing a "cheesecake" factory job does not have the same life ruining impact that losing a lifelong engineering career has.

202 posted on 12/29/2002 3:40:02 PM PST by clamper1797
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To: TheEngineer
"I've never heard of employee-paid-for unemployment insurance"

What is the difference whether or not the employee writes the check to insurance company or the employer does? Either way the cash is coming from the same pot. Remember, the employer hires the employee to help the employer make money. Some of that money is paid directly to the employee as salary. Some is paid to insurance companies as a benefit for the employee.

203 posted on 12/29/2002 3:40:11 PM PST by Prolix
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To: UnBlinkingEye
Good luck to you my friend. Keep your head up. If we can get our gubermint to throw these DAMNED H1B's out of our country, we might get OUR jobs back.
204 posted on 12/29/2002 3:41:45 PM PST by clamper1797
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To: clamper1797
usually would not with it on my worst enemy = wish it on my worst enemy
205 posted on 12/29/2002 3:43:24 PM PST by clamper1797
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To: clamper1797
It's hit the hardware sector pretty hard too. I'm a hardware design engineer and have many many friends who have lost nearly everything. I guess that is why I'm so vocal on this thread.

I know many people in the same boat. I live in a resort community that has a high proportion of retired people. Many of them have had their stock portfolios severely damaged along with their plans for those 'golden' years.

206 posted on 12/29/2002 3:43:31 PM PST by UnBlinkingEye
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To: clamper1797
Good luck to you too!

I think the H1B program is a disgrace. I also think that companies who move their operations out of the country or outsource to foreign nations should face severe tax penalties and tarriffs.
207 posted on 12/29/2002 3:48:50 PM PST by UnBlinkingEye
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To: clamper1797
Hate to interrupt the comiserating, but the GM of the restaurant I work at probably makes more than you do.

But my Career is as a Real Estate agent. Because I'm self employed, I didn't have the luxury of unemployment when the economy crashed here. So I took a part time job. Was that somewhat humiliating at my age (40)? Yes, no more or less than un-employment I'm sure. My business is back now, and as soon as I get some more debt paid off, I will quit the part time job you ridiculed.

It says a lot about your character that you ridicule someone working part time in a restaurant to make it, while making your time on the dole out to be some grand struggle. Tough times are like that, they reveal character. FWIW, I agree with you on H1b.

208 posted on 12/29/2002 3:59:02 PM PST by Republic of Texas
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To: UnBlinkingEye; gcruse; clamper1797; glory
I'm just a lowly (now former) data center operator/data processor/A+ Technician & aspiring CCNA that can't even get hired as a 3rd shift motel clerk. I hope the consumer electronics product works out for you UnBlinkingEye.
209 posted on 12/29/2002 4:00:17 PM PST by Keith in Iowa
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To: A. Pole
" So what about privatising the military - you want army to fight for some cause - pay from your own pocket. Next justice system - get the verdicts you can afford. You need police protection - pay. Firemen - negociate the price when you need tham. Privatise roads - imagine all those nice toll-houses. Socialism cannot work :) "

The Constitution provides for all of those items. What we have now is far beyond what the Constituion allows for. What we have now is socialism. Eventually it will fail. Save your red herrings for dinner.

210 posted on 12/29/2002 4:03:10 PM PST by Republic of Texas
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To: Republic of Texas
but the GM of the restaurant I work at probably makes more than you do

Don't bet the farm on it

Because I'm self employed

Like you told Keith ... don't blame me for your bad decisions

I will quit the part time job you ridiculed.

I wasn't ridiculing your job ... I was ridiculing your notion that laid off high tech workers should shuck a lifetime career and move elsewhere to work at some low paying job at the first sign of trouble. I was also ridiculing with great prejudice your idea that laid off high tech workers are bums living off the government teat.

That IMO is ridicule RICHLY deserved

211 posted on 12/29/2002 4:09:36 PM PST by clamper1797
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To: UnBlinkingEye
I went from an average of $100,000 yearly to around $1900 monthly unemployment. My house was foreclosed, my car repossessed and my unemployment ran out leaving me facing bankruptcy. I now am helping part time with my wife's cleaning business. I even applied at McDonalds and some local restaurants, to no avail.

Right now I have two jobs and for now I could fairly easily get another if I needed but I'm not so sure-of-things that I think nothing like that could ever happen to me ----how many of us can go without 3 or 4 paychecks before bad things started happening? I couldn't make ends meet on unemployment --or a McDonalds job. I tried hard not to spend much on Christmas because I don't think things are getting better anytime soon.

212 posted on 12/29/2002 4:12:48 PM PST by FITZ
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To: clamper1797; Republic of Texas
I wasn't ridiculing your job ... I was ridiculing your notion that laid off high tech workers should shuck a lifetime career and move elsewhere to work at some low paying job at the first sign of trouble. I was also ridiculing with great prejudice your idea that laid off high tech workers are bums living off the government teat. That IMO is ridicule RICHLY deserved.

I second that emotion...

213 posted on 12/29/2002 4:13:40 PM PST by Keith in Iowa
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To: UnBlinkingEye
I went from an average of $100,000 yearly to around $1900 monthly unemployment. My house was foreclosed, my car repossessed and my unemployment ran out leaving me facing bankruptcy. I now am helping part time with my wife's cleaning business. I even applied at McDonalds and some local restaurants, to no avail.

I am sure some folks here will tell you that is because you got lazy :(

214 posted on 12/29/2002 4:13:49 PM PST by A. Pole
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To: Republic of Texas
but the GM of the restaurant I work at probably makes more than you do

Don't bet the farm on it unless you work at Sneaky Petes.
Tony DOES make a little more than me BUT he also owns a pool business and has a large inheritance. He also happens to be a friend of mine

215 posted on 12/29/2002 4:14:48 PM PST by clamper1797
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To: glory
Truth is most people are probably like me and don't know what percentage of people are like or different from me.
statistics please:
# or % unemployed who never apply for UI. I guess 20%
# or % who apply for UI and are seriously looking. Again I find it 20% of those I know. (I knock door to door for politics and know the unemployed, which in my area is very high among Blacks and Whites, very low among Asians and Hispanics.)
# or % who will take a job beneath them vs those who won't compromise their principles.
How many jobs are created, and how many disappear per month? How many in the private sector? How many in the public sector? How many are real jobs that go out of country? How many are obsolete buggy whip makers who refuse a new career? (I'm now in mainframes.) How many are fictional jobs such as public relations for a dot.com that had no viable business plan?

Many unemployed don't apply for UI. I have averaged 3 jobs per year for 50+ years. I probably average 3 days between jobs. The longest gap was 5 months and that was because I was turning down jobs beneath my wife's opinion of me. 80% of gaps have had 0 days between jobs. Whether 2 weeks notice or 2 minutes notice of termination, I usually find a new mainframe consulting position within hours. I currently receive 2 or 3 unsolicited mainframe calls a week. I can be at Radio Shack, Home Depot, Ace Hardware, insurance inspector, etc in hours if mainframe is not there. (I never touched computers till my mid-40's when I started one of many new careers.)

#2. How is it that immigrants from India find computer jobs here at only 10% less than my high rate? How is it that Mexicans illiterate in Spanish, with no papers, find jobs here at $20/hr. Oh pity, they actually have to work and get dirty on those jobs. For them, that is macho. But macho is not IN for some wimps.

Options: Send the jobs to foreign countries.
Bring the foreign workers here.
Convince Americans there is more dignity in any job, than in entitlements.
Grow the economy so there are jobs for everyone in their chosen field.

216 posted on 12/29/2002 4:17:43 PM PST by spintreebob
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To: clamper1797
I'm glad I'm self employed actually. I chose that knowing the implications. Even when business is good, I consider myself unemployed unless I am closing a deal that day. That is most days of each month. The paydays do make up for it though.

Feel how you want. Paying people not to work is immoral. (BTW, the programs you mentioned before were government programs that paid people to WORK, big difference from paying people NOT to work) It makes the giver resentful and the taker slothful. If it's such a great idea, why don't we extend unemployment to everyone forever? I can't think of anything more compassionate than that.

217 posted on 12/29/2002 4:19:42 PM PST by Republic of Texas
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To: gcruse
At 60, retraining doesn't make much sense.

Actually - and, of course, IMHO - it makes perfect sense. As the average life span increases - most folks in their 40s will live to 90+, children under the age of 10 will see the 22nd Century - retraining will become a fact of life.

Unlike our parents and grandparents we cannot rely on one skill set for the duration of our lives. The absurdity of early retirement becomes all too apparent when one becomes obsolete because of a lack of skills and when one runs out of money before life.

218 posted on 12/29/2002 4:24:21 PM PST by Archangelsk
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To: Republic of Texas
You really have a problem with reading comprehension don't you ???

One more time ... Unemployment Insurance is just that ... an insurance policy that the employer pays into as part of an employees SALARY package. Taking UI is like collecting on an insurance policy. The government DOES NOT pay it. UI used to have a TWO YEAR longevity. It was shortened by previous administations to 6 months (mostly by Klintoon)because the job market was in boom times. The job market is now IN THE TANK and people need that extra INSURANCE money to find a job in a depressed market. Drawing unemployment insurance is no more unethical than you collecting on YOUR retirement fund.

219 posted on 12/29/2002 4:28:09 PM PST by clamper1797
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To: Republic of Texas
If it's such a great idea, why don't we extend unemployment to everyone forever? I can't think of anything more compassionate than that.

Horse-hockey!

That's a load of bovine digestive byproduct and you know it - I don't expect to be on unemployment for life, and no one else here in the same boat does either. Get real.

220 posted on 12/29/2002 4:28:10 PM PST by Keith in Iowa
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