From the VOMITORIUM
I have heard a lot of excuses for the unemployment problems we have….some are pretty accurate and then there are some that are just plain moronic…..
I realize the Americans can be a lazy lot….NO?…..explain a salad shooter or a machine that cracks an egg or drugs that offer instant weight lose…….Lazy!
But to blame the unemployed for unemployment is beyond rational thought….and there are a few that seem to think that the unemployed are lazy and unemployed by choice……from the Huffington Post:
Corbett joins the ranks of GOP candidates Rand Paul in Kentucky and Sharron Angle in Nevada, not to mention several members of Congress — including Democrats — who suspect the jobless of preferring not to work.
“The jobs are there, but if we keep extending unemployment, people are just going to sit there,” Pennsylvania attorney general Tom Corbett told radio reporter Scott Detrow last week. “I’ve literally had construction companies tell me, ‘I can’t get people to come back to work until — they say, ‘We’ll come back when unemployment runs out.'”
Are these people smoking crack? I do not know about the states beyond mine, but here you make about $245 a week in unemployment benefits…..has anyone tried living on $245 a week? If not, then let me inform you….IT CANNOT BE DONE? There is a possibility that some states pay more, but their cost of living is higher than my state.
This whole thing just illustrates how out of touch politicians are…..making comments like the unemployed are unemployed by choice is just beyond ignorant…..or is it arrogance…..but the biggest problem is the somewhere there is a group of people that will believe the crap spread.
The truth is that you are right – and wrong. I find it hard to believe that the system is so very different from the UK (though the overall emphasis may be different). In the UK, you not only get your unemployment pay, but extra for “dependents” as well as housing benefits special payments, reductions in local taxes and a whole host of other things.
Add to that the fact that there are quite a few who are not only “unemployed” but also “employed” (clandestinely), or they are criminals, terrorist preachers, or whatever – they all get our money to assist them in their unpleasant activities.
Add (yet again) to that those that have a wife/husband/partner who brings in money (often by working at two jobs) to pay the bills and then the wayward half of the equation lies around until it’s time to go down the pub (or go get more drugs) and I can tell you there IS a proportion of the population who very definitely don’t WANT to work! Of course, if someone offered them the job of Senator (MP) on a plate – 3 day week, high pay, no work and plenty of opportunities to be on the take and generally do f*ck all for their money, or made them CEO of a multi-national without the ability to read, never mind add up, then I dare say they’d change their minds for a while, but honest hard work – NO WAY!
That’s not to say that all, or even close to a majority are like that, but ther IS a significant minority and it has grown ENORMOUSLY under Labour (now, thank God, gone!) for the last thirteen years or so.
So, sorry, but don’t ever tell me that there aren’t lazy bastards out there who don’t want to work and think the rest of us should keep them, because there ARE – all over the democratic world!
The unemployment, at least in my state, is based on your earnings per quarter…if you have NO income then you are shit out of luck getting a check……NEVER would I presume to say that there are not lazy people….but it is a different animal if you are unemployed…that is NOT the same as welfare payments….again at least in my state……
On the employment thing….lots here are saying that the Latino immigrants are taking American jobs….that is pure CRAP! With a bad job market I went to a Home Depot where day laborers hang waiting for work…..and guess what…there were NO Americans hanging with the boys of summer……sorry about that…had to vent for a moment…..
Back to the subject……the ones making these statements are millionaires and I guess we cannot expect them to understand the job market….huh?
I’m sure there’s a degree of truth on all sides and in all directions. In the UK (as far as I understand it because I’ve never had a penny from the State), it’s more that they pay you something derisory as “unemployment” and then sdd to it from all sorts of different budgets if they have kids, housing, taxes, etc., etc. – it’s a bureaucratic NIGHTMARE – something they LOVE.
However, I understand what you’re saying about the millionaires, but I think it’s often more that they are a different breed and what they’re saying is quite true – for them! If they were out of work and didn’t have a bean – in fact if even they were heavily in debt – within a week or two they would be in at least fairly well paid employment and a couple of months down the line they’d be well on their way back to a million, or several – it’s just the forceful, driven, innocative types they are – which is often why they are millionaires in the first place (unless they were born with a silver spoon at least). It’s just a different mindset and they don’t understand the self limiting attitudes of the poorer people.
Put it another way, I’m not broke by a long way, but I’m a also long way from being a millionaire, but I know full well that the only thing stopping me from that sort of achievement throughout my life has been and still is ME! I’m just not ruthless or “thick skinned” enough! Others who are worse off than me don’t see it that way – THEY often think it’s somehow everyone else’s fault.
I do not mind anyone making millions…I do however object to using my money to do it and I get screwed when they fail…..or that they get benefits that the rest of the people cannot get…..