Posted on 04/16/2010 8:42:30 PM PDT by ThomasHart
How bad is the economy? With a record percentage of the unemployed out of a job for more than six months, the media and politicians are claiming that the economy is in crisis. Politicians are again rushing to keep extended unemployment insurance benefits in place. The only serious debate among politicians was over how the benefits should be financed: should the program be paid for with spending cuts or tax increases or should we add to the deficit to cover the expense. And the Democratically-controlled Senate has passed the extension on Thursday by borrowing more money. President Obama signed it today.
Take the Los Angeles Times' concern: "Never since the Great Depression has the U.S. labor market seen anything like it. The previous high in long-term unemployment was 26% in June 1983, just after the deep downturn of the early '80s. The 44% rate this year translates into more than 6.5 million people." . . .
While most discussions assume that the long time that people are unemployed shows the need for longer benefits, there is another possibility: the unprecedented benefits are the cause, not the cure, for the current long term unemployment. . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
lemme take a stab at this: the reason is because we have a reckless, anti-American moron for a pResident who bows down to every foreign leader and who has dragged the country into an environment of economic suffering with this anti-job policies.
Oh it’s not? Damn, those LA Times reporters are smart (s/)
Yeah and congress keeps lying to themselves as well as their bosses. What happened to “pay as we go”? No! I never believed congress would keep their word or abide by their own rules, resolutions or acts. They have stomped on our Constitution and continue to piss on it and wipe their @@@@s with it. And as far as Obama - I hope Israel is going to take care of that pile of Kenyan baboon dung about the time they strike Iran.
Like Art Laffer says: If you pay people not to work, they won’t.
I have gotten a dime of unemployment in over two years, haven’t had a paying job in nearly 3-1/2.
That’s not because I haven’t been trying to get one all this time.
Excessive benefits causes my unemployment? Riiiiiiiiight!
Lets just say...that the problem is with those for whom this is all so “unexpected” ...having been promoted beyond their competence level...
Outstanding article. The last sentence says it all. Health care, cap and trade, unemployment benefits, banking reform, ..... , the government policies go on and on. Just like the Energizer bunny.
All of this is being done on purpose.
barqy the first is a citizen of the world dontchaknow.
(Pass that joint, bro...)
No joke. Whatever you get doesn’t come close to replacing the old salary
Yeah, that guy that used to make $80K a year will kick back and sand bag it for $20K.
Very well said.
“The second way government assistance programs contribute to long-term unemployment is by providing an incentive, and the means, not to work. Each unemployed person has a ‘reservation wage’—the minimum wage he or she insists on getting before accepting a job. Unemployment insurance and other social assistance programs increase that reservation wage, causing an unemployed person to remain unemployed longer.”
Larry Summers
So, if someone has earned 23$ an hour for decades...manages to scrape by while unemployed at 10$ an hour and is a spoiled asshole because he won’t take the 7$ and hour job and get off the dole?
Awhile after a recession, workers are happier (and better paid) and companies are healthier. New companies drive innovation.
You can't have a good, strong economy without the business cycle! This is the only way to cause dynamic shifts that create societal wealth. Yet the majority has bought into Keynesian garbage that recessions are horrible, to be avoided at all costs. They prefer a dying economy with steady high unemployment. The average recession lasts nine months, but this dead economy may last for years. Brought to you by Congress and the DNC.
Watch for the Dems to grant further extensions on unemployment benefits the closer we get to elections. It’s a losing issue for Republicans. The Democrats will play politics with the issue if Republicans attempt to introduce any kind of fiscal sanity by drawing the benefit period down.
We would have thought that high unemployment would hurt the party in power, and in some ways it does as far as image, but Republicans will not stop Democrats because it just plays into this ‘Republicans are the party of no’ meme that the Democrats promote with vigor.
Any delay or failure to extend benefits as dictated by Obama and Democrats will be met with stories from Obama’s lap dog media about how Republicans are ‘hurting’ working families, starving children and kicking puppies.
We’ve got to get past the election before we can even consider getting people off this entitlement narcotic.
Hard to say, if the start-up ever gets funded, I should do quite well.
If my new found career in construction works out (buy ‘em, fix ‘em, sell ‘em), I should do quite well. I’m really too old for this crap...
lol...When someone responds to that, ping me.
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