I’m in the employment business and I talk to these people every day. We call them and tell them about job openings, which they often refuse. They say: “Why should I take a job for $12/hour when I’m getting $10/hour on unemployment?” Well...umm...good question. And many of them have another job - painting, landscaping, waiting tables - getting paid cash under the table. They won’t even take a $15/hour job. Don’t worry about benefits, the gov’t has them covered. And food stamps, and help with their heating bills, and on and on.
I’ve worked for several employment agencies and I can tell you that recruiters don’t report people who turn down job interviews. It would required mounds of paperwork, and most recruiters just don’t have the time. Even if they wanted to they wouldn’t know how. Agencies should have a hotline number to call - how bout 1-800-FREELOADER.
If we cut off unemployment benefits, many of these people will find a job. Guaranteed. If it’s 52 weeks unemployment they’ll find a job week 53. If it’s 99 weeks unemployment they’ll find a job week 100. Sorry but our country just can’t afford to spend three hundred BILLION dollars and have nothing to show for it. That’s about a thousand bucks for every person in the country. So my family ponies up five grand. So does yours.
I know there are people who legitimately need help. But it’s time to end the free rides. We can’t afford it any more.
It has long since ceased being an emergency, it is now a form of welfare. Demos bet that will get them back in power.
Excellent post.
So this is an effort to extend it beyond the 99 weeks? or extend it so those who didn’t get in on the “deal” can now claim 99 weeks? Article is unclear.
In any event, as a contractor, I know in Illinois that you are exactly right. Many many contractors are sitting at home right now collecting benefits, even though there are jobs out there. Those jobs pay below their union pay scale of $30-38 an hour, so they collect unemployment. They don’t want to take the job, because it will end their unemployment, and since construction jobs are short term, many feel they will be laid off before they will be vested again to collect, so they sit at home and drink beer from a can and watch TV, doing the odd side jobs for cash.
I’m not saying there is a shortage in the workforce where employers cannot find people to hire, some will work, but many will not because its financially better to stay at home.
I don’t fault them really, if you have a family to support do you go work for $200 bucks a week or stay home for 3x that amount? I fault the system, not those who have mouths to feed.
Frankly, I’m not sure what I would do if put into that position. I decided some time ago that I would never again be at the mercy of someone else, so we started our own business, and I hope I never have to go back to being dependent on either the whim of supervisor, or a gub’mint handout.
People do whatever they can to survive, my wife is Hungarian, and can tell you stories about growing up in Hungary after the soviets rolled in. All sense of righteousness goes out the window when you have hungry babies.
I don’t think the job situation will get better with the sociolists in charge, so I really don’t know how I would tackle the problem. Easy for me to be a hardass and say ‘screw em all’ while at the same time, I know that government in and of itself has caused this massive unemployment through regulation, union pandering, high taxes, and generally making our factories and businesses in general, non-competitive in the global marketplace.
So its hard for me to turn a blind eye to the people who are suffering because the dipshits in Washington have created a cesspool of misery.
But at the same time, we are creating another welfare generation. I think some bitter pills are coming soon, and we are just going to have to take the whole bottle of medicine at once, and I fear (or welcome, I’m not sure) that a new civil war is brewing. Our current path is unsustainable in any event.