I don’t want anyone here to get the wrong impression in what I’m about to say because this woman in the interview does seem to have a good attitude about looking for work, etc. But that is why she was chosen for this story in the first place.
This (the PBS video interview) is a very slick production piece that isn’t really about her. It’s about reasons for extending unemployment insurance compensation and uses her as the ‘showcase’.
Firstly, I watched the entire production (I call it a production because there was a carefully crafted political story here). WE MUST HAVE EXTENDED UNEMPLOYMENT!
I’ll go over her story a little and tell you what I saw. A woman who lives with a husband who has “her part of the bills to pay”. Husband on “light duty” because of an injury making $20,000 a year now as a truck driver, etc. Nice home in okay subdivision, nice furnishings. Her monthly bills for “her part” covers things like $132/mo home phone, $153.60/mo Cell phone, $74/mo cable and car insurance and vet bills plus and entry for $640/month child support(?).
Nice clothes (some kind of designer stuff by Denmark Impressions(?)- wore two different things), goes outside to get into a new Nissan and passes a truck and two SUVs in the driveway. All I can say is that Dave says you can cut some of this stuff out and make it easier to get by.
The rest of the story: Good Guys - Urban League for African Americans and their spiel, driving 45 minutes to get downtown is a financial burden. Bad Guy: Professor Dorfman who says long unemployment compensation is bad. He cites NC dropping UIC from 59 weeks to 17 (or like that) and the unemployment rate in NC went down from the 8s to the 6s. People took jobs they could get, not what they were holding out for.
The producer’s and the Urban League’s comeback? UNEMPLOYMENT IN NC ONLY WENT DOWN BECAUSE SO MANY GAVE UP LOOKING FOR WORK. Read that again! The unemployment rate, according to them now ONLY WENT DOWN BECAUSE SO MANY GAVE UP LOOKING FOR WORK! [Never mind that this happened ONLY when NC cut the length of time for UIC] Imagine that!
Do we hear Obama and his ilk with this excuse for the national employment numbers? Hell no! Obama CREATED jobs! It is ironic to me the reason they give for NC isn’t correct for the cited NC rate, but IS correct for the national rate. Damned funny if you ask me.
These people actually do want their cake and to be able to eat it too! - regardless of the lady (who I’m believe is eligible for SNAP, EITC - her husband anyway, and other stuff they don’t dare mention here in this production).
PBS and the Urban League spent a lot of time and effort on this production - carefully crafted, excellent production quality, and a careful choice of a ‘candidate’ who didn’t fit their view of a conservative’s idea of a welfare cheat. The goal here is push production - move attitudes towards UIC extension towards LONGER and LONGER terms.
Thank you. My thoughts, too. The leftist media always has a story if they generalize from the specific, akin to (at the risk of sounding “racist”) claiming the best NBA players are not most often black by exemplifying Larry Bird.
The media went into full crisis mode and sent a live tv remote for the five o'clock news. The infobabe, tears welling in her eyes, asked one "poor black" woman how she was going to continue to live without natural gas to cook with.
"Dass okeh," said the woman. "I jes cooks now in my microwave oven!"
“Her monthly bills for “her part” covers things like $132/mo home phone, $153.60/mo Cell phone, $74/mo cable and car insurance and vet bills plus and entry for $640/month child support(?).
Nice clothes (some kind of designer stuff by Denmark Impressions(?)- wore two different things), goes outside to get into a new Nissan and passes a truck and two SUVs in the driveway.”
Thing is, that the foolish woman can cut her expenses by buying a cheap pre-pay cell phone, buy clothes on Ebay, find a smaller house and get a smaller car. Get rid of the home phone and things will be just fine really.
As for cable, I myself download whatever shows I want, so frankly that is another round of bills ended. As for the SUV cars, she has no need for them, so why two plus a truck?