Most unemployed now no longer on dole in US

[squall78]

Err...
Let me get it straigth...

You said you're not going to be on unemployment for very long, but if we add the 8 monthes of looking for a job + the time you spent in school + the unemployment benefits until spring...

Seems to me that despite what you claim, it's quite a long time to find a job, actually...

I think he means when he got out, he would have to wait until January from August, when he got out. The 8 months before he would collect a paycheck from the Army. The 5 months between semesters is the time he was actually collecting unemployment.

I just did the maths on the GI bill and you can pretty much make a decent wage just going to school. I hope to enjoy this benefit soon. I got a kicker for a critically manned job, + bonus. Now my underwater basket weaving degree will be paid for by uncle sam lol.

 

[FriendlyFire]

Get on disability and become Tea Partiers.

That would be socialist !!!!!!!

 

[Arwon]

I can't fathom who thought time-limited unemployment benefits were a good idea. Did policy makers assume permanent near-full employment or something?

 

[Archbob]

I can't fathom who thought time-limited unemployment benefits were a good idea. Did policy makers assume permanent near-full employment or something?

Because we want people to remain on dole forever right?

 

[Arwon]

No time limit != zero conditionality.

 

[amadeus]

What conditions, then? That they go in for more farce interviews and waste the time and money of businesses?

 

[innonimatu]

I can't fathom who thought time-limited unemployment benefits were a good idea. Did policy makers assume permanent near-full employment or something?

It's a good point. States should be more focused in reducing unemployment, instead of paying off the long-term unemployed...

 

[Cutlass]

Because we want people to remain on dole forever right?

People are always going to be better off working. So why assume there's any significant number of welfare cheats?

 

[squall78]

People are always going to be better off working. So why assume there's any significant number of welfare cheats?

Well people will take the path to least resistance. If you offered somebody indefinite welfare/unemployment support what incentive do they have to get off their butt?

 

[Core Imposter]

Well, we have adopted a depression culture now and its hard to see how we get out of it. Those who have jobs and businesses are just trying to survive, those who have money are just looking to preserve its value. Many who have lost out are just looking for a survivable spot to ride it out.

I think some % of those #occupiers are those who have nothing and nowhere to go.

We definitely have a mantle of cultural victimhood draped around our shoulders. This can't be fixed by structural or technical means. Economics is always a mixture of math and psychology and at this point its the psychology that is paramount.

 

[Cutlass]

Well people will take the path to least resistance. If you offered somebody indefinite welfare/unemployment support what incentive do they have to get off their butt?

The fact that they'll be better off in all respects. The fact that the American social consciousness judges people on their work. And so anyone not working faces a stigma for it.

You get a handful of people who actually choose welfare when they could work. But virtually all the claims of welfare cheats are the purest of pure crap.

 

[innonimatu]

We definitely have a mantle of cultural victimhood draped around our shoulders. This can't be fixed by structural or technical means. Economics is always a mixture of math and psychology and at this point its the psychology that is paramount.

It's well within reach of political means. Wipe the debt, increase wages at the expense of profits, fund social security through general taxation and eliminate the most pressing political need for speculative investment funds.

What you don't have is a will to do it. And that may be related to the structure of your (ours, actually) political system, which has little of "representative" in its democracy.

 

[Core Imposter]

People are always going to be better off working. So why assume there's any significant number of welfare cheats?

Actually no. Not to be contrary but your facts are off. More than a few can come off better collecting unemployment because of the lack of jobs that pay enough.

There are lots of factors, such as transportation costs, and the ability to make a little off the books cash to supplement unemployment. Not that I am trying to say that there is much worth debating given the truely tough job market, but the unemployment system doesn't provide much incentive for the average guy to beat the street.

 

[pi-r8]

I feel like I have to argue with the threat title. Unemployment benefits aren't "the dole" because you pay for them with your payroll taxes while you're working, and they're tied to your previous salary. If you never had a job, you get nothing. If your last job had a low salary, you get very low benefits. If your last job had a high salary, you get high benefits, regardless of whether you actually need them.

 

[Core Imposter]

It's well within reach of political means. Wipe the debt, increase wages at the expense of profits, fund social security through general taxation and eliminate the most pressing political need for speculative investment funds.

What you don't have is a will to do it. And that may be related to the structure of your (ours, actually) political system, which has little of "representative" in its democracy.

Well, sure, the state could always just seize all property and socialize it. Sure. Why don't you try that in your country (as long as it ain't mine) and let us know how it comes out in the long run.

 

[amadeus]

I feel like I have to argue with the threat title. Unemployment benefits aren't "the dole" because you pay for them with your payroll taxes while you're working, and they're tied to your previous salary. If you never had a job, you get nothing. If your last job had a low salary, you get very low benefits. If your last job had a high salary, you get high benefits, regardless of whether you actually need them.

If that was actually the case, we could get the government out of it and let people decide how to save for themselves. It's a wealth transfer scheme and everybody knows it.

 

[innonimatu]

Well, sure, the state could always just seize all property and socialize it. Sure. Why don't you try that in your country (as long as it ain't mine) and let us know how it comes out in the long run.

Socialize all property?

Annulling all unpayable debt (and by now it's very clear that it is unpayable) is the only way you can save capitalism in your country. Otherwise it'll just keep sinking and sinking, on the weight of serving its interest alone. I guess I shouldn't even be suggesting it, lest anyone heeds it.

I don't live there and don't really need to worry about the pain to the people trying to serve that debt for a few more years while the depression deepens. So, by all means, choose to continue down the same path. After suffering enough you may end up actually socializing all property in the end and going communist, it may be worth it.

 

[pi-r8]

If that was actually the case, we could get the government out of it and let people decide how to save for themselves. It's a wealth transfer scheme and everybody knows it.

Well, I'd call it a government-run insurance scheme. Would you call insurance a "wealth transfer" scheme? It does literally transfer wealth, but it's not like the people didn't pay fairly for it.

 

[JollyRoger]

Because we want people to remain on dole forever right?

30 profitable Fortune 500 companies were on the dole for at least 156 consecutive weeks (2008-2010) as they each had negative tax rates for those 3 tax years.

http://www.ctj.org/corporatetaxdodgers/CorporateTaxDodgersReport.pdf

 

[Core Imposter]

Employees don't pay for unemployment insurance, employers do. They pay more or less based on claims made against them.

States have been borrowing from the Feds who have been borrowing from the rich. Certainly the debt is unfathomable and we might go under someday.

But I don't see why anyone would think we would reboot as communists.