Extending Unemployment Benefits

[DaWhale]

My nephew has been offered 2 entry level positions making $10 - $12 per hour but turned them down because he can make more on unemployment. These weren't jobs in retail or food service, these were jobs with a future.
The following article is from FreedomWorks.


Extending Unemployment Benefits Will Extend Recession

By Katy Bachelder on Jul 23, 2010

Today, President Obama signed legislation to extend unemployment benefits. Congress claims this measure is both necessary and beneficial. Art Laffer wrote an excellent piece in the Wall Street Journal a couple weeks ago explaining why such claims demonstrate flawed and dangerous thinking. Extending benefits will extend unemployment.

People respond to incentives. As Laffer points out, if unemployment benefits provided a person with $150,000 a year, there would be no reason to find a job. Guaranteed benefits remove an incentive to seek employment. This also forces companies to pay workers more than unemployment benefits—even when their services do not merit it—thus, removing a company’s incentive to hire more people.

Empirical data supports this assertion. Laffer includes a fascinating graph in his article charting the relationship between the unemployment rate and the payment amount and duration of unemployment benefits. A direct correlation exists: as unemployment payments increase and extend, the unemployment rate rises. The historical evidence suggests that this new legislation will not foster economic recovery, but prolong high unemployment rates.

Advocates of extending unemployment benefits make the argument that this will give people more money to spend and stimulate the economy. This disregards a fundamental concern: this money has to come from somewhere. Every dollar given out in unemployment benefits is a dollar that cannot be spent elsewhere. There is no net gain; redistribution cannot create prosperity. And as Margaret Thatcher quipped, the problem is the government will eventually run out of other people’s money.

Our country quite literally cannot afford to continue extending benefits. The government has created a shortsighted and temporary fix instead of a solution. Their inability to address the long-term issue could cripple our already ailing economy.

​

 

[Tennesseahawk]

Hopefully someone worthy will pick up those jobs.

What happens in a depression/recession is ppl lose their job, look for a job, then get wore out and depressed around the 9 month mark of looking. They give up. They find it's more comfortable sitting on one's butt, than actually working for a living. In this case, your nephew couples that with the excuse of unemployment paying more.

My thought is maybe your nephew could invent some strange malady that could put him on permanent disability... workaphobia or jobitis, or something like that. The government pays for that too, ya know. Oh... and tell him keep voting Democrat. They actually want to take care of your nephew. And tell him not to forget putting in for medical marijuana.

 

[pjjjjj]

My nephew has been offered 2 entry level positions making $10 - $12 per hour but turned them down because he can make more on unemployment. These weren't jobs in retail or food service, these were jobs with a future.

People like that make me sick.

I wonder if he will regret not taking the job with the future once his unemployment insurance runs out (if it ever does). Hopefully there will still be an offer with a future on the table for him at that time.

And the people who are on UI who are allowed to make a certain amount of extra money each week without it affecting their beloved UI payment (at least, they are allowed to do so here). So they work part-time for the EXACT number of hours that will allow them to earn that bit extra. But God forbid if their employer might desperately need them to work one more hour to help out the company in a pinch, that would be a NO, since it would get deducted from their UI dollar for dollar, and it would be as if they worked that extra one hour for free. Can't have that!

 

[greg334]

I'm just wondering how he justifies that with the state? Here if they catch you refusing work, it better have a solid idea why - they do cut people off. $10-12 is not something that can be refused, I work for a lot less.

 

[copdsux]

Maybe, if the jobs paid a living wage, they could find workers that would accept the positions. Why would anyone be expected to take a job making less money. Would a van driver tell dispatch that he/she doesn't want the $1.00 per mile run, "give me the .85 per mile run, please?

 

[layoutshooter]

Maybe, if the jobs paid a living wage, they could find workers that would accept the positions. Why would anyone be expected to take a job making less money. Would a van driver tell dispatch that he/she doesn't want the $1.00 per mile run, "give me the .85 per mile run, please?

Jobs pay what the market can bear, nothing more. When I was not able to make it on one, I got two. No one is OWED a living. That is just one of the many "promises" made by socialism. It never works. All it does it create more bums. Why is it that so many people out there think that they are "entitled" to the wages that I work so hard to earn? I have all the risk, I earn the money, why should I be "forced" to give it to someone else? Remember, the government has NO money of it's own. The ONLY way they get money is to steal it from those who earn it.

 

[layoutshooter]

Awww but Joe..they confiscate your money legally...thru an act of Congress BOTH the Dems and GOP....
Now go ahead and say them mighty words...

VOTE THE BUMS OUT>>>ALL OF THEM!!!!

Who ME? Say that? Gull durn rotten no good for nuthin socialists!!

 

[layoutshooter]

When THEY feel you have too much money...they just take more and share it around so everyone can feel better

Feelin the love yet???

How can anyone justify this? This is just plain old, every day, redistribution of wealth. EVERY penny that they take from me above what is needed to cover legal, constitutional required things is money that I cannot use to improve my business. That puts workers out of jobs. THAT is their goal, to put as many out of work as they can.

 

[greg334]

What is a living wage?

I get tired of people cry about not getting what they think they deserve.

 

[layoutshooter]

yeah I am curious too...define "living wage"?

yours, mine, Gregs, layouts?

You can't fathom what my "living" wage is!! In reality, I know what I need to keep up with my obligations AND move forward. I will do what it takes to meet those needs/wants and goals. If that is this business, so be it. If not that, whatever it takes as long as it is legal and meets MY moral standards. Other than that, it matters not.

 

[layoutshooter]

Now is it Fedexs job to provide a living wage? or maybe Ford? or any company for that matter?

NO...if it does not provide a wage you can manage, then change jobs or get a part time job to make ends meet....it is NO one other then yourself to supply a "living wage" It is not owed to you...

I thought that is what I said, I do what it takes. It can be this business or 3 or 4 jobs. The ONLY thing that I am owed is what I EARN and the right to KEEP IT!! The biggest single thing in my ability to meet my needs is the government stealing far too much of my hard earned wages. They have a "need" to insure that no one makes it, other than themselves.

 

[greg334]

But obligations are two fold, one is what you need for shelter, food and clothing (health care too) and the other is not.

A living wage covers the essentials and bit more but not a $300k house with two $35k cars and the big screen tv, iPhone, iPad and iPod.

People who turn down a $12 an hour job in this area should not be getting any more unemployment. a lot of people work at that entry level wage and it provides them with what they need to survive.

I said this before and I will again, what are people going to do if we actually get into a depression?

 

[layoutshooter]

Greg, you are right. People today are just plain spoiled. Too much easy living for far too long. So many have forgotten what real "needs" are. Turn down $12 an hour? Cut them off right then and there. Not out looking for work? Cut them off. Not willing to move for a good job? Cut them off. Personal responsibility is the "key". Each individual is responsible for taking care of themselves. Not the government, not their employer. Socialism has taught otherwise and the damage of those flawed lessons are now showing.

 

[greg334]

I once knew a couple who raised 5 kids and worked minimal wage jobs. They worked hard not working but rather budgeting their money, bartering, saving, growing a garden, and so on. The last time I saw them, the youngest was out of the house and in college - which they saved and bartered for. The last time I heard from them, they were doing great, they live on the road in an RV working as they go. They have a pretty good savings, the wife even did some 'day trading' and made a small fortune.

The point is, the wage isn't what matters, it is how you live.

 

[layoutshooter]

It is harvest season...the states should be having the unemployed out in the fields and the trees..if ya turn it down...BAM cut off...

No problem with that here. People are just too dang gum lazy these days. Yeah, I know, it is bad out there. Jobs are NOT a plentiful as in times past. That is nothing new either.

I got laid off on a regular basis in 1973-76. At one time I was laid off from 3 jobs at the same time. I worked where ever I could, a gas station, whatever, just to keep things together. I hunted, fished for food and used what little I made for shelter and to pay the bills. Then I hired on with the "Agency" and moved to England, just to feed my family. Yeah, I know, not everyone can do that either. The point is, DON'T SIT BACK DOING NOTHING!! Go after life.

People have the choice. They can wait and be a victim and have their lives controlled for them, OR, they can go after life and control their own. THAT is the difference between an adult and a bum.

 

[layoutshooter]

"Living wage" sounds like a union term and language...the company owes us a living wage...

It is a "libtard" socialist term. That bunch teaches lazy and the idea that everyone is "owed" something. They encourage people to be bums and reward them when they become bums. That is how they control people.

 

[layoutshooter]

I remember tossing newspapers at night and picking fruit by day...that extended my Unemployment by itself..and put extra cash in my pocket to send my kids to school not looking like ragga muffins...

Yeah, but you are "OLD SCHOOL" and, despite your choice in shorts, you take pride in yourself and fulfilling your responsibilities. THAT is the difference between a responsible adult or between a REAL MAN or a boy.

 

[jjoerger]

I can actually understand someone turning down an offer for employment in the right cicumstances.
My brother who has a Phd EE was laid off from his position of Principal Research and Design Engineer. He applied for and received unemployment compensation. For the first time in 43 years of employment. (In Florida this is an insurance which is paid into by the employer. I don't know how other states do it.) He was offered a job at less than half his former pay and declined. His reasons were: If I take it, I am not available to go to other interviews. I will have to show it on my work history. I will not be able to quit when I find out I am not suited to this job and then re apply for unemployment. I am not planning on keeping this job so I would just be wasting the employers time training me. etc., etc.
He contnued his work search and eventually found a job that he was qualified for and paid what he expected to make for his experience and education.
Then again that's what the system was designed for. To help hard working people get through until they can find suitable employment.

 

[layoutshooter]

I can actually understand someone turning down an offer for employment in the right cicumstances.
My brother who has a Phd EE was laid off from his position of Principal Research and Design Engineer. He applied for and received unemployment compensation. For the first time in 43 years of employment. (In Florida this is an insurance which is paid into by the employer. I don't know how other states do it.) He was offered a job at less than half his former pay and declined. His reasons were: If I take it, I am not available to go to other interviews. I will have to show it on my work history. I will not be able to quit when I find out I am not suited to this job and then re apply for unemployment. I am not planning on keeping this job so I would just be wasting the employers time training me. etc., etc.
He contnued his work search and eventually found a job that he was qualified for and paid what he expected to make for his experience and education.
Then again that's what the system was designed for. To help hard working people get through until they can find suitable employment.

So MY taxes have to go up and the deficit has to grow? Unemployment was never meant to be another redistribution of wealth plan. Once you have used up your 26 weeks, which is NOT tax payer supported, you are done. Period. As to the rest. If one has to do what ever is out there, everyone should. Life is tough. People should get over it and get on with it. It makes NO difference if you are a laid of steel worker or a PHD. No one is special.

 

[greg334]

Well a Phd person is in another class altogether, like some types of doctors or even someone with an MBA and specialized experience. I can also understand how a "job" would affect his standing within his profession.

The point seems to be that the majority of people who turn down jobs seem to feel they deserve what they made before. Most people don't get the thing that many of the overpaid jobs are long gone.

This brings up an interesting point. In the past few days I have been reading on another site (private professional site) that there is a concern that the unions have priced the entire country out of work and this has caused a domino effect throughout the country. The trigger for the thread was what has happened in Chicago, the union being pushed out of the way to attract people holding events at McComick Center. The use of Union labor is too high and has actually hurt Chicago.