Pretty accurate. I do believe some people are choosing to continue looking for a better job while on unemployment rather than accept any job. That is why you see that some people are getting jobs only after their unemployment runs out. For example, a mechanic looking to find a mechanic job runs out of benefits so he takes a job mowing lawns.
And also agree that unemployment insurance is good for the economy. Their goverment checks are likely to be spent quickly and stimulate. And less likely to commit crimes.
And final counter point, it might be better to give business more goverment loans to start up new companies. A new company will hire people. There are som great stories out of Africa where women were given small loans to open up businesses and this helped the local economy more than the grandiose projects goverments like to build.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
The problem I see is this unemployment problem is not going away for years. So these 6mo extensions need to go on and on? Lets find a funding source. Tax the big banks! LOL
We probably need new thinking to get out of this mess quicker. How about if all Federal Employees making over $80K take a furlough day each month to offset UI costs. State and local workers have, has there been one Federal employee laid off in this recession? 50% reduction in travel budget for Congress. Freeze all federal wages for a couple years.
I would rather see the money paid to people to work part time, maybe 20 hours in a job apprentice training program. Reduce benefits 50% for able bodied single people, full benefits only for people with dependents.
Most of all we need some ideas to get small businesses growing, loans for startups and expansions. Tax credits for expansions and new hires.
If you want to be, press one. If you want not to be, press 2
Republicans are red, democrats are blue, neither of them, gives a flip about you.
Joe wrote: I would rather see the money paid to people to work part time, maybe 20 hours in a job apprentice training program. Reduce benefits 50% for able bodied single people, full benefits only for people with dependents.
Most of all we need some ideas to get small businesses growing, loans for startups and expansions. Tax credits for expansions and new hires.
I have always agreed with the idea of allowing unemployed individuals to work part time with a reduction in benefits rather than to eliminate those benefits when they get a job, any job. I feel the same way about SS.....seniors should be able to supplement their SS income without being taxed on that SS income if they make even a modest part time income.
In many ways we encourage people not to work......but there should be a happy medium, not just throw out the social programs, but tailor them to what works best.
I agree Archer. You might not know this but I think the Democrats and Al Gore passed the deciding vote on taxing SS benefits after a certain income level. I'd have to look it up.
I was talking about having people on unemployment doing actual work for 20 hours a week, job re-training, community service, or even college education. Something productive. Give them a choice, one of the above to get paid.
If you want to be, press one. If you want not to be, press 2
Republicans are red, democrats are blue, neither of them, gives a flip about you.
Joe wrote: I agree Archer. You might not know this but I think the Democrats and Al Gore passed the deciding vote on taxing SS benefits after a certain income level. I'd have to look it up.
.
Yeah, when it became unpopular to tax the rich....we started taxing seniors. Sheesh.
....personally, I'd rather they taxed the rich :thumbsup:
Joe wrote: We probably need new thinking to get out of this mess quicker. How about if all Federal Employees making over $80K take a furlough day each month to offset UI costs. State and local workers have, has there been one Federal employee laid off in this recession? 50% reduction in travel budget for Congress. Freeze all federal wages for a couple years.
You do know that some of your friends and neighbors are likely federal employees? The Department of Defense has undergone numerous rounds of 'Base Realingnment and Closures' (BRAC) in which jobs were transferred or eliminated and bases closed. That's what happened to Stapleton. When the jobs moved some moved with the jobs, some took early retirement, some found new jobs elsewhere in the commuting area, and a few lost their jobs. Some jobs were simply eliminated as a result of BRAC; people in those affected jobs had hte same choices of applying for different jobs (with some preference but no guarantees), taking early retirement, or being let go.
Congress is good at mandating across the board cuts/freezes to personnel spending. You don't often hear about lay-offs within the federal government simply because of it's size. Rather than laying people off, they just don't hire to fill vacancies that have been created by people leaving jobs. There is so much turn-over in federal jobs that they can handle a lot simply thru attrition.
Goverment layoffs not being announced? More double standards, corporations legally have to announce upcoming layoffs in a timely manner. Maybe goverment doesn't have to?
I wonder if Obamaites want to change that rule. Having big corporations announce coming layoffs may scare people even more.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
ShilohLady wrote: You do know that some of your friends and neighbors are likely federal employees? The Department of Defense has undergone numerous rounds of 'Base Realingnment and Closures' (BRAC) in which jobs were transferred or eliminated and bases closed. ....You don't often hear about lay-offs within the federal government simply because of it's size. Rather than laying people off, they just don't hire to fill vacancies that have been created by people leaving jobs.
I understand the base closings awhile ago cost some Federal jobs, but that was not during this recession was it? My idea was not to fire any Federal employees right now, but have some sharing in the sacrifices. My GF is a state worker with no raise for the last three years, and they are on the second year of unpaid furlough days. Could the Federal workers pitch in and have wage freezes and furlough days like everyone else, given these monster deficits and need for long term unemployment bennies? BTW I have friends and neighbors that lost private sector jobs, including myself. Why should federal employees be protected from wage freezes and furloughs above all else just because the Feds have an unlimited credit card that nobody else has?
Here is an article on Federal Salaries that is interesting.
"Federal employees making salaries of $100,000 or more jumped from 14% to 19% of civil servants during the recession's first 18 months — and that's before overtime pay and bonuses are counted.
Federal workers are enjoying an extraordinary boom time — in pay and hiring — during a recession that has cost 7.3 million jobs in the private sector."
"When the recession started, the Transportation Department had only one person earning a salary of $170,000 or more. Eighteen months later, 1,690 employees had salaries above $170,000."
