Tuesday will bring yet another Senate vote on whether or not to extend unemployment benefits for those coming to the end of their benefits. A number of weeks ago the vote went against the extension. Why? Because there was no provision to pay for it! Really?!!!
Ok, I’m officially boggled. When we went to war the projected cost wasn’t even included in the budget. When we decided to create huge tax cuts, the cost was subsidized by a government surplus (built during the Clinton administration) that could have paid for that war or any other number of crises that followed. Any yet, when it comes to supporting those who have paid the price (losing their jobs) for years of mismanagement both in the private as well as the public sector, we hold those innocents as political hostages. Fucking crazy!
Passage of this measure seems like a no brainer to me. There are approximately five unemployed for every available job. In other words the labor market is still unable to keep up with the large numbers of unemployed as well as the increase in the population. So when workers lose their jobs and are coming to the end of their benefits, how are these former workers supposed to pay their rent let alone buy food and clothes and cars and houses or just keep the homes and cars they have.
Notice the reference to the term “former workers.” This is a rather important tidbit since one must have worked in order to collect unemployment. These aren’t those dreaded, scary deadbeats, these are people like you and I who have, so to speak, earned their unemployment checks. In addition they prove every week that they are actively looking for work in order to collect that check.
I don’t know if there are very many out in the world who have never lost a job but for those of you who don’t know the drill here are some insights. Each state determines their own guidelines. You only get a percentage of pay based on a predetermined number of months worked. In my state payments are a whopping minimum of $116/week to a maximum of $496/week (now that’s definitely the road to great wealth!).
Wow, now that I see it in black and white, I can see why an extension is soooo hard to vote for. After all, where is the motivation to go back to work? With all that free money coming in and all that free time to do whatever you want! Losing one’s job is simply the best of all possible worlds!
Let’s get real here. The money is barely enough to live on, if that, and looking for a job is kinda like having a full-time job without the payoff. And if you have half a brain, you can see that these are FORMER WORKERS!!! People who want to work, have worked, want to work again. Some have kids in college, homes they are trying to hold on to, elderly parents who depend on them, and a score of other reasons why they HAVE to earn an income.
So what is the benefit of supporting this previously hard-working population? Well, how’s about if they don’t receive financial support while they are trying to find a job they won’t be able to pay the rent/mortgage, buy food/clothing, or support the economy in any other viable way. They might become homeless, go on welfare, commit suicide…Is that what any of us would want for a member of our families?
The national unemployment rate as of June 2010 was 9.5%. So that means that somewhere in the neighborhood of 14.6 million people are unemployed with just under 4.5 million receiving benefits and just over 4.5 million additional receiving Federal extended benefits from the initial extension. What happens to the economy if those receiving the extension money lose it or the others come to the end of their unemployment?
My closest friend is one of those coming to the end of her benefits. Although she is currently working a contract job, she will only have two weeks of benefits left to fall back on. See, you don’t get to include contract work in your formula for benefits so even though she is working her available benefits will not grow. So if the contract work dries up, she might face losing her house, her car, all she has worked so hard for since her first job at sixteen.
Multiply her by 4 million! What does that do to the economy not to mention the psyche of a country? We don’t exactly have the strongest economy right now anyway! I don’t have the answer but I do have the feeling that it would not be a pretty sight. I also have the feeling that it will impact all of the rest of us, in ways we can’t even comprehend, for years to come.
These former workers are the backbone of our nation. They made our cars, computers, stereos, and espresso. They fixed our cars, built our houses, and carried our groceries. Think about it. What happens to our bodies if our backbone isn’t cared for or working properly? Maybe your foot hurts, then your head begins to ache, maybe your hand goes numb and maybe you can’t even walk!
We need a healthy backbone to have a healthy whole. Why is that so hard to understand?…
Some People’s Kids: Short-Sighted. Narrow-Minded. Unbelievably Stupid…
