Unemployment benefits story (sympathy or sob)

Actually, $25K for a family of five would fall $790 short of the poverty line, according to the 2009 Federal Poverty Rate. Hardly "Well above" as you put it:

http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/09poverty.shtml

And how many people, besides the idiot couple in the NY Times that blew $14 million, are there in poverty that drive Escalades and have 50-inch TVs? Probably not many.

You also have to bank upon Subway wanting to hire a worker who would be considered "overqualified". Many of these places don't. I've applied for journalism jobs paying $11-12 an hour, and been told, "Are you sure you're going to be wanting to be here for that?" Even when I tell them yes, they say that they don't want to be having to look for someone else six months from now after I bolt.

Odds are, Subway won't want to pay for a 40-hour week because they'd have to pay health insurance. So they'd make you work 36 hours, then pressure you off the clock to work a few unpaid extra hours (Sounds familiar?).

Not to mention, these minimum-wage businesses have a reputation for treating their workers little more than slaves. If people have to take off from work to take care of their sick kid, minimum-wage businesses tell you to take a hike. They also don't want a college grad to be working the counter because they want to be able to bully their workers without being questioned.

I've been unemployed over a year, now. And as the final poster on the politics thread (Under the FU Jim Bunning thread), I can honestly say that I've put out one heck of an effort to being employed. I've sent out hundreds of resumes, gone back to school for retraining, spent some of my spare time writing a 68,000-word novel (now working on a second one, up to 20,000 words), gone on over a dozen interviews, had a few phone interviews, and kept my fingers crossed so many times that they're nearly permanently stuck together.

Yet, I'm still unemployed. And I resent the fact that you have members of one party who wants to give a tax cut to the CEO, who, in spite of piss-poor management, received millions of dollars in bonuses on top of his already huge salary in the last few years while laying myself and thousands of other people off.

 

Odds are? That's one hell of an assumption for anyone out of work. Wouldn't it be better to have 36 hours of steady pay than nothing? Like Junkie said, you do what you have to do. Sometimes that means working jobs you feel are beneath you. I'm guessing that if people refused to work a job they felt was beneath them or a job in which they felt they deserved much more, the unemployment rate would be 99 fucking percent.

 

I took a pay cut from unemployment (and less than half what I made previously) when I was offered my current gig (I'd been on for 16 months, and had already had one delay of several weeks where nothing came in before I got it retroactively). I also learned (for Mass.) than working some freelance and part-time so's not to collect my full benefits each week did not allow me to extend them over a longer period.
You need to encourage people to work. I'd say something like taking $1 off your benefit check for every $2 you earn seems fair.

 

OK. So they are making $20-25K and foolishly spend money on a Caddy and big screen TV from Rent-A-Center.

What system are they abusing and how are they abusing it?

Are only well-off people allowed to blow their money and spend foolishly?

 

And did you read the paragraph before that one. I wrote that I HAVE applied for $11-12 an hour jobs. Both in journalism and in other fields. I've been told that I'm overqualified.

If I'm overqualified trying for the $11-12/hour jobs, what do you think the $7.25 an hour people will say?

A hiring is a two-way street.

 

Cut it all off. Cold.

Elections have consequences.

 

Might be helpful to find out.

What does that mean? If you're unemployed, you either (one more time) do what you have to do, or you don't and complain about it.

 

Unemployment is insurance that workers and employers pay into.

You cut it off, then give me back what I sank into it.

 

Economically, unemployment insurance is paid for completely by the employee. Yes, the employer is taxed based on wages, but ultimately the employer incorporates that tax in deciding upon what it will be willing to pay for labor.

But this tax maxes out pretty quickly, and no further contributions are required. And the problem is, it doesn't take many extensions for many, many recipients to draw well beyond what has been contributed on their behalf. That's pretty much where we are in many areas.

 

Helpful? How? Do you honestly think Taco Bell is going to want to hire a college grad with years of newspaper experience who will bolt as soon as anything better comes along, if it ever does, as opposed to a high school kid?

As far as hiring being a two-way street, in order for someone to get hired, there has to be someone willing to do the hiring.

 

Baron, I hope the job you're waiting for comes along. Until then, good luck with your efforts.

 

Thanks.

I've had reason to be hopeful with several interviews in the last few weeks. I'm hoping something crops up soon.