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There is also another factor to consider: What about those who have come out of prison? There are employers out there who won't hire anyone who has done time in prison. What to do about the persons who have done time in prison?
May be we should have labor camps with dormitory style housing that employ homeless/vagrants to harvest organic crops? It's probably a money-losing proposition since they'd have to compete against farms with harder-working & lower-payed (but illegal) immigrants. Still it's a better than just paying them SSI and leaving them on the streets.
May be we should have labor camps with dormitory style housing that employ homeless/vagrants to harvest organic crops?
At first glance, I thought you were onto a whole new conservative Christian right concept. We could harvest their organs, on behalf of the people who exercise personal responsibility and are not leeches on society.
According to most posters it is obvious that the unemployed are not working because they do not want to. Tell you what. Just add 30% to my current expected pension and give this job to someone else.
I have a number of friends and relatives who have been unemployed for over a year. These are middle aged people who up to 2008 were hard working professional college educated people who appeared to have a good life ahead of them. But in late 2008- early 2009 each of these people were laid off their jobs and ever since they have not been able to find anything.
These are people with good communications skills, an attractive professional appearance and highly intelligent. But for a variety of reasons they just can't seem to find a job. They live in a major metropolitan area where the economy is considered relatively average (Minneapolis area). They have got some interviews but someone else was hired or the job was put on hold.
So far these people have survived because of the generous unemployment insurance payments in Minnesota and the seemingly endless State and Federal Extensions of unemployment benefits. They have collected for over a year and still have some time left.
But eventually there is going to be an end to the benefits and their situation will likely be the same. If you can not find a job in 60 weeks, how will things be better in 80 weeks?
What is the responsibility of society and the taxpayers for these unemployed ex professionals. When should the government cut off the benefits for these people and what then?
I'm just wondering why the focus on "ex-professionals"?
Are they somehow more deserving of relief than say, a married couple working the night shift at Wal-mart for the last 10 years and paying for a modest home and the associated necessaries?
Anyone who has a job and expenses can find themselves out of a job in a heartbeat and need unemployment. I have a professional position and whether I, or the person that sweeps up around here lose the job we both have the same type of hardship. Whoever saved more will survive longer but the basic hardship: rent, utilities, food, are there no matter who it is.
I have mixed emotions about the continued extensions of unemployment. I don't think you can just cut people off and they have nothing, but I do believe there are plenty of people who are currently viewing unemployment as a paid vacation, are not looking for work at all and view all these extensions as simply an extension to their paid break from the workforce.
There is a reason why many people who are unemployed are long-term unemployed. Many of them either have skills that are not in demand anymore, factories look for "cheap" labor elsewhere or don't have any skills at all. For instance, some of the factories started moving South/overseas and/or got automated. Jobs were created in other places for a lesser pay scale and the automation of certain factory sectors put alot of people out of their jobs. Example: Milwaukee,WI and Harley-Davidson. Harley-Davidson started to automate and it put alot of people out of jobs, rendering their skills useless for the most part. One would argue that the service economy should be the next best thing. One problem, there are only so many service jobs to go around, including government jobs. There are still alot of people who will be out of jobs. The amount of jobs available depends on the amount of merchandise sold/in demand. That means trying to lure people in from other places to buy things. If the economy goes sour, people will buy less. Buying less means less demand for employees in the service sector.
The question is: What kinds of skills are in demand today?
Computer skills, or become a web-entrepreneur. We web is a marketing opportunity beyond belief, and the customer pays your overhead (shipping).
Will somebody please explain to me how all these re-training ideas, even if they were perfectly successful, are going to reduce by one the number of people who are unemployed and need some money to support their family?
They're generally not ones you can get simply by reading books at the library...employers want more qualifications than simply being well-read.
You can learn basic and even moderate computer skills with books, and software and PCs. Once you get into the field, formal programs are available.
I'll tell you what I tell everyone when I talk about business. In 1987, and drew up plans for the ergonomic v-shaped keyboard. However, I didn't patent it or go beyond drawing it up. Somebody did and made $$$.
The difference - he or she overcame inertia and I didn't. A body at rest, tends to stay at rest and a body in motion tends to stay in motions.
A person who is succeeding, tends to continue to succeed and visa versa.
The hard part is to get over that initial inertia to go from a person not being successful, to a person who is successful.
Start a business, any business, any product. Sell on eBay or at swap meets, anywhere, anything, just do it. Once you are in business, you are IN BUSINESS and the rest is just a matter of course and speed changes, but the intital GETTING IN BUSINESS is the hard part. However, once you are in business, opportunities will come to you. You can change your product line, your marketing channels, but you CAN'T do that UNTIL YOU ARE IN BUSINESS. I know a guy who bought over 2,000,000 amber pill bottles at 1cent each (100 per case). He sold each case for $25.00 (25 cents each) It has taken him several years, but he keeps selling them. He also goes to estate sales, military auctions and all sorts of outlets for merchandise. But NONE OF THIS will come to you UNTIL you are IN BUSINESS.
I started off with credit cards and some t-shirt designs I did for a political rally, then I went to a gun show and then sports shows and now I am a Internet Retailer with weekly sales that are almost as much as my entire year's salary when I first an to CA in 1987. I created the designs myself intially, My login name is part of one of my first shirts. Semper Armati is Latin for Always Armed. The shirt was Semper Armati Semper Libri. Always Armed, Always Free. It had a minuteman in the middle. The point is you can do ANYTHING, once you get underway. And you CANT do ANYTHING UNTIL you do.
End of Pep Talk, no go out and get rich. And I guarantee you one thing. Not even 1$ you make will be money taken from someone else. It will all be willingly given in exchange for value delivered, and we call all get rich all at the same time because the pie of prosperity is infinite in its capacity to expand.
Nobody is poor in this country because others are rich. They are poor in this country because, drum roll, of themselves and nobody else.
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