Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I have a Master's Degree + 5 years of experience in my field, which is a very specialized and un-saturated field... and it still took me 6+ months to find a new job, when I was laid off in 2010. Thank goodness for UI, which was merely a fraction of what I'd earned previously - but just enough to keep me off the streets (or my mother's house) while I actively searched for employment. And no, it didn't allow me the luxury of partying & spending money on anything but necessities. You know, little things like rent, food, electricity, and gas for my car as I drove as far as 200mi for job interviews.
I can only imagine people with lesser qualifications & educations trying to find work now, and some of them genuinely need these extensions as they job-hunt. Sure, some people take advantage and use it as an excuse to do nothing... and something like 5+ years (unlikely) is pretty ridiculous. But if you visit the unemployment board here on C-D, you'll see many do NOT abuse the system. You'll also learn how it pays less than one's previous earnings, and you must be laid off in order to qualify. So this isn't "welfare" we're talking about, and the majority of people on UI would do anything to have their jobs back. Of course it's easier to judge from the sidelines, rather than admitting our country is in a serious recession with millions of people who truly can't find work. But judge not, lest ye be judged one day for needing help in this terrible economy.
I have a Master's Degree + 5 years of experience in my field, which is a very specialized and un-saturated field... and it still took me 6+ months to find a new job, when I was laid off in 2010. Thank goodness for UI, which was merely a fraction of what I'd earned previously - but just enough to keep me off the streets (or my mother's house) while I actively searched for employment. And no, it didn't allow me the luxury of partying & spending money on anything but necessities. You know, little things like rent, food, electricity, and gas for my car as I drove as far as 200mi for job interviews.
I can only imagine people with lesser qualifications & educations trying to find work now, and some of them genuinely need these extensions as they job-hunt. Sure, some people take advantage and use it as an excuse to do nothing... but if you visit the unemployment board here on C-D, you'll see many do NOT. You'll also learn how it pays less than one's previous earnings, and you must be laid off in order to qualify. So this isn't "welfare" we're talking about, and the majority of people on UI would do anything to have their jobs back. Of course it's easier to judge from the sidelines, rather than admitting our country is in a serious recession with millions of people who truly can't find work. But judge not, lest ye be judged one day for needing help in this terrible economy.
If you were making so much before why didn't you save any? UI was a mere fraction of your earnings you ever heard of planning for a rainy day? I guess not.
x2 us unemployed self employed get nothing yet it is our fed tax dollars going to the not working special ones. what are we 2nd class citizens to be ignored? no taxes from me anymore. I will keep my earnings.
The self-employed also pay full FICA/SECA taxes (employee & employer side) into a Social Security welfare ponzi-scheme they were never supposed to be in.
Thats a drop in the bucket compared to defense spending increases that Republicans have been passing all year. Were you bitching about those?
Pentagon has unceremoniously cut somewhere around 400 billion dollars here in the last year. I know it's just a pittance but at least they are trying. What is funny is all the cuts being mentioned by all these repubs and dems aren't even cuts to begin with. They are cuts of spending increases. So instead of budgets going up say 17% they proposed "cuts" knock the increase down to say 12%. Some cut.
If you were making so much before why didn't you save any? UI was a mere fraction of your earnings you ever heard of planning for a rainy day? I guess not.
I didn't say how MUCH I earned previously, did I? It doesn't matter how much or little you make, UI is always less than previous salaries. So for all you know, I could have been making $25K and getting $15K in benefits.
You also apparently have no clue as to the COL in the Bay Area, nor that people (around here) earning 50K live paycheck-to-paycheck even with tight budgets. I lived in a 3br house with 2 roommates, and still didn't have much to save after rent & bills. Oh yeah, and I DID have about $4,000 in savings, but that was gone pretty quickly - as the unemployment dept took forever to process my claim, and I had to use that while they twiddled their thumbs.
Care to comment on the actual points of my post, or are you just here to be rude & judgmental?
Pentagon has unceremoniously cut somewhere around 400 billion dollars here in the last year. I know it's just a pittance but at least they are trying. What is funny is all the cuts being mentioned by all these repubs and dems aren't even cuts to begin with. They are cuts of spending increases. So instead of budgets going up say 17% they proposed "cuts" knock the increase down to say 12%. Some cut.
Don't be fooled by what Washington and the Pentagon call "cuts". That simply means in next years spending, or we increased it by 400 billion less then we planned.
Almost all military spending increases in the world in 2010 and 2011 were by the United states.
And Republicans and Democrats are guilty of this, not just one party. But Republicans, to their credit, seem to be more hypocritical here, because they complain about spending, yet increase military spending.
How can someone just sit on their behinds and do NOTHING all day? Live off the government?
I would be embarrassed and feel like a FAILURE!
If you think going from 600 a week to 300 a week is living off the government, you need to rethink some things.
No one is living on unemployment, they are surviving on unemployment, and spending their savings to make ends meet.
I was on unemployment from early 2002 until mid year 2003. Finished a 2 year degree in just over a year of actual classes. But the unemployment didn't pay all the bills, I had to work part time to make ends meet, but I'm better off for it now.
The company I worked for said this in their hiring interview "You'll never be laid off here, even unemployed people eat fast food". This was a plant that made containers for fast food. I left a job at another plant that was shutting down, for this one because it was more secure.
9 months later, they are shutting the doors and moving to Canada.
Partner, that wasn't my failure, it was theirs. BTW, before you say I shouldn't have left the other plant, they closed their doors a month after mine did.
NAFTA took my job, but gave me a better one by giving me unemployment while attending school for two years. I have more then paid back my burden on the tax payer, and then some.
Welcome to the real world.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
