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A relative of mine is unemployed and has been for almost a year. He lives in a small town in Michigan with an unemployment rate of nearly 20%. He is in his fifties and owns a home in this small town. When the factories closed it became almost impossible to get a job in his town and for fifty miles around if you were a middle aged factory worker. Working on the assembly line is all he has done for the last twenty five years.
He has been living on savings and unemployment insurance with a few odd jobs here and there. Because of the extended benefits he has been able to keep collecting unemployment for almost a year. But the money and unemployment benefits is running out and he is no closer to finding a job.
There is just nothing for him in the small town he lives in or for fifty miles around. What should the government do about him? Should they pay him welfare? Retraining sounds good but there are just no jobs and the house he lives in and owns is underwater, and a burden that stops him from relocating. HE WANTS TO WORK!
What should he do? What should the government do about people like him?
Your post sounds like you yearn for Ceausescu or Stalin and central planning.
While I feel for him, it's not the government's place to move him into an area where there are jobs.
He should take a loss on the house and try to move.
I suggest you look at Johnny B. Fury's 8:56am post.
He has had a year to figure out that there are no jobs for him. He could have made an effort to look for jobs in other states etc. but he is not ready or willing to give up what he has spent all these years building. Now he is running out of time and options.
That's really tough, but there are no guarantees in life. You take what you get and do the best you can with it. I saved a long time to take a 1 year break from working. 7 months later my 45 year old company closed down by the parent company. Now I cannot go back or collect unemployment. I started working on plans A, B, C, and D immediately. I figure one of them will work for me in the next 6 months.
Sounds good in theory but there are just no jobs in many towns in America for middle aged men who have been working at the factory all their adult lives. He is not a lazy man and hated the idea of collecting unemployment.
Here are his options as he sees them:
Move out of town and walk away from his home and destroy his reputation and credit rating. Add to the number of abandoned homes in his community. He has been so proud of his home and lived there for 20 years and was so excited to be a home owner.
Continue to live in his town and keep applying at jobs he knows will not hire him.
Retraining sounds good in theory but again there are no jobs in the community except for retail and fast food. He has applied at about every employer within fifty miles. They do not want to hire a fifty year old man at McDonald's. Those jobs are set aside for kids and immigrants. Unemployment is close to 20% in Jackson MI.
What would you recommend?
I've already told you what I thought. He can sit there like a defeatist and feel sorry for himself like he already has been for a year, or he can get off his arse and do something about it.
OMG why should the government pay for a loser to move around the country to find a job?
And how would it get paid, on Obama funny money?
Dang how much more spending do you people think we can handle?
No more freebies, take a bike or walk to your next job.
Anyone who had a decent job and made decent money should have enough saved up to move themselves, in most cases they will have some saved to move. So now we are trying to find losers who never saved a dime in their life and pay them to move around so they can screw up their spending all over again. If you did not make it in the place you are now you are not going to make it anywhere.
Worker Training in Michigan (http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/mi12_levin/corner/FS40809.shtml - broken link)
Quote:
The Recovery Package provides Michigan more than a $200 million for training. You may learn more about Michigan’s training programs at: http://www.michigan.gov/dleg/
Locally programs are coordinated through the Michigan Works offices.
The State of Michigan relies on a number of federal sources of funding for its worker training programs. Including: the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
The Recovery Act provides Michigan $183 million in Workforce Investment Act funds. Of the $183 million in state formula grants Michigan is expected to receive, $74 million will go to youth, $30.8 million to adults, and $78.4 million to dislocated workers.
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