Paid to not Work? Huh?
Okay. Some body help me out here. Please!
We’ve got about 10% of the adult work force unemployed and most still receiving an unemployment check each and every month. They are receiving this money from the government because they do not have a job.
The government itself is not creating jobs (nor is the free market adequately) and is about to file bankruptcy altogether yet we have bridges and roads (infrastructure) falling apart, while social services and education takes a backseat beating because of the colossal unjustifiable expense of maintaining useless wars against countries that neither protect nor benefit the people on either side of the equation.
What I truly and deeply do not understand in the slightest is why we don’t simply require that every person receiving unemployment money from the government to go to work (in the interim) in social services, teaching, the repair of our deteriorating infrastructure and any other service we can think up. Why should people who have nothing to do be paid to continue doing nothing!?
So the idea I’m advocating is insanely simple and a win-win for the governments money woes and the out of work citizens woes. Put us to work for crying out loud. And if there is a reason this cannot work please point it out to me. And after pointing out the reason(s) why this simple, reasonable, brilliant plan will not work-may we please collaborate on working out ways to make it work? Notice that the most common word in this essay is “work”, as in-nothing that we are doing and everything that we are not doing governmentally, educationally, militarily, economically, environmentally and socially is Not Working!
You know, in the recovery culture of ex drunks and other addicts they have a very concise and poignant insight often expressed; their definition of insanity is: continuing to take the same actions repeatedly which result in the same outcomes. Perhaps as a nation it is time to change our actions; recover our sanity, our confidence, our foreign relations, our working democracy, our schooling system, our self respect and our pride in being an American before it is too late. If it already isn’t..
Please feel compelled or at least free, to email this idea to friends and government so-called representatives
Hi Harvey,
ReplyDeleteBoy are you misinformed about unemployment! Let me try to explain it for you, from a first hand point of view.
Firstly, unemployment is an INSURANCE premium that is paid for by every employer you and I have ever worked for. It is NOT government subsidized like welfare programs, though it is collected as a tax on the employer, both federal and state. Feds take 6.2 percent on the first $7,000 in annual wages to each employee. Just like health and disability insurance, unemployment premiums are deducted from your paycheck.
Ever noticed the "AZUI" line item on your check stub? YOU and I pay these premiums, and in my opinion, since I've been paying these premiums for the last 24 years, I'm entitled to these funds. Would you fund a car accident out of pocket and not file a claim with your insurance company? See where I'm going here?
I was laid off from my high 5-figure corporate controller position almost 3 years ago. I can assure you that the 2 years I received Unemployment Insurance, I was NOT "paid to do nothing". I can also assure you that $240 a week didn't even cover 1/2 of my mortgage, let alone buy food, clothing and utilities for my 3 minor children. As a widower and single mother, I'm the sole bread winner of our family.
I spent 16+ hours a day, 7 days a week trying to generate income. Should I have spent this time working in a less than minimum wage "job" basically "volunteering" for the government?
Who covers the liability and the costs associated with your government volunteer program? The government right? How many hours are you going to require? When are we supposed to look for a permanent earnings?
Think again Harvey...your simple solution is a dud.
Hello back Amanda,
ReplyDeleteYour points are well taken but I think you missed mine. It wasn't about you or any other unemployed person; it was about a government that misuses and overspends everybodys tax dollars-then cuts important social programs and threatens to cut other programs such as unemployment like Medicare and Social security payments. Those monies also are deducted from our paychecks to help support us when we're older and or ill. Bottom line, if they could get away with it, all programs they call "entitlement" would be terminated. we are entitled to money they have taken from us. We are also entitled to have all our other tax dollars put to use as we the people want. Problem is, corporations control allocations and our best interests are ignored or shelved.
All I am suggesting is that as long as there is a huge deficit and as long as their are good people out of work then why not give them something useful to do. You wrote that you've spent 16 hours a day 7 days a week "trying" to generate income. Did you? What is trying all about.
I know being a single mother is incredibly hard and I have terrific respect for them; I volunteer in a Boys Mentoring Program that serves mostly single children who struggling to grow up without a healthy male role model. I live in the same harsh world as you Amanda.
The government over expenditures go primarily toward fulfilling the desires of the mega corporations that own the politicians that decide where tax dollars go. To me, all tax dollars are the same. They don'[t keep an account called "Unemployment" separate from "Medicare" etc. The truth is that there is no money to back any of these programs right now because wars are every expensive and there is very little bang for the buck if any at all. Government takes money from any coiffure to pay for whatever is needed in the moment.
If there are no jobs available for those on unemployment and there aren't-then what is wrong with putting them to productive work on things we say we can't afford to take care of? If there are no jobs then it doesn't really matter how hard you look or what your intentions are...you're not going to work.
I think the piece hit a raw nerve with you-that was not my intention, but it wasn't about the unemployed; it was about the ineffective policies and procedures of a corrupt and ineffective governing system.