Unemployment isn't some welfare giveaway either. The money for it has been paid into a fund by the employee and the employer. It's called Unemployment INSURANCE after all.

So where exactly is the deduction on your pay stub for unemployment? In Oregon the EMPLOYER pays ALL of the unemployment contributions, the employee pays NONE! Perhaps Washington is different?

I don't think anyone believes people are living it up on unemployment, but many are becoming comfortable and refuse to look for work untill it expires, then complain they have no job and extentions ran out.

Why do corporate tax giveaways have to increase the deficit Hank?

4salt,
Here is a stumper for ya.. Who do corporations employ and what do their employees/share holders pay ? If the corporations make more money, that will create more ________ and or ________, which will increase the amount of ________ paid to the goverment.

BTW, I know sever people who have lived for long periods of time (>6 months) on unenjoyment just fine. You want to know how... They lived within their means. Which meant giving up a few luxuries, but they managed to keep a roof over their head and food in their kids mouths.

Its not fukin hate, I am just fed up working my ass off to pay for people who feel it necessary not to work their ass off and who have made shitty life decisions and expect me to pay for them. [censored] em!

You have to be able to think a little in the abstract. True that the deduction does not appear on your paystub, but it is deducted from your "worth" to your employer. For instance, if your employer pays $10/month for your unemployment insurance, that's $10/month he can't pay you in payroll. Ergo, it's a deduction.

What if we replace the words "unemployement insurance", with corporate tax? Does that still work?

So therefore when I pay a guy $20 an hour, insurance, retirement, unemployment, vacation, and other various taxes, I'm Really paying this guy $40-$50 an hour. I pass that on to my customers. And they wonder why my labor rate is $80 an hour.... Some people think We small corporations can afford it. With all these expenses small wonder why few want to hire

Aunty, Many really have nothing to lose. Others believe the govt will help them out. I've been running into several guys while fishing who have been out of work, maybe the wife works, maybe not, but they tell me they can pay the bills and still have a little extra money for gas/bait.
How many in your county commute to another county? I do.

I am just fed up working my ass off to pay for people who feel it necessary not to work their ass off and who have made shitty life decisions and expect me to pay for them.


We don't know that they made shitty life decisions. What we do know is that they were actively employed and contributing to society, but now that they aren't.

So you naturally ASSume it's THEIR fault and not corporate America and jackass politicians????

Sure, not all, but I'll bet they compose a fair percentage. I think we all know a few that fit into that category.

BD things have went on long enough that the employee / employer funds are used up for many claims, that is the reason for the federal extensions. Tax payers are footing the bill. It is needed though but...........

Well here goes nothing. Those who know me know I retired last year but I could have drawn unemployment in fact I could have drawn my pension and unemployment at the same time, all I had to do was a job search and you work around that by doing most online. If I had wanted to sign up for a retraining program could have stretched out things even more with the COBRA set up in the mix. It is really a complex system but once you get it down you can run it 24 months or more out. ( oh yes mine was $600 a week before taxes ) .

Bottom line for me was hell I wanted to retire and didn't care if it cost $1000 a year on my pension to go out especially when my severance paid my medical to 65.

Now if I had wanted to I could have done this. Taken severance paid off my medical, NOT got my pension going but rather draw unemployment for 18 months ( with extensions looks like two years or more now ) with ZERO intent of taking any job, signed up for retraining which would have extended it out further. I have a friend ( went a little before me ) who did just that so he could run things out and not use his savings until he got at Soc Sec.

Bottom line is many, many, people are desperate and need help. Others run unemployment out before they go for work simply because they can and by picking up cash on jobs that aren't reported do ok. In this state they can not force you take a job down the pay scale so you can ride it out on unemployment. Friend of mine once decided she wanted the summer off anyway when her job left so did just that. Said at 40 it was like being 16 again not having to work.

As in many things argued on this BB everyone is right and nobody is wrong just depends on your circumstances! It is a system designed as a safety net that works but it has a lot of room for abuse in it.

So what if some small percentage is happy to try to live on unemployment? Many, I suspect most, worked for years, got the American dream of their own home and were getting by till the economy went in the tank. Now they are desperately trying to hold on to the dream and might be able to make it if we help out with unemployment.

If they do lose everything, we will be seeing more of every type of social problem and that will cost us in the long run.

Not everyone can find a job. That’s what a higher unemployment rate means. Did Americans all of the sudden get lazy after the banks crashed? No! Things got tougher. Do any of you honestly believe there a decent job out there for everyone? If so ,was that also true during the great depression. Did Americans just get lazy then?

I've hired and fired about 100+ guys over the last 5 years. It seems the ones that work hard, still have jobs whether or not they work with me or not. Most of them have been fired or let go because they were lazy or had substance abuse problems. I don't have a problem with Unemployment insurance, what I do have a problem with are lazy people. There were alot of people, employed in industries they were completely unqualified for and were able to skate by. Now that times are lean, the fat is getting trimmed and tumors removed. In the end of the day, I pay a [censored] load of taxes for people who have made shitty life decisions, whether is be not getting enough edcuation, not keeping their legs closed, or leveraging them selves into debt beyond what they are capable of living on.

While Louisiana has CNN trying to shake everyone down while enjoying a 6.9% unemployment rate after the oil spill and moratorium, nearly 2 million people with no $100 million escrow account to turn to are being place in desperate circumstances and the TV machines barely mentions it. Moreover, the democrats on the hill remain silent. They should be in front of a camera 24/7 just like the GOP would be if the Dems were kicking 2 million people into the streets with no options.



I wish we still had more guys like this around:

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration".
Abraham Lincoln

My previous company took hired out of the temp halls, never hardly ever interviewed anyone for labor/carpenter positions. Either they worked or they didn't, most didn't. When looking for more qualified help, I reviewed several hundred resumes when looking for foreman or superintendents since, most applicants who claimed to be qualified had serious issues in their job histories that never got them to the table. In general, employees with long term stability seem to have kept their jobs or found new ones easily. People who change jobs/ careers every year or 2 and have no higher edcuation are much more likely to be unemployed.

BTW, I am an Asshole but if a person works hard, I've always respected that and looked out for them and done all I could to keep them employed, whether it be with who I work for or finding them a job with a company I have a relationship with.

If I remember right after 20 weeks, even if your [censored] canned, you can still get unemployement.

Speaking for just the engineering industry... Prior to the recession it was almost impossible to find decent help. All you needed was a certificate from UW, WSU or Shick Shadel,... Hell, it didn't even matter if you were down syndrome and voted republican, you could land a job anywhere... all we needed were bodies to fill budgets!

But, times are a changin and a persons reputation follows them around... The dead wood of yesterday are the unemployed of today. For most of the folks that I've seen get let go it is time for a career change anyway but you will never be able convince them of that...

It would be nice to have the same growth/workload issues that we had before but then again its nice to be able to take a vacation once and a while too...

Well here is what I don't get ...... the "Stimulus" bill was basically to help out the folks right? It sure isn't creating jobs .... 400K more gv jobs, but 2.6 mil less civ jobs = a net loss of 2.2 mil jobs since this bill was passed ( remember that unemployment wont go above 8% if you do as I say line????? Hasn't worked out too well has it). Well if it isn't creating jobs than why not use the money that is not spent to help out those folks that can't find work? If the D's are so concerned about the unemployed, they have an avenue to help them, why won't they do it????

As I said earlier I think the Ds are wrong not to use unspent stimulus money to fund an unemployment benefits extension. But what the stimulus did is something we will never know. We were shedding jobs at a much faster rate before the stimulus. Would that have improved without the stimulus? Who knows, but it doesn't seem likely. I do know there are a ton of highway projects going on, many funded by TARP funds. How bad would it be if all those construction workers were not working?

Aug 2008: -84,000
Sep 2008: -159,000
Oct 2008: -240,000 <---- Market collapse
Nov 2008: -533,000
Dec 2008: -524,000
Jan 2009: -598,000 <---- Obama inaugurated
Feb 2009: -651,000
Mar 2009: -663,000 <---- ARRA (Stimulus) starts
Apr 2009: -539,000
May 2009: -345,000
Jun 2009: -467,000
Jul 2009: -247,000
Aug 2009: -216,000

I, too, have met people who are on unemployment that love it. Some were boeing employees who were working 60 hour weeks for several years. When the layoff came, they loved it. Drained it the best they could, then signed up for reeducaton. After 2 years the economy changed and they signed back up with boeing for their old jobs. Also met people whose spouse worked and had all the money gained was extra anyway. Others are just in a world of hurt. Have a freind whose husband is a retired jet pilot. I was told McDonalds turned him down as over qualified. What's the answer, maybe switch extensions to need based, offer income supplement for lower paying jobs. The idea of trusting people indefinitely, however, does make me a little uneasy. Especially since there are plenty of people who are hurting just as much who were self employeed.

I'm glad I don't associate with lazy f'ers and system-workers. Some here need to upgrade their list of associates.

When we had an open Cutomer Serice Rep. position open last month, we had 80 applications submitted, with several coming from as far away as Kansas. People are trying hard to find employment that doesn't exist.

If the banks were too big to fail, then surely the country is too big to fail. If ever there was a reason to accumulate more debt, this is it. We built up 10 trillion in debt on assorted bullsh!t and now isn't the time to get all tight with the purse strings, IMO.

I lost a job I'd had for 20 years, and found myself on unenjoyment for 6 weeks. I've never felt so without direction and purpose in my life. Sure, I went fishing a few times when I felt like it, but it was hard for me to enjoy fishing when I knew that I should be out pounding the pavement. So that's what I did, and was able to find a new position a few rungs higher up the ladder than I was before.

But I realize that just because it worked for me doesn't mean everyone has been able to replace a lost job. And lots of them are honest, hard-working individuals. If the guv can't help them, why could they help banks and GM?

That quote from Lincoln is awesome.

shhh, don't you know it's unamerican to speak out against corporations?

bailouts for labor? why, it's their own fault for not working. Instead of a manufacturing job, you could be a wal-mart greeter or "manufacture" burgers.

if we wanted to bail out labor, we should start by protecting our markets and workers from virtual slave labor and less stringent health and safety regulations overseas. Of course, this is unamerican because republicans say that what's good for the corporation is good for the country.

Should everyone work for the goverment then? Last time I checked almost everyone I know who doesn't work for the goverment works for a corporation, even the self employed ones have a type S corp set up. If businesses don't have money, there is no jobs.