WHY TAX THE UNEMPLOYED? I've been out of work for six months. My unemployment benefits, now reaching the final days of their last twelve-week extension, barely cover my basic monthly living expenses. While I am most grateful to receive them, I don't understand why the government taxes unemployment benefits. I'm facing a tax bill against benefits received in 2008 and I have no idea how I'm going to pay it. Worrying about this--on top of worrying about what I'll do if I become sick (since I have no health insurance), on top of searching for a job everyday--is almost too much. Thank you for providing a forum for the people most in need of economic help to have their voices heard.
Kathryn Vanskiloff
Manitowoc, WI
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOUGH CLIMATE FOR SALES Three years ago when my husband began as a sales specialist with for a building company, he had a promising career ahead of him. After a year of selling pre-engineered structures such as barns and out buildings, he was the second most successful first-year salesperson across the company. But then the economy started to change. In 2007, his sales plummeted, as did his base salary, from $335 per week to $250 per week. In 2008, his base salary dropped to less than minimum wage, $200 per week--a total on which he was trying to support our family of four. Finally, in October of 2008, he was let go.
The company then tried to deny his unemployment and withheld his last paycheck. They wanted him to sign a statement saying he had not met his sales quota after being repeatedly told to do so, even though no customer is going to build a barn or out building when they cannot get a loan and in the current economy. We had to solicit the assistance of our state representative, Diana Fessler. The corporation appealed the decision once his unemployment was granted.
The worst part of this layoff is that my husband carried our family's health insurance. With my two part time jobs I make just over the amount allowable to put my children on Medicaid. Luckily, Ohio makes children eligible for a buy-in plan if one's children are uninsured for over six months. But what about those six months?
On New Year's Day I went to a party with some old college friends. I discovered that one of my friends had been laid off from a job he had worked for over twenty years. He was the sole provider for his family of five. I remind myself that at least we are better off than his family--better off than a lot of people.
Gail Ruhkamp
Laura, OH
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SMALL BUSINESS BLUES I have been developing a business for over ten years and now have no access to capital. I have a great product, great market and real demand, but I cannot afford to bootstrap the expansion of my company. The credit crunch my business is facing was caused by greedy financial services executives in urban centers who have essentially siphoned off all of the discretionary capital that makes a national economy function. When small businesses in the heartland of America cannot access operating capital EVERYONE loses.
Tom Simon
Mount Vernon, IA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DIFFICULT ADJUSTMENT Last July, with no advance notice, I was laid off from my job of ten years at a trade publication. (I am contractually forbidden from giving specify details about the firm or my job.) I had been working almost without interruption since the age of seventeen, when I landed my first full-time job on a clothing assembly line. Since then, except for two years of attending college during the day, and one year of unemployment, I have earned a salary.
Compared with the dire accounts of other newly jobless--no health insurance, facing eviction, barely enough money for food--my situation is tolerable. My wife is still working, I collect Social Security and unemployment benefits (which stop with each freelance assignment I land), and I belong to a strong tenant organization that has secured rent concessions after a four-year battle. Still, at nearly 67, with two children in college and the accompanying mountain of debt, I am in trouble. I cannot afford to retire and, even if I could, my IRA savings are dissolving at lightning speed. I look for work every day. Here and there I land a freelance project, but the compensation is far below what I had been earning.
Beyond my financial troubles, one of the biggest difficulties I am facing is psychological. Call it macho if you will, but I have always felt good being the main supporter for my family. That was a major part of my self-definition. That sense of pride was taken away from me. I'm not sure when, or if, the emptiness in me will ever be filled.
Nathan Weber
New York City
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OUTSOURCED Fifteen years ago, I began working as a contracting proofreader at a family-owned textbook company. Over the years, the firm was sold up the value chain, finally ending under the control of a multinational corporation based in New Delhi. Unsurprisingly, my office was closed in December '08. Because I was an independent contractor, I received no severance, will get no unemployment compensation, and am ineligible for COBRA health insurance, which is not affordable to the unemployed anyway. I have little hope of finding such specialized work again, much less at the hourly rate I was paid.
W.K. Grady
Los Angeles, CA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNDEREMPLOYED OUT WEST Both my younger brother and I are trying to get back on our feet after the local economy crashed during the 1980's and 90's. While Wyoming has a low unemployment rate (and has been recruiting from Michigan and elsewhere), the job market mostly consists of low-wage, dead-end positions. My brother was cut loose from his job as a mudlogger in the once-booming local oil industry; now the hospital and Home Depot seem to be the only employers still hiring for mid-level positions.
Thomas O'Brien
Casper, WY
...........more vignettes at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090209/jobless?rel=hp_picks
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
