A-hole on CNN arguing against unemployment benefits

[earthboundmisfit]

U of Chicago - Robt Shimer - Says it keeps people from going out and getting jobs.

I hope this motherfucker gets to experience unemployment himself real fucking soon.
:mad:

[Turbineguy]

1. This is the new meme

let's hope lots of repubs get themselves laid off for a nice, well-paid vacation courtesy of unemployment insurance. Take a cruise or something! Maybe even remodel the kitchen. You'll be rolling in the dough on unemployment!

[Lars39]

2. You caught that, too?

Immediate evil thoughts of him living in a cardboard box. :grr:

[notadmblnd]

3. Fuck him. I just got a job after 5 years and guess what? It pays a whopping $100.00 per week

Before I lost my job, I made 1k per week. But it's 100.00 I don't have now and I don't have to leave my home. What am I doing? Babysitting. Now if I could just get a couple of more kids to add to that, I might be able to make an actual living wage. Oh, and by the way Mr. Shimer, I had no unemployment check that' kept me from going out and looking. Being over 50 is enough to keep the employers away.

[earthboundmisfit]

8. I'm there with you

But I'm 56 (and a half, heh)

[leftstreet]

4. Why aren't the Democrats responding to this?!

Delay, Kyl, Limbaugh...they're all launching this Blame-The-Victim talking point.


And the Democratic response?

:shrug:

[HughBeaumont]

10. I guess they're under the assumption that the meme is SO lunatic . . .

. . . no one in their right MIND would agree with such a thing. Therefore, no response should be required, right? :sarcasm:

Yeah, I think this same sort of quick! response from the Democrats was prevelant for things like blaming Iraq for 9/11, the "outsourcing is good for the overall economy" statement by the Bewsh administration, and a certain presidential candidate who waited for just the right time to defend himself against corporate funded lie-filled attacks on his service.

[seabeckind]

5. Just before him they had the WH trade guy on

I changed the channel as soon as he said the words compete and global.

Slavery by any other name. When do we finally rid ourself of these f'in reagan guys?

As I was surfing back by I saw the label about the benefits and just went on by and stopped at the syfy channel. More believable.

[seabeckind]

6. As an afterthought...

Is there something going on to cause this disinformation campaign?

It's not related to the buy american thingy, is it? Trying to nip that s--t in the bud?

<on edit> Reminds me, I got to get some more tinfoil...

[onethatcares]

26. yeah, the states are broke, out of unemployment funds and

the medicaid dollars are shrinking fast. Wouldn't want the fine upstanding Americans to realize that corporate and for the wealthy tax cut have anything to do with it, no, it has to be the victims fault.

[SoCalDem]

7. Using their logic, medical care is not "necessary" either

Taking medicine to "get better", only encourages one to continue to live.:rofl:

[la_chupa]

9. typical isn't it

The thing is this isn't a hand out like they claim. I have paid into unemployment all my life. I collected it for 4 months, hardly a charity.

I'd like to see this a-hole live off of $400 a month. Oh yea the lap of luxury.

[Mari333]

11. I have even heard champagne liberals make that statement

one of the women here in my town, who has orgasms over Obama in a bathing suit, expressed to me one day, sniffing haughtily, that 'those people' wont take low paying jobs and would rather collect unemployment benefits.

She doesnt like paying them thru her business. I know for a fact she pays minimum wage and no benefits and her part time employees are treated like shit and she has a huge turnover of people at her business. she is a very mean boss.


But rest assured SHE lives in a huge gated mansion on the beach with illegal slave labour catering to her every need.

[earthboundmisfit]

18. Makes you think

"Liberal, my ass!"

[stopbush]

23. She's right. I'd rather stay on unemployment at $475 a week than take

a menial job that nets even less a week. It's simple finances. $475 a week may not be much in CA, but it goes a lot farther than would $240 a week on minimum wage.

And, I'm spending 40+ hours a week looking for a real job, rather than spending 40 hours a week flipping burgers or mopping floors. It's a lot easier to get interviews when you have a flexible schedule and can meet with a potential employer at their convenience. How many potential employers are going to wait around to see you at 6pm? How many potential employers are going to be impressed that you're working at McDs to make ends meet when you're interviewing for anything besides an entry-level position?

It's so easy to vilify others when you're living the life of Riley.

[earthboundmisfit]

28. You're right on

On unemployment your "job" is to look for a job, and you are required to make a certain number of searches and report each week.
Absolutely right about a potential employer - for example for an IT job - looking down on the fact you're currently working fast food. Sure they shouldn't look down on the fact, but they will.
Flip side, I've been essentially laughed out as overqualified when I've applied for more lower-level positions and they look at my resume or history. And I'm over 50 - damned one way or another (but still hopeful!)

[stopbush]

30. My unemployment in CA requires that I look for week each week, but they don't check up on it.

We mail in our forms every two weeks. We answer 7 questions for each week we're out of work, one of which is, "Did you look for work this week?" There's a box near that question. If it has an X in it, you need to list your job searches on the back on the form. That hasn't been asked of me yet. Don't know why. Might be that the economy sucks so bad that they're just not asking for that info.

And I do spend at least 40 hrs a week searching for a job. Actually working is a helluva lot easier.

BTW - don't let the over 50 thing get you down. I landed my last job at age 52. It lasted just under 2 years, until the non-profit I was working at starting running out of money and cut staff. It was a good paying job. The people who will hire over-50s are out there, but those jobs are hard to find and even harder to get hired for.

[upi402]

12. CNN = corporate propaganda

Thanks for watching so I don't have to keep track of these traitors!

[Tommy_Carcetti]

13. Florida pays a whooping $250 maximum per week.

I somehow doubt a person with kids and a mortgage is going to view an unemployment check as a legitimate substitute for an actual wage.

[old mark]

14. What would you do with all that money? nt

[handmade34]

15. they have no valid argument

until they can provide a job to anyone who wants one. I am working a very less than desirable job because as I approached 60 there was not much to choose from and it took 6 months to find what I have.

As with any situation, there are variants. There ARE some people that will exhaust available unemployment rather than look for work. ...no reason to make this claim about everyone. It is very easy for people that have jobs to make judgement... they are small minded asses.

[gratuitous]

16. New rule: You don't get to talk about unemployment benefits unless . . .

You've had to survive on them for more than two consecutive months in the last five years. Otherwise, the person jacking his jaw doesn't know what he's talking about.

[Lars39]

20. What the idgit was pushing was individual unemployment accounts

that the government would be in charge of, you spend your account down, presto chango get a job and built it back up. :eyes:

Another way for the greedy mofos to get their hands on more money, and bonus points that they've destroyed another safety net. :grr:

[earthboundmisfit]

29. Ultimate goal: get rid of ALL the safety nets

Or privatize 'em

[Urban Prairie]

17. It also keeps temporarily unemployed people from going out and committing crimes, Shimer

Most of whom will then inevitably get caught from being desperate, and many will go to prison, forcing the government to spend even more money to house, feed, and provide health care to these formerly productive citizens, that it cost to provide them with unemployment benefits, who instead become inmates.

Dumbass....:grr:

[Missy Vixen]

19. It's the criminalization of unemployment

After all, if those folks really wanted a job, they'd find one.

:sarcasm:

I just got off the phone with a media person at the DNC. I begged them to use the footage of these asshole Republicans making comments re: "only the lazy are on unemployment". I can't even imagine what a great commercial they could come up with if they had the balls to do it -- flashing the person's yearly income under their face, and how long they've been sucking at the government teat, too.

Pardon my French, but goddamn it, Democratic Party: How long are you going to let them frame the debate?

[earthboundmisfit]

21. That WOULD make a great commercial!

Yup, the mean-spirited comments begrudging unemployment compensation, food stamps, medicaid - with the counterpoint of the REAL hogs at the trough! (No offense intended to hogs)

(edited because I can't spell today)

[rcrush]

22. Yeah cause 50% of your original salary is just so great to live on!

Isnt unemployment such a blast? :sarcasm:

[stopbush]

24. I wish it was 50%. With the caps on benefits, many of us living in high-cost states

are getting 1/3 of our salary on unemployment benefits. Sure, you make a salary that allows you to get by pretty well and to afford the ridiculous price of housing etc, but if you lose that job, the COL doesn't go down while UI benefits don't go up.

My UI benefits currently don't cover my rent. My wife still has her part time job and that's what we live off. I'd move to a cheaper place but I'm paying the going rate around here.

Looking for work outside of CA these days. It may be time to get out before it all crashes.

[SycamoreFlynn]

25. A-hole on CNN arguing against unemployment benefits

This is a generally accepted belief among conservatives. Does anyone know of an unemployed conservative who refuses to collect U.C.?

[earthboundmisfit]

27. Haha - none that I've encountered!

And welcome to DU! :hi:

[Confusious]

31. U of Chicago economics school shit

Where all the marginal (great, in their minds) Friedman thinkers who brought our economy down came from.

[Puzzler]

32. I swear that CNN would discuss the Holocaust with half the panel being deniers