How does extending unemployment benefits create jobs? I am a strong supporter of short term unemployment benefits. However, this is getting ridiculous. How long will this clueless admin continue extending benefits. Its counter-productive. It does not take a Harvard educated scholar to understand that subsidizing unemployment indefinitely will result in larger numbers of unemployed workers. At some point, an unemployed worker has to accept a job even if it results in under-employment. I know it sucks, but that's life. Bear through the down times and find a better job when the opportunity arises.
man I really really feel for many of those long term unemployed. things for many of them will never be the same, for some of them things can get better. if you are unemployed in Detroit you might have to move to states with low unemployment, away from family and all you have known. yes it is hard anyone who has studied migrations of people for economic reasons, especially here in the USA have read stories of families uprooting and moving north or west or to WHERE EVER THE JOBS ARE. some of those long term unemploloyed in, for instance Michigan are related to people who left the south to move to Detroit for good jobs and some of those in calif are related to people who left the midwest during the dust bowl years. Instead of giving people unemployment maybe we should give them an allowance to move to a state with jobs. Life is hard No doubt. but staying in an area that is not coming back for years solves nothing
How about giving them a job to work on these illustrious infrastructure projects instead of hiring illegals? 2 birds, 1 stone.....
This seems counter productive to Obama's reelection chances. Extending unenployment will only raise the unemployment rate because fewer people will be dropping out while new ones keep dropping in.
Have any studies been done on how unemployment benefits affect unemployment. I can see both sides of the argument. There's also the argument for them on compassionate grounds, which should be considered, but i'm wondering just about the economics of it.
I cringed when Obama mentioned this because I knew it would get hammered. I fully agree with the need to seriously rethink, rework, revamp, and re-do the unemployment and welfare systems in this country. I just don't believe for a second that ending unemployment benefits is going to be the key to turning this economy around - or even help. We're not where we are because of unemployment benefits. I believe it is just flat wrong to pull the rug out from under these people at this stage of our economy. It's doubly wrong when you see how little this really costs us, and how much damage it would do to struggling families. Now that being said, I am for a total revamp of unemployment benefits as well as welfare benefits. I believe there should be shorter time limits and more strict obligations to obtain employment, or education, or even do some community service. I am probably much more conservative on this than many would believe actually. I just think that trying to make that change right now, in the middle of this economic mess that is in no part due to unemployment benefits, is flat wrong, mean, and a downright ugly display of class warfare. Let's spend what amounts to a drop in the bucket to the USA to help out these folks during this terrible, terrible economic time. When we're doing better, that's the time to rework and tighten the clamps on the program. Do any of you really believe that if we withold this money from the unemployed, it'll help? Really?
Some of this discussion is around the fact that unemployment is still high. Whether or not unemployment benefits are affeting this I will not answer, b/c I don't know. Seems hard to fathom to me though that if you simply got rid of those long term UE benefits that you would see a decrease in the unemployment rate by 1%. What I do think people need to realize is that we are in the midst of a large scale downsizing in federal, state, and local government. This is what the people seem to want and they are getting it. A year or 2 ago we saw hundreds of thousands of state jobs being lost. And that was before the stimulus money all dried up in some states. Once that happened here in Texas we saw even more jobs lost and budgets slashed. What we have to realize is that since all of these gov't jobs are being lost it is going to negatively affect the US economy and the unemployment rate for some time. Private sector job creation cannot happen fast enough to overcome or keep up with these job losses. It will simply take time.
And he also said this was all completely paid for. Except that he provided no proposal for where the cuts or additional revenues will come from. So actually, this plan is completely NOT paid for. This president appears to be completely averse to proposing any specific, substantial, real spending cuts. But he sure does like to spend it.
I took an intro economics course at the small rural college where I started in '66 and the prof would have been befuddled by what Obama is doing or trying to do. I went to UT and took a few more and it looks to me that what he is trying to do is not only alleviate the suffering of the jobless but to stimulate demand. Demand side economics as opposed to supply side, if you will. Put money in the pockets of those without jobs and they will spend every penny of it as soon as they get it, stimulating demand and encouraging more production, leading to less layoffs and more employment. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, just like supply side. Dems are going to use demand side some, just like Republicans are more likely to use supply side. He is also doing some supply side stuff and has since taking office. I don't much like him and did not vote for him but what he is doing and has done makes a certain amount of sense and none of the stuff being argued for by the other side will help at all. This correction and deleveraging is going to take a long time and nothing much is going to change that. It's just a matter of who gets gored worse.
But how long can the gov't GIVE out money? Does anyone have an opinion on how long unemployment benefits can be paid( CAN be paid. not it would be nice to pay)
