Another Unemployment Benefits Extension?

[pennypinch]

Do you think they should extend unemployment benefits yet again?

Some Americans have been receiving unemployment benefits for two years straight.

Here are two different opinions.

"People will endure extreme hardship," said Andrew Stettner, deputy director of the National Employment Law Project. "We can't just let everyone fall off of this cliff."

If you are subsidized to stay out of the workforce, many people will," said Alan Reynolds, senior fellow at The Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank

As of now, the government is expected to spend $156 billion on jobless benefits this year alone.

I hate to say this because maybe it makes me sound like a bad person but I don't agree with another extension. Where I live has been one of the hardest hit with job losses. But I see signs hanging at all different kinds of places that say now hiring. This is a trend that I have been noticing for about a year now. They are mostly at restaurants for cooks and waiters and dish washers, at gas stations and at grocery stores. You start out at minimum wage though and I think thats why many people who are getting benefits don't even apply. Many of them make more money through unemployment.

To be quite frank, I am tired of working my tail off so that others can sit at home and collect a check when they could be working!

[dimetime]

I honestly hope that there is not going to be another extension for unemployment benefits. There are a lot of people who would rather sit back and watch tv rather than get out there and actually work.

Even a job which pays only minimum wage is better than nothing but I guess it just to easy and relaxing to sit around and wait for the money to come to you.

I haven't been seeing a lot of hiring signs, but I do know that there are several places who are in need of help.

I can understand someone collecting unemployment for a short time, but when you get to the point where your wanting to just wait for that money to come in well then that is just way to much.

Those are the people who need to get up and head out seeking any kind of work. Now I do know of at least one person who is having a really difficult time because he does have a handicap which makes it extremely difficult for him to find work that he is able to do, though he rather work for a living instead of just simply collecting a check monthly.

[pennypinch]

I definitely do not mean that all people collecting unemployment are like that but lets be realistic, a lot of them are. I am just tired of paying a quarter of my paycheck, that I am trying to raise three kids on, to taxes which in turn pay for unemployment. I could certainly use some of that money myself. Maybe then we wouldn't struggle so much.

Sometimes I really do wish that we could go back to old days before there was welfare and unemployment and all of that stuff. People got by. People grew what they needed in gardens, made clothes, raised cattle for food or to sell and so on. People made their own way back then. You didn't have all of these taxes and fees for everything and all of that stuff. You made a living with what skills you had and you took care of your own family.

I think people were happier then too. They didn't have all of this extra stress.

I don't know, maybe I am crazy but sometimes I really do wish that things were the way they were years and years ago. Simpler times.