Obama signs bill extending unemployment benefits

Spend, spend, spend money you ain't got... I think that is a line in a rap song.

Anyway, no body wants to be the Pric- but, eventually the payments will have to cease and thats when the truth will become more evident on how badly POTUS [The Jobs Laser Beam focus guy lol] has handled this mess.

I still content that if they would have just distributed the TARP money to the people of the US, almost all-if not all, of this would be gone by now. If I would have gotten a large check (if I remember right it was estimated that every adult (US CITIZEN) in America would have gotten like $72,000).

With that, I would have been able to pay off my house and bills and would be debt free. But, this is exactly what they didn't want to happen. They want control over the population. If they would have given the money to the little guy, the banks would have been paid back too and the economy would be booming-becuase the PEOPLE have the money to spend/invest and not the Banks and China.

Originally posted by jjkenobi
How many weeks do people need to be on unemployment? Let's stop calling it unemployment after a year. Then it's income being paid for doing nothing. I'm sorry for sounding so harsh but my God there are jobs available but you might have to actually MOVE and in some cases for the short term take a lesser job than what you previously had.

End of rant.

I've been looking for a job for about two years now. The one I had before was part-time, so I never qualified for unemployment. There are not enough jobs for the millions of people who need one.

When I apply for jobs, there are hundreds, sometimes thousands, applying for the same job. I'm disabled, so I am already competing against able-bodied people for a job. But the odds are not good for anyone looking for a job.

Someone who is broke cannot afford to move somewhere. Single moms are usually tied to where they are living or else they have to give up custody of their children in order to move, unless of course the non-custodial gives official, court sanctioned consent to the move. Many people are unable to move to elsewhere. How does a parent/anyone just up and move somewhere when they don't know anyone where they're headed, have no job, have no place to live, etc? The person would be living in the streets trying to find employment, competing against people who have homes and stability.

When you have open interviews for 244 positions, and about ten thousand people show up, those making up the ten thousand don't have much of a chance for getting hired. That should be common sense. That was the scenario for the new meijers opening up in a town where I used to live. Meijers already turned me down three times, so I didn't even bother trying to get rejected a 4th time. During the interviews they ask you a bunch of questions, many of which I don't have an answer to because I never experienced that. Many jobs have such questionnaires now. So the results of mine are a bunch of non-answers, so why wouldn't I get turned down?

Yeah, there are jobs out there, but no where near enough for all that need one. It's not someone's fault that he/she didn't get selected when the odds were stacked against him/her in the first place. And the jobs that are out there are part-time, minimum wage jobs. For me that would be okay, but others have more expenses. Of course, the only reason I could survive on that is because I get welfare, but I haven't had a job offer for anything in years other than temp jobs at Wal-mart. And I've been blackballed from Wal-mart now for working too many temp jobs for them. They don't tell you when they hire you that if you work for them at too many temp jobs that they won't hire you anymore. That should be disclosed up front.

Originally posted by Bicent76
I'm scratching my head here..


I see both sides of the spectrum here.

On one side people are having a hard time getting a job. Yet taking over a year to find a job that PAYS more then unemployment, is hard for me to swallow.

Even being a unskilled laborer, you can find a job digging a ditch, mowing grass or flipping burgers.

Not sure if i really understand the timeline, BUT I understand both sides, not all people can sell themselves in a interview to get a job i suppose. Yet I would expect as long as people are on unemployment, they are reporting to some government office showing PROOF, they trying to find a job.. Kinda hard to beleive people cannot find a job that pays more then unemployment benefits for over a year..

Around here the only jobs are part-time, minimum wage jobs ($7.25/hr). They work the employees about 25 hours/week. That is $181.25 BEFORE taxes per week. Around here they take out city, county, state, federal (unless you write exempt on the form or file a lot of exemptions), and of course social security taxes. And you have thousands of people around here applying for a handful of openings. I lost my job working part-time back in 2008 and haven't been able to find anything other than temp jobs since. I took them for the money. Around here that is drying up as well.

What Wal-mart has been doing around here is finding a reason to get rid of the higher paid employees and replacing them with temps, promising the temps a permanent spot if they do a good job. No matter how hard the temp works, they get rid of the temp and hire a new temp to replace the temp. And after a temp has worked at a few different places, the temp is blackballed from the company and Wal-mart refuses to hire the person again. After being blackballed, I asked a manager why, and he admitted they never had any intention of keeping me beyond temp, even though I was promised if I did a good job that they'd keep me. It should be against the law to do that to someone, but it isn't. It's an employer's market and they can do whatever they want to you.

I am happy for you all, this will probably help many people out.


Reading people's comments on here saying things like.... its tough but sometimes we need it tough. That is easy to say for people who are not in a bad situation. You will not have to be the one to "suck it up".

The unemployed get such a bad rap or have a bad rep. Visions of fat lazy slugs living off the gov are not the true representation these days. While there probably are some of those types around, I would say they are certainly a great minority of the people who need the assistance.

Try to be a little more realistic with your labels. Not everyone can move to any location to work.

Consider this.......... A married couple with kids, one loses their job the other does not. The one that does not, is making a fair wage and has tenure with their employer. The other cannot find work, should that person now move away from their family to find work elsewhere? Or the employed one quit their job and hope they can both find work elsewhere?

Finding a job in another loc, can require expenses people dont have. Its not like employers are throwing money at you to "fly in" for an interview and keep you up in a hotel.

Time to break out the old "Keep working! Millions on welfare are counting on you" bumper sticker, I see. It's aptly and prophetically named, too... unemployment benefits. Being unemployed shouldn't be a benefit. Each American should have a set amount entirely dependant upon how much they have paid into the system in their working lifespan. That's their money. After that amount is tapped, however, no way in hell am I cool with that because they have gone from tapping their money to tapping my money and our childrens' money.

When you see people whining and pissing about minimum wage jobs "not payin' the bills" and using that as an excuse for being unemployed rather than accepting those "piddling" minimum wage jobs, then you are seeing lazy people who are working the system. If minimum wage doesn't pay your bills, then prioritize your bills, trim the fat, and take some responsibility. This was called "common sense" for generations... apparently now it's considered some sort of Herculean effort which is unfair to expect people to do.

I "get it" that people are having trouble finding the job of their dreams or even a job that pays relatively well. Sorry about your damn luck, but that's what happens in a recession. If you didn't take advantage of the boom period to collect a marketable skill set for yourself to make you stand out in a more competitive work market, the fault lies on your own shoulders. I fail to see why those of us who prepared ourselves to ensure we would stay employed or be marketable should we lose our jobs, and took preventative action against an oversaturation of faceless drones in the labor market should support the people who did not prepare themselves.

Again, I have no issue with people using unemployment which they paid into, but for many of these people we have reached the grasshopper and the ant stages of responsibility.

As the saying goes: If you pay people not to work and tax them when they do, don't be surprised if you get unemployment.

I don't really see how this is a "good" thing, it's just creating more government dependents.

I sit here and read all the comments about how the unemployed are just taking advantage of the money they get from the gov't.I ask have you ever had to scrape money together just to be able to feed your family,put a roof over your head,pay for basic utilities just to survive? I can probably answer that for you and that is no. Unless you have ever wondered where your next meal is coming from then you need to not consider the as a leech. Most people who are collecting unemployment have used all of there savings that they worked most of their lives to save.
When people start thinking of suicide as an alternative to losing their wordly possesions I think that something is very bad.People want to work and their is just not enough jobs for things to get better right now. So I ask what is a person to do if they have gone thru all of their life savings and just scraping by to keep what little they still have? If anyone out there thinks they can live off of what unemployment pays I say take that much out of your checks and give the rest to an unemployed person and you will know the hardships that is being faced everyday of an unemployed persons life. Life as an unemployed person is not a cake walk and it is even tougher than you know. You have decide what bills get paid and what do not.If you consider looking for jobs every day and not even getting a call back even from jobs such as McDonalds is lazy then you are sadly mistaken. Everyday people are losing their most basic needs and are at wits ends trying to figure out their next move and all folks want to do is call them lazy. They did not do this to themselves the government of this what used to be the greatest country on earth let it happen. This new extension is only here to help the people who have not gone thru all their benefits yet. This does not address the big picture of what is going to be done to help people that are long term unemployed. A person has a harder time finding work the longer they are unemployed. Don't get me started on the problems of being hired if you have a criminal record. That is a whole other can of worms to get into. Unemployed does not mean lazy or sponging it means our gov't has not done their jobs for the people that elected them.

reply to post by anon72


dude
if I had gotten $72,000
I could have paid off everything I owe
and could have started my own business.
This was a just a total f'up from the beginning.
But they sure claim to be smarter than us
thats debatable

Businesses have to create jobs. If this economy is actually ever going to turn around businesses have to invest in their future and they need to do that by hiring people to work.

Government can give them all the incentives to do this but if business does not actually do it and hire people, then there will never be a turnaround in this economy.

To all the folks on this thread acting like people on unemployment are just milking the system be careful what you say because I promise you your job is next. If you think you are secure or have the skills to never be unemployed you are naive. The economy is not going to recover it is going to crash! If you still have a good job you better start preparing now to live without it!

Learn to quit relying on the system ASAP even if you're on unemployment because I am here to tell you YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN. The vestiges of the society we all grew up with is on borrowed time right now. We are like the maggots living on a dead carcass of that society. It will not sustain us much longer and life will change drastically.

I know this will fall on many deaf ears, and it sounds like crying wolf because people have been saying it for years. But the seeds have been sown for the destruction of the economy and we are seeing it now, don't be fooled it is built into the fiat system everyone one on history has ended badly and this one will too. The only reason I bother is the more people that are prepared for the collapse and new more self sufficient revival the less chaos here will be.

Get some food storage for the transition get some necassary skills. learn to blacksmith, make shoes, or wine, beer, or alcohol, learn to spin weave or the loom, herbal medicines and healing, gardening and fruit trees, etc etc. Start establishing barter now. Craigs list is full of people open to barter. Natural and alternative building methods with natural materials. Fiber from hemp and nettles etc. etc etc.

When the trucks stop running and people have no work in the current society there will be chaos and a great die off evetually. If you are not prepared you will be in the middle of it and maybe even if you are prepared.

You all know something is coming even if you tell yourself it isn't, don't ignore that feeling in your heart or gut do something about it. The most potent thing for dispelling despair or even depression is action not ignoring it.

I'll say it again YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN! Start acting and living like it now while there is still some vestiges of current society in place and when that drastic change comes the transition will be easier!
.

reply to post by Jessicamsa


well I hope my taxes being paid are not in vain.. I just did a job where, I sweated, cried, and bled. I can't make this story up.. Please just do not waste it.. My beer does not take the pain from my hand.. I sliced it wide open.. Got my poor wife trying to fix it up.. I am still wound up from this insane job i did today... I can't eat... Sure I will feel sorry for you, but do not even dare forget the men and women that are helping this exist... I am hurt tonight... Don't waste it baby...

Originally posted by boondock-saint

Originally posted by Subjective Truth
Do we want our country to fall apart?

ST
what do u think a Revolution is ???
We have to start over.
it's the only way to recover and
to cleanse us from the tyranny.

So how do you know who to shoot?

reply to post by Janky Red


sigh revolution is failure...

We hae to improve oursleves.. Beat a system that wants to take, to embrace a feeling of embrace that is protective.. Beat the par, and try to be something not forseen, by a government that expects less..

Just wisdom, do nto be that guy or gal.. that is expected to fail.. I could write a book about how horrible I started thinking i could not be something... Yet we can.... You can be whoever you want.. Just beleive... Do not be the watchers or the thinkers.. No disrespect.. To Big G, or Obama...

The budget problems with unemployment programs throughout the U.S. is just a smaller part of a huge problem.

Every state in the union seems to be having various degrees of state and local budgetary shortfalls. Noone really knows what happens from here.

You can't just pass a bill through the House and the Senate anytime the union needs emergency funding for something. There needs to be a broader, more robust effort both locally and nationally to cut funding for some programs and increase funding for others but this is in no way a long term solution. Some state-run programs are critical to the taxpayer's bottom line. Others aren't so important. We need to remember that this in no way solidifies how we're going to deal with this issue further down the road seeing as..

A) we have a crumbling national infrastructure that will require trillions of taxpayer dollars just to upgrade to a "satsifactory" level deemed by the American Society for Civil Engineers. We're going to have to pay for this somehow or see our roads, highways and bridges crumble beneath our feet (which is already happening). This means more local funding is necessary for infrastructure improvements and public works programs.. And now, when we need it the most, our local annual budgets are quickly deteriorating. It might cost more to improve a 25 year old road than to build a new one.. Yet, local communities are so strapped for cash they don't have a choice in the matter. The problem will continue to get worse.

B) We are becoming a society that will have to pay more to improve education standards than we do for Scientific programs and research (including the space program). After all, you can't pay for everything these days. But I see the new Obama budgetary plans for NASA and my head starts spinning. We're actually going to rely on countries like Russia for our own space program? Not only does it dishonor everything our space program stands for, it throws millions of dollars at potential U.S. enemies when we should be keeping the money right here. SO much for "Buy American". Now there's talk of ditching the entire Constellation space program and all the millions of taxpayer dollars we've already dumped into research and development just because Obama wants a more privatized space program. Are companies like Northrop Grumman really gonna be the new NASA? You've gotta be kidding me!!

And I thought the Bush administration was bad for giving Blackwater authority to bid on lucrative government domestic spying contracts! It seems privatization is the new way of doing things in America. Regardless of whether or not it costs more to do it that way.

All this goes on amidst local budgetary problems and communities around the U.S. having no idea what they're going to do to fix this issue. If the future is a 25 year old road, doing nothing as usual just makes the pothole bigger and more costly for the U.S. taxpayer later on.

I am by no means a master of finance, but I am a U.S. taxpayer. Taxes go up, local budgets go down, there is no spoon! What the heck is going on with this country right now?

-ChriS

Originally posted by burdman30ott6


I "get it" that people are having trouble finding the job of their dreams or even a job that pays relatively well. Sorry about your damn luck, but that's what happens in a recession.

Ha ha ha ha ha

The job of our dreams? LOL

What planet did you fall off? Too FREAKING bad. And there you have it.

Oh and thanks for being human...?