I am one of the "parasites" on unemployment benefit who is draining your income

well i have a couple friends that get some form of ssi payments each month. and i have a serious problem with it. 1 of them is just lazy that is all there is to it, doctor told him he is bi-polar and because of this he doesnt have to work. i have known this guy my whole life just about and he is just plane lazy. another guy i know is just a bum has been his whole life never had a job never even looked for one now he gets a check each month for being lazy. if there are 2 people in my town that get a check for being lazy im sure there are millions all across the country so you have no idea what you are talking about. im sure there are some out there that need it but give me a break people, go find a damn job it aint that hard i have had 3 different jobs in last 8 months

reply to post by unprevaricator


gee. I've had the same printing job for close to five years....
in all I have over 7 years of printing experience.....
you'd think I would be able to live independently if something where to happen and I lost of my husband's income.....
think again!!!!
I can crunch the numbers anyway I want....it just ain't there!!!!
someone get's laid off from a good paying job, and well...their unemployment check is more than what I am making......
and people think that these people are just gonna go out and take these job,,,even when they pay less than the unemployment??

reply to post by TXTriker


Agreed and it is pathetic that they judge more on looks then work ethic and personality in certain circumstances. Down right appalling actually.

I'm in my mid-50s and was "retired" from the corporate marketing world due to being "too old to really be able to connect with the market". My last professional position was in the late winter of 2006.

Since then, I've gone back to doing one-night-stand bar and club solo acoustic gigs, grabbed freelance web content writing jobs, and I've taught myself how to write books (novels and non-fiction). This week I'm finishing up the rewrites on my 4th book, with the other 3 still being shopped, so no money at all from those yet, if ever.

When I got laid-off, I got 13 weeks of unemployment and that's been gone for a long time. I had many tens of thousands in savings (113K in yearly salary and a very responsible nature) but that's been gone for a couple years now. The 401K never really got off the ground, and then the big economic meltdown crippled it for good, so that only helped pay bills for a few months.

I've gotten past worrying about ever owning anything again. I've gotten past the bitterness of it all too. Hell, I even started shaving my head because it's something I can do myself at home and not run up a bill at the barber that my wife will have to deal with. She's still working, but she's also "getting long in the tooth" for this future-focused American society, and we can hear the little feet running up on us.

Maybe one of my books will catch and things will be okay, but I know that things don't have to end well. I also know that if they don't, then some jack-off will feel okay about saying that it was my own fault for failing. But then, that jack-off will have to face his own time when he'll be prematurely obsolete, so I don't get angry about what he says or doesn't say. Maybe he'll figure out how to survive what I've been going through, but if he's stupid enough to look at me as the cause of my own fall, then he won't be bright enough to figure out how to survive it. Then I'll smile as he writhes in his own personal hell, and his WILL be a hell of his own design. Succeeding is easy. Losing, without falling apart over it, takes real effort. Most folks aren't used to losing and fail miserably when confronted with it.

People are born into this world with only one reality ahead of them. The reality that before they leave the planet, everything will be taken away from them - even if it's only to pass it around to their kids.

Nothing scares me anymore. I'm like made of diamond.

Muckster, I hope everything works out for you.

I don;t see you as a parasite at all, it's unfortunate but a lot of people on benefit do really take the p***s with it. In the area I'm from their are whole families who live entirely on benefit and have done so for years.

Free housing, welfare, benefits, new furniture every year etc etc, then you get all the kids who are dealers, claiming benefits and making thousands a week selling pills, weed and coke.

Especially in the area I'm from of Birmingham UK you see a lot of people (and hear from them) about how they love the benefit system, especially a lot of somalian/indian immigrants. I think this is the main reason people bash on those on the dole. Sure some people really do need it (such as yourself), but others do it because they can don't want to work.

I think the governments new scheme of finding you a job (and any job), and if you don't take it you won;t get any benefits is a great idea, it should help weed out the people who are taking advantage of the system.

I've been unemployed myself for a few months when the company I worked for shut down, applied for job seekers allowance when looking for work and they filed the papers wrong so didn't even get anything.

I currently live on my own in a rented flat, work full time, and also have to do a lot of freelance work in the evenings (most nights I'm on about 4-5 hours sleep) just to pay my bills. It's a constant battle to just be able to afford by bills and rent, and even food shopping can be a stress about whether the card will go through at the end of the month. And it's not like I'm a lay about, I went to uni, got a degree, then a Masters and work my feckin arse off.

I'm lucky to have the ability to work for myself to bring in some extra cash, but it is gutting to see people essentially living for free when you have to damn near work every living hour away just to survive.

I would strongly advise this to anyone out of work though, set up on your own and offer what ever services/abilities you have on a freelance service. It costs about £30 a year to have your own website, and there's plenty of free templates you can use if you don;t have the it skills to make one.

Sure it takes time to build up clients etc, but eventually you will have the security of not having to rely on a boss to NOT f**k things up and risk your living.

I started doing bits and bobs for people in design work a few years ago to help pay the bills, and reckon at this rate I may be able to work full time for myself by next year. I think it's the only real way to have job security and make some real money these days.

So yeah, I'd really advise if you have the time right ow, think about all the things you can offer, and put a plan together off offering these services on a call-out or freelance / consultancy basis. I know a lot of companies who have laid of people and are now using freelancers as they can use them as and when needed rather than paying a full time salary.

At my friends advertising firm, someone he knew quit, then went freelance and earns DOUBLE his wages for half the working hours... and to the same company

Anyway, have a think about it, could really make sense. And if you need a hand setting up a site let me know (no charge by the way!). Happy to help where I can. Good luck with it.

Could try what this bloke did but there's no guarantee it'll work. He could be a one off.

'Please give me a job!' Unemployed man bags job on the spot after standing in the rain for hours with sign
www.dailymail.co.uk...





[edit on 24-7-2010 by wigit]

Something seriously fishy about this other story in the DM. Another opportunity to put down the "parasites" though.

It's curtains for Malins: Closing after 48 years, the fabric shop that can't find any staff
www.dailymail.co.uk...

reply to post by ClintK


Actually, what is breathtakingly naive is the idea that one cannot save money with a low income. It is simply not true and there are numerous ways to manage a budget.

People are simply too lazy to do this. My points are only made to encourage people to save and not to flaunt an epeen. People with low incomes and a family can save! The stars aren't a reflection of naivety on my part but rather are a reflection of the inability of people on this board to wisely manage money and accept consequences when they do not.

Living paycheck to paycheck is someone's choice. They ignorantly choose marriage and children during times when they are not financially settled. They purchased a new car, when they really didn't need, and when they didn't have the cash. Those $150 a month payments looked way too good. They purchased a home that they figured they would be able to afford down the road even though they could barely afford payments in the now. They pursue wealth not to free themselves and their family but so they might purchase their 50 inch LCD TV. It is materialism in its highest form that had led to so much debt.

Money is simple.

History shows cycles of unemployment and economic downturn. What does that tell you as a person? What does it say about how one should manage their money? Logic dictates that one would save wisely and be prepared to lose their job. You call this naivety? I say that people need to understand that we may have to lower our standard of living. We may have to survive without our internet and television programming. We may have to find enjoyment and entertainment in simpler things. We will still live. We will still survive. We will still be better off than much of the rest of our world.

What can we do to correct the debt trends? Simple, once again. Ethics courses and finance classes should be a part of our basic curriculum in school.


[edit on 24-7-2010 by Bugman82]

Your problem is that "every day I sit at the PC".

Most jobs are not advertised anymore. You need to get out here and go door to door. Just browsing available jobs online at job sites and in local newspapers isn't going to do it in this day and age.

Im on the same wagon as you, I lost my job 18 months ago due to lay offs, I just received my last unemployment check, $1100 a month from unemployment, I use to make over $3000 a month on my last job.

Since I lost my job I said to myself the unemployment is getting my bills paid with the help of my wifes income so, I decided to search for a good job and not any job, after several applications filled on the first 6 months I had no answer from any employer.

I decided to look for any kind of job, but for any job you require either experience or some type of license or degree. I'm a Graphic Designer and I had my own sign business for 5 years, but I never went to school to get a degree on graphic arts, NO ONE will hire me if I dont have a degree, but I have more experience and Im much better than people that have a degree, I dont have the time or $30,000 to get a degree in graphic design.

lets say that I'm tireddddddddd of filling applications online and in places and not getting a response. My unemployment is over and I have no money saved, we used all to buy our first home a year ago.

I'm now in the process of returning my 2 cars with a combined monthly payment of $1000 , and buy a used car in the range of $2000 for my wife so she can go to work.

It's not easy been unemployed right now with this economy.

The sad thing is that all those people who just lost the unemployment like me this past month if the new Bill from Obama doesnt give the unemployment back to them , they will end stealing to provide for their families.

I'm lucky that my wife works with healthcare wich its not going out of business anytime soon. But right now we have zero $ on our bank account and we havent paid some of the bills, we only have minimal food in our fridge, and it really is hard. I have a 3 year old daughter that for the first time she said to me I'm hungry daddy, and I had to give here bread and milk, because we have no "real food right now"

My wifes credit and mine will go to # as soon we return our cars, but I cant loose my home and we need to put food on the table.

If you think things are bad now, just wait a little and check the news for new crimes in your area, car jackings, home invasions, etc. Everytime I see the news on the morning all I see are home invasions, car jackings and or murder suicide because of the lost of jobs.

I feel for you, I really do. A LOT of people, in the formerly developed countries, are about to learn a NASTY lesson.
I'm just glad, that I learned, PRACTICAL SKILLS, and how to make things, instead of fooling with computers.
Do you have ANY IDEA, how many "computer programmers and IT managers", we are gonna need, AFTER "The Great Collapse"TM. ???
Heck, the'll probably be hunted, like gommit employees, AFTER TSHTF!!
The ENTIRE "license" thing, is simply a racket, to extract even MORE $$$, from the working poor. Yeah- it takes a "license", to spray for bugs. Well, maybe- we seem to "need" warning labels, on EVERYTHING, these days. "WARNING- Do NOT point loaded gun, at yourself, while it is loaded- severe injury, or death, could result". Baahhhh!!
I am soooo looking foward, th "The Great Collapse"TM!! I may not live too long, but, I'll have fun, in the meantinme!

It would do my heart good

....If all the Republicans, as a great show of INTEGRITY, The good, good people they claim to be, and as a show of complete ABSENCE of hypocrisy, would do the following:

1. When your time comes, REFUSE Social Security.

2. If you lose your job, absolutely REFUSE to accept ANY Unemployment Comepensation, food stamps, or Medicaid or Medicare.

3. If you become physically or mentally ill, REFUSE any type of PUBLIC
ASSISTANCE whatsoever.

THis would win my respect for your party, and my undying admiration. ♥

As for me? I'm just a regular human who knows but for the Grace of God go I, and that misfortune could strike me at any time. I know I'm not immune to adversity.

But for the rest of you, GO For It! Show us how sincere you are in saving the country money, and cutting taxes!!! Bravo to you if you have the integrity to put your ideas into a working reality!



edit: repaired bbc codes

[edit on 7/24/2010 by ladyinwaiting]

Originally posted by Jeep4x4
reply to post by Jordan River

 

That really sucks for your girlfriend. I wonder what her two degrees are in that she can't find a stable position. I know many programs at colleges are set up so that the degrees are pretty much worthless when one considers the demand/wage/stability of the profession.
i am lucky that my profession is in health care (people always get sick/older/etc) so it is stable, but I thought of that in high school. And I beg to differ about the "rich people" you point out. It is more like "working poor." Look at any single mom that is working two minimum wage jobs to support her kid(s) and self and ask her what she thinks about someone on unemployment... I think her criticism would be very similar to the quoted OP generalizations... and that is a generalization, of course, there are always exceptions.
I worked full time while going to school full time to get a masters degree in a job I researched would be stable. I am $120K in debt and will be paying that off till I am in my 50s. My wife is in school so we make do with barely being able to put away for savings. I find it hard to feel sorry for someone that has two degrees that seem to be basically worthless that isn't willing to work at Burger King or Walmart (or some other place that is "below them") in order to continue to go to school to be educated in something that has stability.

Now please don't take offense, my point is that people in general who are educated/trained/license/etc in a profession that lose their jobs and have trouble finding another in the field have several options. Look for positions in another area, work "below yourself" at more menial positions until yours open up, or re-educate yourself while you work in a less professional position. There are always jobs out there if one looks for them. The question is, is a person willing to work a less professional job or not at all and have others help support them?
I must admit I got a little irked at the "rich" comment. Who is upper class really... I think the cutoff is like $250K USD per year.... I mean, who makes that? That must be like 5-10% of Americans. Most people that are considered "rich" are working class who live only slightly more comfortably than "poor" people and work damn hard.

By the way, my single mother worked 3 jobs (1 full time and 2 part time) while I was a child for about 6 years to support us and never once considered applying for welfare although she would have qualified... what are you willing to do? (rhetorical question)

anyways you have to be in the situation. babysitting/day care cost a lot of money to watch kids while you work. Ontop of that she has massive kidney failure. Genetics is a bitch. Your point of view is not reflecting of those others or their situations at all. If you plopped out 100,000 for college education you do not want to work at a fast food job. Your probably not a single parent, I am guessing as well. Working more jobs for less pay is probably no logical in the sense or productive. Very anti productive in my opinion. Mi people always get the short end of the stick. She use to be a finicaial accounting makin 30+ an hour. nice job eh. MI has a 13% unemployment and I believe it is more likely 25%. She made the most money out of her area and they let her go for "cost cutting reasons". if mi goes the whole country goes. But than again I am from an industrialist society and we are not always happy people to mess with.

[edit on 24-7-2010 by Jordan River]

There would be jobs in the US, if it were not for NAFTA and MFNTS for China.

Our economy (markets) are producing lots of jobs in China, Mexico, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Korea, etc., just very few jobs in the US.

We were lied to, by the likes of Clinton who said we would only be losing the jobs we do not need, but any job that can be exported will be exported following this self defeating downward spiral to send work to the absolute lowest wage nation model of globalism. And of course we were lied to by the GOP who said exporting jobs, importing everything we consume is a benefit to the US consumer.

Obama is no different than Clinton, he has said that it is perfectly right to NOT bring most jobs back to the US. His administration has made the claim they will double exports in five years, but this is not possible, its happened only once in 60+ years, 1971 - 1976 when the US dollar declined 10% and world economic activity grew 150% overall, we have nothing like those conditions today.

I am happy to see the 2nd/3rd world become prosperous, but this can not be made to happen by exporting the jobs of US working and middle class people to the lowest wage nation on the planet.

Unemployed Americans living in their cars and in tents make for poor consumers. Americans in general have no income to support the extension of credit, so the ways of living for the past two decades by Americans is GONE, it can not be continued.

Asians need to produce for Asian consumption, ditto everywhere else, and that can be a sustainable path to prosperity, the path we are on now is not sustainable.

But Obama, the Democrats and the GOP alike are not willing to change these policies.

Do they think people will do nothing about sustained official unemployment of 9% thru 2012 (announced this past Friday by the Obama administration), and real unemployment in many American communities is well more than 18% in fact.

If you want a job you have to pound the pavement.

It usually takes me at least a couple hundred different places till I get a job.

reply to post by ladyinwaiting


Ignorant!!! Why just Republicans? It took the corruption of BOTH parties to get us into this mess. It took the stupidity of the majority of the sheeple to continue to elect these thieves and liars to office. So why do you simply blame Republicans? You do of course realize that when you point the finger at someone you have three more pointing back at you right?

reply to post by leschwartz


The model of globalism we have, was forced on us, by the likes of the Rockefellers, via the CFR and the British counterpart organizations.

Rockefeller believes in globalism, internationalism and is entirely indifferent to the poverty this creates for Americans, or Europeans who face very long term unemployment and a steep decline in their quality of life. It is these forces which are undermining the culture and welfare of the majority people in the Western Nations by forcing the immigration of dispossessed minorities into these nations to undermine the social and economic structure.

The forces affiliated with Rockefeller control who gets to run for the presidency in the US and what topics are discussed in the media, they have had this control since the early 1900s.

So most average people are unaware the world could be any different than what it is today, unaware that alternatives to an oil based economy exist, unaware that the regional wars are wars for the benefit of those who control regional resources of the globe, and unaware that soldiers are merely expendable cannon fodder to the elites.

Individual people, consumer and producer units, in a world of 6+ billion people, to the Rockefellers and their ilk are absolutely of no consequence.

Therefore nothing will be done about long term UK, USA, Western World unemployment, wars, resource squandering, unless people unite to force a change, which can all be done peacefully.

Meanwhile some Americans, like GOP supporters do not regard unemployment as a problem, to them it is possibly a personal advantage, if they keep their job and their neighbor loses their job. That is why they call the unemployed lazy, leeches, etc.

The Republicans want the unemployed to take the lowest wage paying job out there, so they can personally benefit from someone else's misfortune, and perhaps buy something cheaper due to their neighbors need to reduce his income to survive. The average Republican is no better than the ultra wealthy who regard regular Americans as cannon fodder.

reply to post by kozmo


If your are responding to my posts, you need to re-read them.

I mentioned Clinton, Obama and the Democrats equally being part of the problem, and that the elites control both parties.

But many Republicans stupidly make things worse for the rest of us by buying into the belief that someone else's misfortune can benefit them, when that other person is forced to reduce his wage rate to survive.

Look at the original title to this tread.

It is the Republicans in the US who call the unemployed lazy, spoiled, because they want to have some advantage at the expense of the unemployed, to force them into lower paying work.

reply to post by Jordan River


re: "There are always jobs out there if one looks for them"

This simply is not true.

Think about it, our manufacturing technologies have efficiencies based on scale. One large factory e.g., Foxconn can make all the iPods (and other Apple products) the world can consume, if efficiency is the main economic goal.

Remember it was the Foxconn factories where employed Chinese people this year were committing suicide in large numbers because although they were employed, their way of life was so impoverished and demoralizing that they had no hope, despite the fact they were employed while many tens of millions in China remain unemployed.

So IF efficiency and maximizing profit for the people who own the factories are the primary controlling goal for production, then we have the system we have today, people being exploited both as producers and consumers.

And China, India, Indonesia, etc. can absorb every exportable US, UK, European job and STILL have many surplus millions unemployed.

And think about what it will be like in the future as the great majority of what people consume will made by machines, with little human labor input.

In our current economic system we would have no means to distribute those goods, because people only get income if they are employed, and inevitably with the current path we are on, fewer and fewer people will be needed for production while the world population continues to grow.

Simply on the need for efficiency, in our current system, the inefficient are put out of business.

This is why the elites plan wars, since wars regularly kill off a percentage of the unneeded population, good for the elites, maybe not so good for the average person.

This IS our system and all the other talk about it and the false hopes that are clung to like 'you can always find a job if you look hard enough' is total nonsense, not supported by the facts.

This will remain our system, unless people wake up and force changes.

reply to post by leschwartz


I agree with your post up to a certain point.

We are indeed victims of our very own success. Our education, tech advances and productivity had made us so efficient in the manufacturing/production processes that now a plant needs only one worker with machines to do the jobs of 9 other men.

As a result, the other 9 men are left unemployed, and thus it becomes lesser people to buy up goods that were made in quantity to achieve a profit based on economy of scale.

It is up to this point that I agree with you. Your call to wake up and force changes is slightly ambigious. What are they to wake up to, and to force what change?

Suppose the NWO or TPTB whatever you call them declares truce - stop the killings of unneeded workforce and even share their wealth. Then what?

This is the issue we must tackle and find solutions, so that we all may be headed in right direction, to wake up and change for a better future.

And we can do it, simply by using our successes. Many more are educated and capable than our forefathers had been. It is high time we not only evolve mentally, but economically as well so that no human would be left behind.

If we can create efficiency by utilising only one man for ten men jobs, then we should be able to pay him well, and at the same time to look into creating jobs for the nine other men through our tech advances. No more must we be stuck with past economic evolution stage with old and outdated mode of thinking and perceptions.

The industrial revolution is over and will give rise to a new economic revolution. What will this new economic revolution be named and what does it do? All i know is that it will be the means to give us peace, progress and prosperity. Reverse engineer from the solution and we will get the equation correct.

The industrial revolution and the population boom was heralded in by the discovery of a new world. new markets and of resources by the advance Western world. What new worlds are there to herald in our next evolution and economic revolution?

And this will have to come from you and everyone else, to share and discuss what it will be for us to wake up to and to force change into that direction. Spend time thinking about it and discussing it with your family, relatives and friends, and who knows, you may be the one to find the answer.

Good luck and cheers.

[edit on 24-7-2010 by SeekerofTruth101]