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

I, too, am one of the parasites that are living off of the prized unemployment now. I am currently 51 years old, and have managed as many as 50 employees, in 30 retail locations, over a broad territory. I have documented proof of increasing my sales revenue over $1 million dollars in the first full calendar year while there, as well as cutting losses to ZERO. I have made a 6 figure salary for over 10 years, and have many business contacts. I started work when I was 14 years old, and, only for an occasional short period layoff in the construction industry when I was fresh out of high school, I have never been unemployed.
The hammer dropped on me in June of '08. New housing starts took a huge decline in Southern California at the end of '07 and the company I was employed by (supplied hard surface finish products for residential and commercial use) was heavily embedded with this industry.
I have an excellent, documented and proven history. I have sent out literally thousands of resumes and cover letters, designed for the specific job offered, and can count on my 2 hands the responses I have gotten. Demoralizing? You bet. But to add insult to injury, there are those who seem to think that we are living the high life, sitting on our fat arses watching TV and surfing the net for fun.
The point of this long winded (sorry) story is this; it is my opinion that this has been a well orchestrated looting of the people of the world, not just the US, by those who pull the strings on most of the nations of the earth. They are going to crush us financially, we will have calamity after calamity in order to keep our attention from seeing the big picture. Here in the US, they will declare martial law over one of their orchestrated catastrophes and take our guns, because our guns have been the only way we have remained a "free" nation as long as we have. Then, when they have broken us we will have become dependent upon them, and we will be their slaves. The middle class will have been eliminated, and only the elite will have, while all of us will have-not. Research Cloward and Piven (sorry if misspelled) 2 professors from Columbia University, and their ideology for overwhelming the system. Then take alook around and compare their doctrine to what is happening around you. Oh, did I mention? NOBAMA attended Columbia, a known socialist haven institution.
So, anyway, if you happen to be one who thinks those of us who are unemployed, want to stay that way...the only way I have survived in on my savings. I have no health insurance. I have had to move in with my 75 year old father, but I pay my bills. There are multitudes out there who have it worse than I do. So next time you feel the need to bash the unemployed, remember there is a bigger picture here, and we will all be victims of it sooner or later. There will be no recovery. I pray for all of us.

While people like you genuinely need welfare, the majority of welfare recipients are lifeless druggies who do not want a job and sit in a project house with a BMW in the driveway...

Good luck with a job.

reply to post by Visitor2012

Before we can be more effective, we have to know the battlefield we're fighting on. Genocide and Robbery. Do you have any helpful advice as to how my generation can fight that? Any advice on how we can stop your generation from stealing all of our money and hopes? Is there any way you can speak to your generation and tell them to stop killing us and raping our dreams and efforts?

I should have expected this. I saw your post that what I was saying was irrelavent to your generation. I thought possibly that I had missed some significant communication barrier or that I had misunderstood a key point in the argument, so I became intrigued and asked for a follow up. What did I get? Excuses of genocide, rape, and robbery?

So genocide, rape, and robbery are keeping you from getting a job? That is certainly a new excuse, and one that I have not heard outside of the Gaza strip. Is there a box for that on the unemployment application?

You want my advice on how to fight that? OK. The same way people have fought it for millenia. Be morally upright, just, fair, work hard, take care of yourself and your family. Don't buy into the Consumerism and Credit merry-go-round. Buy high quality merchandise from local suppliers and take care of it. Don't use, abuse, dispose, and repurchase. Instead buy and conserve. Save some money. Work your way up in the system. Start a business, or get promoted. Invest in education. Support the Tea Party, or whatever Politicians you feel are speaking for you. Campaign, get involved. Be active in your community. Join the Masons, or the Elks, or the PTA. Live Frugal, Participate in the Community, stay away from credit and consumerism, don't watch too much TV, eat healthy and exercise.

It isn't easy. It will never be easy. Easy is what got this mess started. Easy is what everyone else will be doing. If you want to get out of the rut, don't follow the group mentality. Do something different. Find a mentor. Find a niche. Read the Dave Ramsey Plan. Join Oprah's book club.

Really, it is kind of like dieting. It is all about Discipline. Any and Every diet works, and any and every diet fails. If you are disciplined in your approach just about any structured plan will succeed. If you are undisciplined in your approach, even the best plan will fail.

Originally posted by Visitor2012
reply to post by TXTriker

 

5 years from now, you'll be telling us how you've started a dog Sh$%t scooping business. Then 5 years after that, you'll probably start a company picking up the dead people who couldn't afford a burial. Then 5 years after that, maybe you can start a business, repossessing people's beds and furniture to pay off their mandatory health insurance premiums.

Like vultures, living off the dead. Meanwhile the "Eagles" live the good life with their claws on your throat.

No thanks. No more"business' for me. I am being attacked by this country and it's poisons and traitors. What job is going to solve that problem?

I don't consider it a job since it is my business. And yes, if a client wants to pay me to scoop poop for the price I charge fine. Can't do the dead body thing yet - requires special certification and licensing.

Long ago my employer paid me $40K a year. One of my responsibilities was to take kitchen duty for a week a year. Everyone else complained about a week of kitchen duty. It only entailed making sure everything was tidy, turn on the dishwasher and turn off the coffee pots. Why would anyone complain about doing that when they are still paying your salary?

No single job is going to solve the problems of this country. But neither is sitting at a keyboard asking rhetorical questions. Hopefully my little attempt will help in some way. I've already added one person as an independent contractor to help me so now at least two of us are making some income rather than not.

One of the people I know just returned from his final tour in Iraq. While he was gone he actually campaigned and won election for a local county office. I'm talking to him about how to get involved in local politics to try to make some changes from the inside.

I don't know what can fix anything but I know if no one tries then it certainly can't get fixed.

My husband calls me a pit bull when I make my mind up about something and he is absolutely right (It generally requires a wedge driven in the jaw or bullet to get a pit to let go).

I, by myself, can't change the entire country so I'm going to try my best to make my little portion of it better rather than sit on my a$$ constantly complaining. What else can one do other than try?

reply to post by Mooradian

Youre a fool.

[edit on 23-7-2010 by eyeswilldeceive]

[edit on 23-7-2010 by eyeswilldeceive]

reply to post by getreadyalready


Edit to add:
5 stars for Visitor's rambling excuse about genocide and robbery being the reason that he can't get a job. He later goes on to say that he is too good to start a business and that he is "under attack" by TPTB. And people read that and respond with stars?

I may have to get off this thread and go for a run, or go to the gym, because my stress is starting to Peg the top! Florida is one of the hardest job and housing markets, and yet we have 3 or 4 pages of help wanted ads here in Tallahassee? I have 16 openings in my department alone! I can personally attest that we have not genocided, robbed, and very rarely raped any of our employees! It is air conditioned, with ergonomic key boards and mouses and chairs! LEED certified "Green" building. Best possible environment you can imagine, and yet we can't keep employees? We are never 100% staffed? And you guys can't find work? And you other guys applaud them for it and tell them you understand? I am becoming speechless? What else can I say? You want me to drive to your house, fill out the apps, schedule your interviews, dress you, prop you up at a desk, give you a morning wake up call and make sure you get to work the first day? Would that be enough?

reply to post by getreadyalready

Remember this,
Obama got the most "stars" in the last election.

Originally posted by Lateralus51
You're a fool.

Your foolish 1 line post is not welcome at ATS.

I know a family that abuses the system so bad it makes me sick to my stomach. A woman I know has two teenage daughters that live with her, and each of those daughters have two children of their own. That is 4 grandchildren. The teenagers refuse to work...or take birth control for that matter. So they keep popping children out and do you know how they feed them welfare! So I just wanted to say that you are exactly the type of person that deserves the help. But it is people like these young girls that give it all a bad name.

reply to post by Sararainmaker


Actually only the bourgeois children of the rich are 'angry' over this extension.The millions of people who have been held hostage by the repugnicans and their masters in the House of Saud are thrilled to be able to feed their children.
Further more, every economist of note admits that these funds...at last freed up to the people who have earned them,will SPEND this money..thus reenegizing the economy....Which of course the Repugnicans and the Tea Baggers want to stop...In order to sabotage the 'Kenyan'...So crazy racist,they'll do anything to desttroy him....

reply to post by nivekronnoco

Actually only the bourgeois children of the rich are 'angry' over this extension.The millions of people who have been held hostage by the repugnicans and their masters in the House of Saud are thrilled to be able to feed their children.

Wrong! Entirely WRONG!

I am below the poverty line! My family of 4 makes $30,900 per year. My brother is a teacher, and he struggles to get by. ALL of the people that work for me make less than $28k per year!

I do not know a single working person that supports this extension! I know a great many people, and I guarantee that if they have a job, they do not support the extension.

As I said before, my own mother, whom I love dearly, will be a recipient of this money. SHE DOES NOT DESERVE IT! She didn't work 6 months, but she will get 2 years of unemployment? She left voluntarily! She could still be working. I love my mother, but I do not want to pay my taxes toward her unemployment. I would rather just pay her directly as her son if she needs help (which she doesn't)!

The Federal Debt is now about 3.5 TRILLION dollars and has grown 25% of that in the last few months alone! Explain that to your kids and grand kids who will be hamstrung for life because of our "we party now and you pay later" attitudes. I personally know folks who were two income families and didn't really need to work. They were more than thrilled to get laid off and collect this extended income, and no way were they going to look for work!

I resent the fact that I keep having to pay for everyone else's overspending, sins, and extravagance (the gov in particular).

What people don't seem to get is there are no free lunches in this universe. Its either pay now or pay 'WAY MORE' later.

[edit on 23-7-2010 by whatsup]

reply to post by Mooradian


Hi,

I'm currently living in Berlin and can see the same pattern here as elsewhere.

A female friend married a Sudanese 'refugee' who since being in Germany (some 15 years) has worked form choice, as a barman in summer only but twice has failed to declare this and therefore, been up for tax evasion. All monies earned went on himself.

Next, (after he hit her) they separated and guess what? After having a lawyer provided by the state to contest access to their daughter etc. was provided with a state flat, furniture, free electricity and water and an allowance -whilst his wife continued to work...and bring up their daughter.

But better - each year he went on holiday back to Sudan (where you all clearly remember, from which he was a poor refugee...?)

And how? Because he smokes dope with his mates all day - and more than likely deals in it (tax free of course).

So - someone arrives in a country, takes the system for a ride (the f... system's fault actually), and then to compound matters, breaks the law and is rewarded....

But despite this, there's hope - hope that not everyone is on a descending spiral of mediocrity and that many really do deserve social assistance. It is the injustice of seeing those get away with blatant fraud that I think annoys us.

And why do they get away with it? Because of namby pamby PC brainwashing...

Peace!




[edit on 23-7-2010 by The Wave]

Being out of work sucks big time, but never give in to negativity or depression. Never!

I had a terrible '09. Nothing was working. My income trickled below 10k. (Being self-employed is really tough in this economy.) So I had to move my family from a nice rented house to a small apartment. That move was hard to explain to my seven-year-old son. We also cut any "amenities" like cable TV, eating out, going to the movies and so on. We started living a "lean" life.

Moving forward six months: financially I have the best year in a decade. Contracts keep coming in that I couldn't even have dreamt of a year ago. What changed?

You could say sheer luck, but I believe that our positive attitude in the midst of financial adversity, daily prayers (chanting) and believing in a better future helped us tremendously. Sometimes a step back is really two steps forward.

I just wanted to share my story with all the people out there that are having a hard time financially. I do feel your pain and I know that good people are getting the short end of the stick in this economy, but never stop believing in yourself. Never! Just because you're not making $$$ doesn't mean that your self-worth should be any different. Now is maybe the time to have a long and hard look at your expenses and take action.

Sorry for my rant, but I know that unemployment can mess with your head big time. Again, stay positive! A job is ONLY one application, or one phone call away.

Blessings.

Originally posted by getreadyalready
reply to post by nivekronnoco

 

As I said before, my own mother, whom I love dearly, will be a recipient of this money. SHE DOES NOT DESERVE IT! She didn't work 6 months, but she will get 2 years of unemployment? She left voluntarily! She could still be working. I love my mother, but I do not want to pay my taxes toward her unemployment. I would rather just pay her directly as her son if she needs help (which she doesn't)!

Question: Do I Qualify for Unemployment?
Answer: Unemployment insurance benefits are available for workers who are unemployed through no fault of their own. There are eligibility requirements to qualify for unemployment benefits including working a certain number of weeks for a certain number of hours each week.
Eligibility requirements to qualify for unemployment compensation vary from state to state.

The unemployment compensation you will receive depends on the amount you earned while working.

If you're not sure whether you're eligible, file a claim and the unemployment office will determine your eligibility for unemployment compensation.

When You Don't Qualify for Unemployment


The following circumstances may disqualify you from collecting unemployment benefits:

Fired for misconduct
Quit without good cause
Resigned because of illness (check on disability benefits)
Left to get married
Self-employed
Involved in a labor dispute
Attending school

jobsearch.about.com...

I highly doubt your mother will qualify for unemployment, for some odd reason she did get it, it wouldn't be for two years, all the Federal Extensions are expired with the exception of the current one just passed which she would not qualify for because she didn't go through the first four tiers. Just the fact that she left voluntarily more then likely will disqualify her. They will contact her former employer who will say she quit for no good reason.

reply to post by AllIsOne


Well done! A positive post and you deserve it (though personnaly for me, leave out the prayer and chanting bit!)

Seriously, a great message for others.

Peace!

reply to post by nite owl


Sorry missed that, but if that's the case he should have had a larger security blanket. Also if it's that bad I heard McDonald's is hiring and always is, and since he has manager experience he could have a job there in a week, they are always looking for managers.

You're only a "bum" and/or "loser" if you are not actively trying to find work and get back on your feet.

Sounds like you are just down on your luck and are taking advatage of a benefit that YOU'VE PAID INTO.

There is another way though, since you've (OP) mentioned seeing all these obstacles called "licences" ... become a Freeman-on-the-land.

Be your own boss. Subject to no government and only answerable to God, yourself and your fellow man/woman.
Of course..... say goodbye to all "benefits" you currently "enjoy" by voluntarily allowing yourself to be governed... because you've then traded them for your RIGHTS.