Originally posted by Otts

So now I'm on Employment Insurance (EI) - your run-of-the-mill unemployment insurance. The way it works is this - if you've worked at least a year full-time (and they count the hours as declared by your employer) you're entitled to 4-6 months of EI payments.........snip

- You can't get EI if you quit your job yourself, unless you prove that you have to escape a truly horrible work atmosphere where you tried everything to make it better;
- Every month, you have to declare all the job search steps you've taken;
- You have to declare when you travel outside the country (basically, they expect you to be available to work all the time - and it's designed to avoid people filing for EI and then going to Florida for the winter);
- Every part-time income you make must be declared, and it's deducted from your EI payments.

So really, it's not money for free. Sometimes I feel it's more of a nuisance, but hey... I paid into it for five years, 400 bucks a year...

Otts, I've got no problem with unemployment insurance or EI as you call it because you obviously had to be employed to qualify.

The rules you posted are familiar to me and seem to be the same in my area.

Yes, other groups came, but it is the Puritans that are held up in the highest regards by the right. I've seen this doctrine quoted over and over.
It seems in direct conflict with the Bill of Rights.

Originally posted by Jemison

Huh? Compassion and politics cannot be intertwined? Why not? Why is a compassionate government bad?

A compassionate government is not bad. But when you are spoon feeding people rather than letting them feed themselves it does not help them grow, it only causes them to be more dependant and I think that is what is happening to society as a whole. And the more that the government steps in and does things for people the less people will be willing to do on their own.

Things have gotten out of control. People don't even have common sense anymore. Playground equipment has been removed because children are thought to be too stupid to figure out how to use it correctly or parents are going on law-suit sprees. People blame the government for anything that goes wrong in their lives and then expect the government to fix it for them. Nobody takes personal responsibility anymore. It's always someone else's fault that they're broke or they lost a job or they got hit in the head with a softball. Political correctedness is over the top. Do we really need to refer to short people as horizontally challenged? Give me a break. We have become a spoiled society. People don't have the work ethics they had 30 years ago. They think that if they put in their 40 hours a week even if the job isn't done, that's good enough. They don't take pride in their work. People don't parent anymore. They think if they sit their children in front of a television and feed them 3 meals a day they have done their job.

We need to get back to a society where people have commen sense and where people are taking personal responsibility for their lives. We need to get back to a society who helps one another because it's the right thing to do, not because our Government is forcing it on us. There were probably less people that were homeless and starving in our country before modern day welfare came into the act than what we have today. Why? Because family helped family, neighbors helped neighbors and because when there wasn't a big giant government they could turn it over to people relied on themselves and their community to get through tough times.

Jemison

I was trying think of how to put my thoughts into words without offending the liberals. Thanks Jemison, you took the words right out of my mouth. I totally agree. It's not that the liberals point of views are all bad, but they often open the door to bigger problems. There's a bigger picture. I liken it to the whole stand in the corner thing when dealing with our children rather then giving them an old fashioned spanking sometimes and having it sink in what's right and wrong, meanwhile I'm blown away by the lack of respect a lot of children have these days, I wonder why. There are too many lazy selfish people out there abusing the liberal ideas. It's making America devided, and you know what they say about being devided.

LadyV, let me get your opinion on something. Why do gay people want to get married?

Originally posted by Phoenix

Originally posted by ANOK

The prob with majority rule is when the population is lazy and kept in the dark the majority really doesn't know what's good for it.
When you have majority rule by a centralised government it's no better than a dictatorship.
Putting people on the outside by labeling them "bleeding heart" or whatever is no less than sencorship.

Calling or labeling people "profit mongers" just because they want the government and busy-bodies to stay out of their affairs is also no less than censorship - according to your theory that is.

By the by - we live in a republic where it is not majority rules as found in a democracy, we are ruled by laws.

Don't mistake this country for a democracy - you will find that word nowhere in our constitution.

Don't worry I know this country is far from being a democracy but isn't that what it proclaims to be?
I want government to stay out of my affairs but I'm not a profit monger,
and it wasn't the actual name calling that i consider sencorship, it's the motivation behind that name calling. I don't propose the banning of name calling cause that would be censorship. i was just trying to make a point i guess.