Why Republicans Have No Ideas About Mass Unemployment

[babylonsister]

Why Republicans Have No Ideas About Mass Unemployment

By Jonathan Chait


Last Saturday, the extension of unemployment benefits originally passed at the outset of the economic crisis expired. The position of Democrats in Washington, backed by a growing mountain of economic research, is that macroeconomic and humanitarian considerations alike both argue for an extension of unemployment benefits.

The position of Republicans in Washington is rather strange — less a moral or economic argument than an expression of indifference. "These have been extraordinary extensions, and the Republican position all along has been 'we need to go back to normal here at some point,'" argues Representative Tom Cole. “{W}hat we did was never intended to be permanent. It was intended to be a very temporary solution to a very temporary crisis," echoes Representative Rob Woodall. Of course nobody intended for the crisis of mass unemployment to last five years. Nobody intended for the crisis to happen at all. It is simply weird to argue that, since the problem has gone on longer than intended, the response to the problem must end as well. The fire trucks don’t shut off the hoses simply because the fire should have been put out by now.

Yet the weirdness, far from being random, reveals something deeper at work. The most obvious thing, of course, is a general lack of concern for the fate of the unemployed — or, at least, a casual assumption that the unemployed themselves must be to blame for their plight. But even a more generous reading of the Republican position, taking its most serious defenses at face value, reveals an intellectual hollowness. Half a decade into the economic crisis, the Republican Party has no serious ideas about the Great Recession.

One of the few Republicans to directly defend his party’s refusal to extend unemployment benefits is Rand Paul. Unfortunately, as is so often the case, Paul’s ideas about unemployment insurance are cracked. Paul has repeatedly cited studies that show that employers discriminate against job candidates who have been out of work a long time. Paul simply assumes that people are staying unemployed so they can continue collecting unemployment benefits. But the economics paper Paul cites, according to the economist who wrote it, suggests the opposite of his conclusion.

more...

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/12/why-republicans-have-no-ideas-about-unemployment.html

[LuvNewcastle]

1. They think all those unemployed people need to get off unemployment

and start standing outside of Home Depot everyday. I'm serious. I've talked to enough Republicans to know that that is exactly what they think. Fuck them.

[louis-t]

2. Republican ideas about the Great Recession were aptly put by

Dick Cheney: "Stuff happens".

[winter is coming]

3. I disagree with the article's ultimate conclusion:

What they lack is any legislative response to the economic crisis. They just want to get back to normal, and since normality has not arrived, they’d just as soon pretend it has.

IMO, the Republicans have no interest in "getting back to normal." They want to define this as "the new normal" and will continue making rationalizations and excuses and degrading "normal" until the excess population (i.e., the unemployed) dies off.

Politicians with corporate masters do not see us as people, because it's to their personal advantage to dismiss us as "equal". They want money and/or power, and the easiest way to get it is to bow to the wishes of the 1% . The 1% are indulging in some fantasy that they can continue chasing lower and lower wages, and they'd like to do that by continuing to lower Americans' expectations. They don't see that process as unsustainable, but eventually we'll reach a point where no one can afford to buy what is being sold.

[LuvNewcastle]

5. Yes, that is it.

There aren't going to be any jobs, not any real jobs, because no one is investing in the economy in order to provide new jobs; they're putting it all in the stock market. It's gotten to the point where the stock market is totally divorced from the real economy. They're trading shares and betting on them and pocketing the profits. They think they don't need us, but the party is going to be over soon, and they're going to take us all down with them.

[JoePhilly]

4. High unemployment reduces wages.

High unemployment also reduces options for worker mobility.

A ready pool of unemployed people drags overall income levels down, and keeps people from leaving one job to seek another.

This is how the GOP wants the economy to work, its not a problem in their world view.

[freshwest]

6. You nailed it. Good for 'bidness.' n/t

[Skidmore]

10. It also reduces the number of people available to afford goods and services.

I keep wondering why Americans can't get it together to use their consumer powers to shut it down for a while. A general strike. It wouldn't take long.

[dickthegrouch]

7. And they're completely overlooking

the fact that it takes someone who is long-term unemployed even more time to get re-employed because employers only want people who are employed.

With age discrimination and supposedly stale skills while we look for a new job, it is a reality that the possible return to employment is ever diminishing.

And they think taking away our unemployment benefits is somehow going to motivate us. Motivate the right group, CONgress; the employers. Tax breaks for re-employing someone out of work for more than 6 months. Bigger tax break for someone who's out of work for more than a year etc.

(Full disclosure: I am 6 months unemployed, and counting)

[phantom power]

8. Their lack of concern *is* moral in nature.

Conservatives believe helping people is immoral, because it encourages laziness. When your position is "that people are staying unemployed so they can continue collecting unemployment benefits" that isn't a lack of ideas, it is exactly a moral argument. Their big idea is "end unemployment benefits and employment rates will rise."

It's a stupid idea, and easy to refute six ways from sunday, but that's what they think.

[fleabiscuit]

11. Would it be our own moral weakness

to assume that Conservatives actually believe what they are saying?

[bucolic_frolic]

9. Republicans believe in restricting the benefits of society

to those who are able to pay for them.

The short term unemployed paid into an insurance fund, so they
put up the money for their payments.

Anyone else, in the conservative mind, is not entitled to benefits
because they cannot pay for them. The long term unemployed
fall into that category.

Republicans are all about property rights, because they already
own most everything.

Anything that diminishes property rights - the right for them to make
and keep their money - is evil in their minds.

Thus environmental laws, zoning, Social Security, Universal health care,
Medicaid, they're all bad.

Look at how they've spent 33 years demonizing the fictitious 'Welfare Queen'.

Again, they want to restrict the benefits of society to those who can pay for them.

[SCVDem]

12. With my last few dollars

I will buy a gun.

Now let's play survival, shall we?

Mercedes, Audi, BMW drivers, you're number one!

I have nothing left to lose!

[dickthegrouch]

13. Whitehouse.gov petition created, please sign it

I can't believe there was no petition for this until I created one.


I wanted to let you know about a new petition I created on We the People, a new feature on WhiteHouse.gov, and ask for your support. Will you add your name to mine? If this petition gets 100,000 signatures by February 05, 2014, the White House will review it and respond!


We the People allows anyone to create and sign petitions asking the Obama Administration to take action on a range of issues. If a petition gets enough support, the Obama Administration will issue an official response.


You can view and sign the petition here:


http://wh.gov/lX2Pu


Here's some more information about this petition:


Extend unemployment benefits for an additional year to the long-term unemployed

Since austerity has been shown in many recent studies to be a damper on the economy, and individual or family austerity is highly detrimental to the overall economy and, Recognizing that unemployment is still unacceptably high and that more than 1.5 million people recently lost unemployment benefits due to budget constraints, we call upon the government to restore those unemployment benefits.