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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums‘Hold that job until my unemployment benefits end.’ (!?) Oh BULLSHIT!
That is to say, I don't believe very damn many people (if any at all) are telling employers that. It's an empty repuke argument to gut UI.
“North Carolina still has a higher-than-average unemployment rate, so this is important to this state,” President Obama said last week as he unveiled plans for a new manufacturing research center in Raleigh. “Folks aren’t looking for a handout. They’re not looking for special treatment. There are a lot of people who are sending out résumés every single day, but the job market is still tough.”
Republicans, in response, say that Democrats have done nothing but make unemployment and poverty more comfortable, while overseeing scant job growth. They argue that what they see as overly generous government support only encourages dependency and that a thinner safety net would actually be more effective, pointing to North Carolina’s falling jobless rate as prime evidence.
“Employers were telling me they had vacant jobs, but people would say, ‘Hold that job until my unemployment benefits end.’ ” said Gov. Pat McCrory, a Republican who is the prime mover behind the policy. “I heard that time and time again. Now, employers are telling us that people are coming in and filling out applications to accept jobs, not to meet the requirements of unemployment.”
Nonpartisan economists said it was difficult to definitively show the impact of the change to the unemployment insurance program on the state’s labor market. Employment increased from June through November by more than 22,000 people (reaching a total of over 4.3 million). But for every worker who found a job, more than two dropped out of the labor force entirely, according to the latest survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which recorded a decline of over 50,000 from June through November.
THE REST (essentially Republicans are GLOATING over the destitution they're causing but gutting UI all over the country - and the above is their assinine argument for it):
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/22/business/states-cutting-weeks-of-aid-to-the-jobless.html?_r=0
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Mass
(27,315 posts)Yes, people will want to receive limited benefits rather than a paying job. That makes sense. :ssrcasm:
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Yeah right. Someone is going to say that to a prospective employer. Suuuuuuure.
democratisphere
(17,235 posts)to destroy the people of earth.
onehandle
(51,122 posts)
RC
(25,592 posts)That they have their own alternate versions, that in normal people would be would be strong reasons for treatment and even medication.
moondust
(19,958 posts)Somebody in a conservative think tank probably gets paid a small fortune to sit around and make this shit up. I think it started with Reagan's oppressive "welfare queens in Cadillacs" nonsense and now somebody makes a good living dreaming up new twists.
You can't realistically buy an economical new car or an iPad for your kid with temporary UI benefits or food stamps, and employers sure aren't going to hold a job open if they need somebody to do the job and they have a hundred applications.
Triana
(22,666 posts)I doubt anyone has. I think these types of alleged attitudes of the so-called "lazy" people on UI only exist in the minds of deluded repukes and the corprats who own them. They need to justify their psychopathic cruelty and greed - well, somehow. So this is what they chose.
Jesus Christmas.
Jim__
(14,063 posts)
wercal
(1,370 posts)He was a school teacher who got laid off...around 4 years ago by now. At that time, unemployment benefits were almost for two years.
Here is the calculus that went on in his head: He's getting paid UE insurance, maybe like $300 a week...so why apply for a part time job that only pays about the same?...or even less , depending on how many hours he could get.
I encouraged him to go get a part time job, and be working at that job, while he looked for a more permanent teaching job. But he is single, with no kids, so nobody other than himself to worry about...and he absolutely chose to 'take some time off'. Now I could see using that time to get additional training in his field, go off and do charity work somewhere - something that would indicate to a future employer that he's been doing more than just sit around and watch tv for a period of months.
But that's exactly what he did - watch tv and sleep in. It really is a vicious cycle. Very quickly after losing his job, he didn't have any money to 'go out', pursue a hobby, or really do much more than stay at home. And he found himself doing just that - and the home was a house that he was renting from his mother, who was a lifelong school teacher and not independently wealthy. He quits paying rent, she has to sell the house, and now he's living with his elderly mother in her apartment.
Before you know it, he's been on unemployment for 99 weeks, he's living with his mother, he hasn't found a new job...and now unemployment has run out. The man still refuses to work fast food/part time type jobs, so he is just living off of his mother. He now falls into the category of 'long time unemployed'. So when he sits down for an interview, and states he hasn't worked in 4 years, the interviewer smiles, and quietly decides against hiring him...he's been out of the work force for too long, and they suspect there has to be some other factor like substance abuse or even a stint in jail - but in their mind, SOMETHING BAD has kept him from working.
I know this is an exception to the rule, but there certainly are people out there who aren't 'wired' to work, if they have a 'Plan B'....and UE insurance is like an enticing drug to them. I don't know what's the right amount of time for benefits to run....and maybe it should be inversely tied to some economic indicator, to get longer during a recession....but no matter how long it is, I encourage people not to get complacent, and go find a crap job just to stay 'on the field of play'.
kcr
(15,314 posts)They sat around and watched tv and slept in? They stopped persuing a hobby? You knew someone who became depressed because they lost their job.
Triana
(22,666 posts)...because "these people are just lazy"? Really. All of them? It does sound like this guy was depressed. So we cut off UI to everyone? Wow.
McCrony said he heard "time and time again" from employers that this happens. He needs to name the employer. Maybe they should interview the so-called "freeloader" too. Really, these claims need to be checked.
I STILL cannot imagine anyone saying that to an EMPLOYER.
And talk about throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The repigs are great at that, aren't they?
kcr
(15,314 posts)Typical right wing talking point bullshit, for sure. It's right up there with welfare queens.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)If McCrory is hearing this "time and time again," it's because he's watching Fox.
herding cats
(19,558 posts)Since North Carolina (his state) made extensive cuts to UI benefits last July by cutting them back to 20 weeks, and also cutting the percentage of your previous income you receive each week. His state is now the model of what the rest of this country could look like in 6 more months. It is not a pretty picture, no matter how he tries to gloss it over. The situation is desperate there.
The Guardian covered the state of North Carolina last week.
As Congress wrangles with whether to restore long-term unemployment benefits, North Carolina is already experiencing the hardship likely to unfold unless the program is restored
Eight hours may seem a long time to wait for a meal. But the line of cars that formed in a derelict parking lot in Hertford, North Carolina, early last Thursday morning, full of people waiting for a few cans of soup and some pasta from a local food bank, was nothing unusual. Almost every morning now, there is a line like that somewhere in North Carolina.
From a distance, the rows of cars look innocuous enough. But they are a symbol of the desperation that has gotten worse in North Carolina since July, when a swathe of cuts to unemployment benefits made it arguably the worst state in the US to be out of work.
The cars appeared in Hertford shortly before 8am, though the truck bringing the food was not scheduled to arrive until 4pm. Volunteers who hand out the food said it is not uncommon for cars to start lining up before dawn.
“I had a man the other day who said: ‘All I want is a bar of soap,’” said Laura Williams, a volunteer at the storage depot in nearby Elizabeth City. “Another man came in here and said: ‘Can you get me some toilet paper? I’ve been having to use coffee filters.’”
....
Unemployment insurance keeps the labor participation rate high because, in order to qualify for benefits, people need to look for work. When they stop looking, or stop receiving benefits, they are no longer counted in the unemployment rate, even if they're still out of work.
As a result, there has been a counterintuitive trend in the state: official figures say unemployment has actually fallen, from 8.8% in June to 7.4% in November.
That has led some Republicans to claim North Carolina's experiment in severe benefits reduction has been a success. Dave Camp, the chairman of the House ways and means committee, claimed the state's cut in benefits for jobseekers led to “rapid job creation”.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/15/north-carolina-unemployment-benefit-cuts-poverty
chrisa
(4,524 posts)If you ever said that to an employer, they wouldn't hire you. This sounds like another gem from the loony bin.
Shoulders of Giants
(370 posts)For example, I have a family member who was holding off finding a job until his unemployment checks end. However, he is a tool, and I know most unemployed are not like that. He would be one of the "bad eggs" that republicans would talk about when they defend Wall Street people. "There are just a few bad eggs in Wall Street giving everyone a bad name." Why can't they ever say "Most unemployed are good people, there are just a few bad eggs giving the rest of the unemployed getting up everyday looking for work a bad name."
WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)If not, which state? S/he better have incredibly good luck in NC, since there are at least 3 out-of-work people for every job.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)You can't make claims like that in public without their being checked out. Or, at least, if we had an honest press, etc. the press should be all over this. The governor of NC is making outlandish claims without evidence. He should be made to prove them or retract. Where's the press on this?
El_Johns
(1,805 posts)WorseBeforeBetter
(11,441 posts)And the what's-the-matter-with-North-Carolina Cons will lap up his lies.