Myths That Must Die: "People are given jobs!"

[ColbertWatcher]

What is it with the GOP who keep saying people are given jobs?

I'm watching the repeat of "Countdown" and one of the morans is saying something about how people are interviewed three times before being given jobs at McDonald's.

No one is "given" a job. Jobs are offered and people accept or reject them. But no one--no one--is given a job!

I wish the GOP-controlled media would stop pushing the lie that people are passive when it comes to earning a job (remember those three interviews to get a job at McDonald's?) and that somehow the corporation gives jobs to us poor slobs, who should be grateful for whatever pittance they see fit to trickle on us.

[mediaman007]

1. You are absolutely correct! I call bullshit to all of the right wingers who

believe that putting the money at the top creates jobs. Small business doesn't create jobs. Customers create jobs. Small business would have shit if people didn't buy from them. Don't tell me the middle class is the enemy of small business either. Corporations would put them out of business in a heartbeat if it were profitable. The Republicans would be right behind them too! Small business should dump the Republicans. Democrats do more for small business than anyone else.

The Chamber of Commerce just feeds the small businesses a load of crap. Most of the sb's buy it.

[Mojambo]

2. Thom Hartmann has been doing some work on this idea that corporations "create" jobs.

It's a vile supply side meme.

Demand creates jobs.

[Veritas_et_Aequitas]

3. Where are these job-givers, and how may I contact them? nt

[DailyGrind51]

33. They are giving jobs to people in India and China!

[misanthrope]

4. Au contraire...

...I've seen many scions of middle and upper class privilege who are indeed "given" jobs.

[ColbertWatcher]

9. I think Bluenorthwest;s post #5 says it best! n/t

[Bluenorthwest]

5. But no one--no one--is given a job!

Better alert Luke Russert of that fact.

[ColbertWatcher]

10. Not to mention Dumbya himself. Not mention Wolfowitze, et al. n/t

[roody]

13. THEY were given jobs.

[rucky]

12. You must not be married. n/t

[americanmutt]

6. Can you give me a job that want or can do...

[mrcheerful]

7. Yeah well try being disabled living on SSI or SSDI and being told that you aren't supposed

to have cable, the internet or phone, own your own house, own a car and your not supposed to bitch about the costs of these things as well as food cost, health care co-pays, you should just be grateful you don't have to work for a living, by these wing nuts. Then because of the right to work laws passed, they are under the illusion that disabled can walk into any business and demand a job or can go work for a sheltered work shop and earn a living.

Without ever researching how these things work in real life. Businesses do not have to hire the disabled any more then they have to hire anyone else, the law only states that if the business decides to hire the disabled they have to provide them with a job they can do and base their pay on production. Same with sheltered work shops, they pay on a sliding pay scale depending on production and a disabled can and do end up making as little as $20 for an 40 hour work week, then collect there disablity from SSI or SSDI.

Why don't droves of disabled work at these places? Because they are hell holes with make shift work, like putting nuts on bolts try that 8 hours a day, then on top of that your making $20 a week and the guy next to you is making $80 a week, plus no rises, most work at the job 10 + years at the same wage, but disabled should be proud and grateful that they aren't sitting at home watching tv or playing on the computer.

You want to hear wing nuts talking shit, try being disabled.

[ColbertWatcher]

8. I think your post deserves it's own thread! n/t

[PJPhreak]

15. This is so true!!

I have a family member who is disabled and lives on a fixed income ($637 a Month and $48 in F.S.) so the rest of the family helps her out....and We catch a LOT of B.S. from the Rwingers around here. (So.Central Kansas)
As an example We drove over to Schwagg-Mart to do some shopping and the lady behind us was scowling at us in the checkout line,but said nothing.
When we got outside to the car the same lady walked by and said "Must be nice driving a car THAT nice on our Dime"
at which point I looked over and asked "Excuse me,would like to explain that statement for me Please?"
"You are buying food with my tax money and yet you can afford to drive such a nice car!! you should sell it and by food with that money!!"
"Oh" I said "This one?" as I pointed to the car. "Yes that one"
"Well" I said "after monthly expenses Carol is not left with enough money for a car,so our Family got together and got her one,We call it Doing the Family thing".Ya'll know about that Thing called "Family Values"??
"And by the way She doesn't OWN this car,I do.I pay all the insurance.gas.maintenance,repairs,and its Titled in MY name,She is on the Ins.Policy as the Primary Driver,But Its MY car Lady!!"

All this over an Eight Year Old Neon...A Neon...A "NICE" Car?

[mrcheerful]

17. My SO and I drive a 1978 full size Ford Van that SO was rewarded from her divorce

It has 107,000 miles on it doesn't leak or burn oil, has no knocks or odd sounds coming from under the hood, but Michigan winters have pretty much ate the body. I do most of the repairs on the van and what I get is why don't you get a job doing auto repairs? They don't see what I go through for 2 to 4 weeks after spending a few hours under the hood or under the van, but because I can keep the van running, I can work, wtf? I wonder how many of them would attempt to fix their vehicles if it meant that a few hours worth of work = up to 4 weeks of looking at their feet because the pain in the back makes it impossible to stand up right?

Oh yeah handi capped parking, we have a state plate instead of the window hanger permit, nothing like having people point out the handi capped sign for the space your parked in, then see the same people get into their car parked in a handi capped space with neither the permit or plate. LOL

[Chulanowa]

36. He'd tell you to sell a worn-out mule with ticks, too

Right wingers are, by their intrinsic nature, fucking assholes. The message here was that you are worth less than he was, and you should graciously defer to his awesomeness and "generosity." He beleives that you only have anything by his leave. I must say you responded far more civilly than I would have managed, since my reply likely would have involved breaking my pinky toe against his tiny testes.

[barbtries]

39. omigawd

on MY dime?! what a brainless and heartless asshole! how did she respond after you tore her a new one? and WAY good on you for doing that, and for helping family so generously.

[misanthrope]

18. Amen to that! I'm on SSI as well...

...due to advanced genetic emphysema from Alpha-01 Antitrypsin deficiency. Qualifying for SSI was the only way for me to receive the augmentation therapy that inhibits further pulmonary degradation. Without the Medicare Part D available through my disability qualification, I could find no insurance that would pay for the augmentation (pre-existing condition) and it would cost over $100 thousand a year out of pocket.

I'm able to work in a limited capacity for a local periodical, but can't make more than $800 per month or I lose my qualification and subsequently lose the treatment keeping me alive. It's disheartening to say the least.

One day, my ultra-right wing boss tells a joke at work wherein the punch line orbits a character who refuses a miraculous healing from Jesus because the fellow just qualified for his disability. The humor is supposedly derived from the meme that those on disability are lazy and looking for handouts. He told this with me in the room knowing full well what my medical situation is and what it implies about me.

But I'm just the peon who can afford to do little more than step-n-fetchit if I want to keep what little income I have, regardless of the fact I have twice the number of journalism awards he does. Here in the Old South, the privileged caste like underlings who "know their place."

[mrcheerful]

19. Your lucky they raised the limit you can earn

Back in the 1987 when I was on disabilty if you made $68 your SSI benefits were cut off and you would lose your medi caid, leaving you on medi care and SSDI. $68 was what SSI gave SSDI folks to give them $520 a month

[misanthrope]

20. Say what?...

...I'm not on Medicaid and don't qualify as I make too much for this state's threshold. I DO have Medicare through my federal disability.

[mrcheerful]

21. If your collecting SSI and SSDI

Which is $657 a month, $98 is what SSI pays you. Anyhow, as long as you get $1 from SSI your entitled to medi caid. But people on SSI are limited as to how much they earn, I think it's 3/4th of $630 a month at the most, if you make $630 or more then your cut off.

[misanthrope]

22. Well, I must be receiving...

...only the SSDI then. When I've asked the folks at Social Security which I have, I've heard SSI but that must not be the case. God knows, there was enough paperwork involved in all the hoops I jumped through (at my doctor's insistence so I could get the augmentation therapy) just to receive what I did.

At any rate, were it not for my wife's income, I'd have a choice between earning enough to live while dying from the lack of medical treatment or getting the treatment and not being able to afford to live.

[mrcheerful]

24. Also remember this veries from state to state, I'm in michigan

So I am going by what the state of Michigan does. What really sucks is the states part of the SSI payment comes in every 3 months at a whooping $42. A republicon gov decided that by mailing out checks every 3 months would save the state money. I still haven't figured out how the nit wit came up with that one, the puke majority in the state senate refuse to change it back the way it was before Engler.

[misanthrope]

25. Well that solved it...

...I get nothing from the State of Alabama. All my stuff comes from the feds.

While there's no way I could hold my previous occupation (chef) these days, I wish I could work more and still qualify for the Medicare. I want to relocate because living in Alabama keeps me pretty damn depressed and sick for a variety of reasons but with her earning the lion's share, she gets to call those shots.

[Bluenorthwest]

35. SSI and SSDI are very different things

SSI-Supplimental Security Income- is a means tested benefit that comes to those who have not paid enough into the Social Security system by the time they need the benefit. SSI folks get Medic-Aide, which from state to state has different names. California it is called Medi-Cal, for example. SSI does require that you have few assests and no money, it is means tested.
SSDI- Social Security Disability Insurance- is not means tested, one can have all the assests in the world, and also other income, with limits only upon the amount of income earned by current work. So on SSDI, a person can have pension income, or income from sources such as annuities or rental property, and there is no limit to any of that. One can own a home, or 10 homes. It is an entited benefit. SSI is not.
People getting SSDI get Medicare, or rather they are required to pay for Medicare, and they do so each month. It costs about $90 a month for the basic plan, most carry other suppliments to it at additional cost. Medicare folk pay deductables and co-pays and premiums, just like regular insurance. SSI folks get Medic-Aide and it does not carry a monthly premium, nor co-pays and such, at least in the States I know about.
People getting SSI may qualify for Food Assistance. Some states give them cards like 'food stamps' others give them more cash.
The terms are all too similar, the acromnyms too close, but there is a world of difference between SSI and SSDI. They are not interchangable, they do not have the same rules, they do not come with the same medical or other benefits.

[mrcheerful]

38. I get both SSI and SSDI because I had enough work history

For the SSDI but it is only $561 a month so SSI kicks in $98 to give me $657 a month to live on, With SSI I also get medi caid which covers my medi care bill. Of course I was on disability before the changes were made in what benefits I recieve.

Now my SO who has SSI, she just got it this year has the medi caid but no medi care. When I first became disabled I was put on SSI, that was in 84 and I have both medi caid and medi care, which at the time medi care came with SSI, thats all changed. Like I stated even though both are fed programs, what what recieves and what one can earn are up to the state your living in and the cost of living in that state.

[elshiva]

26. I hear you. I'm on SSI. I'm mentally ill.

:hug: Yes, and I live with my parents at age 26 because the jobs that I interviewed for never came through. I'd call and try to follow up, but I got the cold shoulder because of lack of experience (how do you get experience if you never get a job in the first place) or they don't care for mentally ill.

Some folks say, "Hey, you went to college, so you should be able to get and keep a job." It does NOT work that way. I went to a small college where I got a lot of help. Also, college is NOT like work at all.

Anyway, I got a job, but then I got an ovarian cyst and then a hernia, just fucking pain in my stomach. I could not do the job, shelving books because bending over to put them on the shelf hurt too much. I got laid off.

Yeah, and my dad who is most of are income got laid off his full time job because of ageism. That's another piece of bullshit. He's only 59!

[DailyGrind51]

11. "They" buy "your" expertise, talent, and labor, "they" don't give "you" a job!

[ColbertWatcher]

14. Yup, I like the way your Communist-Socialist-Marxist mind works! LOL! n/t

[DailyGrind51]

31. Actually, I borrowed the idea from Lincoln!

"Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration." Lincoln's First Annual Message to Congress, December 3, 1861.

[ColbertWatcher]

42. Wasn't Lincoln the father of the Communist-Socialist-Marxists!? n/t

[DailyGrind51]

43. Lincoln and Lenin both begin with the letter "L"!

[ColbertWatcher]

44. Close enough for Alaskan government work! n/t

[lonestarnot]

16. Whisper Union in his ear and he would shit. That is the way that works for those slave labor

marketers.

[elshiva]

27. Too true. So much money to get from slave labor.

Sixty cents an hour is slave labor. Fuck 'em.

[Common Sense Party]

23. And let's have a moratorium on all politicians claiming that they CREATE

jobs, while we're at it. Both sides are guilty of doing this, and no one is buying the B.S.

[Dark]

28. He's Reagans cheif of staff, he's backing obama and he's pointing out that even people

at McDonalds are vetted better than Palin was.

[ColbertWatcher]

29. OK, I missed that part, but still.

No one is given a legitimate job that involves work.

[Dark]

32. What about Bush?

He certainly didn't earn the presidency.

[ColbertWatcher]

40. He (and all his co-horts) are the exceptions that prove the rule. n/t

[Leopolds Ghost]

30. Mainstream GOP policy is that the rich create all jobs in America.

In other words, quite literally, they believe all wage income in America is taken out of the pockets of the rich, who must sacrifice some of their wealth in order to employ the rest of us in their private monopolistic businesses to prevent the rest of us from starving.

The McCain precinct captain tabling in my very liberal town (a black man) vociferously explained this in measured tones to a hostile crowd, and all his compatriots agreed.

This is why they argue we should help the rich first and foremost.

Social Darwinism.

Coupled with a belief that only the rich should be allowed to succeed and employ others.

[DailyGrind51]

34. And, consumer demand creates the rich!

[AllegroRondo]

37. or the myth that companies hire people because they have money to spend

"if we give tax breaks to corporations, they'll use that extra cash to hire people!"

um....no.
no company ever hired someone because they had extra money laying around. they hire to meet DEMAND for their products and services. If there is enough demand, they find a way to hire additional workers to meet it.

[ColbertWatcher]

41. I wonder how GOPers are able to get into business without knowing this! n/t

[ColbertWatcher]

45. Sunday morning kick. n/t

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

46. 3 interviews to work at McDonald's? Where does this happen?

The most interviews I've ever had to do for a job is two, and that was a specialized job that required a degree.