The perfect solution for unemployment: fine the unemployed!

[rudy23]

Why didn't they think of it sooner? Of course! You can mandate any problem away by just making "the problem" illegal.

[JVS]

1. YEAH! THOSE FUCKING DEADBEATS! MAKING THE ECONOMY SHITTY!

[hvn_nbr_2]

33. Yes. You'd have to be "irrational" to oppose a measure that ...

puts millions of people to work.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Fumesucker]

8. How is it different than making not purchasing private insurance illegal?

I've seen enough of your posts to know you are in favor of making not having private insurance illegal.

What's wrong with making not having private employment illegal also?

[tridim]

18. I think you need to reread my posts on the subject.

I'm 100% against the mandate without a PO.

Instead of posting idiotic, divisive analogies I call and write my Congresspeople.

[Fumesucker]

19. Do you include a substantial check with the call or letter?

Otherwise you are just wasting your ti8me..

Sorry, I may have gotten you mixed up with someone else, too many people use the same avatars, I find that confusing.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[rudy23]

24. I'm sure Senator Landrieu would've had a change of heart--if only I'd used the right TONE.

That's it. My "idiotic" post means I haven't contacted one Congresscritter.

[tridim]

25. Sounds like you need to start working on getting better representation..

Instead of posting stupid analogies on DU.

[rudy23]

28. Great, I'll get right on that. I will single-handedly turn Louisiana blue.

And do you have to use words like "stupid"?

[tridim]

32. IMO it is a stupid analogy.

That's why I used the word "stupid".

[Jamastiene]

40. Is this a stupid analogy?

"I mean, if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house. The reason they don’t buy a house is they don’t have the money."

[Raineyb]

43. Actually the analogy was quite apt.

We're trying to fix the problem of people being uninsured by mandating that they buy insurance. (As though people are going without insurance out of spite or something and not because they can't afford it.)

[rudy23]

10. I see it as a pointed criticism of this administration's mindset, and a way to frame it that shows

the extent of their disrespect for our lives, and for the complexity of some of these issues.

They are treating us like we're totally expendable with these mandates--I'm still greatly offended by their approach, and so are many progressives. I respect that you've been here for awhile, but that doesn't make you right about my intentions.

Some of the criticisms of Obama today might have a little edge to them, b/c of how shocked we all are at whose side they're taking in the healthcare fight. I think we can handle them.

[clear eye]

31. Not at all. Pointed humor to illuminate the situation. n/t

[Jamastiene]

39. Would you say this quote is completely worthless too?

"I mean, if a mandate was the solution, we can try that to solve homelessness by mandating everybody to buy a house. The reason they don’t buy a house is they don’t have the money."

[Blue Meany]

3. That's what Nixon did with inflation: he made it illegal

[valerief]

4. Just as long as there are NO unemployment regulations. Wouldn't want regulations

cluttering up fine revenue!!!

:grr:

[treestar]

5. FAIL.

that's stupid. There is unemployment insurance.

A person refusing to take an available job would a more apt description.

[Fumesucker]

11. Not if you are self employed..

Indeed, even workmen's comp doesn't cover the owners of a small business, I know because I used to be a business owner back in happier times.

[MercutioATC]

13. Unemployment insurance also fails to cover short-time workers.

[BrklynLiberal]

17. ..and part-time workers

[treestar]

22. If the government gave the business the money for the workmen's comp

Then required the business to spend it on workmen's comp, would that be a giveaway to the insurance industry, because the employee who got injured might not think so.

[Fumesucker]

23. Workmen's comp is a major racket..

I'm using Smedley Butler's definition of a "racket" here..

A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.

Unless you have been a small business owner you really wouldn't understand..

[treestar]

26. That doesn't answer my question

So now you're against worker's comp insurance too? Do the state laws requiring it constitute a giveaway to the insurance industry? They must be, if this health care bill is.

[Fumesucker]

27. Like I said, if you haven't dealt with it as a small employer you really don't understand it..

I don't have the time or the inclination to give you an in depth lesson in how corrupt the workmen's comp system is in my state (which is the only one I'm familiar with).

Here's some words from someone else on another site that explain my feelings about HCR better than I can myself.

If this stupid, idiotic bill passes, we all hope that despite all our fears it will somehow magically reduce health care costs and stop Americans from being forced into penury by medical bills and magical ponies for everyone. We just don’t think it will. We think it much more likely that this bill, if passed, will become the greatest domestic policy fiasco in living memory, that it will achieve nothing for consumers remotely good enough to justify the mammoth subsidization of corrupt monopoly insurance companies, that it will cost us the House in 2010 and the Senate and White House in 2012, and that it will turn literally an entire generation irreversibly against the Democratic Party.

[treestar]

41. Here's my point

I'm sure you can understand it - even if the systems were not corrupt, would not the workmen's compensation laws constitute a "giveaway to the insurance industry?" If anyone says that about the health care bill, the it follows that it would apply to the worker's compensation laws, which "force" employers (of a certain size) to buy a type of insurance.

[BrklynLiberal]

15. Unemployment insurance is ALMOST a joke. It is a paltry sum based on what you earned

before, how long you worked, and if your former employer does not fight it...and it does not last until you find a job.
If you are lucky, you find a job before it runs out....

[tonysam]

29. You CAN refuse a position if you are collecting UI if it is not within your skill set

Only if you are referred to by the state employment office and decline to go to an interview, reject a job offer made IN WRITING, or refuse to actively seek work (you must provide written proof if asked, or, if you collect state EUI, you have to mail a certification form stating exactly where you applied and it must verifiable) can you be denied UI.

Those are regulations in Nevada, by the way.

You don't apply for just any piece of shit, and you don't have to take just any piece of shit unless the state office refers you to the job.

[BlueIdaho]

6. Poor Houses = bring back Poor Houses...

[floridablue]

9. I remember the "poor farm" in NE Missouri

It was close to where my grandfather lived.

[xiamiam]

7. how about debtors prisons..nt

[BrklynLiberal]

12. Wow! Genius..absolutely genius....

Wait. I am sure that someone in DC will submit this as a plan very soon.

[RainDog]

14. What the Dickens?!?! as in Charles...

the poor house? why, you'd think the poor should be treated as humans, not scum. that's not for the good christians in America.

[asdjrocky]

16. Loafing bastards, the lot of them.

Why can't they just go be poor some place else?

[laughingliberal]

20. That is, sadly, a not so far fetched analogy to how we are 'fixing' health care nt

[clear eye]

30. OP really brings the healthcare situation into focus. Thanks.

Nothing like a little black humor to concentrate the mind.

[H2O Man]

34. Place them

in work camps!

[Swamp Rat]

35. Do we get healthcare while at the work camps?

3 meals a day?

[dixiegrrrrl]

36. Ohhh.. well done, as usual.

I like it.
:hi:

[Swamp Rat]

37. Way'at dixiegrrrrl!

:hi::hug:

[Mithreal]

38. Interesting, but how will we sell it to the masses? Put it in a war funding bill?

[TiberiusGracchus]

42. I know you're kidding but that principle existed under "welfare to work", where the unemployed were

expected to report how many resumes and job applications they sent out every month as a requirement for receiving benefits.

In fact your satirical analogy is pretty applicable to the current debate. The mandate in question (to work/get insurance) is ONLY MEANINGFUL if coupled with reasonable incentives (welfare benefits/effective cost controls to keep premiums low).

[Recursion]

44. Well, if you'll put the flame down for a minute, you'll realize they do this already.

Most unemployment assistance you have to pay back in one way or another.

[tonysam]

45. What do you mean "pay back"? It isn't a loan.

If you collect benefits and don't qualify, then yes, you have to pay it back.

I am surprised some people don't know what in the hell they are talking about.