But there is a maturity & intelligence that one must have to recognize that the ONE person on unemployment you know, doesn't represent the millions (?) that are currently unemployed.

I'm just gonna start here with YOUR statement.

I pay my OWN DAMN TAXES--what I get in unemployment DOES NOT COME FROM YOU! It comes from what I HAVE PUT INTO THE SYSTEM THROUGH MY OWN AMOUNT OF WORK!

Sorry, Kevin, you don't pay my bills-from my water to my student loans, you don't pay SHIT of mine-but if you'd like to, go right ahead! Want my address-I'll send you the bills!

You then make this weak ass argument of:"Why are their problems my problems?" Here's a clue for you Kevin, MY PROBLEMS AREN'T YOUR PROBLEMS...HELL, YOU COULDN'T HANDLE THEM! If you want my problems, be my guest, but again, the minute you got them, you'd throw them right back at me and say, DDDDAAAAAYYYYYMMMMNNN, now THOSE are problems!

Now you dumbly make the statement that "I, who will st ill be gainfully employed for the rest of my life" are living in a total world of farce, or is it the World of Witchcraft, I seem to forget! Either way, they are both fictional and both full of fantasy.

Sorry, but last time I checked, your name isn't God and you control NOTHING! You cannot say when you will check out of here through death. That is something that you have NO CONTROL over! I'm so sorry to inform you of this, so just get over it and get over it quickly.
Moreover, how do you know that you will have this job for eternity? Whose to say that something won't happen 5 minutes from now and the job you have goes into the world of vanishing. It happens, and it happens on a daily basis. People who thought that they had "good jobs" are losing them left and right in this country so that people can continue to have A job period.

This is something that happens on a daily basis. For example, older workers, who tend to have higher salaries, are being offered "early retirement" or in some cases even a forced retirement. Why for cutbacks, in order to make room for new joe college grad that would definetly make less, and in order to keep their own jobs secure.
This is the real world, this is something that happens everyday. Why don't you look at some of the cases that you are representing. Cases where people are suing companies in order to keep them employed, pay back salaries for inappropriate firings, and to keep health insurance going for them when the company fired them because their health needs were appearing to "supercede" the needs of the company.

This is something that happens everyday! As it was said in the movie School Daze, WAKE UP! Stop trying to deny the fact that someone being unemployed is a) what they want, b) what they desire, c) what they look forward to, and d) is their own damn fault! It just ain't so!

Then you decide to make the statement of: "If someone spends however many months on the dole as are currently allowed and has yet to find a job, when does the blame shift from the economy or somesuch other nebulous entity to the individual? Does it ever shift?"
AGAIN I say to you, when you are unemployed, what are you supposed to do? When you have tried, tried, and tried to find and get a job, what in the hell are you supposed to do?

I can say, that yes, I was grateful when Congress extended unemployment benefits, it has helped me in a) not being on welfare for susistence and b) helped me in being able to retain some sense of oh...human value/worth by being able to PAY MY OWN BILLS.

Sorry, get the hell up out of your gilded cage and get into the real world. Step into the real world of life and let some of that shit hit you in the face. Smell what poverty can do and has done to some people. Step into the light of not having lights and not having water. Step into the reality of a homeless shelter with families, with parents that have degrees but don't have anywhere else to go. Step into displaced families that are living with each other in order to survive and help have a place to stay. Step into reality and then come back and tell me this same shit. I bet you won't because you would have gained the basic thing that you lack, HUMILITY AND EMPATHY.

I don't ask you to be sympathatic for me, I do consider myself on of the blessed ones in life. But you need to see how others consider you.

damn...it's like that.

There is just no way to come back after that...I wouldn't even try

Then you say this (the bolded). What commonalities are you suggesting are going to emerge? That these people have degrees, were working before, and were laid off or the business went under? What are the commonalities that YOU are suggesting? That these were law abiding, minding their own business, paying their own bills, and living their own lives kinda people? What is it that you are suggesting.

AGAIN have you ever been out of work 6mo, 8mo, 12mo, 18mo, etc? HAVE YOU EVER BEEN THERE? IF NOT, SHUT TO THE UP!

Yes, it is a simplistic look to a huge problem. It's a very popularized look at a problem that has been here for some time. Then look at who is in control of the nation and begin to make some changes within your own communities to those who either understand you or feel that they can improve the current state of affairs. It's also a downgrading look at those who are in a situation that they are trying to change but with the state of the current economy, they cannot.


You say with your health insurance, you get to choose your risk pool, well, good for you! I'm not able to do that, so sorry. I didn't ask for my set of genes, but I just got to deal with what I have been given. I don't have health insurance and the last company that I worked for they didn't have health insurance for us employees either. I didn't get to choose anything, but when I had health insurance I used it to keep myself as healthy as I could. I WANT to be able to have the choice to pay for my health insurance, but alas, I don't even have that option. Being on unemployment, I cannot afford the premiums that I would need to be able to afford that. But you need to be grateful to God that you are in a position to do so. Think about those who cannot.



O.K., to clear things up for you, this is how things were done before, if you cannot remember history, it was called Reganomics. Yes, alas, the trickle down theory. And if I do remember then, the cutbacks that were made, everything from education to drug rehab programs to mental health institiutions, left such a bad taste upon the American people that we are STILL paying for this lapse in reality now.

When those cutbacks were made and programs were slashed to the bare bones of a structure, the cost deference that emerged the government found was greater because of the need for more of the same services because what the government found was that people cannot always take care of their own because they are barely making it for themselves.

Look back on what Reganomics left for a legacy and then get real.

Alas, poor Yorkick, he's a fool and will still try!

If I really needed to, I could go out and get a job today. It might not be anything I want, but at least something. Is this not true for everyone (save the mentally and physically handicapped)?

No.

Go out and try it.

If you are like many of the (overqualified) people looking, I'm betting you won't.

Tell us what jobs you could get TODAY (even if it's not something you really want).

Let us know what you can ABSOLUTELY find so that others can do the same without having to compete with other unemployed people.

Porn

So if I haven't personally experienced something, I can't talk about it? I've never been charged with a crime or been sued or been divorced, but people pay me good money to opine about that... guess I need to find a new job.

Ah okay, so it's not your fault. I get that. Is there a time when at least some of the blame for this situation shifts to you? Or is it never anyone's own fault that they don't have a job?

That's how I feel about people now wanting to be teachers. Do you know how many people I know who get laid off call me and say: "I just got laid off. How do I become a teacher?"

I'm nice about it, but I'm thinking, "You won't last a week."

At the extent that you are involved this particular subject...you shouldn't.

Yep.

Also, in areas with colleges and universities, some employers save the more menial and low wage jobs for the collegiates (or the noncollegiate equivalent).

*****
I think I told my story of short term unemployment that happened many years ago when the country was NOT in a recession. I was between graduate degrees and I wanted a summer job to tie me over instead of getting unemployment checks. I thought I found an excellent option for something that was just "good enough for now." I was the only person in the applicant pool with more than a high school diploma (they discovered that in the background checks). They let me sit through the interview presentation and called me in the back room to tell me they thought hiring me would be torturous for me and challenging to them. They said this isn't the job for me because it requires a HUNGER that someone with education and career/salary potential is ASSUMED not to have.

Thank God I just needed it for the SUMMER. Had I needed it for the longterm or to support a family, that would've really sucked. I ended up getting unemployment checks.

Tom will be arriving at this station in about 45 minutes due to debris on the track.

There was a Tom delay.