Ah yes, in 99 weeks you can earn an associates. Is an associates degree free?! If im unemployed is Newt and Republicans going to send me to college on their dime?! Im all for that!!!
I agreed with him right up until the part where he did the usual Right-wing move and whored the Declaration of Independence.
It’s common knowledge that some people abuse unemployment benefits. I know a guy that has no intention of getting another job because he makes more off the Government (read: our tax dollars) than he would starting out at the bottom working again.
My solution: 3 months unemployment, no strings attached. Any amount after that, the recipient has to pay back 10% once he or she gets a job. Another 3 months and it goes up to 20%, and so on. Obviously there would have to be an installment plan for the reimbursement – no one could pay it all off at once. It could be added to their income tax. Just knowing that the longer they wait, the higher the reimbursement total will rise would get most of the couch surfers off their asses and back to work. If they wait long enough it will be cheaper to take ANY job than to continue collecting unemployment.
An idea originating from the same place as the 9-9-9 plan: someone’s nether regions. The assumption is that there’s widespread unemployment fraud, which, regardless of your extensive anecdotal evidence, is BS, as it’s extraordinarily rare, compared to fraud regarding corporate welfare, for example. Unemployment is not a good place to be in. It’s an extremely precarious position, and the vast majority of people on it want off it as soon as they can.
It’s simple math, really: there are far more people looking for work than there are jobs available. So even if everyone looked for work 12 hours a day, mathematically, you could only put as many people to work as there are jobs available. So this idea that people who are on unemployment are lazy is just plain idiocy, and it reeks of conservative spoiled brat revenge fantasies.
I never said there’s “widespread unemployment fraud.” I said it exists. There are enough jobs, just not enough of the ones that people are willing to do; I see “help wanted” signs in store windows all the time. 99 weeks is almost two years. That 99-week limit has been extended twice now. There are people that have chosen not to work, waiting years for a job that suits their liking, meanwhile still receiving 2/3 of their old salary.
Some jobs are just gone. Someone who made typewriters isn’t going to get another job in that line of work. Same as someone that answered phones at a large corporation (it’s all automated now). They’re not going to find another job like that.
When people refuse to get a job because they haven’t found one they like, after two years it’s time to pick a new line of work.
A retort might be to consider someone that previously had such a high income that he/she would face foreclosure and economic ruin by taking an entry-level job. In cases like that, rather than cut off all unemployment benefits completely, they could be reduced to supplement the income from the new job.
I’m all for helping people get back on their feet, but not for enabling them to stand still.
I’m guessing you’ve been lucky enough not to have lost your job during an economic downturn because your idea of what it’s like is completely wrong. I’ve had that honor so let me clear up some of your misconceptions. Yes, you do see help wanted signs out there. What you don’t see is that for every help wanted sign or ad, they’re getting tons of applicants or resumes to which lowers your chances and makes landing a job at almost astronomical odds.
And here’s the other thing. You seem to believe that the unemployed should just lower their pride and grab a lower job just to have anything. Doesn’t work that way. Companies don’t want to hire people who are overqualified either. They know that you’ll be gone when you find something better. Being overqualified is just as bad as underqualified in a recession.
When people refuse to get a job because they haven’t found one they like,
This is just bullshit. People aren’t taking jobs because it’s something they like, people take jobs because it’s something they can live on. And finding one in this economy isn’t as easy as you think. You don’t realize what a “discouraged worker” really is until you send out hundreds of resumes a week without getting anything but rejections. You don’t seem to realize what it feels like to send out resume after resume while the only thing keeping you off the street is your dwindling unemployment checks.
And you don’t get 2/3rds your salary. You get maybe 60% which, btw, is taxed.
You think 3 months is enough time to get a job in this kind of economy? Bullshit.
What Mike K is suggesting is an economic incentive plan aimed at a small segment of the serially unemployed. You know, those wankers who get fired from Dairy Queen every 6 months so they have more time for video games and basically cheat the system (I know some personally and they definitely do exist).
The problem with this suggestion is that it doesn’t apply equally across all types of workers and people, which could create a sense of unfairness. It’s far too difficult to separate intent (i.e. those slack-assed wankers) from people with bad luck or victims of economic circumstances. People with bad luck are often those who can least afford it and would end up even worse off in the end.
After the crisis I lost a lot of coworkers in the US. My company downsized about 10% of the workforce. The problem was that all the other companies in the area also downsized. So now there were swaths of high-tech salespeople and programmers all looking for work in the same area, and Dairy Queen wasn’t about to hire them. One former director ended up doing landscaping for the next year, others couldn’t pay the mortgage after 1.5 years of unemployment. Lots went back to do MBAs and stuff to fill the gap. But they certainly weren’t unemployed for lack of effort or skills (these were ambitious people who didn’t want a gap in their CV nor to miss mortgage payments!).
I’ve known a few people who have taken advantage of the system in one way or another. One was accepting unemployment checks while making more than I did from working for his uncle and getting paid under the table. Another received unemployment while selling drugs. A third was a guy who I worked with who, when offered more hours at work, would turn them down, because if he worked more than 16 hours a week he would lose his unemployment status, and he knew that he’d never make as much working full time as he did off unemployment while padding that income with part time work.
A lot of people need it, but sadly, the one’s who take advantage of it need to be recognized as well.
What can you do with an Associate’s Degree that you can’t do with a HS diploma? I have friends with Bachelor’s Degrees in Business Mgmt that are making less than $30k a year. Contrary to Newt’s opinion on the poor and working classes, laziness and/or lack of education is not the highest contributing factor to unemployment in America. Corporate downsizing, outsourcing and incredibly high pay/benefits at the top are all bigger issues.
His magical solution has as many holes as the programs we already have in place.
I sort of agree with him. I think welfare and unemployment payments should come with the requirement that people work for the state, or pursue educational advancement (paid for by the government). Of couse this will cost us (as society) more money in the short term, but should make for a more competitive work force in the long term.
I wonder if he knows the Declaration of Independence isn’t a legally binding document in this country?
A “historian” should know that nothing can possibly “violate” the Declaration of Independence, since it doesn’t have anything to do with the law. The Constitution, yes. The Declaration? Just a statement of principles with great historical value but no force of law whatsoever.
It’s a pure historical document, with no bearing on what the country is, or how it’s governed. But fundies and assorted conservative idiots love the Declaration because it has one of the very few mentions of the word “God” in any of the founding documents of the nation. Even if the reference to a “God” which no Christian could possibly recognize as his own.
In a funny way a lot of Newt’s ideas are almost progressive: what he said could almost be construed as free job retraining for the unemployed. Even his idea about giving kids after school work operated on the liberal premise of government spending money now (paying kids to do a job that an adult could do better with less supervision) with the hope that it’ll pay off in the long run (that they’ll get a job when they grow up and not sell drugs or whatever). I’m not saying I agree with Newt at all. If anything it’s just a testament to how strange things have gotten. I never thought half baked bizarro world liberal ideas would be coming out of Newt Gingrich’s mouth and getting roaring applause from a tea party crowd, while his main attack at Romney seems to be that he’s rich…
Comments
15 Comments so far. Leave a comment below.Ah yes, in 99 weeks you can earn an associates. Is an associates degree free?! If im unemployed is Newt and Republicans going to send me to college on their dime?! Im all for that!!!
Like or Dislike:
6 
0
I agreed with him right up until the part where he did the usual Right-wing move and whored the Declaration of Independence.
It’s common knowledge that some people abuse unemployment benefits. I know a guy that has no intention of getting another job because he makes more off the Government (read: our tax dollars) than he would starting out at the bottom working again.
My solution: 3 months unemployment, no strings attached. Any amount after that, the recipient has to pay back 10% once he or she gets a job. Another 3 months and it goes up to 20%, and so on. Obviously there would have to be an installment plan for the reimbursement – no one could pay it all off at once. It could be added to their income tax. Just knowing that the longer they wait, the higher the reimbursement total will rise would get most of the couch surfers off their asses and back to work. If they wait long enough it will be cheaper to take ANY job than to continue collecting unemployment.
Like or Dislike:
3 
11
An idea originating from the same place as the 9-9-9 plan: someone’s nether regions. The assumption is that there’s widespread unemployment fraud, which, regardless of your extensive anecdotal evidence, is BS, as it’s extraordinarily rare, compared to fraud regarding corporate welfare, for example. Unemployment is not a good place to be in. It’s an extremely precarious position, and the vast majority of people on it want off it as soon as they can.
It’s simple math, really: there are far more people looking for work than there are jobs available. So even if everyone looked for work 12 hours a day, mathematically, you could only put as many people to work as there are jobs available. So this idea that people who are on unemployment are lazy is just plain idiocy, and it reeks of conservative spoiled brat revenge fantasies.
Like or Dislike:
8 
0
I never said there’s “widespread unemployment fraud.” I said it exists. There are enough jobs, just not enough of the ones that people are willing to do; I see “help wanted” signs in store windows all the time. 99 weeks is almost two years. That 99-week limit has been extended twice now. There are people that have chosen not to work, waiting years for a job that suits their liking, meanwhile still receiving 2/3 of their old salary.
Some jobs are just gone. Someone who made typewriters isn’t going to get another job in that line of work. Same as someone that answered phones at a large corporation (it’s all automated now). They’re not going to find another job like that.
When people refuse to get a job because they haven’t found one they like, after two years it’s time to pick a new line of work.
A retort might be to consider someone that previously had such a high income that he/she would face foreclosure and economic ruin by taking an entry-level job. In cases like that, rather than cut off all unemployment benefits completely, they could be reduced to supplement the income from the new job.
I’m all for helping people get back on their feet, but not for enabling them to stand still.
Like or Dislike:
0 
4
Mike K,
I’m guessing you’ve been lucky enough not to have lost your job during an economic downturn because your idea of what it’s like is completely wrong. I’ve had that honor so let me clear up some of your misconceptions. Yes, you do see help wanted signs out there. What you don’t see is that for every help wanted sign or ad, they’re getting tons of applicants or resumes to which lowers your chances and makes landing a job at almost astronomical odds.
And here’s the other thing. You seem to believe that the unemployed should just lower their pride and grab a lower job just to have anything. Doesn’t work that way. Companies don’t want to hire people who are overqualified either. They know that you’ll be gone when you find something better. Being overqualified is just as bad as underqualified in a recession.
When people refuse to get a job because they haven’t found one they like,
This is just bullshit. People aren’t taking jobs because it’s something they like, people take jobs because it’s something they can live on. And finding one in this economy isn’t as easy as you think. You don’t realize what a “discouraged worker” really is until you send out hundreds of resumes a week without getting anything but rejections. You don’t seem to realize what it feels like to send out resume after resume while the only thing keeping you off the street is your dwindling unemployment checks.
And you don’t get 2/3rds your salary. You get maybe 60% which, btw, is taxed.
You think 3 months is enough time to get a job in this kind of economy? Bullshit.
Like or Dislike:
15 
1
What Mike K is suggesting is an economic incentive plan aimed at a small segment of the serially unemployed. You know, those wankers who get fired from Dairy Queen every 6 months so they have more time for video games and basically cheat the system (I know some personally and they definitely do exist).
The problem with this suggestion is that it doesn’t apply equally across all types of workers and people, which could create a sense of unfairness. It’s far too difficult to separate intent (i.e. those slack-assed wankers) from people with bad luck or victims of economic circumstances. People with bad luck are often those who can least afford it and would end up even worse off in the end.
After the crisis I lost a lot of coworkers in the US. My company downsized about 10% of the workforce. The problem was that all the other companies in the area also downsized. So now there were swaths of high-tech salespeople and programmers all looking for work in the same area, and Dairy Queen wasn’t about to hire them. One former director ended up doing landscaping for the next year, others couldn’t pay the mortgage after 1.5 years of unemployment. Lots went back to do MBAs and stuff to fill the gap. But they certainly weren’t unemployed for lack of effort or skills (these were ambitious people who didn’t want a gap in their CV nor to miss mortgage payments!).
Like or Dislike:
2 
2
I’ve known a few people who have taken advantage of the system in one way or another. One was accepting unemployment checks while making more than I did from working for his uncle and getting paid under the table. Another received unemployment while selling drugs. A third was a guy who I worked with who, when offered more hours at work, would turn them down, because if he worked more than 16 hours a week he would lose his unemployment status, and he knew that he’d never make as much working full time as he did off unemployment while padding that income with part time work.
A lot of people need it, but sadly, the one’s who take advantage of it need to be recognized as well.
Like or Dislike:
0 
0
What can you do with an Associate’s Degree that you can’t do with a HS diploma? I have friends with Bachelor’s Degrees in Business Mgmt that are making less than $30k a year. Contrary to Newt’s opinion on the poor and working classes, laziness and/or lack of education is not the highest contributing factor to unemployment in America. Corporate downsizing, outsourcing and incredibly high pay/benefits at the top are all bigger issues.
His magical solution has as many holes as the programs we already have in place.
Like or Dislike:
5 
0
I sort of agree with him. I think welfare and unemployment payments should come with the requirement that people work for the state, or pursue educational advancement (paid for by the government). Of couse this will cost us (as society) more money in the short term, but should make for a more competitive work force in the long term.
I wonder if he knows the Declaration of Independence isn’t a legally binding document in this country?
Like or Dislike:
3 
3
He probably knows, but he’s depending on the audience being a pack of rubes who don’t.
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1 
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A “historian” should know that nothing can possibly “violate” the Declaration of Independence, since it doesn’t have anything to do with the law. The Constitution, yes. The Declaration? Just a statement of principles with great historical value but no force of law whatsoever.
It’s a pure historical document, with no bearing on what the country is, or how it’s governed. But fundies and assorted conservative idiots love the Declaration because it has one of the very few mentions of the word “God” in any of the founding documents of the nation. Even if the reference to a “God” which no Christian could possibly recognize as his own.
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He’d have got cheers from that crowd if he’d said he was going to grind up the unemployed in to a delicious meat paste to feed Donald Trump with.
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I’m gonna miss Newt when he goes back to his cave…. he never ceases to entertain.
Good plan their Newt. Are you ALSO going to fund the programs required to train ‘those’ people.
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In a funny way a lot of Newt’s ideas are almost progressive: what he said could almost be construed as free job retraining for the unemployed. Even his idea about giving kids after school work operated on the liberal premise of government spending money now (paying kids to do a job that an adult could do better with less supervision) with the hope that it’ll pay off in the long run (that they’ll get a job when they grow up and not sell drugs or whatever). I’m not saying I agree with Newt at all. If anything it’s just a testament to how strange things have gotten. I never thought half baked bizarro world liberal ideas would be coming out of Newt Gingrich’s mouth and getting roaring applause from a tea party crowd, while his main attack at Romney seems to be that he’s rich…
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What if they already have an associates degree ?
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