Discussion: Unemployment compensation

If one considers the trillions of dollars spent by the US government to bail out the Too Big Too Fail banks, then the billions spent on extended employment benefits, even including any fraud, pales in comparison.

Oh, did I mention FRAUD? Naw, white collar executives would never do that.

Rant over.

Decent rant. And whether we extended unemployment or not, we don't let families starve in this country, especially in Massachusetts I've heard. So if this family was tossed off of unemployment, and onto food stamps and welfare, would taxpayers benefit?

As I recall, US unemployment benefits were extended shortly after the election last November, in exchange for extending the Bush tax cuts. I would guess that the unemployed are doing a lot more with their extended benefits to stimulate the economy right now, than I am with the taxes I don't have to pay next April 15.

Yep. I'd rather pay more taxes and live in a more reasonable country, where some attention was paid to things that actually did some good instead of relentlessly lining the pockets of the powerful at the expense of infrastructure and treating people decently.

It still pains me when, for example, I hear this from the lady walking on the next treadmill at the Y: "I turned the job down [and stayed on unemployment] because my son and I can't live on thirty[-something] thousand per year". And goes on to explain, to the guy she's talking to, the couple of ways she makes money off the books.