Unemployment Benefits: Five Pervasive Myths

washingtonpost.com:

The Senate voted this week to restore benefits to the long-term unemployed, aid that expired more than seven weeks ago. Under the extension, unemployed workers can receive a maximum of 99 weeks of income assistance. Helping the long-term unemployed in a period of prolonged recession is generally a bipartisan issue. But this time, Republicans argued that the measure would add too much to the national debt. It's a discussion that gets bogged down in several myths about how to help the long-term unemployed, and the economy, at the same time.

Read the whole story: washingtonpost.com

Comments

[kathy beer]

05:43 PM on 07/26/2010

I'm puzzled about the FUTA tax and it's application to the unemployment issue. As a business owner I pay a small federal tax for each employee (about $40 -50 a year) which I assumed covered these Federal unemployment extensions. Most of the time this money just builds up until needed. There should be a huge surplus from previous years to cover the needs. No one ever mentions this tax and how it can benefit the worker. Why?

[Aelfgifu]

11:58 AM on 07/27/2010

Uh.... it's not politically expedient? ;)

[Azterix]

03:04 PM on 07/26/2010

The U.S. government seems to bailout only corporations, nothing less. Why not a mom and pop business? BTW since when does a society must be as perfect as possible in employment? Unemployment can be as high as possible. We must come to grip with 20-50% unemployment. That's no MYTH!

[Imno Genius]

11:28 AM on 07/25/2010

This is no victory, Geniuses. The White House and fellow Democrats should be ashamed of themselves...we are back to (or maybe never left) playing politics with hard-working (when there were jobs), tax-paying, play-by-the-rules American's lives. THis is not the America thousand of brave Americans of all color and ethinicity fought and continue to fight and die for...we are becoming a third-world banana republic.

[dragonladywaltham]

08:31 PM on 07/25/2010

It took Bush 8 years to get us here. Give Obama 8 years to reverse it ONLY if the Repugs cooperate!!!

[InYourWorld]

09:48 PM on 07/25/2010

If Bush get the blame for 8 years then why cant Obama take the blame for the next 8? The Dems didnt cooperate with Bush, and the Repubs wont cooperate with Obama. This is a Democrat controlled WH and government. Dems need to be be accountable and quit riding on the coat tails of the the blame game. Bush really screwed things up, but blaming him for current inaction does nothing to make things better.

I am thinking that most of our politicians need to focus their efforts on moving forwards and making things better instead of dragging up the past an blaming everyone else.

[local21]

09:32 AM on 07/25/2010

I would be more than willing to pay part of my wages into a separate unemployment fund that would be used to help out in times of recession/depression.

[shaaronie]

06:10 PM on 07/25/2010

What an excellent idea! So would I, especially that I was until 5 months ago, one of the long term unemployed (year and a half). You've gained a fan!

[dragonladywaltham]

10:28 PM on 07/24/2010

Lets address the 99ers now!!!!

[Brian Perry]

07:57 PM on 07/24/2010

No job to earn my keep.Many bills comin in I'm in deep.99'ers dont seem to count anymore.But someday we will get the floor.Seeing others get help was very nice.Ignoring the 99'ers hope the President thinks twice.Get me on ESPN so i can go to the highest bidder.Please God we need help put that on twitter.Brian Perry Rumford Rhode Island

[Brian Perry]

07:53 PM on 07/24/2010

No job to earn my keep.More bills comin in i'm in to deep.99'ers dont seem to count anymore.But someday we will get the floor.Seeing others get help is very nice.Ignoring the 99'ers hope the President thinks twice.Get me on ESPN so i can go to the highest bidder.Please God we need help put that on twitter. With over 1.4 million 99'ers you would think the Democrats would have included us.This is the worst economy since the great depression.The Republican leadership insults the jobless by saying they were for extensions .Brian Perry Rumford Rhode Island

[RoyPiper]

06:48 PM on 07/24/2010

It lacks all common sense to think that point #2 is correct. How...how is TAKING money from those who earn it and giving it to the unemployed "good" for the economy? It simply takes spending from one pot and places it in another. It is a transfer of spending from one group to another. If the statement is true, than theoretically, you should take 100% of people's money, and distributed it to everyone. According to the author, this should create an economic explosion! But obviously it would do nothing but reduce economic efficiency.

[AlphaDragon]

08:39 PM on 07/24/2010

1) It's UI...those people who are unemployed now worked at a job before where money was paid out for just such an occasion

2) People who still have jobs at this time are not necessarily going to be spending 100% of that money they are receiving. It is quite possible that they will instead be saving at least a portion of it or perhaps all of it. However, those who rely on unemployment will need to be paying out %100 of it to remain solvent. This is good for an economy in a recession. Your solution, to take everyone's money and distrubute it (I will presume evenly, even though you never said that word) would most certainly lessen the inpact of the recession.

[collettethehedgehog]

09:09 AM on 07/25/2010

Think of it as the bit of gas you need to pour in to get your lawn mower engine to restart once it's run dry.
To go from one point to Redistributing all money is hysterical thinking. Take what we are facing to the the end conclusion. If they do not get some money priming the pump or not people will literally begin to starve in this country and freeze to death from the cold. The worst of the Great Depression conditions under Hoover before FDR got elected. If the GOP is elected judging by your post -that is exactly whqat they will do. Fox news has been touting that Hoover was doing the right thing. So presumably a GOP president will let people suffer to that extent. And after that there will be no more GOP as it stands today. Could be the be the best thing for the US since FDR was elected.

[Klarsonent]

04:48 PM on 07/24/2010

The Middle Class is shrinking in America. I don't necessarily agree with every statement in the following article, but the stats are revealing:

http://finance.yahoo.com/tech-ticker/the-u.s.-middle-class-is-being-wiped-out-here%27s-the-stats-to-prove-it-520657.html?

[Skeptical Patriot]

02:41 PM on 07/24/2010

Why not re-direct unemployment into a direct subsidy for employment e.g. government to provide a direct subsidy equal to the benefit to small/medium sized businesses to employ currently unemployed workers for 1 year.

[AlphaDragon]

06:45 PM on 07/24/2010

On paper that sounds pretty good.

Didn't welfare try something similar and it stunk because the businesses weren't regulated properly, the subsidies were not accounted for and people often had to travel so far to work that they still could not pay their bills and get food after paying for the insane travel demands?

Or is my mind playing tricks on me...

[RoyPiper]

06:50 PM on 07/24/2010

How about government staying out of it and letting it fix itself? Depressions/recessions prior to the creation of The Fed and the income tax in 1913 usually lasted 6-18 months. As government has become bigger the recessions last longer and longer. Government bureaucrats who know little to nothing about business and economics certainly know less about how to create a job than millions of individual business owners.

[AlphaDragon]

08:33 PM on 07/24/2010

That is a stupendous idea!

Threre should have been no Fed Money going to AIG, No Bank Bailout, No Government assistance for the Big 3, and no stimulus!

We would have been much better off...or maybe not. What do you think?

[dragonladywaltham]

10:32 PM on 07/24/2010

Do you realize how much smaller the GNP was, and how many Americans were in rural jobs back then? I didn't think so or you never would have suggested it.

[davidwayneosedach]

01:45 PM on 07/24/2010

The vast majority of unemployed really want to work. Sitting around and doing nothing but collecting unemployment checks gets old. Fast!

[they-r-us]

12:16 PM on 07/24/2010

Thanks to the public school system that is fundamentally dictated by the Corporatocracy, students are taught to follow, think inside the box, and be good coporate/military employees by melting and waiting for instructions during times of stress and turmoil.

[jdevans]

12:45 PM on 07/24/2010

Unfortunately, the public school system was designed to fit the needs of the 19th century factory owners, not the 21st century.

[Azterix]

04:43 PM on 07/26/2010

Yup! Thus today IT is designed to fit the needs of service providers.

[Skeptical Patriot]

02:40 PM on 07/24/2010

You must be joking. The public school system is run by school boards that are predominately union members. The laws of states are designed to maintain the status quo and mediocrity through tenure for teachers. The entire system is a union derivative.

[AlphaDragon]

06:55 PM on 07/24/2010

School Boards are not Union Members at all, I have no idea where you get your information from but you are 100% incorrect.

They are either elected at the lower levels or appointed by governors and their appointees at higher levels and none of them join a union.

[Azterix]

04:49 PM on 07/26/2010

Fits to run by union's needs?

[noam4prez]

11:44 AM on 07/24/2010

"Henry Ford, in March 1931, said the crisis was here because 'the average man won't really do a day's work unless he is caught and cannot get out of it. There is plenty of work to do if people would do it.' A few weeks later he laid off 75,000 workers."

Howard Zinn, "A People's History of the United States"

[collettethehedgehog]

09:20 AM on 07/25/2010

God Bless the little fascist. Just goes to show good ideas dont always come form good people. Founding Fathers embraced Adam Smith's economic ideals for this reason. A large MIDDLEclass is vital to maintaining any kind democracy. The very wealthy tend to get paranoid and mean and decide their rights are better than other peoples.

[Azterix]

04:57 PM on 07/26/2010

Ford completely took advantage of the weak, but wasn't the first.

[collettethehedgehog]

09:22 AM on 07/25/2010

You do know Henry Ford supported Hitler-even went to Germany to fawn his praises. It actualy was a bit of a narrow squeak that fascism didnt gain more ground here.

[Bill Downey]

11:21 AM on 07/24/2010

Is it possible to change mortgage structure? Would a 50 year mortgage option help those under water? Could taxes be implemented on outsourced companies or the countries they outsource to i.e reduction in aid, trade restrictions etc. We need to encourage green business and fuel efficiency and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Also. should refineries be concentrated in the most fragile ecological area of the Gulf? We need ideas, imagination and creativity to get out of this mess.

[collettethehedgehog]

09:26 AM on 07/25/2010

Imagination,innovation and creativity are just for corporate ad campaigns. Lobbyists have made sure anything getting close to Yankee Ingenuity is squashed by their GOP stooges before the populace begins to wake up and realize we don't actually need monopolies and oligarchies.

[MeinNH]

11:11 AM on 07/24/2010

Maybe it would be helpful to cut prices on the necessities: housing, food, electric, phone, clothing gasoline, heat and in these days internet service to help out those who are struggling. If prices reflected what the income of those who are not billionaires, maybe people on unemployment would have a fighting chance at survival. Instead prices rise weekly on everything and no one can catch up.

[Klarsonent]

04:51 PM on 07/24/2010

Good thinking, but I think most people who are unemployed are already cutting back on expenses.

[MeinNH]

05:30 PM on 07/24/2010

Not the unemployed cutting back, I think that they have cut back enough, but those businesses and corporations making a fortune cutting prices to match the income levels of those who are struggling... If prices matched the low incomes that people have now, they would stand a fighting chance and maybe the economy would actually see some progress.

[treemonkey]

09:04 PM on 07/25/2010

With a sustained state of joblessness, with, or without the billionaires, the current high prices cease to be sustainable, leading to deflation. This, then accomplishes what you suggest. With Bernanke's strident warnings of the dangers of deflation, that scenario might actually not be so far away. Could you imagine the Republican horror of the idea of prices actually falling and the risk to the obscene profits of their puppeteers. A little humanity can go a long way towards horrifying the wingnut right.