When I first started following this blog because my daughter had been essentially murdered by the American Health Care System some ten years ago and DKos was fortunate enough to have NYCEVE on its list of contributors, the first thing I learned was that KOS wanted "Think Pieces" instead of much more effective Bumper Sticker Diaries.
I think that edict was wrong headed and of course many important writers no longer contribute here just because of that.
But on the outside chance that wisdom has prevailed in the ensuing years let me addresss a different topic.
I am 77 years old and I have been working since I was 16 ( on my birthday ) but two weeks ago I got laid off and tried to appylyfor Unemployment Insurance.
Keep reading the rest is short
I live in New York State, which thinks it is the greatest at everything but in fact it is virtually impossible to use the their system ( whether it is on line or by phone ) to file a claim.
Has anyone else had the same experience
Let me add that 14 years ago after having worked for over 40 years without ever drawing benefits and was at the time making $ 140,000 per year I got laid off because a competitor which at the time was receiving Government Tax subsidies for creating Jobs in NYS bought us, shut us down and shipped our manufacturing business to Mexico.
In desperation ( because there was no longer any manufacturing going on in Binghamton NY where I worked ) I entered a training program at Prudential Securities to become a possible stock broker making $100,000 a year less.
At the end of that training program I said I could not possibly do this for a living since they just wanted me to scam my old colleagues into dumping their 401 k's in favor of their own junk funds,
And besides this was the year 2000 when the PE was 35 time earnings and there really wasn't a single buy anywhere in sight.
To rest my case let me say only that the stock market now 14 years later has still not in real terms ever risen to the level that it was 14 years ago.
Nonetheless because I refused a $ 100,000 cut in pay to become a thief, the NYS dept of labor said I was refusing honorable work and shut off any hope of benefits
Is it any wonder that we now have a scum bag like Cuomo governing the state.
The point is only that you can't use either the phone or the web to access your lawful benefits
This is worse than the VA scandal