Anyone remember when they were small? When you wanted to do something, like use your blanket superhero cape to fly off the couch? And your mom said "No."
Then there came the whiny "Whyyyyyyy?"
And the stern answer, "Because!"
(Perhaps followed again by more variants...)
But this is about the unemployment crisis...Leap off that couch and follow below the fold.
This diaryhad an excellent paragraph in it. I think that paragraph needs expanding...here it is:
"It is true that there are some who are not taking lower paying jobs, because their benefits are better than the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour. Why would they do that? Well it might have something to do with the fact that they are already going under financially on the amount of money they are getting in benefits, so taking a job where they will make less does not actually make things any better.
It might serve to make the Republicans like Sharon Angle and Rand Paul happy with people working "honest jobs" but the reality is those not taking a wage lower than their benefits are making the rational decision. They will not get COBRA subsidies when they are employed and those types of jobs are extremely unlikely to have health care benefits. The net affect of this would be to make their financial crisis worse by orders of magnitude."
For the Ayn Randians, Republicans, Tea Partiers and some sterner libertarians or Blue Dogs that might be reading...they might get simplistic. Given some of the politicians junior high school level logic, displayed proudly on C Span, lurkers might want spoon fed specifics. Somehow, it all starts with healthcare...
losing cobra, as STDS mentioned.
if they take this job, and they have kids or someone with an expense generating medical condition, they have to pay out of pocket for doctor visits. expensive prescriptions, ER emergencies (Which can include ambulances, lab tests, cat scans, etc outside of the ER bill itself.) Or God forbid an inpatient stay. Medicaid's income limit is too low for most that have UE benefits or even that 7.25/hr job...to apply for it.
If one has dental or vision coverage as part of cobra that has to be considered too. A couple of root canals and a pair of glasses later, and that's another out of pocket expense to pay out of 7.25 an hour.)
Then, there's a possible obligation to those too-big-to-fail-banks.
They got bailed out by us, in order that they impose unyielding hardship on the people that bailed them out. WTF?
They'd like to pay their mortgage too, and keep a roof overhead. The UE might be high enough to allow that, where the minimum wage job wouldn't.
Taking a job where the end result is homelessness is a lousy idea.
And, yes, hanging on to more money in the short run will help. Not to make people "lazy," but if they can pay off a nearly finished high end bill (one car pymt, one credit card etc) it makes sense for them to have stayed on the UE benefits longer, looking ahead and saying, "Well, when they do run out, at least I won't have this (xxx) bill."
And, if they take the job, and need all those things, they'll be unable to pay for them, go bankrupt, and be unable to find a second job since a credit check is part of most hiring processes today. (Per this excellent diary.
So there are some specifics, for you who are against, or who voted against an UE extension.
If you want millions more economic refugees in the US, more poverty, more homelessness...not in a developing nation, but right the fcuk here in the US...
Then ignore the bloody facts and keep supporting/voting as if you have a permanent case of fingers in your ears.
PS Let's not forget the jaw dropping vote against veterans benefits yesterday too.
I'm sorry. Just how dumb are these Congresspeople? When did anyone in this country decide that electing teh stupid was a good thing?
Ok, rant off.