Who are the 99ers? Let's go to Silicon Valley with 60 Minutes:
OMgosh, 17% is the true number of those struggling with un and underemployment. 22% in California! Hours cut, quit looking.
20% of the unemployed have college degrees.
1/3 of the unemployed have been unemployed for over a year. That hasn't happened since the Depression
Long-term unemployment is wrecking years of saving and planning.
There was a letter published yesterday about a 99er writing as he committed suicide.
There is a comment in the thread of another suicide.
October 3, 2010
This week the 99er Nation launches a “White Ribbon Campaign” for all 99ers and those who support the passage of a Tier 5, for all long term unemployed Americans.
Shall we join in and wear a white ribbon in support of the 99ers? Why not? I have a Jobs Jobs Jobs pin I got from One Nation Working Together. Memorize those stats in the intro. I don't think people really understand how dire things are for millions of people mostly aged 55 and up.
Millions are about to lose their long-term unemployment benefits...again
Federally-funded extended benefits, which give the unemployed up to 73 weeks of benefits once they exhaust 26 weeks of state benefits, have needed several reauthorizations in the past year, and Congress has let them lapse three times. The shorter lapses didn't cause too much of an interruption in benefits, but over the summer, as Senate Republicans filibustered a reauthorization for 50 days, 2.5 million people stopped receiving checks for several weeks.
"It is critical that a full-year renewal of the program moves to the top of the agenda when Congress returns on November 29th, to minimize the hardship and disruption to families and the economy that will result from the November 30th cut-off." said Christine Owens, director of the National Employment Law Project, in a statement.
As Jamess so beautifully says:
We can afford an endless Tax Holiday for Millionaires --
But we can't afford to keep Millions from ending up in souplines?
What soup lines? Where are the soup lines? People are hungry now. Do we need souplines? Oh, there's a really nice soup kitchen in Silicon Valley. See 60 minutes video below. Poor Scott Pelley. You can tell he is really saddened by the sad reality he found.
1 in 6 Americans are now on food assistance. Where do the homeless cook? Isn't there anyway we can coax the corporations and banks sitting with trillions in cash to want to patriotically help out here?
Something awful is happening to people, and most of us seem sheltered from their storm.
Well, that storm will find us I am sure.
I have such an ominous inkling after reading Mark's suicide letter yesterday morning. Mark might have passed on.
I know we don't normally copy/paste an entire writing, but I was so touched by this letter that I had to share it with you. Whether or not the letter is real (haven't found any proof it isn't btw), this letter expresses the heartfelt sense of alienation so many are feeling in America, where we are told we are The Greatest Nation.
Well, if this happens in The Greatest Nation, than God help the rest of the less Great Nations!
TELL THE GOP TO END IT'S 99ers DEATH PANEL. Whether is spiritual, mental, or dignity people's hope is dying. Some, faced with no options other than homlessness and hunger, having hope expire, choose to end their lives.
Those of us who can, need to work a little harder for those who can't help themselves right now because THERE ARE NO JOBS! thanks to the heartless "just like people? really?" so-deemed by the Supreme (really?) Court corporate persons.
Here is what Mark wrote:
To the unemployed, sick, disabled and poor:
Hello,
I'm unemployed over 2 years now, a 99er without any benefits for 3 months. I followed Unemployed Friends almost from its start, never posted until now, but am grateful for my time with you all. I did as asked with calls and emails, etc. I've a confession to make to you all. I'm a criminal.
I've obeyed the 10 commandments and all laws except: I'm unemployed and that's now a crime, I'm poor and that's a crime, I'm worthless surplus population and that's a crime, I'm a main street American Citizen born and raised in the USA and that's now a crime, and I'm euthanizing myself as I write this note -- so arrest my corpse. This isn't a call for help, the deed is done, it's not what I wanted. Death is my best available option. It's not just that my bank account is $4, that I've not eaten in a week, not because hunger pangs are agonizing (I'm a wimp), not because I live in physical and mental anguish, not because the landlady is banging on the door non-stop and I face eviction, not that Congress and President have sent a strong message they no longer help the unemployed. It's because I'm a law abiding though worthless, long-term unemployed older man who is surplus population. Had I used my college education to rip people off and steal from the elderly, poor, disabled and main street Americans I would be wearing different shoes now -- a petty king. Hard work, honesty, loving kindness, charity and mercy, and becoming unemployed and destitute unable to pay your bills are all considered foolishness and high crimes in America now. Whereas stealing and lying and cheating and being greedy to excess and destroying the fabric of America is rewarded and protected - even making such people petty king and petty queens among us.
Since the end of 2008, when corporate America began enjoying the resumption of growth, profits have swelled from an annualized pace of $995 billion to the current $1.66 trillion as of the end of September 2010. Over the same period, the number of non-farm jobs counted by the Labor Department has slipped from 13.4 million to 13 million - there is no recovery for the unemployed and main street. We taxpayers have handed trillions of dollars to the same bank and insurance industry that started our economic disaster with its reckless gambling. We bailed out General Motors. We distributed tax-cuts to businesses that were supposed to use this lubrication to expand and hire. For our dollars, we have been rewarded with starvation, homelessness and a plague of fear - a testament to post-national capitalism.
12 years ago I lost the last of my family. 10 years ago I lost the love of my life, couldn't even visit him in the hospital because gays have no rights. I fought through and grieved and went on as best I could. 7 years ago I was diagnosed with Diabetes and Stage 2 high blood pressure with various complications including kidney problems, mild heart failure, Diabetic Retinopathy. These conditions are debilitating and painful. I am on over 8 prescribed medications, which is very difficult without insurance and income. But I struggled on and my primary care giver was very pleased with my effort overtime with my A1C at 7. Still these physical disabilities have progressively worsened, and I have had a harder and harder time functioning in basic ways. All the while I give thanks to God because I know there are many more worse off than me - and I tried to help by giving money to charities and smiling at people who looked down and sharing what little I had.
I am college educated and worked 35 years in management, receiving written references and praise from every boss for whom I worked. Yet, after thousands of resumes, applications, emails, phone calls, and drop ins, I've failed to get a job even at McDonalds. I've discovered there are 3 strikes against me -- most 99ers will understand. Strike 1 -- businesses are not hiring long term unemployed -- in fact many job ads now underline "the unemployed need not apply." Strike 2 -- I am almost 60 years old. Employers prefer hiring younger workers who demand less and are better pack mules. Strike 3 - for every job opening I've applied there are over 300 applicants according to each business who allow a follow up call. With the U3 unemployment holding steady at 9.6% and U6 at 17% for the past 18 months the chances of me or any 99er landing a job is less than winning the Mega Million Jackpot. On top of that even the most conservative economists admit unemployment will not start to fall before 2012 and most predict up to 7 years of this crap.
I believe the Congress and President have no intention of really aiding the unemployed - due to various political reasons and their total removal from the suffering of most Americans, their cold-hearted, self serving natures. Had they really wanted to help us, they could have used unspent stimulus monies or cut foolish costs like the failed wars or foreign aid, and farm subsidies. The unspent stimulus money alone cold have taken care of ALL unemployed persons for five years or until the unemployment rate reached 7% if Congress and the President really wanted to help us - and not string us all along with a meager safety net that fails every few months. In any case if I were to survive homelessness (would be like winning the mega-millions) and with those 3 strikes against me, in 7 more years I'll be near 70 with the new retirement age at 70 -- now who will hire an old homeless guy out of work for 9 years with just a few years until retirement?
So, here I am. Long term unemployed, older man, with chronic health problems, now totally broke, hungry, facing eviction. My landlady should really be an advocate for the unemployed - she bangs on my door demanding I take action. A phone call and a "please" are not enough for her - she is angry. She is right to be angry with me, I am unemployed - as apparently everyone is now angry with us unemployed.
211 and social services cannot help single men. Food banks and other charities are unable to help any more folks - they are overwhelmed with the poor in this nation. So I have the "freedom" to be homeless and destitute and "pursue happiness" in garbage cans and then die - yay for America huh? It's the end of November and cold. A diabetic homeless older person will experience amputations in the winter months. So I will be raiding garbage cans for food, as my body literally falls apart, a foot here, a finger there. I have experienced and even worked with pain from my diseases - hardship I can face. I just cannot muster the courage to slowly die in agony and humiliation in the gutter.
I have no family, I have no friends. For the past 2 years I've had nobody to talk with as people who knew me react to the "unemployed" label as if it were leprosy and contagious. I am not a bad person, in fact people really like me. But everyone seems to be on a tight budget these days and living in incredible fear. It is hopeless since we all are hearing more and more that we unemployed are to blame for unemployment, that we are just lazy, that we are no good, that we are sinners, that we are druggies, yet we are the victims who suffer and are punished while the robber baron banksters and tycoons become Senators, Congress, Presidents and petty kings. So the only option left for me is merciful self euthanasia.
It is with a heavy heart that I have set my death in motion, but what I am facing is not living. So off I go, I have made peace with God and placed my burden on Jesus and He forgives me. This nation has become evil to the core, with cold-hearted politicians and tycoons squeezing what little Main Street Americans have left. It is not the America into which I was born - the land of the free and the home of the brave with kind folks who help neighbors - it is now land of the Tycoon-haves and the rest of us have-nots who march into hopelessness and despair.
Every unemployed person I have met over these past 2 years have been saintly. Sharing what little they have, and being charitable - being kind and patient and supportive. Isn't it amazing that we Americans who suffer so much, have not taken to the streets in violence, riots or gotten out the guillotines and marched on tycoons and Washington in revolt as would happen in most other nations? But rather we plead with deaf politicians to please help us. We don't demand huge sums - just 300 bucks a week, barely enough to cover housing for most. Most of all we say, please help us get a job, please allow us dignity.
I can't help juxtapose our plight to the tycoons and politicians. They are never satisfied with their enormous wealth, and always want more millions no matter whom it hurts. They STEAL from pension funds, banks, The People and government, and little Wall Street investors. Then rather than face punishment, they become petty kings in this world. They are disloyal to America, unpatriotic, and serve their own foreign UN-American greedy causes and demand more and more and more. I feel that this is not the nation into which I was born. I was born in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave. America, where people give as much as they receive. America, where all people work for the common good, and try to leave a better and more prosperous nation for the next generation. American, where people help their neighbors and show charity and mercy. This new America is alien to me - it is an America of greed and corruption and avarice and mean spirited selfishness and hatred of the common good - it is an America of savage beasts roaring and tearing at the weak, and bullying the humble and peacemakers and poor and those without means to defend themselves. I am not welcome here anymore. I don't belong here anymore. It's as if some evil beast controls government, the economy, and our lives now.
I must go now, my home is someplace else. Goodbye and God bless you all. God bless the unemployed and poor and elderly and disabled. God bless America and the American people except the tycoons and politicians - may God retain the sins of tycoons and politicians and phony preachers and send them to the Devil.
Mark
I guess the Tier 5 backers search for desperate 99er as unemployment extensions end. November 26th, 2010 12:13 pm ET
I've searched but can't find any proof that Mark has been found. Can people just disappear in desperation?
SeaTurtle has a great idea:
Xmas Drive for 99 ers? Call to Action!
The State of Maine resolved funding for their State's unemployed workers:
Maine businesses face tax hike to keep unemployment flowing
Imagine New York City launching this stellar idea for the financial district!
“There will be an increase, up one level,” said Maine Department of Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman. She said the cost to employers will go from about $93 per worker per year to about $103 per worker per year. Overall, it will cost Maine employers about $14.5 million more in tax payments.
Fortman said Maine is in far better shape than many states, with 35 states already borrowing from the federal government because the state funds have been exhausted. That borrowing comes with interest and federal surtaxes on employers to make state funds return to solvency, she said.
“If we had to borrow, the tax increase would be a lot larger,” she said.
There is no doubt that we are in a difficult economic mess.
Yet, it would seem that the majority isn't in the same deep straights that the 99ers are.
Who are the 99ers? Let's go to Silicon Valley with 60 Minutes:
OMgosh, 17% is the true number of those struggling with un and underemployment. 22% in California! Hours cut, quit looking.
20% of the unemployed have college degrees.
1/3 of the unemployed have been unemployed for over a year. That hasn't happened since the Depression
Long-term unemployment is wrecking years of saving and planning.
People are losing homes they have owned and paid for, for decades.
I would guess that most 99ers are over age 55, but I could be wrong. What is really sad is those 55 and older are finding it nearly impossible to find a job.
But this reality isn't being talked about over on Fox News. No, just like the middle class was turned against the Welfare Queens in the 1980s, the still employed middle class is being turned against the 99ers.
Here's what Glenn Beck is teaching his minions about the 99ers: Lazy Socialists!
I would imagine that even those lost in Beckistan might be experiencing some of the same problems. Surely some have become 99ers themselves. Perhaps they will checkout of Beckistan and join the people out here with a heart!
What will we do, as a country, to help these people? Will they, like the same age demographic in Japan during the 90s, be left to sleep on the streets and dig through garbage bins?
Could you or someone you know face this dismal fate?
CALL CONGRESS AND BEG THEM TO HELP. BEG THEM TO EXTEND TIER V UNEMPLOYMENT FOR ANOTHER YEAR! Before you know who is in charge of the agenda.
And tweet the begeebers out of this and any/all 99er information you find, K?