Today two million unemployed Americans say goodbye to their unemployment checks.
I have never been good at saying goodbye. For the purposes of this post that really does not matter.
I have never received unemployment benefits. So I will not be one of the two million US citizens who will have to say goodbye to their unemployment checks today.
These folks have been collecting free money from the US Government for at least 99 weeks. That is about two years for all you math gurus.
Many democrats are disappointed. They wanted to extend unemployment further. They felt that we should keep on paying folks who have been out of work for two years.
hmmmm...
Personally I think that logic is nuts. I think two years is nuts. I think our policy makers must be ignorant to the fact that a HUGE portion of the folks who collect unemployment are milking the system for a free ride. I know I was clueless until about 4 or 5 years ago when I I was of the age and maturity to have friends and acquaintances who were unemployed.
I must confess that I do not know a whole lot of folks who make less than 40,000 especially if you don't include those whom are students.
Just the same I have estimated that I know of about 8-12 people on unemployment. Nine of those folks (in my humble opinion) are working the system over. They are not working because they are getting paid not to work. Many of them would look at you stupid if you asked why they don't want to go get a job while they are collecting unemployment. Maybe they are right.
Life is all about incentive and very little else if anything else.
So why is it that someone whom collects a pay check whether they clock in for 8 hours doing something they would most likely rather not do or if they do as they would if on an extended weekend.
I am not sure one can argue with that logic.
There is pride... but that is "hit" once your on unemployment, so why not milk it.
There is principle... but those folks never apply for unemployment.
Frankly, I think anything over two or three months of "free money" is plenty. Sure maybe in many situations those folks should still get some sort of aid from their government. But the shape and form of that assistance should not be a blind check week after week.
If nothing else we should at least put them to work and get some kind of value for the tax payers buck.
I would not be surprised if some of you are growling as you read this post. but let's just take a second and step back.
Every week 2,000,000 checks go out. These checks are going to folks who under normal conditions would have been dropped from unemployment due to the normal expiration of a citizens right to unemployment. However we extended them. So these people whom have already maxed out the system were given an additional 100 pay checks. The working man paid for an additional two million salaries every week for two years. Don't forget these are just the folks whom were extended the extra 99 week duration. By this I am implying that there are way more then two million collecting unemployment.
Given the above considerations, if we do the math at just a 100 dollars a week then we come up with about 20 billion dollars. That is about the amount that all online advertisers spend over 3 to 5 months total. That accounts for at least a decade of porn revenue. Now our figure we just calculated is wrong. People get more then 100 a week.
I don't want to take part in a more realistic calculation. It is to scary.
So... as I stated earlier, two million unemployed Americans will have to say good bye to their unemployment checks.
GOOD!
How much you want to bet we see a spike in employment numbers with in 25 - 35 days.
I am calling it.
