1.3 Million Jobless Americans Lose Benefits Today

[MelissaWV]

As I recall.. they busted some up here,, logging. (Not that I want to do that for a living again)
And there have been construction projects around the area,, BUT THEY DON'T HIRE LOCALS.

They bring crews from elsewhere.

I'm am long past whining about my unemployment. I am blacklisted. I stay busy around the farm,, and God has provided all we need.
I wait patiently for the economy to crash, and for the State to go broke..
Then 80% of the population will leave this area,, and those that remain can do so without interference.

Honestly, it's always sounded to me like you are self-reliant and self-employed That, too, takes a hell of a lot of work and focus.

 

[MelissaWV]

As I recall.. they busted some up here,, logging. (Not that I want to do that for a living again)
And there have been construction projects around the area,, BUT THEY DON'T HIRE LOCALS.

They bring crews from elsewhere.

I'm am long past whining about my unemployment. I am blacklisted. I stay busy around the farm,, and God has provided all we need.
I wait patiently for the economy to crash, and for the State to go broke..
Then 80% of the population will leave this area,, and those that remain can do so without interference.

Her point was about the notion that it's impossible to move to find work, especially with a family. Somewhere along the line people began replacing "difficult" with "impossible" and it has stuck.

* * *

If it does become impossible, then private charities are an option, volunteer work, and anything to keep yourself a viable employable person within reason. We are far from 100% employment --- even in unskilled jobs --- in this country. It isn't "hatred" to want to help privately, to think that people need to stop putting quite so many restrictions on what job they're willing to take, etc.. And it's interesting that somehow ageism leapt into this. But in the end, I can only wish Gunny luck... since he's actually looking, and somewhat outside of his comfort zone at that, rather than sitting on his butt collecting whatever freebies he can slurp up.

 

[pcosmar]

Honestly, it's always sounded to me like you are self-reliant and self-employed That, too, takes a hell of a lot of work and focus.

Yeah,, but I don't pay well.
I keep junk running and the house warm. I am my wife's driver..

I would like to be more "productive",, and have some money for more than "necessities". Maybe even some improvements around here.
I had posted some of my experiences in trying to find work.

I have come to acceptance.

 

[MelissaWV]

Yeah,, but I don't pay well.
I keep junk running and the house warm. I am my wife's driver..

I would like to be more "productive",, and have some money for more than "necessities". Maybe even some improvements around here.
I had posted some of my experiences in trying to find work.

I have come to acceptance.

Hermit for hire! You could make a killing here right now taking down and packing up Christmas decorations (no one likes doing that part).

 

[angelatc]

Most Mexicans have family here already.
Most people don't have family near the oil fields of North Dakota.
And plus, Mexican jobs are not high competition jobs.

So you're saying that Mexicans will move to another freaking country for low paying entry-level jobs, but Americans can't be expected to move to another state for high paying entry level jobs?

 

[Origanalist]

So you're saying that Mexicans will move to another freaking country for low paying entry-level jobs, but Americans can't be expected to move to another state for high paying entry level jobs?

Yes, he is. The Dude abides.

 

[devil21]

(mostly stream of consciousness thoughts in my reply here so pardon if it's a bit disjointed)

I work full time, and I commute 6 hours a day to get there and back.
I just don't expect this of everyone, nor do I think it is reasonable, or reasonable to expect anyone else to be as super-human awesome as all the people here on RPF with their awesome tales of what good workers they are and what piss-poor workers their fellow countrymen are. And as I have stated before, I wouldn't even be able to have this job without the help of friends and family who fronted me the money for the suits and the transportation, because I was in a desperate place, after no income for over a year, all my savings gone. And I applied like crazy... ...I don't know when the last time any of you tried to get a job, but it is far from easy to even get one at Safeway or Fred Meyer right now.

There's a solution to that. Stop waiting for someone else to give you a job. Create your own job and then you can give others work. That was the principle that made this country a powerhouse in the first place. I find it odd that if I take risks to create my own job, which eventually leads to giving work to others to support themselves too, my pointing out how it started makes my story "an awesome tale of how great a worker I am", which apparently is worthy of scorn to you. Without job creator's "awesomeness", would anybody have jobs? I don't get the logic there.

The alternative is a communist society where jobs aren't really jobs and paychecks aren't really paychecks.

"We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us" - old Soviet factory joke

Every time there is a thread about the plight of the working poor and unemployed on these forums, it should come with a dozen extra hand towels, because of all the self-gratifying masturbation that follows. Everybody likes to talk about how awesome they are, and how awesome their kids are, and how they are such better workers and smarter than everyone else. It's just so fucking disgusting.

Every time these threads come up, butthurt types also ignore the part where most of us rational people recognize that not everyone on these programs is just a lazy leech. They are out there and they're growing though! The problem is that these programs that started out as means to help people that TRULY NEEDED TEMPORARY ASSISTANCE has morphed into permanent subsidies and incentives to not exercise entrepreneurial spirit but rather to stay dependent on the gov't and remain mediocre.

If you want to discuss how varying levels of intelligence in society contribute to the widening gap between the haves and have nots, we can discuss it, but that would get into the liberal education system being implemented to dumb people down. It's called Common Core because everyone (except the elites that send their kids to private schools) will end up with a lowest common denomination education and that breeds a very common population that is not prepared to be self-sufficient and successful. Then there's the daily distractions foisted on us by non-stop media bread and circuses. And don't forget purposeful destruction of the family unit through liberalized court systems too. IOW, what you're witnessing is the Communist Manifesto playbook in action. I'm sorry if you feel that relaying experience on a forum sounds only like boasting but I assure that in real-life, when people around you see your success, it motivates most of them toward success. People want to learn from your success. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all. I'd love nothing more than to be in an entire country of people boasting how smart and successful they are!

And whenever there is a thread about the poor and working poor, instead of focusing on the causes of the economic dissolution of America, these threads turn into rants about how the youth of today are just so damn lazy and self entitled and looking for handouts. I find it amazing, I have a co-worker who says the same shit, all the while he is commuting now 2 hours a day, plus paying a toll fee. But what does he do, he says his own generation is a bunch of self-entitled, spoiled lazy ass fucks. Same with two girls, both of which are going to school and working full time, thinking their generation is just a bunch of lazy, self-entitled spoiled brats.

The younger generations have been raised in a giant economic bubble that is now bursting and their perspective of what it takes to survive (never mind thriving) in the "real world" is pretty well screwed up. Many were raised in the days of credit cards and house loans for anyone with a pulse. Whether that makes them lazy or what, I don't know, but many of them grew up in a distorted reality and have not adjusted to the change in reality. Anyway, I will ALWAYS argue for cutting foreign policy/DoD spending first before cutting any social programs at home. The problem is they both keep expanding, while the cost for both falls on those that continue to take risks and be productive. Most of us that have been paying attention are well aware of the causes of the economic destruction underway. At what point do we stop throwing good money after bad? At what point do productive risk-takers start feeling like they're being taken advantage of and stop being PC about it? The politicians, bankers, and the rest of the elite are using our money to buy the votes of the unproductive, which further erodes OUR ability to be productive, since the unproductive vote is for more of the same regulation and taxation that caused their unproductivity in the first place! That is a self fulfilling downward spiral. Where is the line drawn?

I see a world of self-loathing young people, and the old people on top of them loathing them too, who are actually well educated, and technologically advanced to any previous generation by a mile, working their asses off, getting nowhere, and blaming the poor around them for the economic hardships they are suffering.

The poor are not responsible for the state of the economy. They have the least influence and power over it. People in general want to work. They just don't want to work two jobs just to pay the bills and mandated insurance costs.

So you're saying people don't want to do what is required to survive on their own merits even though us risk-takers did it? And then when we point this out, WE are the bad guys? wt

YOUR HATRED OF YOUR FELLOW MEN WILL BE YOUR ULTIMATE DOWNFALL.

"Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for life." - Lao Tzu

Whether that man wants to go fishing is his choice. If he'd rather watch football then I won't go fishing on his behalf.

 

[devil21]

What a wonderful "pick yourself up by your bootstraps speech", with absolutely no basis in reality. It sounds wonderful, but the real world is not so easy.

No one said it was easy. That's my entire point. Life ain't easy. Is that all you care about? How easy something is? THAT'S THE DAMN PROBLEM!! Risk-takers don't work their asses off to get ahead just to hand it over to someone else who complains about the difficulty of doing what the risk-taker did and therefore won't even try.

And once again, somehow it is the poor's fault they are poor and desperate. Yup. Can't be the gutting of the industrial core of America by international banking cartels, nope. The depression is because Americans are lazy and don't want to work. Just clueless.

Just for sake of argument, the poor seem to do a pretty good job of keeping themselves poor by voting for "right now" instead of what's in their better long term interest. Vote for more handouts and free shit "Hope and Change", but then get their taxes raised by Obamacare and the purchasing power of what money they do get is eroded instead of voting for free markets and reigning in reckless monetary policy. Yeah, then they wonder why the poor remain poor. Falling for the short con while never even seeing the long con behind it.

Chris Rock covered the mindset well here. Difference between wealth and rich. It applies to all races of course since all races spend money on shiny crap they can't afford.

 

[willwash]

Very true.

Why bother looking when the benefits for some people will bring in more money than an actual job, at say McDonalds or WalMarx? What incentive is there for them to go back to work when the little work that does exist does not pay as well as either the benefits or the previous job? I hate to say it but this places the blame of the economic collapse on the victims. Im not trying to say what they are doing is either right or wrong, but merely point out that people respond to incentives, and that there has been a decrease in incentives to work and existence in work itself.

I disagree. You can't blame the victim here. People make rational economic decisions, and due to the broken system the rational economic decision happened to be to ride out the free benefits as long as possible. Once the incentive to be lazy was taken away the rational decision became to make real sacrifices.

Can any of us really say that if we were in that situation we'd choose to work at wal mart for 1500 a month tops when the govt would dole us out 1200 for doing nothing--all out of some sense of honor? I feel no shame in saying that i probably would not. I'm sure a few would, but in general people respond to incentives.

I suppose I'm one of the few who say people are fundamentally neither good nor bad. They simply respond in good or bad ways according to good or bad incentives with which they are faced.

 

[limequat]

My household lost more than half of its income last year. It was tough, but...

1) We sold a car and bought a cheaper one.
2) The wife picked up babysitting jobs on care.com. Just about anybody can do this.
3) I started buying electronics on eBay, refurbishing, and reselling. If you're reading this on the internet, you could probably do the same thing.
4) I started a little side business working on cars. The stuff that I do requires specialized knowledge, but just about anybody can change brake pads or do oil changes.

I have as much work as I want and often more. I have little sympathy for the 1.3 million "looking for work" and collecting my tax dollars. When the going got tough, my family got going and it didn't require "finding" anything other than enough initiative to get off the couch.

 

[mosquitobite]

Yeah,, but I don't pay well.
I keep junk running and the house warm. I am my wife's driver..

I would like to be more "productive",, and have some money for more than "necessities". Maybe even some improvements around here.
I had posted some of my experiences in trying to find work.

I have come to acceptance.

I have read a couple of books that you might enjoy.

One is called "better off" and the other is "possum living"

It might change your perspective!

I truly admire the Amish though. I'm weird like that.

 

[MelissaWV]

I disagree. You can't blame the victim here. People make rational economic decisions, and due to the broken system the rational economic decision happened to be to ride out the free benefits as long as possible. Once the incentive to be lazy was taken away the rational decision became to make real sacrifices.

Can any of us really say that if we were in that situation we'd choose to work at wal mart for 1500 a month tops when the govt would dole us out 1200 for doing nothing--all out of some sense of honor? I feel no shame in saying that i probably would not. I'm sure a few would, but in general people respond to incentives.

I suppose I'm one of the few who say people are fundamentally neither good nor bad. They simply respond in good or bad ways according to good or bad incentives with which they are faced.

I tried the "benefits" thing for a very very very short time (EBT). It honestly took more time getting the benefits than I would have imagined. It was dumb and I'd rather deal with bartering what I can do and eating from charity pantries. Other people are going to make different choices. Of course there's a rude awakening for the person in the aforementioned scenario when they do go back into the workforce and their most recent work experience is "on unemployment." That seems to get ignored. The longer these benefits are extended, the harder it will be to get meaningful work, which means unceremoniously going from unemployment benefits to welfare of other kinds, which only prolongs the gaps in your resume and leaves you with skills that are woefully out of date. It turns what could have been a temporarily difficult time into a legacy.

 

[UWDude]

So you're saying that Mexicans will move to another freaking country for low paying entry-level jobs, but Americans can't be expected to move to another state for high paying entry level jobs?

where are all these high paying, entry level jobs?
Why in the state of MelissaWestVirgnina, of course.

 

[DamianTV]

where are all these high paying, entry level jobs?
Why in the state of MelissaWestVirgnina, of course.

So thats where I left my Buick!

 

[angelatc]

The younger generations have been raised in a giant economic bubble that is now bursting and their perspective of what it takes to survive (never mind thriving) in the "real world" is pretty well screwed up. Many were raised in the days of credit cards and house loans for anyone with a pulse.

It's deeper than that. I wasn't raised like that, and in fact I've often caught flack because when I tell people they could be more frugal, they snap back insist that things are different today than they were for previous generations.

But even from my generation - there is something different in the very spirit of the country. People don't see opportunity in America any more. UWDude is a prime example of that. He believes in his very soul that if the rich are rich and the poor are poor, then the rich must be stealing from the poor.

Even people my age, who remember what a real genuine economic boom looks like, have been kicked out of the workforce so many times that it takes a toll. Yes, when you get laid off or fired you should just blow it off and get out there and find another job. But it wears you down on the inside, and after a while there's just some part of us that breaks.

And I'm not mocking the people who still believe in the "pick yourself up by the bootstraps" mentality. They're right, that's how we should be thinking of these things, and that's the only legitimate solution regardless. And people like me, who don't see the same nation I used to see aren't doing anybody any favors by giving out sympathy.

But the liberals fundamental transformation of America came complete with breaking the spirit of the individual, eventually. They have done a bang up job of that.

And politically, I don't do not know what the answer is when you meet someone who has lost their faith.

 

[angelatc]

where are all these high paying, entry level jobs?
Why in the state of MelissaWestVirgnina, of course.

More and more of them are in Mexico, I think.

 

[MelissaWV]

You're so clever to intuit that I'm in West Virginia!

... when I'm not.

 

[UWDude]

You're so clever to intuit that I'm in West Virginia!

... when I'm not.

I know. You are in your own little world.

 

[DamianTV]

You're so clever to intuit that I'm in West Virginia!

... when I'm not.

Wisconsonese Velociraptor?
Willful Vindicator?
Whimsical Volleyball?
Worldly Visionary?

I've always wondered what WV stood for...

 

[tod evans]

I've always wondered what WV stood for...

Willingly Vivacious?