Unemployment Diary: the beat goes on
Posted on 19. Jul, 2010 by lisa in Economics, Politics
I noticed the cross section of people hit by the tidal wave of unemployment during my last visit to the Department of Labor. Young, old, tattooed, not tattooed, white collar, blue collar, pink collar, white, black, Latino, Asian, Native American, all of us had two things in common:
- humanity
- fear
It was not a pretty sight.
Recently, I learned that I’m about to be incentivized to get off my ass and find a job because that $297 weekly toga party I’ve been having is over this week.
In between clubbing, massages, manicures and visits to my psychic friend, I’ve been reading about the “principled stands” that the Republicans have taken regarding extending unemployment benefits. Big shock – the Party of No is holding up unemployment benefit extensions to millions of Americans.
It’s not about the deficit as they said, it’s about spending unspent stimulus money and making permanent the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. It’s just yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, but NO.
Senate Republicans make assholery look effortless.
They’re still repeating that old lie about how tax cuts stimulate the economy, but it’s just more Ronald Reagan’s voodoo economics. And somehow, Paul Krugman explains this without using the word crap even once, bless his heart:
It’s not true, of course. Ronald Reagan said that his tax cuts would reduce deficits, then presided over a near-tripling of federal debt. When Bill Clinton raised taxes on top incomes, conservatives predicted economic disaster; what actually followed was an economic boom and a remarkable swing from budget deficit to surplus. Then the Bush tax cuts came along, helping turn that surplus into a persistent deficit, even before the crash.
The reality is that people are suffering real consequences from Reaganomics; why? So that the wealthiest Americans can keep more of their money? In my unapologetic socialist heart, I believe in wealth redistribution and if I had wealth to redistribute, you bet I would and willingly.
In fact, every time I spend MathMan’s hard-earned money on extravagances such as rent, water, electricity, phone bill, gas bill, gasoline and groceries, I’m paying those taxes and fees that hit the poorest among us the hardest, taking a disproportionate bite of our income because that’s what you fucking do when you’re part of a society. If I ever manage to make income off my writing or ever find a job again, I will happily pay my share of taxes again because it’s what’s fair. If I advocate taxes for others, then I should pay taxes, too. Hell, I’m paying taxes on my unemployment benefits right now, but do you hear me bitching about that? Of course not.
So while the GOP posturing continues, my family tries to figure out what else we can cut, and There isn’t much.
I recently wrote about this and a someone suggested we look at social service qualifications. That may become necessary, but how many more of us do you want crowding the food pantries and social services offices that are already bursting the seams of state governments, all of which are cutting back now because they’re in financial trouble, too? People without income don’t pay income taxes, you know that, right? So while I can’t escape sales taxes and fees, when my income is reduced to zero, the income taxes I pay into the system will be zero, too.
Multiply my situation by however many millions of people are already going without checks because they’ve been cut off and can’t find jobs. Read that again, because we need to put to rest this myth that we are having so much fun living on unemployment that we are turning down jobs. We can’t turn down jobs if we aren’t offered any jobs in the first place.
I tested it.
I walked into my bank the other day and asked to see the manager. When the nice, man with the pornstache approached me with his giant, fake smile, I chirped, “Hi, can I have a job?”
He motioned his head at the security guard, never missing a beat and said “I’m sorry. We don’t have any openings at this time.”
To which I replied, “Oh, that’s fine. I don’t really want a job because I prefer not working for less than three hundred dollars a week. It makes for a pretty cushy life for my household of five.”
The security guard mentioned that I was the sixth person that week to turn down a job as he escorted me from the building.
Does anyone believe that living on a fraction of your previous salary is easy? Most of us live close to the edge as it is. I hope that anyone buying or pedaling such nonsense as Cadillac-driving welfare queens finds themselves on the sad-side of the employment fence and quickly. A reality check will do them good.
Missing a vacation or two would be the least of their worries.You try to pay the electric bill with nothing more than your dazzling smile, an expired yogurt coupon and some pennies you exhumed from the bottom of your pocketbook. Get back to me and let me know how it went.
Oh Lisa… this is harrowing, and so true. Having been close to the edge, which is nowhere near where you are at the moment, I feel my stomach seize up just reading this.
You have always managed to use your sheer force of will and determination to get through so much. I don’t know how you are doing this.
Your elucidation of the “luxury lifestyle” that you live here and now should be on the desk of every politician – from EITHER party, who has turned their back on the unemployed.
Oh I am so sorry. And as always, someone should be paying you, and paying you a lot, to write.
It’s cliched but true that people will do whatever they need to do to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads. As safety nets fray further, people are getting desperate. Rational folks with a stable support system will have a hard enough time keeping it together emotionally; those on the edge will possibly go over. There was a scary bad shootout in Oakland last night. An emerging theme is that the shooter “was angry at government, further stirred up by his unemployment and cable news.”
We need rational, equitable economic policy and the country (and world) seem to pull further and further away.
I actually got off my butt and called my two Republican senators this morning after getting so pissed off reading about this nonsense. How can they justify not extending benefits?? I wish everyone would just call and fax and e-mail until they feel the pain. But as it is, I feel like a drop in a quite empty bucket. An echoing, lonely bucket.
Sigh.
When are we going to care about each other enough to get involved? And by the way, because I was self-employed when all these yahoos screwed up the economies of the Western world with their casino tricks, now that my clients are getting laid off or taking early retirement and the county and state governments that hire them are choosing not to refill those positions, I have hardly any work — but I won’t ever see a dime of unemployment payments — and I’ve paid those taxes all along, every year. Our social safety net in this country has holes big enough to drive a truck through!
Oh boy have you hit the nail on the head! Even now that we have a device (the internet) to communicate, they still dont listen. So much for democracy.
as i have written, it is very hard for 535 (specifically the 225 republicans) very rich people who never ever have had to worry where there next meal comes from, to understand how difficult it is for people like yourself.
you know i am not excusing the behavior – i am TRASHING it – it is because the people holding the purse strings are accountable only to the people giving them money to control the purse strings. the unemployed, poor, minorities, and the like have NO say in govt spending (forget govt – it is all about spending) because it is not the squeaky wheel that gets oiled, but the squeaky Benjamins
i hate John Kyl and i hate MIke Pence and wish they were forced to eat dog feces like Divine.
But Lisa, Republicans represent the Average Hard Working Citizen of REAL America. Start a war for profit, deregulate and spend us into the Great Recession, cut unemployment benefits, decrease minimum wage, block universal health coverage, demand that we all apologize to BP. It’s the American Dream that we all want.
The worse is yet to happen.
When you live in an asylum (and that’s where we are right now) you gotta expect just about anything.
The way I figure it, because Obama hasn’t created a paradise, common folk will blame him for all the sins passed down from Reagan through Bush – and they will vote Obama out … and vote in a whole bunch of forked-tongued whore Repugs.
Why a working class – or a middle class person would ever vote for a Repug simply seems baffling and idiotic. But they do and they will.
And, it seems congressional Dems are working overtime to appease the rat-bastard Repugs, despite “mandates” from voters.
No, we haven’t yet reached bottom.
Like most other people (I hope) I’d like to see the 3 trillion dollar budget deficit cut back by the cost of 2 useless wars. Then there’d be more than enough money for unemployment benefits and some decent employment opportunities too.
Alan Grayson:
“I will say to the Republicans who have blocked this bill for months, to those who have kept food out of the mouths of children, I will say to them now, may God have mercy on your souls”
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2010/07/your-daily-grayson-stirring-words.html
“[...]they still dont listen. [...]”
http://crooksandliars.com/ian-welsh/course-political-class-doesnt-listen-ord
“[...]Get elected, do what your corporate masters tell you to, and you’ll never ever have to worry about money ever again.
Only a sucker or an idealist would do anything else.[...]“
It’s not that they hate you personally; they just want people to suffer so they’ll remember when they go to the polls. Because they know people blame the president for everything, and will remember their suffering when they go to the polls.
See? Don’t you feel better now?
Timely blog post to stumble across. While I am thankfully still employed albeit I work in social services so its not like I am making the big bucks. My father who is a widower is one of those 2.1 million folks who lost his benefits thanks to the coldness of the GOP. The man was already living in a rooming house and now after almost a month of no money to pay his room rent barring passage of the extended benefits he either will be in a homeless shelter within a week or on a Greyhound bus coming to live with me.
My meager resources (kid headed to college next month) are being tested because while I don’t have much, I can’t let my Pops starve so I have been wiring him money.
Funny thing is because I work in social services I know how to access help and told my Dad who to call back in my hometown of Chicago and there was no help to be had. Turns out to get homeless prevention funds if you don’t have a job or income they can’t help. Not even the hundreds of thousands they have calling who are in the same boat as him.
Sorry to have such a lengthy first comment but reading this struck a nerve as outside of my field I cannot discuss this with anyone, they don’t get it.
Strange how a middle income guy like myself has no problem with his taxes being raised to help our Nation pay it’s bills and get out of debt is not joined by the wealthy in this.
Debt makes the weak and poor weaker and poorer. Perhaps that’s the ultimate goal of the republicans.
Have you thought about selling out and getting a job with a defense contractor? Once the oil runs out, we’ll be fighting over water, so even your grandchildren’s grandchildren will be high hog. Good times.
I hope you will get some relief with the passage–finally–of the unemployment benefits extension.