So, Senator Kyl (wanna guess which party?) says that unemployment benefits do nothing to help the economy and are a disincentive to find work. He's wrong for so many reasons. Let's go over them.
1. Most people on unemployment are suffering staggering losses of income - usually getting well under half of their employment -level income. Most get less than $1500/month, sometimes much less. Very few are paid more than $2000/month, those from very high-paying jobs where the salaries were likely 4-5 times as much beforehand. That is, in itself, a massive incentive to find work.
2. The real problem is there are no jobs out there. Don't blame the victims.
3. Unemployment insurance payments - which largey are funded out of employee paychecks in good times - prevent the economic floor from falling out under millions of people and families. It enables them to keep paying rent, keep car payments, buying food. These payments greatly reduce the economic shock of the sudden loss of consumer dollars in the economy. The money is not saved: it goes directly to consumer spending and debt service, where it does the most good in our economy.
4. Unemployment insurance helps preserve the dignity of the unemployed. That dignity is exactly what helps them get back on their feet again.
5. Human dignity is a value we should support. We don't want our millions of unemployed people homeless and digging through trash cans. We don't want them working under the table for scraps ($1/hour anyone? Piecework? Child labor? All the horror of the industrial revolution we abolished with minimum wage/hour laws...). We don't want kids working, or selling themselves.
6. I think Senator Kyl has no idea what it is like to have the shame of losing a job. If coupled with total economic destitution - zero dollars income and debt service payments remaining - it is, quite literally, a killer. Kids get beaten. Old people abused and neglected. Spouses get beaten. Familes are torn apart. All for want of a few dollars to keep the heat on and a roof to sleep under, for those who have always worked hard before.
7. I don't think Senator Kyl has any idea what it is like to be hungry. I don't mean that irritating feeling you get while waiting for the cocktail party to start. I mean wanting food badly and not having any way to get any. Scarlett O'Hara is pure fiction. Hungry people don't resolve to work harder and harder than ever before. Hunger makes you crumble inside. Hunger is dehumanizing. It leads to abasement. The miracle of feeding the five thousand was not about the amount of food available: it was that someone with means gave a damn about hungry people. Sorry Mr. Kyl missed this along the way.
Yes, there may be some people who manage to game the system and glide on unemployment for longer than they should. No system will ever be abuse-free. But that's not what's going on here. Unemployment insurance props up the economy and human dignity.
Republican opposition to unemployment insurance should be the Democrats' rallying cry in the 2010 elections.
Tuesday, March 09, 2010
Why We Need Unemployment Insurance
Posted by The Law Talking Guy at 12:55 PM
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6 comments:
What I find so offensive about the Republican line that unemployment insurance is a disincentive to find work is that they also claim that a marginal tax cut of a few dollars a year is a positive incentive to do X.
So if they cut taxes by a few bucks on say making bio-diesel, suddenly makes everyone want bio-diesel. But the fact that you can double or triple your income by getting a job instead of using unemployment insurance is insufficient incentive to get people to get a job.
I think their real reason for making this assertion is their basic belief that poor people are inherently lazy.
According to this "reasoning" Jon Kyl should totally support 100 percent inheritance taxes so the oligarchy's hatchlings could have chance to labor as well.
About 5 years down the road, we could have the national debt paid off.
As John Kenneth Galbraith put it a few years ago, conservatives think that "the poor need the spur of poverty to work, while the rich need the lure of wealth." It does come down to the belief that the poor are lazy and the rich are industrious. Of course, no CEO ever worked as hard as a typical janitor or farmhand.
As John Kenneth Galbraith put it a few years ago, conservatives think that "the poor need the spur of poverty to work, while the rich need the lure of wealth." It does come down to the belief that the poor are lazy and the rich are industrious. Of course, no CEO ever worked as hard as a typical janitor or farmhand.
Anonymous is right that big inheritance is a massive disincentive to work. A good number of billionaires have actually endorsed the tax for exactly that reason. An aristocracy of wealth is unproductive.
Wanna guess why I equate identifying by party as simply a brainless ad hominem?
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