HOW WILL I BE ABLE TO AFFORD MY CHILDREN’S Wii
Does anyone wonder how many of those folks who “drop out of the labor force” survive? Their unemployment compensation having been exhausted, for months, maybe years for some, what are they doing? How are they getting by day-to-day?
Could the generous package of government benefits besides unemployment compensation, have anything to do with it: subsidized housing, food stamps, child care, free child healthcare, home heating subsidies, Medicaid, disability benefits, Earned Income Tax Credit, coverage for certain “expenses” associated with job training, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and a variety of other “assistance” programs?
There have been studies which show in some states,* an unemployed person receiving the range of taxpayer provided benefits would need to get a job paying more than $40,000 per year to make it worthwhile to get off the dole. (And one wonders why there are jobs Americans won’t do? If it pays less than 40 G’s, why bother?) A person with a spouse and two children, working one week a month for minimum wage and the benefits they would be eligible for would provide more disposable income than a person earning $60,000!
And is it fair to assume that at least some of those “labor force dropouts’ may have a working spouse, or maybe an unemployed, or “underemployed”, spouse drawing various benefits? Is it also fair to assume that some “dropouts” are doing work for “off the books” pay while getting some of the “government benefits”? And, of course, does anyone assume that every person now drawing disability benefits is unable to work?
We hear of late, about large numbers of Obama’s base deserting him. The Republicans and conservative pundits are always talking of the plight of the unemployed and the devastation the Obama economy is wreaking on the country. While that may be appealing to conservatives to hear and offer some possibility that this country’s rush toward socialism may, at last, be slowed, I’m more than a tad skeptical.
As the forgoing suggests, is the plight of the “poor” and the unemployed that dire? The array of taxpayer provided “assistance” programs is impressive. And, as long as it can all be financed by borrowing, more printing of money, more debt who is really concerned? Nobel prizewinning economist and big Obama supporter, Paul Krugman, calls repeatedly for more borrowing, more debt! The goofy Nancy Pelosi still believes that unemployment compensation is one of the most effective economic stimulus programs there is. If one needs to be told why this is one of that lady’s dumbest statements, then you’re an Obama devotee. And, of course, while Obamacare may be a disaster in the most honest and objective analysis, it is sure to buy a lot of votes among soon-to-be-legal illegal immigrants!
And Obama and Pelosi are calling for another extension of Unemployment comp.! So what’s new in this “unfettered capitalist economy”? DLH
* Editors Note: This post by DLH serves as a reminder of the extent of the unsustainable welfare largess in the United States. An editorial by Wyatt Emmerich** of the lowly McComb, Mississippi Enterprise- Journal, on October 13th of 2010, analyzed that state’s various welfare programs compared to full-time work. References to the article went viral albeit crediting the wrong newspaper. The article served to prime the pump on a lot of analysis of the whole question — why bother to work?
Independent of that article, based on his own observations, our Illustrious Senior Editor remarked famously before the 2012 election that Obama would win because things had not gotten bad enough. The unemployed were basically comfortable . . . and who was going to vote against the gravy train? In 2010 a predominant amount of net taxpayers showed up to vote . . . and that provided the answer back then. In 2012, a presidential year, different story. A major propaganda effort aimed at “mean white voters” and “soak the rich” gelled support behind Obama’s campaign of deceit.
The delusion of endless benefits continued among much of our countrymen. After the 2012 reelection of Obama John Hinderaker writing at Powerline provided charts from the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare reestablishing the validity of the question, why work? Those articles, and more, provide the basis for today’s post by DLH.
** the Enterprise-Journal article site requires a subscription. References to it (misidentified as the Cleveland (Mississippi) Current are available here and here.
