How flippin dare you - do you think I'm happy about not finding a job? Do you think my family is? Think I'm livin large on $198 plus $25 (and thanks, truly, for that).
I understand Xin's point; logically, the way the numbers break down, it could seem like some people might see no reason to return to work when they can live on unemployment for 79 weeks.
It's just that so many other factors can take priority over the ability to live on the dole. As another commenter mentioned, it can be hard to go get a job that pays $12 an hour when you used to be making 70K per year. I was unemployed for a long time when I first moved to Seattle (I didn't qualify for unemployment, so I had to mooch off of my parents). I got rejected for a job at Office Depot - the manager flat out told me that he saw no reason to hire someone with a bachelor's degree. My argument that the smell of laser printer toner made me happy didn't sit well with him either, I suppose.
I agree with the Canadian commenter when it comes to health care. Health care alone is the one thing that keeps me in an office job - I can't get private insurance as a diabetic, or if I can, it costs thousands of dollars a month - hardly worth it (until, of course, it is).
Credit cards are not necessarily evil, it is the lack of self-control that makes them bad for some people. You have to know yourself & your own limits & proceed accordingly.
I'm in the 5% who can use credit cards responsibly & pay them off every month, so I do.
I do use 0% offers (for 6, 12, or 18 mos) from Home Depot & Best Buy. I leave balances on those cards only, using their money for free & keeping mine in an interest-earning account, making sure to meet the requirements & pay off the balance before interest kicks in. This is the ONLY way I carry a balance on a credit card.
I never charge anything I can't pay for that month (even the long-term charges). I've always got the money in the bank to pay the balance in full, I just keep my money earning interest & use theirs for free. :-)
I don't have a huge income, so that's not the reason this works for me. I just budget my money and manage my credit well. I live a good life, but there are many things that I WANT and don't have, by choice.
I'm not willing to spend money I don't have to get things I don't need!
I've always considered my use of credit card a financially smart move. Because I pay in full each month I pay no interest, but my money is earning interest in the bank (admittedly not a lot right now) until the purchase posts to my card, shows up on the bill and reaches the due date.
But I confess to being a pretty frugal person who has never been tempted to buy something just because it was going on the card.
In Arizona where I live it is $265 a week. I got laid off two weeks ago and I am willing to take any job to save my home. I think people would rather work then be in the position they are in. I know I do.
You seem to think that everyone, including minimum wage workers get the full amount. Generally, you get a percentage of your past wages when you collect unemployment, so it is impossible to get more money on unemployment than you would earn. Also, keep in mind that unemployment benefits are TAXABLE income, meaning that $475/wk is your gross pay.
Most people cannot pay rent & a car payment on that amount, let alone food, medical care, clothing, etc. The friends I have who are collecting unemployment are really scrambling to find work.
Again, regarding the poor people "paying" unemployment taxes for rich people is crazy. UC pmts are paid by the employer & the worker into the pool.
Generally, higher paid employees have made use of unemployment benefits less frequently than lower paid employees, but lately it seems that many more people need them.
It sounds like you have some loser friends -- maybe instead of blaming the system, you should look at the kind of people you associate with & make some better choices.
i was at work and my wife was out shopping and I decided to stop and pick up a TON of car detailing stuff, including a headlight restoration kit, wax, wash, you name it. I got home to find a dent and paint from another car on the passenger door. Be it a shopping cart, another car, what have you, I am in the same boat. I was livid, if I ever see ANYONE let a cart or anything do that to anothers car, I will chase them down, get all the info i can, and report it, so the victim doesn't have to go through that same violated feeling that I did. Especially after you spent $50 on car detailing stuff
Your friends who want to get unemployment as a "vacation" are probably not "average" people. I've had that attitude in the past, now and then, but at the time, I had an in-demand skill, a degree from a good college, no responsibilities, and no kids. Also, I've never had to do serious job hunting for more than a month to get some kind of relatively cushy jobs, or a tougher job with better pay, or even get a request to interview from friends. I count myself very fortunate, though I'm barely "middle class", because I haven't had to struggle much. (I also love my work.)
Almost everyone else I've known who's had that attitude was some kind of underground bohemian with a low income and few responsibilities.
All the other folks, the normal folks, do not like unemployment. They fear it, especially in this shrinking economy.
They can't just go job hunting and get a $50k a year job within a few weeks.
Even if unemployment benefits were equal to their former wages (and they never are), there's motivation to seek work, because your unemployment benefits are limited. In this down economy, they might have to use them later if they get laid off again.
Also, though government numbers say CA unemployment is just over 10%, if you factor in the people who are underemployed or stopped seeking work, the rate could be as high as 19%, according to Dr. Housing Bubble.
Back in the late 90s I was unemployed by my own doing and had decided to switch careers. Canada's unemployment offered an option where you could go back to school with a $5000 grant to switch to new skills that were needed in an area. I had to cough up an additionally $10,000 (student loans) but one thing I knew, I didn't want to stay on unemployment. I wanted to be working.
I now live in the US and one thing I've noticed is a general exhaustion with work here. The only difference I can see is that Canada has universal health care. Which means even if I do get unemployed, I'm still covered for that. It makes me wonder if it's a matter of hope and optimism when being offered an opportunity (more education) as well as not having to worry about the bigger bills (medical) that made a difference.
No one I knew in Canada wanted to be unemployed.
That said, this market is different than back then (it was just prior to the Web bust). I think it's a reality of the fact that there are no new jobs in the market just yet and, extending the benefits is the safety net that's needed to prevent situations like the camps and such that erupted during the Great Depression. It will take time for the market to swing around again (although there are some glimmers right now going on in the Stock Market that doesn't mean much, IMO, to the average person).
My spouse has been out of work for 14 months, I've been out of work for nearly 8 months, and we are very glad to have the unemployment extension...
If the extension were not in place, and our regular unemployment ran out, we would be spending down savings at a catastrophic rate just trying to keep our (modest fixer-upper) house.
It's not as easy as "go out and get a low-paying job to survive" because the places paying $10/hr (or whatever) don't want to hire someone who was working in IT for ten years making $50-80K, or even someone in a sales job making $40K, because they know that as soon as a decent job in our field comes along, we're going to bolt. My spouse got instantly rejected for a checkout clerk job at Whole Foods. Basically at least one of us has to get a normal job in our field, or things are going to get dire in a few months, because we can't count on finding a McJob.
It's 26 weeks of regular benefits plus 33 weeks emergency benefits. I think California is still going to have the longest benefits in the entire nation.
SonyaAnn, you are right about that unemployment benefits is never your old wage. In California you need to earn at least $3890 a month for 3 months out of the preceding year to get the max benefit.
Also to the previous commenter A, unemployment isn't really like an incurable/life threatening disease. You can actually do something about unemployment and prepare for it through either saving or expanding skills. When unemployment happens, you don't just lay there dying because you can actually work on getting a job if you choose to.
ING has been hawking stuff for a few years - in fact, they were the first bank I ever saw openly hawking stuff for sale. Since it seems so small - especially when they don't have a branch on every corner - I've never considered the implications.
I live in IL and my husband and I have been working on an unemployment budget(just in case). I'm a SAHM so DH is the bread winner.
We looked into benefits and it breaks down to a percentage of what you made. Just because our state's benefits top out at $538 a week doesn't mean that you get that. It just means that $538 is the most they will give out. They definitely won't pay you more than you were earning while working. If you earned minimum wage, you won't even come close to the $2000 a month on unemployment.
Unemployment definitely wouldn't be a step up for most and definitely not us. But with preplanning and some praying, I think that we could hang on to what we have if we had to go on unemployment.
Best wishes to all!
I have a 5 gallon SS pot with a cooper tube and lines that I jsut finished building. I am using a 3/8" cooper coil into a PVC water jacket. I have heard that I need to leave room for expansion?? in my wash / pot. If my pot holds 5 gallons, should I only fill it with 3.5 or 4 gallons?
but this thread does sound somewhat judgemental to me. I find it disturbing to have a focus on why people don't scramble to take terrible jobs, instead of choosing to work on getting a decent position. Quite often a perspective changes when a person finds him/herself in an unexpectedly dire situation. Somewhat like a healthy person who looks down on the sick, until he/she is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.
We need more like you. Just take all our benifts away, why work at all? Ive payed in to SDI for at least 25 years, according to you Im just another free loader. Thanks
How flippin dare you - do you think I'm happy about not finding a job? Do you think my family is? Think I'm livin large on $198 plus $25 (and thanks, truly, for that).
My wife and I pay our mortgage on time every month, but our home value is HALF what we owe. We're just throwing our hard-earned money down the drain.
Enough is enough. We're also considering drastic measures to get out of this mess. It almost makes no financial sense to keep paying the mortgage.
I understand Xin's point; logically, the way the numbers break down, it could seem like some people might see no reason to return to work when they can live on unemployment for 79 weeks.
It's just that so many other factors can take priority over the ability to live on the dole. As another commenter mentioned, it can be hard to go get a job that pays $12 an hour when you used to be making 70K per year. I was unemployed for a long time when I first moved to Seattle (I didn't qualify for unemployment, so I had to mooch off of my parents). I got rejected for a job at Office Depot - the manager flat out told me that he saw no reason to hire someone with a bachelor's degree. My argument that the smell of laser printer toner made me happy didn't sit well with him either, I suppose.
I agree with the Canadian commenter when it comes to health care. Health care alone is the one thing that keeps me in an office job - I can't get private insurance as a diabetic, or if I can, it costs thousands of dollars a month - hardly worth it (until, of course, it is).
Great Post! I needed this today very much.
Credit cards are not necessarily evil, it is the lack of self-control that makes them bad for some people. You have to know yourself & your own limits & proceed accordingly.
I'm in the 5% who can use credit cards responsibly & pay them off every month, so I do.
I do use 0% offers (for 6, 12, or 18 mos) from Home Depot & Best Buy. I leave balances on those cards only, using their money for free & keeping mine in an interest-earning account, making sure to meet the requirements & pay off the balance before interest kicks in. This is the ONLY way I carry a balance on a credit card.
I never charge anything I can't pay for that month (even the long-term charges). I've always got the money in the bank to pay the balance in full, I just keep my money earning interest & use theirs for free. :-)
I don't have a huge income, so that's not the reason this works for me. I just budget my money and manage my credit well. I live a good life, but there are many things that I WANT and don't have, by choice.
I'm not willing to spend money I don't have to get things I don't need!
I've always considered my use of credit card a financially smart move. Because I pay in full each month I pay no interest, but my money is earning interest in the bank (admittedly not a lot right now) until the purchase posts to my card, shows up on the bill and reaches the due date.
But I confess to being a pretty frugal person who has never been tempted to buy something just because it was going on the card.
In Arizona where I live it is $265 a week. I got laid off two weeks ago and I am willing to take any job to save my home. I think people would rather work then be in the position they are in. I know I do.
You seem to think that everyone, including minimum wage workers get the full amount. Generally, you get a percentage of your past wages when you collect unemployment, so it is impossible to get more money on unemployment than you would earn. Also, keep in mind that unemployment benefits are TAXABLE income, meaning that $475/wk is your gross pay.
Most people cannot pay rent & a car payment on that amount, let alone food, medical care, clothing, etc. The friends I have who are collecting unemployment are really scrambling to find work.
Again, regarding the poor people "paying" unemployment taxes for rich people is crazy. UC pmts are paid by the employer & the worker into the pool.
Generally, higher paid employees have made use of unemployment benefits less frequently than lower paid employees, but lately it seems that many more people need them.
It sounds like you have some loser friends -- maybe instead of blaming the system, you should look at the kind of people you associate with & make some better choices.
i was at work and my wife was out shopping and I decided to stop and pick up a TON of car detailing stuff, including a headlight restoration kit, wax, wash, you name it. I got home to find a dent and paint from another car on the passenger door. Be it a shopping cart, another car, what have you, I am in the same boat. I was livid, if I ever see ANYONE let a cart or anything do that to anothers car, I will chase them down, get all the info i can, and report it, so the victim doesn't have to go through that same violated feeling that I did. Especially after you spent $50 on car detailing stuff
I have a 5gallon plastic carbouy...any ploblem in using it to ferment?
If I use the plastic carbouy can I use a balloon as my vapor lock?
Your friends who want to get unemployment as a "vacation" are probably not "average" people. I've had that attitude in the past, now and then, but at the time, I had an in-demand skill, a degree from a good college, no responsibilities, and no kids. Also, I've never had to do serious job hunting for more than a month to get some kind of relatively cushy jobs, or a tougher job with better pay, or even get a request to interview from friends. I count myself very fortunate, though I'm barely "middle class", because I haven't had to struggle much. (I also love my work.)
Almost everyone else I've known who's had that attitude was some kind of underground bohemian with a low income and few responsibilities.
All the other folks, the normal folks, do not like unemployment. They fear it, especially in this shrinking economy.
They can't just go job hunting and get a $50k a year job within a few weeks.
Even if unemployment benefits were equal to their former wages (and they never are), there's motivation to seek work, because your unemployment benefits are limited. In this down economy, they might have to use them later if they get laid off again.
Also, though government numbers say CA unemployment is just over 10%, if you factor in the people who are underemployed or stopped seeking work, the rate could be as high as 19%, according to Dr. Housing Bubble.
That's serious.
I sure there will always be people that "take advantage" of the benefits, but the real go-getters won't hang on any longer than they have to . . .
Back in the late 90s I was unemployed by my own doing and had decided to switch careers. Canada's unemployment offered an option where you could go back to school with a $5000 grant to switch to new skills that were needed in an area. I had to cough up an additionally $10,000 (student loans) but one thing I knew, I didn't want to stay on unemployment. I wanted to be working.
I now live in the US and one thing I've noticed is a general exhaustion with work here. The only difference I can see is that Canada has universal health care. Which means even if I do get unemployed, I'm still covered for that. It makes me wonder if it's a matter of hope and optimism when being offered an opportunity (more education) as well as not having to worry about the bigger bills (medical) that made a difference.
No one I knew in Canada wanted to be unemployed.
That said, this market is different than back then (it was just prior to the Web bust). I think it's a reality of the fact that there are no new jobs in the market just yet and, extending the benefits is the safety net that's needed to prevent situations like the camps and such that erupted during the Great Depression. It will take time for the market to swing around again (although there are some glimmers right now going on in the Stock Market that doesn't mean much, IMO, to the average person).
Great post! This is a guide to responsible credit card use . . .
I actually find fat girls attractive, tends to be a certain size and shape, but I find them really attractive.
Wah!! That’s a lot man. I wish my company can retrenchment me now.
My spouse has been out of work for 14 months, I've been out of work for nearly 8 months, and we are very glad to have the unemployment extension...
If the extension were not in place, and our regular unemployment ran out, we would be spending down savings at a catastrophic rate just trying to keep our (modest fixer-upper) house.
It's not as easy as "go out and get a low-paying job to survive" because the places paying $10/hr (or whatever) don't want to hire someone who was working in IT for ten years making $50-80K, or even someone in a sales job making $40K, because they know that as soon as a decent job in our field comes along, we're going to bolt. My spouse got instantly rejected for a checkout clerk job at Whole Foods. Basically at least one of us has to get a normal job in our field, or things are going to get dire in a few months, because we can't count on finding a McJob.
SheRa, it seems that NY is up to 59 weeks total now:
http://www.labor.state.ny.us/ui/claimantinfo/ExtendedBenefits.shtm
It's 26 weeks of regular benefits plus 33 weeks emergency benefits. I think California is still going to have the longest benefits in the entire nation.
SonyaAnn, you are right about that unemployment benefits is never your old wage. In California you need to earn at least $3890 a month for 3 months out of the preceding year to get the max benefit.
Also to the previous commenter A, unemployment isn't really like an incurable/life threatening disease. You can actually do something about unemployment and prepare for it through either saving or expanding skills. When unemployment happens, you don't just lay there dying because you can actually work on getting a job if you choose to.
ING has been hawking stuff for a few years - in fact, they were the first bank I ever saw openly hawking stuff for sale. Since it seems so small - especially when they don't have a branch on every corner - I've never considered the implications.
And bald! Because he shaves his head, not because he is going bald. Paul could grow long curly locks down to his feet, but chooses not to. :D
I live in IL and my husband and I have been working on an unemployment budget(just in case). I'm a SAHM so DH is the bread winner.
We looked into benefits and it breaks down to a percentage of what you made. Just because our state's benefits top out at $538 a week doesn't mean that you get that. It just means that $538 is the most they will give out. They definitely won't pay you more than you were earning while working. If you earned minimum wage, you won't even come close to the $2000 a month on unemployment.
Unemployment definitely wouldn't be a step up for most and definitely not us. But with preplanning and some praying, I think that we could hang on to what we have if we had to go on unemployment.
Best wishes to all!
I have a 5 gallon SS pot with a cooper tube and lines that I jsut finished building. I am using a 3/8" cooper coil into a PVC water jacket. I have heard that I need to leave room for expansion?? in my wash / pot. If my pot holds 5 gallons, should I only fill it with 3.5 or 4 gallons?
BTW -- Great sight.
Last time I checked, unemployment was only for 26 weeks in New York.
but this thread does sound somewhat judgemental to me. I find it disturbing to have a focus on why people don't scramble to take terrible jobs, instead of choosing to work on getting a decent position. Quite often a perspective changes when a person finds him/herself in an unexpectedly dire situation. Somewhat like a healthy person who looks down on the sick, until he/she is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.
We need more like you. Just take all our benifts away, why work at all? Ive payed in to SDI for at least 25 years, according to you Im just another free loader. Thanks