Leave it to the New York Times (10/7/11) to find a guy collecting unemployment who opposes the extension of unemployment benefits. He’s “Dan Tolleson, a researcher and writer with a Ph.D. in politics…whose last good job was working for a group that aims to replace the income tax with a national sales tax.”
But don’t think reporter Shaila Dewan picked some unrepresentative oddball to highlight just to make a political point about “how divisive the question has become of providing a bigger safety net to the long-term jobless.” Oh no–quite the contrary:
Even among those struggling to find work, Mr. Tolleson is not alone in his views. In a recent survey of the unemployed by Rutgers University, more than one in four respondents was opposed to renewing the current extended unemployment benefits. Three out of five said recipients should be required to take training courses.
But when you click on that link, you find that the Rutgers survey is not “of the unemployed”–the sample includes recently jobless people who are currently working, and of those respondents who are jobless right now, a large majority haven’t gotten unemployment benefits in the past year. So how many people are like Donald Tolleson, collecting benefits that they don’t the government should be giving them? Maybe none–the results aren’t broken down that way.
Further, the survey asked about whether “longer and higher benefits from Unemployment Insurance” were a good idea in the context of “ideas that are being considered by government officials to help bring down high unemployment.” So if you supported extending unemployment benefits because they would be good for the unemployed but didn’t think they would help bring down unemployment, should you answer yes or no?
The question was asked in a more straightforward way by CNN the last time President Obama signed a bill extending benefits (12/17-19/10). Questioned whether they favored or opposed “an extension of unemployment benefits for workers who lose their jobs,” 76 percent of a sample of adults nationwide were in favor, with only 22 percent opposed. Could it be that extending unemployment benefits is not as “divisive” as the New York Times would like you to think?
Well, notwithstanding the ambiguities about the question and the respondents, roughly 60% said they supported or strongly supported extending benefits, while only about 30% said they opposed or strongly opposed. That is usually referred to as a solid majority in support.
musta been interviewing michael e.
One must question the integrity of Dr. Tolleson or any other person who claims to be against unemployment benefits but is a beneficiary. Nobody receives unemployment benefits without applying for them. If Dr. Tolleson doesn’t approve of unemployment benefits, why did he apply for them? There were a half dozen times in a four-decade-long career when I was unemployed and eligible, but I applied for (and received) unemployment benefits on only one of those occasions. My reason for not applying for unemployment benefits was that I considered them scarce resources and felt that they should be available for people with multiple mouths to feed and I didn’t wish to deplete them.
Do I think unemployment benefits should be extended? Yes I do, even though they will not benefit me.
Leo Toribio
Pittsburgh, PA
Leo, I don’t think thAt is fair. We are forced to pay into unemployment. I think it is only fair to recieve the benifits that are provided when elegable. You might be paying back in to it next month and be pissed off about losing that money. Admittedly i have never collected, but only because i would not have been paid enough to be worth the paperwork.
Carter, you sound like a very selfish person who wants his benefits when he can get them and thinks nothing of those who need the benefits. Perhaps I did not understand what you said. If I am correct in my assessment… SHAME ON YOU!!!
Where will the money come from?It does not grow in the rose garden.
@michael:
That’s right, it grows as fabricated virtual debts in world banks, foreign countries buying the local economy (i.e. China and India), and in the USA also the non-Federally-owned “Federal Reserve”.
This setup is both “fraud” and “theft”: fraud when selling something you do not actually have, and theft when you then charge them for having done nothing for them.
If banks are allowed to create fraudulent money out of thin air, so too should individuals.
Charging interest in loans used to be punishable by death. This should clue people in that there might be reasons why debt should never have interest owed to any privately owned entity, otherwise that entity quickly takes control of the entire monetary system and any governing system using their debt money.
One of the largest misconceptions of the elitists in the corporate news media is tha the unemployed are criminals who have no rights, no right to vote and are somehow cut off from the rest of society, cut off from sympathizing friends and family, as are real prisoners in jail.
Just like elitists throughout history, today’s elitists villify and exploit the down-trodden in order to advance their own agenda. Unlike the down-trodden of the past, however, today’s population which are suffering as a direct result of the greedy and corruption of the condemning elite (as throughout history) have more power than ever before – at least in modern democracies – to do something about it.
The fight isn’t easy, of course, since the elite own the corporate news media puppets, and today’s unemployed are fighting against the apathy of the employed. I was shocked when my own nephew said he throws away the resumes of anyone who’s been unemployed for more than six months, assuming their lazy. Even more shocked was his bride – married only the day before – who reminded him that she’d been unemployed for more than a year so she could continue her education!
But the word “fight” isn’t just a word, and the unemployed must continue their fight for respect and dignity, and we should all do our part to help prevent the negative stereotypes often associated with being unemployed, especially since many unemployed are often there because they refused to suffer the oppression of systemic cruelty and humiliation in many companies.
Well Frank I agree that your nephew may have to re-think his way of judging applications.Especially in this economy.I just wish you would use a different word than elite.Use a word that points to anyone who has gone to school,worked hard,done everything he knows to be a good person,and has succeeded beyond his own dreams.It has become as simple minded as a fifties western for the left.Those who have failed, wear the white hats, and must be subsidized.Those who have succeeded wear black hats and must be taxed.Oh and personally hated and derided to boot.Frank you are building a model without foundations.
l