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I'll probably get flamed for this..
But I don't care..
the good news is I no longer think that it's Obamas fault that unemployment is high.
the bad news is that there are jobs to be had, but people don't want to work.
a friend of mine owns a tile setter business. Today, he had a guy that didn't even last 4 hours. He also hired another guy to start tommorow and he called and said he wasn't gonna take the job. It's hard work ,yes, but for good pay.
I was supposed to train some temps that were working in our building , half of them didn't even show and the rest of them were so unmotivated that our production was really low that day.
Im sure these are not isolated incidents. There are jobs, there is work, but people don't really want to WORK. And I know that I'm gonna get the business about bootstraps and skittles, but this country needs some serious flucking entitlement reform.
Re: I'll probably get flamed for this..
$30 an hour is pretty good pay. I have no idea what's involved in tile setting so I have no clue how hard that work is.
I kind of don't blame people for not getting super excited or invested in a temporary job that pays $9 an hour and (I'm assuming) offers no benefits and no stability for the future. Even if you worked every single weekday for a year, that's about $18,000 a year, which is close to poverty-level income.
There's no excuse for just not showing up, though.
But,why get a job when the government will hook you up? I think that is the growing mentality, sadly.
Do you have any idea how much government benefits actually are? They are not nearly as cushy as you imagine.
no. I don't. I wouldn't imagine it to be a lot of money but some people only care to get by. I believe that most people want jobs but the # of people collecting is way too high right now.
Really, for sitting on your ass? Last time I checked, they're cushy enough to do that. And, unfortunately, there are people who are settling for whatever they can in order to do just that.
ITA
My cousin doesn't receive any government benefits. He's just lazy.
When my husband got out of the military he applied for unemployment until he could find a job. His benefits were about $500/week based on what his salary had been and we live in one of the highest cost of living areas in the country. Included in that was $15/week for our son. We had to pay OOP for state insurance for my son and myself (my husband was covered under the VA). We could have collected 26 weeks' worth, a whopping $13,000. Our rent for a year in the cheapest place we could find to live around here is $9600. That doesn't include any utilities except water.
Yeah, there's always going to be people who abuse the system. But the vast majority cannot live comfortably on government benefits alone.
This is not isolated. My younger brother (he is 17) works at Arby's and said older people (25-40) don't stick around long because they think they are too good for the job. I have also seen flyers at local hardware stores that say "Help Needed. MUST be able to work weekends, nights, and some hildays. Overtime offered." I asked a cashier about it once and they said that the new "overexperienced" people that they have been hiring aren't willing to work certain hours.
There ARE jobs out there- people just feel too good for them. If I were out of a job, I would do whatever it took to provide for my family, and DH feels the same way. He was laid off last fall and worked at Arby's (with my brother) for 4 months before he found something better.
Ditto about entitlement reform.
Exactly this. I actually blame piss poor parenting and coddling. At 30, kick your lazy child out and give him a dose of reality.
The myth of the lazy baby-popping welfare queens is quite ridiculous. But it does make for great imagery and fodder for the naive.
It's true that some people will abuse the system, but it's also true that some people viscerally need the system to survive and get back on their feet. I'd rather not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
I mean, yes, some people are lazy - why do we think that entitlements cause the problem and not some other cultural or political factor? Where's the evidence?
When DH and I were on foodstamps last year, we thought we were given a ridiculous amount of money. We were alloted almost $600 a month for food for just the two of us. Before we were on food stamps (and then when we were off of them when DH got a job) we were struggling to get groceries on our personal budget of $350 a month. I DO think the amount of money given is too much. Just my opinion though.
There are jobs out there, but most of them are pretty crappy. They pay low wages, offer unsteady and unreliable hours (so if you have kids, good luck finding childcare that will take your child at different hours every week, and good luck trying to budget when you have no idea how much money you'll be making from week to week), offer no benefits (so no health insurance, no sick days, no retirement) and offer little to no opportunity for advancement (so you'll likely be stuck in the same low-wage job for years).
Maybe instead of blaming people for not wanting awful jobs you should blame the employers for not paying more so that they can get good employees. Supply and demand and all that.
I certainly don't think the answer is "well the government should take away benefits so that people are more desperate and are willing to take whatever peanuts employers will throw at them." Especially since corporate profits are at record highs right now.
Everyone has a "story" when it comes to welfare, so here's mine.
I know a woman who is in her mid-30s, has 3 young kids and refuses to work. Just straight up refuses. She has no income beyond government aid and the occasional money that her mom sends for her kids. She is the poster child for the abuse of the welfare system.
That being said, I also know a good many more people who have used various forms of government assistance over the years and have not abused it They do not rely on it solely nor do they refuse to find work. Like Geraldo said and regardless of what Romney said, there just aren't that many jobs to be had right now that are flexible enough to accomodate a family with children.
A lot of the "lazy welfare queen" stereotypes don't come from the welfare state, but from parents who are unwilling to kick their kids out of the damn house and let them fend for themselves.
::mind twin high five::
Wow. I wanna live where you live. For the short while we were on food stamps after SO lost his job, we got $150/month for 3 people. Not exactly cushy.
I agree with this!
A lot of the factories where I live are hiring, but they are having a hard time finding people who can pass a drug test!
Then the factories should change their hiring practices. Who cares if a factory worker smokes a little somethin' on his/her off-time?
Any drug test I have taken for a job is scheduled a fair amount in advance. So if they don't care enough to refrain long enough to pass the drug test, I wouldn't expect them to only "only smoke a little something" when it will only affect their offtime.
And maybe if it was a "little something" it wouldn't be so bad, but we have large amounts of bath salts, heroin, and cocaine around here.
The maximum monthly federal food stamp benefit for a household of two is $367.
http://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/applicant_recipients/ben.htm
So you should not have been receiving almost $600 a month.