Unemployment Blues
I’ve been on the planet for a pretty long time. I’ve been a contributing to the workforce here in America for about 3/4 of my life (over 30 years). In all that time I’ve only taken unemployment benefits once and that was when there were ample jobs to be had but you didn’t have to except something that was below your “lot” in life. It was then I realized how flawed the system is.
Folks lose their jobs for a pile of reasons, they get fired, laid off, the place there working for goes under – the list goes on. When I found my self having to go to the unemployment office I was let go due to a personality conflict. I plead my case provided the necessary evidence and was (by the close of business the very same day) presented a large “exit/please don’t sue/we have no way to undo this/your manager has slept with one of the higher ups and is threatening their own law suit check. So I felt slightly vindicated even though in the long run it was going to cost me money.
Thank you to zazzle.com for this image.
But it left me in an unfamiliar place – unemployed. The comptroller/HR person of the company told me that I needed to file for unemployment right away so as to mot miss out on my benefits. I remember saying that I had enough money no to survive for about a year so I would file then if I still needed to. He explained to me that it didn’t work that way and it was nothing to be ashamed of because after all I had been paying into the system the whole time. I thought to myself “I don’t need the money right now, I’m not going to take it”, after all I would be pulling money away from someone who might need it. Long story short, I filed. I asked if it could be deferred and the answer was no. It would be the first political thought I had regarding the way our government does things.
George Herbert Walker Bush was in office and the previous 8 years was Reagan. I’m not sure what their policies were around this topic were but I know that they were partially responsible for the way things were run, so I blamed them. I thought how could a system be so flawed that it would allow someone who doesn’t need the money to take the money. My father suggested I look up Reaganomics. I did, what I got was the rich got richer and the poor were allowed to work for the rich. But at least they started to work… right? Well in theory it wasn’t a horrible theory – on paper. As it would turn out however, supply-side economics would take on it’s own kind of failure and you and I are paying the price.
Shortly after I started collecting my unemployment checks Clinton would take office and the economy would start to boom again. I removed myself from the weekly government check pool and started a business that made money for me while I slept – literally. It was this new thing called the internet and it made a ton of folks a lot of money in a hurry, and I was one of them. It felt good to free that money up, because as our current situation would dictate the government does run out of money and folks that didn’t need checks got them and those who needed checks couldn’t.
Then the Clinton years ended and ended with a stained dress and a tarnished image for the democratic party. Couple that with a rebel name Nader and we wouldn’t see another Dem in office until Obama. While “W” was in office he would proceed to tear down any assemblance of fiscal responsibility the the Republican party held and before we knew it we were trying to impeach him (albeit in grass root movements). But it occurred to while reading something the other day that under the Bush administration they voted to extend unemployment benefits and with the American people sucking wind as a result of the Bush economic policies Obama couldn’t get extended Unemployment benefits through. So I asked the question – is that politics at its worst? Most folks took the opportunity to call me a liberal socialist that wants illegal immigrants in the country. When in truth I was only pointing out the two examples – Bush got it passed and Obama got Fillibustered. But what it boiled down to was party before country – which was my original thought. Has Obstructionism become the new American way of life. I’m not delusional that the Dems have their issues, they do. Me, I just want folks who legitimately can’t find work to get the help they need so they don’t lose everything. But I also understand that there should be a better set of checks and balances put into place to better protect those who need it versus those who don’t. What the hell is up with that?
