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Receiving barely enough to pay the bills, if that, that will soon end is not a direct incentive to find work in your book? Most people out there don't find new

by jarek 16y ago

Receiving barely enough to pay the bills, if that, that will soon end is not a direct incentive to find work in your book? Most people out there don't find new jobs in two weeks. Your friend could have afforded party time during the benefits period - once this run out, how long was he living off previous savings or external support?

jessriedel 16y ago
It's the "soon end" part that's important. I'm not arguing against all unemployment benefits, I'm describing the argument against long-term benefits. My friend was living off solely unemployment benefits for over a year.
- jarek 16y ago
  Interesting -- was he living with parents? My impression was, and the comments here seem to confirm, that most (all?) U.S. unemployment payouts aren't really enough to live on carefree while casually paying slope fees.
  - jessriedel 16y ago
    No he was not. He was living in a house with his own room and one or two other roommates. From page 7 of this http://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de1275a.pdf http://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de1275a.pdf I believe that if you make $47k or more in the year leading up to your unemployment (technically, if you made more than $11.6k in the highest quarter of that year), your benefits are $450/week or $1900/month or $23,464/year. Raising a family of 4 on that would be challenging, but it's easily enough to live carefree in Santa Barbara, CA (where I lived, with one of the highest housing prices in the US) as a 26 year-old bachelor while paying $500 for a skiing season pass and several hundred dollars per year in mountain biking repair costs. (Both he and I were avid mountain bikers; trails are usually free, but the repairs weren't.) I took home $1600/month as a grad student while saving money and frequenting cheap bars, so I know this is very easily lived on. Of Course, I didn't have quite as much free time for boarding and biking as he did.

by jarek 16y ago

jessriedel 16y ago

It's the "soon end" part that's important. I'm not arguing against all unemployment benefits, I'm describing the argument against long-term benefits. My friend was living off solely unemployment benefits for over a year.

jarek 16y ago
Interesting -- was he living with parents? My impression was, and the comments here seem to confirm, that most (all?) U.S. unemployment payouts aren't really enough to live on carefree while casually paying slope fees.
- jessriedel 16y ago
  No he was not. He was living in a house with his own room and one or two other roommates. From page 7 of this http://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de1275a.pdf http://www.edd.ca.gov/pdf_pub_ctr/de1275a.pdf I believe that if you make $47k or more in the year leading up to your unemployment (technically, if you made more than $11.6k in the highest quarter of that year), your benefits are $450/week or $1900/month or $23,464/year. Raising a family of 4 on that would be challenging, but it's easily enough to live carefree in Santa Barbara, CA (where I lived, with one of the highest housing prices in the US) as a 26 year-old bachelor while paying $500 for a skiing season pass and several hundred dollars per year in mountain biking repair costs. (Both he and I were avid mountain bikers; trails are usually free, but the repairs weren't.) I took home $1600/month as a grad student while saving money and frequenting cheap bars, so I know this is very easily lived on. Of Course, I didn't have quite as much free time for boarding and biking as he did.