8 ms·
A perceived sense of entitlement, perhaps? Do people have the right to maintain their lifestyles during tragedy at the expense of their fellow taxpayers? In som
by hyperdunc 7y ago
A perceived sense of entitlement, perhaps? Do people have the right to maintain their lifestyles during tragedy at the expense of their fellow taxpayers? In some cases, maybe, but it also doesn't hurt to prepare so one can weather a crisis without being too reliant on others.
- ceejayoz 7y agoA cap of $1,300 a week means more than just a lifestyle cut in some areas of California.
- pmiller2 7y agoIndeed. $1300/week (gross), annualized, is $67.6k. Try living on that in the Bay Area.
- gpm 7y agoHmm... during an internship I lived on substantially less than that in the bay area, just because I wanted to save the rest of my income for the school year. Supporting a family on that if you're the single household income might be a bit tight. Paying rent on a nice house could easily swallow it (though a nice house isn't a basic necessity) - but 67.6k really is a fair amount of money. It's more than the median income in Oakland. 2x that (i.e. both parents working) is more than the median income in SF.
- pmiller2 7y ago$67600 is not even enough to qualify for a $1900/month 1 BR apartment in the East Bay. You have to keep in mind, we’re primarily talking about working adults here. Tech interns are not the ones who are going to be affected by this. Edit: also, keep in mind that if there’s a second working adult in the household, both are likely to be impacted.
- gpm 7y agoWe aren't talking about living on this amount of money long term here, you don't need to be able to qualify for an apartment on it, you just need to be able to continue paying your rent for a few months. If you need to live on this amount of money long term, move. I was keeping in mind that both adults would be effected... that's why I was using the disability pay rates for both adults in the above.
- pmiller2 7y agoOk, so, you just want to punish people who, for whatever reason, haven't accumulated an emergency fund. I'm going to assume that you mean this in the most charitable sense of "their budgeting does not allow them to accumulate an emergency fund," because a bank balance is a point in time view and not always reflective of overall financial health. (Speaking of which, how would you determine that? Require 6 months of bank statements to apply for disability insurance? That seems awfully intrusive.) I'm sure you're familiar with the study that says 4 in 10 Americans can't cover a $400 unexpected expense? Well, it doesn't quite say that [0], but it does cite a study that says only 24% of households have $400 in liquid assets. And, it also says that 14% of households would not be able to pay some bills if such an expense arose, and 12% could not cover the expense at all (I'm unclear if the 12% overlaps with the 14% though). Are you saying you're okay with those people taking the first step into total financial ruin, just because of something they have little or no control over (becoming temporarily unable to work due to disability)? And, I'll ask again: why should one's bank balance affect one's ability to claim benefits when one paid into the system in order to fund those very benefits? --- [0]: https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-06-04/the-400-emergency-expense-story-is-wrong https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-06-04/the-40...
- gpm 7y agoI don't appreciate you putting words in my mouth. I have never said I wanted to punish anyone. I have never suggested looking at bank balances - in fact I explicitly argued against this the only time I mentioned it. You are arguing against a straw man. That said - I have no interest in replying to the content of the argument - I stay away from arguing about things on the internet where there is no right side. The general question of what to do is too political for me to approach here. All I am willing to do, and have done in my comments, is respond to clearly incorrect statements.
- pkaye 7y agoHow much are other states giving?
- droithomme 7y agoCovid-19 infection is not a lifestyle "entitlement" contrary to your claim. It's obviously a disability that prevents you from being able to work and absolutely people who get it should receive the disability INSURANCE payments they were forced to pay in to for years. How is an insurance claim on an insurance policy one has been forced to pay for an "entitlement" anyway, in your opinion? Care to explain that one?
- hyperdunc 7y agoTo be clear, I didn't downvote - my first sentence was only pointing out the potential thought process of someone who might have. My opinion is that some level of payout is a good idea, but it should be balanced with one's own prepardness.
- pmiller2 7y agoIn this context, "preparedness" seems to mean "liquid savings," since we're talking about being forced to not work for a period of days to weeks. Are you saying DI should be means tested, and that people should have to exhaust their savings that they worked for before they're eligible for assistance?
- gpm 7y agoRather I believe they are referring to the ability to prepare, i.e. we don't measure people's savings but look at their income level (and perhaps number of dependents) and decide what we think their emergency fund should be. Which seems far more reasonable to me than actually measuring savings. We don't want to punish people for creating emergency funds.
- pmiller2 7y agoNo, it does not, because we don’t want to punish people from becoming unable to work, either.
- 7y ago
- pmiller2 7y agoPerhaps not "maintain their lifestyles," but certainly to be able to afford to live and have basic necessities. There are many workers who, faced with being quarantined for weeks or days, or going to work to earn money to live, would choose the latter, at everyone else's expense. What do "the taxpayers" think of that?
- hyperdunc 7y agoThat's a good point.
- zaroth 7y agoIt's an insurance payout that everyone is forced to pay premiums for out of every paycheck. CA SDI tax is 1% on the first $122,909 earned. Of course the payout is capped, so anyone earning more than maybe $30k is subsidizing the insurance pool, but anyone who qualifies for SDI should absolutely claim it, because it's a benefit they have been paying for.
- Retric 7y agoNot everyone pays the same percentage out of every paycheck. The US tax code is setup to avoid people getting six+ figures from these programs as that would create huge political blowback. Just picture a CEO who runs their company into the ground and then gets X0 million from unemployment insurance.