14 ms·
Right. Why would I seek a job if the unemployment benefits pay me nearly as much to do nothing?
by whall6 5y ago
Right. Why would I seek a job if the unemployment benefits pay me nearly as much to do nothing?
- PragmaticPulp 5y agoAnd the employer perspective: Why would I try to compete with unemployment benefits that are ending in a few months? The situation is temporary and has obviously causal factors that are coming to an end soon (unemployment benefits, school out for summer). Journalists seem to be going out of their way to ignore these and pretend that something else is happening.
- ajsnigrutin 5y agoThe only shitty thing here is, that many companies will fail and close down in the meantime, meaning less jobs openings for people who just lost unemployment benefits.
- varjag 5y agoIf there is still demand for their services, other more successful franchises will step in.
- alisonkisk 5y agoThat's the creative destruction of capitalism, eliminating net negative value enterprises.
- nuker 5y ago> with unemployment benefits that are ending in a few months? I don't think so. Zeta variant is coming.
- eropple 5y agoI hadn't heard of this, but the WHO seems to have indicated that this is no longer a variant of interest, let alone a variant of concern.
- wallacoloo 5y agoI believe it was a joke that, as emergency covid policies are extended a couple months as each new variant arises, and since there will be no end of variants for an endemic virus, that means the policies are actually permanent. Or maybe I misunderstood.
- nuker 5y agoyou got it right
- ryanobjc 5y agoAre you sure? Those states that cut people off unemployment didn’t see a boost in employment rates. Sooo now what?
- cbozeman 5y agoBecause you have self-respect and shouldn't be taking handouts if you're capable of working? No one capable of working should be taking unemployment, ever. This is how social safety nets get demonized by politicians, and it works. A factory worker and mother of three who was making car parts from the start of COVID-19 until now and was never laid off and who never had the option of quitting work, fucking hates someone who sits on their ass collecting unemployment playing Xbox games all day. That's the relatively young Hispanic woman who lives down the road from me. I was fortunate; I already work remote so the only thing COVID did for me was restrict my dining choices temporarily here in Texas. The answer to every problem we seem to face in America always ends up being, "Just throw some fucking money at it!" I'm sick of it. Many of our problems couldn't be solved if we had literally quadrillions of dollars of cash. Sometimes - many times - it takes a lot of good old fashioned hard work, in the arenas of careful thinking, and then careful doing. Neither of which it seems either political party is particularly interested.
- vladvasiliu 5y agoI mostly agree with you. However, it may not (always) be that simple. The media here in France reports that some industries, in particular restaurants, are having a hard time finding employees, with not enough people applying and even employees who were there before Covid hit leaving. I don't know how actually true this is, but when they (the media) ask people why they won't go back, the main reason doesn't seem to be a preference for sitting on ass, but rather a realization that given the wages, those jobs were a terrible proposition. They claim instead to be looking at how they can improve their situation, like looking for work in other industries, going back to school, etc. Which I think is a good thing. How many random empty bars does a country really need? Now maybe I'm being too optimistic, but I hope that that's true and that this will at least increase wages for those jobs. But I can't help but think that all this soul-searching is helped by government aid and that, sooner or later, when that runs out, the people will have to get back to those jobs and then, whatever rise there might have been, will be swept away.
- secondcoming 5y ago> The media here in France reports that some industries, in particular restaurants, are having a hard time finding employees It's the same in the UK. Farmers cannot harvest some crops because the cheap EU labour is no longer present and locals won't do it.
- jonathanlb 5y agoIt might be important to distiguish doing "nothing" from not being on the job market. It's possible to contribute to society by making art, writing, cooking, spending time with family, caring for others, etc. as well as self-actualizing via exercise, reading, meditation, and so on.
- varjag 5y agoMeditation is very much doing nothing.
- goodpoint 5y agoNot at all.
- WalterBright 5y agoNot sure how self-actualizing is contributing to society.
- goodpoint 5y ago"Self-actualization is the complete realization of one's potential, and the full development of one's abilities and appreciation for life" From most classical philosophers, to Einstein, Maxwell, Darwin and countless other, their work was nothing else than an act of self-actualization. And because this is HN, shall I include Torvalds? The FLOSS movement started from volunteers.
- WalterBright 5y agoI appreciate my life. I don't see how that contributes to society.
- alisonkisk 5y agoself-actualizing doean't pay bills.
- dazc 5y agoOne of the UK employers currently moaning about a lack of workers had a policy of only employing people for 16 hours a week since this was the optimum hours a person could work whilst still receiving tax credits and housing benefit. Around 10 years ago I was in the labour market willing to do pretty much anything and these kinds of jobs accounted for most of what was available. Since I wasn't 'on benefits' I was at the other end of the equation. What I really wanted was a chance to work my way out of financial trouble - these kind of jobs only offered the opposite of this.