Jobless benefits in U.S.: $319 billion in 3 years
The article in CNNMoney.com says:
“Laying off workers has not been cheap for businesses.”
Well… “isn’t that ‘special?'” 
It hasn’t been “a picnic” for the unemployed, either!
Sometimes, it is good to sit back, take a deep breath, and think about where we are and how we got here!
The Great Recession (unprecedented itself, for a recession), you will recall, was caused by corporate greed, incompetence, and financial mismanagement that led to a worldwide financial crisis. Taxpayers in the U.S. were called upon by government to “bail out” some outstanding “corporate bozos” in the financial sector, and in other sectors as well (the automobile industry comes to mind).
Of the jobs eliminated in the U.S. during the Great Recession, only 9% have come back. The others have likely been eliminated for good, or off-shored by “American” companies. “American” companies have STALLED the economic recovery by not hiring back workers fast enough to let consumer spending, which accounts for 70% of economic activity, drive the economic recovery! Even Fortune says that “consumers” cannot be blamed for the nation’s sluggish economy.
There is a debate that will occur in Congress in coming weeks over whether to extend the “safety net” for Americans for the fifth time this year.
The CNNMoney.com article says:
Well… maybe they SHOULD!
After all, incompetence has its consequences! I am personally aware of several cases in which management incompetence led the companies to NONEXISTENCE.
Undaunted though, companies are trying to REDUCE their tax burden. In California, they have shifted the tax burden from large corporations to small businesses and individuals. Meanwhile, 31 states have loans from the federal government totaling $41 billion to cover their payouts of unemployment. California is one of these, having exhausted the state fund.
Now, for some of the consequences of incompetence and greed….
The CNNMoney article says that rising unemployment taxes have made some employers “think twice about expanding their payrolls.”
Maybe these companies should have “thought twice” about offshoring American jobs and laying off American workers, in the FIRST place! But that would be exercising foresight… something that business executives are not, in general, “very good at.”
There are times when I think that the enemies of the United States could better accomplish their aims of destroying this great country by sitting on the sidelines and letting corporate myopia, greed, and incompetence take their toll.
It’s pretty obvious that corporations don’t care about the $319 billion that they have cost the U.S. in unemployment benefits in three years, so long as none of the costs of their mistakes come back to them.
(Note added November 18, 2010: After getting off the phone talking to a friend [ a year older than I] who was recently FIRED under conditions that strongly support her likely age-discrimination suit, I saw THIS article about the House of Representatives failing to extend unemployment benefits today, putting the benefits for 2 million jobless people at risk! Imagine a scene of aging Baby Boomers marching on Washington, D.C. with the numbers needed to vote out legislators who do not support their economic needs. The scene seems more likely every day…. The Republican “freshmen” should know that their election was not a mandate, and that their “tenure” could be quite short, indeed. Meanwhile, changing demographics mean that companies will SOON have to figure out not only where to find needed workers, but where to find markets that can afford to buy the goods and services that they produce.)
-Bill at
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