Just Say Why

The Folly of Extending Unemployment Benefits
by
Captain Jack

No, I’m not another one of those brain dead conservatives that think the best cure for high unemployment numbers is to let them starve to death. No, Sharron Angle, they’re not unemployed because they like starving. But, just extending unemployment benefits is more harmful than beneficial. Let me explain.

During the Republican Great Depression of the 1930s, many people were unemployed for so long that they became unemployable. There’s only so many years you can unsuccessfully apply for work in your profession before you quit trying. Sure, many of them tried alternative professions, such as selling apples or pencils on the street corners. But there’s not a big demand for menial labor like that.

So, what did all those people do back in those days? You guessed it, the same thing they’ll end up doing this time if we don’t fix the unemployment issue right away. They became chronically homeless. Do you remember the large number of homeless that were referred to as Hobos? Yes, a large number of people learned to live off the streets and off the land. None of them ever got assimilated back into society.

Giving people extended unemployment benefits doesn’t keep them employable. It makes them dependent on the benefits. The only long term solution to unemployment is more jobs. For every dollar spent on unemployment benefits, we need two dollars in jobs programs. The only way to keep the people employable is to keep them employed. That means jobs programs.

Too bad the republicans are killing every attempt at building jobs programs. The republican senators do not want to fix the economy, they want to benefit from it by stretching it out as long as they can. Just look at all the jobs programs that the republicans have voted against. It’s sickening, yet few republican voters realize it.

We need a whole lot more jobs programs and we need them immediately. Extending unemployment benefits without jobs will only make matters worse.