Re: The $600 per week federal unemployment benefit

[peoli]

Dear Bitch McDonkle and Republican Party,

It's not that the extra $600 is discouraging me to go back to work, it is that at this moment there is no work to go back to. We are barely open with limited hours and there are not enough hours for me to return to work. Almost my entire staff was laid off. Also, not that you give a shit, but I lost my health insurance and that was a real stinger because I had met my out of pocket maximum for the year already. I am sorry that you don't think that my life is worth $600 per week. I don't think that your life is worth the dog shit on the bottom of my shoe. I can't wait to piss on your grave when you're dead. Perhaps you will be more useful to the worms in the ground than you were to the humans on Earth.

Fuck you forever.

[Progressive Jones]

1. K & R !!! nt

[stopbush]

2. Yertle is paid $193,000 a year in taxpayer dollars as Senate majority leader,

and his reported net worth is over $30-million.

That’s why he relates so well to the rest of us.

[misanthrope]

4. That is part of what is so infuriating about him

He is such a transparent waste of carbon.

[More_Cowbell]

3. And that $600 is going right into the local economy

Paying rent, buying groceries, paying bills.

[Disclosure: I was let go in May and am getting it.]

[Luz]

15. This. I'm on it too, and I need to repair my car. With the

extra money I'll get it done and $500 will go back to the economy. Without it, my ac stays broken and we all suffer.
And for 4 months. Listening to all the complaints (not here, but in general) you'd think we were getting $600 a week for life. We're not. My regular unemployment runs out in Sept, then I'm screwed.
My job is gone, and not coming back anytime soon. I'm 61 and will have to retire early to get by.

[Wounded Bear]

5. If that's an incentive "not to work" perhaps wages are too low...

[BBG]

6. Perhaps indeed

Nt

[denem]

8. Yeah. Like less than $15 per hour.

[FBaggins]

16. Not quite

It’s an additional $600 on top of the normal unemployment benefit.

[denem]

17. ty. Got it.

[stopbush]

22. My daughter gets $97 a week from CA unemployment.

So the “on top of” aspect of the $600 isn’t all that much.

[FBaggins]

23. CA's minimum PUA is $167/week

Plus the $600

UI of $97/week in CA means pre-unemployment earnings of about $3500/month. Which means that her income is slightly higher than pre-pandemic.

[MiniMe]

24. unemployment benefits suck

It helps if you are out of work, but they suck.

[True Blue American]

11. That is the problem!

Wages are too low! It is fact that places like Grocery stores, Walmart, Lowe’s, places like that badly need help, but the top poster is caught in the middle.

Trumps answer is to defund Social Security.

[Sherman A1]

13. Precisely

[uponit7771]

20. +1

[denem]

7. $15 x 40hrs - $600 a week

This why they don't want a $600 benefit. It might discourage people from abiding low wages.

[peoli]

12. $15 x 40 hrs - $600 a week. "You are not worth it" - Mitch McConnell

[FBaggins]

18. That's the same thing using different words.

[nilram]

9. If people are making more on unemployment, then we should raise wages.

A 50-year-old friend has been a restaurant cook his whole life. He makes a little more with unemployment+subsidy than he did where he worked last, but he'd rather be employed. Much better for his (marginal) mental health. I've watched those ups and downs, definitely better when he's working.

His last employer was attached to a hotel and won't be back for probably 18 months, if at all. Other places that start up? They're mostly going to hire their former employees first. Is he retrainable? Barely, but not at a place that uses a computer very much. He's worked in hash houses and in fine dining (like the last place). His industry pays meager amounts for his skills, even though (IMO) he could work in nearly any fine dining place in my city.

There's going to be a glut of workers in lower paying jobs, so they're going to get paid even less. Those on the bottom rung are going to get dumped on the floor. Absolutely past time for living wages and guaranteed incomes.

[Wounded Bear]

10. Exactly! nt

[Sherman A1]

14. Making the case for Universal Basic Income

We need it for the folks that you describe in your post, that simply are not going to be able to find work as we go forward.

[Amishman]

21. this, a significant number of businesses wouldn't survive a $15/hr + minimum wage

especially in rural areas where both wages and cost of living is lower. Labor economics in NYC is very different from nowhere KY.

UBI is the real solution and the only way to really lift up the bottom tier without crushing a lot of businesses.

[Johnny2X2X]

19. It should be framed as stimulus, not unemployment

I have been lucky and won't be losing my job this year, but if I did, the unemployment in my state maxes out at about 30% of my regular salary. Basically means that any layoff for me normally would be catastrophic if it lasted for more than a few months. That $600 would mean that I can pay my bills, live a little more frugally, and get by if I did get laid off. We have a large layoff coming next Tuesday, I already know my group is not affected, but as much as 150 of my coworkers will be losing their jobs and have their lives upended. The states have needed to raise the caps on unemployment benefits for a long time. Higher wage earners are totally screwed when they get laid off in all 50 states.

Lower wage earners who've been getting this $600 have been enjoying the extra money which they use to pay off debt, pay the bills, fix cars, and otherwise pump it right back into the economy. This $600 has what has kept the economy going and given people a false sense that the economy isn't suffering too badly. This $600 is the best way to stimulate the economy, and it also provides incentive for workers to not return to work in dangerous conditions. Frame it as a stimulus and it might survive.

What will happen is the $600 will be gone, but the Republicans are prepared for a lower enhancement, I think $400 is the best workers can hope for. $400 extra, but extending it through January would be acceptable, that money would go right into the economy and most workers would be able to get by. In my state of Michigan, the max would then by $762 a month including that $400.

People still do not get it that those jobs are not coming back, 10%+ UE is the new normal.

[hamsterjill]

25. Same boat

I have been diligently looking for work. I WANT to work. But there are no jobs. I notice in the job board websites that the same positions are being hawked over and over and over. Either the positions have been filled and the job boards don’t update, or else the positions have been eliminated. The job boards want it to look like they are creating activity when in fact it’s like a video tape being looked over and over.

There are no jobs.