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Don't extend them, the labor market is beginning to make a solid recovery.
Agreed, the money is much more well spent than funding two wars...
The high share of workers who have been out of work for six months or longer is troubling, he said, because those workers face a particularly high bar to reentering the labor force both because they lose skills and because employers may question their suitability for employment.
Bernanke also said the elevated jobless rate makes businesses and households reluctant to spend because they are uncertain of future income.
I voted other. I feel that those on unemployment should prove to the government that they are trying to get a job and submit a sample of their resume to the government. They should tell the government what jobs they have applied to, and the government should be able to audit these and call those employers to see if it is true. I have no problem with unemployment for those who absolutely need it, but many are just sucking money from the government and choosing to not work because they can get a free check.
I voted other. I feel that those on unemployment should prove to the government that they are trying to get a job and submit a sample of their resume to the government. They should tell the government what jobs they have applied to, and the government should be able to audit these and call those employers to see if it is true. I have no problem with unemployment for those who absolutely need it, but many are just sucking money from the government and choosing to not work because they can get a free check.
Well, they're considering a year-long extension. And I ask, "When does it end?" Does that mean it goes from 99 weeks to 151 weeks?
The United States Congress has not reauthorized the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) Program which expires November 30, 2010. The expiration of the EUC Program affects the establishment of new EUC claims and the continued payment of current EUC claims. The United States Congress may still consider another extension of the EUC Program; however, legislation has not been passed. The pending legislation does not add any additional weeks of EUC benefits. If you have already exhausted your EUC benefits, no additional benefits will be available.
I'd like to say I could sympathize with the crop of grunts who C-minused their way through a revolving-door public school system only to land 30 dollar an hour shop jobs, and watch economic reality catch up to them.
The Democratic position is correct in this case. Extending unemployment benefits is one of the best forms of fiscal stimulus out there, because it increases the purchasing power of people who otherwise wouldn't have any. Using unused stimulus money to pay for it would defeat the purpose, and using TARP money doesn't even make sense.
As for the idea that it's unregulated welfare...that might be true if the unemployment rate was lower, but when it's over 9% I think it's hard to make the argument that it's discouraging people from finding work. That might be true in some individual cases, but from a macroeconomic perspective there are far more people willing to work than there are people willing to hire them.
Khandahar, you fall into the basic economic trap that Democrats believe in, which has continued to keep us in this down economy. Consumption does not drive growth, it is a symptom of growth. The whole consumption based economy thing is a Krugman/Bernanke idea and is the reason we have spent $1.4 trillion above our budget the last two years and have nothing to show for it.
Consumption doesn’t drive growth, investment drives growth. When businesses are able to expand, plan for the future, hire more workers, purchase new equipment, pay higher salaries, and allow the investors to purchase luxury items and services from developing businesses, that is what drives economic growth. You said extending unemployment benefits increases purchasing power, but that’s not true. If you borrow a million dollars, that doesn’t make you a millionaire. The government is stealing from the investors in order to drive consumption that would have happened anyway if investors had the money to invest in the economy. We aren’t increasing purchasing power by borrowing from China to fund extensions of unemployment benefits. We are actually decreasing future purchasing power, delivering future purchasing power to China through their ROI, taking purchasing power from the investing class and guaranteeing that we will not see economic recovery.
Stimulus of consumption has taken us to 9.6% unemployment. Reducing taxes on investors in the past decade took us to 4.5% unemployment.
Cause and effect
Overconsumption in the 90's and 2000's led to the 4.5% unemployement. People were buyiung homes on credit, cars on credit and generally consumed on credit. They brought consumption that should have been done later or not at all forward, leading to strong economic growth. (fake economic growth). When consuming based on debt was no longer possible (to high debt loads) consumption had to decrease. causing lower demand for goods and services, and as such lower demand for labour and lower demand for capital goods and investment. Untill debt levels in the US get quite a bit lower, %of gdp, the US will not see strong economic growth as too much of its wealth creation will be spent on debt reduction rather then consuming items like cars or new homes
Remember that for investors to invest, they have to believe that people will have money to buy the goods or services that will be produced
One choice should have been, "REPEAL THEM." Unemployment benefits are among the tons of things any government should never be doing.
Charity is NOT a legitimate function of government. It should be done solely by charities, churches, and other private entities.
Consumption doesn’t drive growth, investment drives growth.
friday said:When businesses are able to expand, plan for the future, hire more workers, purchase new equipment, pay higher salaries,
friday said:and allow the investors to purchase luxury items and services from developing businesses,
friday said:You said extending unemployment benefits increases purchasing power, but that’s not true. If you borrow a million dollars, that doesn’t make you a millionaire. The government is stealing from the investors in order to drive consumption that would have happened anyway if investors had the money to invest in the economy.
friday said:We aren’t increasing purchasing power by borrowing from China to fund extensions of unemployment benefits. We are actually decreasing future purchasing power, delivering future purchasing power to China through their ROI, taking purchasing power from the investing class and guaranteeing that we will not see economic recovery.
friday said:Stimulus of consumption has taken us to 9.6% unemployment. Reducing taxes on investors in the past decade took us to 4.5% unemployment.
I think this is already the case in that people must look for work and document that effort to receive unemployment benefits.I voted other. I feel that those on unemployment should prove to the government that they are trying to get a job and submit a sample of their resume to the government. They should tell the government what jobs they have applied to, and the government should be able to audit these and call those employers to see if it is true. I have no problem with unemployment for those who absolutely need it, but many are just sucking money from the government and choosing to not work because they can get a free check.
OK, but what drives investment? Consumption.
The government isn't taking money away from investors, because it is borrowing money rather than raising taxes. The investors are able to invest AND the consumers are able to consume. Both will help the economy.
It's true that the current level of deficit spending is unsustainable, but that's the point. It doesn't NEED to be sustained, it just needs to get us through a period of high unemployment. High deficit spending during bad economic times, and balancing the budget during good economic times will help smooth out the economic cycle.
To my knowledge, no federal taxes have increased since the recession began.
Extend them one last time, making sure to get the message out "This is the final extension." Maybe it will give an extra boost to those who are unemployed to get a new job.
That takes away capital. There is no way around that. Government spending NECESSARILY decreases private investment.
phattonez said:Except it does nothing to fix the capital markets. In fact, it makes their situation much worse. Sure, prices fell for them in 2007, but they're on the rise again.
phattonez said:You really have to emphasize federal on that, don't you?
Sure, but borrowing money doesn't take away capital today. It takes away capital in the future, when hopefully the economy will have recovered. Borrow during bad times, pay back (or at least balance the budget) during good times. This smooths out the economic cycle. Yes, it takes away private investment during boom times, but that's better than taking it away during busts.
I'm not sure what this proves, other than that demand is stronger when the economy is good...
I don't really know what the states have been doing. Probably a hodgepodge of tax hikes and tax cuts, depending on the state. But for the record, I'm opposed to state tax hikes during recessions too. Wait until unemployment goes down before raising taxes.