

Should unemployment benefits last longer than 99 weeks? - startuprules
http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/23/news/economy/extending_unemployment_benefits/index.htm

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jacquesm
For those that can not find employment the only other option to stay alive if
they don't get benefits (which they paid for with their previous labour as
taxes anyway) is to become criminals.

Criminals cost society a lot more than someone 'on the dole'.

They can't just magically survive on air until a job comes by. Sure there will
be some that might abuse the system, but that's possible with a 1 week period
as well.

Some people do all they can to find a job and still find none (there was a
story in the news today about a young British girl that took her own life
after 200 job applications, I can't help but be reminded of that when reading
about this).

This crisis is very real and far from over in spite of some bits of positive
news here and there, it will take more than a few exceptional measures to get
to the other side of it and extending benefits to those that are really in
need of them seems like a very logical step.

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sp332
99 weeks is enough for two years of college. You'd have more than enough time
to train some skill that's in demand and find a job that'll keep you alive.

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jacquesm
I think you miss the point that for every job there are probably more
applicants than '1', so there is no guarantee that you will find a job even
with a skill that is in 'demand'. In fact, for every person training for a
skill that is in demand today the ratio of people that will end up unemployed
with that skill goes up.

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mattmiller
Nobody is looking for a job for 99 weeks straight. In the first few weeks they
look and get discouraged. Toward the end of the 99 weeks they will look again
(this time with more urgency) b/c benefits are running out. I think
unemployment benefits are a good thing, but nearly two years of benefits is
way too long.

I know a lot of people on unemployment who make almost no effort to find a
job, and the ones offered to them usually get turned down b/c they come with a
pay cut. The only positive I can see in this is that a small portion of the
massive amount of government money being spent right now is going directly to
people I know.

