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Unemployment Claims Crash State Web Sites
1sockchuck writes "A sign of the times: a surge in filings for unemployment benefits has crashed online application systems in four states this week. Web sites in Ohio, New York, Kentucky and North Carolina have been knocked offline by unusually high volumes of jobless claims. Phone applications systems appearing to be faring even worse in many states. The thin silver lining: states are hiring workers for phone banks and buying new servers to prop up their web sites."
and yet I'm able to get first post? This can't be right.
Oh, yeah, it's not easy to pad these out to 120 characters.
Once the employment returns to normal will they fire all the folks they hired?
It's a vicious cycle
until states start outsourcing their call centers to other countries to save money?
Anyway, the Illinois TeleServ system is constantly busy. I have to use my cell and ground line to dial at the same time to try to get through.
http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/news_wtnh_wethersfield_website_department_labor_problem_200812161624_rev1
You're paying taxes because if you don't, men in dark suits come for you and make you go away.
Unemployment Clerk (Bea Arthur): "Did you bullshit this week?"
Comicus (Mel Brooks): "No."
Clerk: "Did you try to bullshit this week?"
Comicus: "Yes!"
You never expect irony, do you?
Want to be a professional wrestler? Visit www.iyfwrestling.com
@iyfwrestling
Seriously? People are too lazy to go to the unemployment office? Why am I paying taxes again?
You were too lazy to hand deliver your first post on a velvet pillow to slashdot headquarters? Gosh, the nerve of some people...
Huh? Why would you waste gas traveling to the the unemployment office? Plus they can fill out job applications when they're done vs the time wasted traveling to and from the office plus waiting in line.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Ever go to one? They're usually cesspools. And its usually more efficient for the State to do it that way.
I accompanied my brother to the unemployment office multiple times before he just went online. Eventually it went though, but they're like waaayyyyyy backed up and the paperwork took at least two weeks longer than usual. Sign of the times.
I found out that my state (LA) royally fucks you out of UI, if you are self employed.
Yep, they actually have a statute written that says, if you are the primary shareholder of a company, you cannot claim UI. This just isn't fair.
I was recently between contracts for a few months. First time for this....so, I file for UI. Now, I have and S corp. I pay myself a salary out of what I bill. Out of that salary, I pay SS, I pay medicare...and I pay Federal and STATE unemployment fees.
Yet, when I went to collect them...I could not in the state of LA. That isn't fair? I pay into the system, but, I cannot take out when I need to?
I know this isn't that way in all states...I know people with the same set up, that collected UI just fine.
I called....I went in person...I appealed this to the highest set of judges..but, to no avail.
I swear, if I had enough time and money (I'm working again, but that kills the time aspect)...I'd try to get a lawyer and get that law overturned on principal alone. If I pay into a system..I should be able to get out of it.
So anyway...I've got a bad taste for UI complaints....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Well, when it's back up, someone make sure it gets on the front page of Slashdot.
LA has more laws to fuck you over than New York and that is saying something. My friend's dad owned a company that made fishing lures in LA and ran into all sorts of corruption, incompetence and insanity trying to get the permits needed to expand his factory. So he moved the entire operation to Texas.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Because if you are unemployed you shouldn't have the internet. If you can't afford the Gas to drive to the unemployment office. You take bus or the subway or you get off your lazy ass and walk or bike. When I was poor I went to the library. I couldn't afford the $40/month for internet.
Nothing is more disgusting than watching Best Buy drop off a Plasma screen TV to Government subsidized housing and I know full well they all have the $150/month HDTV Cable plan.
My parents raised 4 kids on about half of what I make now (and no, inflation doesn't come close to counting for the difference, Born in '82). I hope we hit another depression. Grandma and Grandpa knew how to live frugally. Before she passed away I had the opportunity to talk to my grandma about the great depression and what life was really like.
Frugal is not having the internet. It is not having to downgrade to the basic cable or even have a TV. It is not having $90/month Cell phone plans.
When these people have to start cutting their flour with cardboard to make it last longer, call me.
Did you fire yourself? No. You just work for a company that can't afford to pay you.
Guess it sucks to be in LA. I have never incorporated, but here in CA, if you are self employed as a sole proprietor, they don't make you pay UI... and of course, you can't make a claim against it either.
Don't worry, however, CA screws individuals with all kinds of taxes, almost the highest in the nation in every category. And it is never enough.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
Any info to back up that claim?
You don't seriously think that having a building, with lights and employees and stuff, just to collect illegibly handwritten forms that need to be transcribed into a database at additional expense is somehow cheaper than just letting people fill out forms online, do you?
Yeah, yeah, I know, the moral order of the universe depends on their being a walk of shame that everybody who has the temerity to be unemployed is forced through; but it makes very little economic sense.
Kentucky has the Internet?
Seriously? People are too lazy to go to the unemployment office? Why am I paying taxes again?
You were too lazy to hand deliver your first post on a velvet pillow to slashdot headquarters? Gosh, the nerve of some people...
Would that be in Wilmington DE or in the Grand Cayman Islands?
Actually in some states, they're cutting way back on unemployment offices. It's also cheaper to buy a server + website than to pay an assload of unemployment clerks, so the government is *gasp* making your tax money go further.
In Washington, if you go to the unemployment offices, basically you use their computers there to file your claim.
Yeah, because as a computer programmer, the first thing I'm going to do to cut back when I get laid off is sever my connection to the job boards and cut off my email access to everyone I know who might be in a position to hire me. F-ing genius.
Seriously? People are too lazy to go to the unemployment office? Why am I paying taxes again?
Lazy is not a synonymn of 'efficient'. Assuming you went to a public school, I'm wondering why I'm paying taxes.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
I couldn't afford the $40/month for internet.
Good thing Internet service is available in most areas for 5-10 dollars a month, if not free w/ ads.
Sorry but the utility of having internet service FAR outweighs the cost, especially when you are unemployed! When I was laid off during the last recession it was probably the best bill I paid, I was able to apply for probably hundreds of jobs that were never advertised offline and eventually landed one of them. The fuel I would have burned and the wear and tear on the vehicle driving to the library every day would have been significantly more. Not to mention that the library has a limited number of seats and so if everyone did as you suggested there wouldn't be enough seat hours to go around. Oh, and in case you hadn't noticed these people are NOT getting something for nothing, they all paid their unemployment insurance tax while working as so are perfectly entitled to the benefits.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
It depends on the office doing the website and whoe they hire. My wife worked for Accenture and they did a couple. It was horrifying. Never ever EVER hire Accenture.
The droves of victims of this economic collapse all paid into the EI fund from their own paycheques while they were working. Also when you apply online you get your cheques sooner. So that's the reason people would be doing that. Plus when you apply for EI online you have to go into the office anyway to drop off your ROE. Plus a number of cities have amalgamated their EI offices into other offices as well, so it's a bloody ordeal just going in to just drop the papers off.
I have nothing compelling to say
"I hope we hit another depression."
i sincerely hope your one of the first to lose your job asshole.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
So you'd rather people who were collecting unemployment would spend half their time trudging back and forth to a state office instead of using that time to look for a new job? We all pay into the system, it's a social safety net. So that way if you're ever unemployed long term, you can tap into it as well. But that's never going to happen to you right?
You're all invited to try Ohio Unemployment Beta -- just go here and create your free account!
https://unemployment.ohio.gov/
Because if you are unemployed you shouldn't have the internet. ... (rant partially redacted) ... When these people have to start cutting their flour with cardboard to make it last longer, call me.
Sounds like someone needs a hug...
So you would rather your tax money be used to pay the salary of a government employee (with full benefits and pension!) to process claims in person, by hand. And for a larger government office building to accommodate all of these claims processors, and for heating and cooling, and for paper forms and carbon copies and pens and....
Or they could just do it online.
Never ever EVER hire ${hugeConsultingFirm}.
Fixed that for you.
In the state of Texas the phone system has been overloaded. I had to call about an issue that took five minutes to fix once I got connected.
However, it took 239 calls to the 1-800 number to finally connect. Every other call resulted in a busy signal or a "All circuits are busy" result.
Good times!
It should surprise no one that the UI systems in Michigan, the official Unemployment Capital of North America, are also buckling under the traffic. My longtime buddy MARVIN (aka Michigan Automated Voice Interactive Network) has been offline the past couple days. Fortunately I have a couple part-time jobs, so I'm not collecting benefits, but I know people who are... trying to.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
I missed the part where those forums and your e-mail wouldn't work at the Library.
I don't get why you think making it more difficult for them to find work will get them off of Unemployment faster.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
You say "My parents raised 4 kids on about half of what I make now".
Could you be a bit more specific? Lets look a little closer.
A. What did your parents make in '82?
B. Go to the Minneapolis Federal Reserve home page.
http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1084177&op=Reply&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&pid=26367983
C. In the "What is a dollar worth" program
C1. Type 1982 into the year
C2. Type your parent's 1982 income amount into the "goods or services" field.
C3. Type 2008 into the "Then in" field. 2008 is the latest year they have data on file.
C4. Press the "calculate" button.
Finally let us know the result!
This Fed calculation is quite useful for all time oriented dollar amounts. You will notice that news sources constantly compare today's dollar to yesterday's dollar as if they were the same. They are not.
Thanks,
Jim
Maybe some of the GP's post were a bit off, but he has a great damned point. I'm reminded of working a drive through and seeing a guy in a nice hotted up car, the full kit - a gorgeous rumble, nice rims, interior done right up, custom paint job and so on - counting out 5c pieces so he could get three meals for 4 kids who looked so damned grubby they could have come out of the deep fry along with the burger I was giving them. I'm not claiming to know their exact situation, but I had the distinct impression that he put everything into the car at the detriment of his partner and children. The same annoyance happens when I see cable or sat. dishes on government housing out here in Aus.
I don't hope we have another depression, but I'd like to see some enforced restrictions on what you can use your unemployment money for. Like not getting fox or 52" screens.
Me failed English...
FreeBSD over Linux. If my comments seem odd, this may explain...
They would, if you don't mind other people getting their grubby fingers all over your passwords and personal information. Having your own Internet connection is much cheaper than you think(you don't need a 500Mb connection to check your email), and it's safer/easier. You know, you could be a lot happier if you'd quit hunting everywhere for something to get pissed off about.
Considering there are ISPs that offer plans for less than 10$ per month, I fail to see the point? I think there are even advertisement-paid ISPs offering free connection...
Disconnecting your internet connection when you need to be searching for a job is the most retarded idea I ever heard. It's an enabling resource, as is a phone and an automobile depending on where you live.
When these people... You're 26 years old and you're so worldly and wise that you get to refer to the down and out as "these people" ? Or is it that you've never been one of them? Do YOU know what it's like to stand in line at a mission? To buy half chicory coffee? Ever live in your car for months at a time? How many times have you had to come to home to people dependent on you and announce you've been laid off? Can you relate to a desire ( the INSTINCT ) to preserve some semblance of normalcy for your family?
I think you lack the needed perspective to be judging these people.
And THIS: Nothing is more disgusting than watching Best Buy drop off a Plasma screen TV to Government subsidized housing and I know full well they all have the $150/month HDTV Cable plan.
I gotta call you out on this one. Nothing pisses me off more than the never ending made up welfare cadillac anecdotes. That's right, I'm saying you made that shit up, you never saw Best Buy drop off a Plasma TV to a government subsidized home.
If there's a Just God, He'll grant you some experience in these matters.
Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.
Fucking racist. Who the fuck are you? Can this IP be banned somehow!
The population of the state of Kentucky is approximately 4 million people. Assuming a ridiculously high unemployment rate of 50% that would be 2 million people. Now, assuming that they all tried to file UI applications online at exactly the same time that would generate 2 million submissions. According to Wikipedia, the Intel Core2 CPU (which is less powerful than current server CPUs) can handle well over 20,000 MIPS (that's millions of instructions per second).
So, am I to understand that the software running on the government's UI application submission servers are so inefficient that they consume over 10 Billion processor instructions (20,000 MIPS divided by 2 million submissions) in order to accept and file the data for one single UI application? If so, then the programmers need to be quartered and hung!
- James
Sad to say, I am currently unemployed. I go next door to my in-laws' house for internet (a definite luxury). Many of us do not have access to buses or subways, and are miles away from the "local" unemployment office (my local library is just as far). If I have business with the unemployment office that cannot be handled via internet, I call the office first before using the gas to drive.
I have a cell phone ($50/mo.) rather than a land line, so any potential employers can contact me whether I'm home or not. I don't tend to watch a lot of TV, but when I do watch, it's generally PBS on an old second hand set with rabbit ears.
I grew up poor in a rural area and know a thing or two about frugality. I never had a computer of my own until I learned to build one from discarded parts.
My point is, just because someone is unemployed and using the internet and a cell phone doesn't mean they are wasting limited resources.
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...
YHBT. YHL. HAND.
Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
I am in Colorado and been trying to get unemployment to start back in nov (found a 1.5 week gig that paid decently in dec), and have been trying for the last week to talk to anybody at unemployment. Why am I trying to phone them? Because they no longer have offices. I literally spent 6 hours today hitting the redial. On tuesday, I accepted the .95 charge that qwwest charges for returning a call from a busy line and NEVER got a call back.
You may be paying some taxes, but I paid more than my fair share. I would right now LOVE to stand in line, but states made cuts to lower their costs. and in order to see someone, I have to talk on the phone FIRST.
I, for one, applaud your grandparents for having the fortitude to be able to live without the Internet during the Great Depression. Truly, their sacrifices knew no bounds.
I missed the part where we're transported to an alternate universe where the crotch rubbing porn surfers monopolizing the workstations at the library jump out of the way to give job seekers priority
This is characteristic of a peculiar mindset. "Look at that guy not wearing a seatbelt. I hope he gets in a crash and dies! Wahhh!" It comes from a fixation on the rules over and above what they are intended to accomplish.
Here, you will enjoy this.
I don't know what state you live in, but that's not true in California. Employers don't pay into the State Unemployment Fund, employers do. Then, if they fire somebody, that person is entitled to unemployment compensation, taken out of their former employer's contributions. That's why (in California) if you quit, you don't get any unemployment benefits; by quitting voluntarily, you forfeited them. BTW, that's why your boss just loves to hear you say, "You can't fire me; I quit!"
Good, inexpensive web hosting
According to this website.
CPI in 2008 is 211.08, in 1982 was 94.3.
My parents currently make $42k. I currently make $78k. Assuming their jobs were adjusted for inflation they only made quite a bit less when I was born.
I'm socking away money left and right while kids that I went to college with go out and buy big TVs and new cars. My house is set at 45 degrees. I've shut off my hot water heater and shower at the gym (Which costs me less than what running the heater would cost, plus I work out there too). My car is 12 years old and has 220k on it (but still runs fine). Growing up my dad would get 1-2 years out of a $500 car and get another one. I buy almost everything second hand, including clothes.
I do have some 'nice' things like the internet and my MacBook Pro and a house a bit nicer than my parents. But it's frustrating to no end to drive past the subsidized housing on the way to work and see nicer cars than me. People crossing the street on iPhones and wearing brand new clothes. People that bitch they have no money but have plenty of money for 2 packs a day. Some people need to be taught the difference between Want and Need.
And my company has never had an engineering layoff in the entire 85+ year history of the company. I think I'm doing pretty good.
In a cost-saving move, states are dusting off their old Windows98 desktops for the new workers to use.
In related news:
Old botnets unexpectedly spring to life,swamping already overloaded state-run networks.
i agree with that side of it, do it all in vouchers i say.
If you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can imagine....
IANAL... but it might be worth folding your company so you can get on the unemployment rolls. You could then start another with golden credit if you're able to pay off any loan you-as-the-company has taken.
When did the word "fail" acquire its new usages as a noun and an adjective? I'm going to use the word "failure" and sound like an old person because you damn kids keep saying "fail".
Don't you think it would be easier if the IRS/State data plus a new required e-form from the employer were in place so that the state unemployment people could start the claim immediately if the company does not contest, and send the claimant their paperwork if there's going to be a showdown.
Oh, so now we're letting unemployed people keep their cars, filling up our public roads on their way to our public libraries? Pah!
I think the same trolls are somehow getting mod points left, right, and center.
The parent is most definitely not a troll.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......
Sure, unemployment is meant to be confusing and hard to get to. They set time limits on when you can log on not because their servers can't take it, but because they want you awake for a few minutes during those hours and proving you're in the state you belong in. Anything to get you disqualified...
But, the average human can beat that system and cash with about half the pay they had before, all for the only work being looking for a job like the one you left... not something you weren't going to do. And you've got the time for the paperwork. So take the money.
Rule of thumb I've found... every good job I've gotten I came in through an e-submit. Every rotten job I came in through the mail.
Man, the kind of luxury unemployed people live in now days. Access to public transportation, public libraries, bicycles...
Back in *my* day, we sat and starved. In the dark. Under a bridge. And that was if we were *lucky*. Those that weren't didn't sit on their lazy asses either, they dug their own mass graves with their bare hands, laid down in them, and died. Like MEN.
Think of it as the football quarterback about to be pulled down for a loss of 3 on 4th and long. You can either be a man and take the hit, or throw the ball to nobody... costing you five yards and the ball still goes over to the other team after a call of intentional grounding.
Pride is nothing... take the unemployment money. It's your tax dollars for the situation you found yourself in.
1. Economy Tanks
2. Banks Fail
3. People lose jobs
4. People get unemployment checks
5. People take checks to banks.
7. Economy Tanks
8. Banks Fail...
Most states now do the entire process online or by phone only. There is no office to go to any more.
My car is 12 years old and has 220k on it
What, you don't walk to work? Uphill? Both ways?
I've never seen best buy drop one off, but I sure have seen them in peoples windows driving by some of the poorer areas of my neighborhood.
Then why are people who run their corps are forced to pay into it? If they can't ever collect it, why must they pay?
You can't handle the truth.
I couldn't afford the $40/month for internet.
Good thing Internet service is available in most areas for 5-10 dollars a month, if not free w/ ads.
Quoted so you all can see it. I've been there, done that, am currently wearing the T-shirt.
$10.00 a month really is cheap for what you get out of it. Some may want to keep that in mind next time life kicks them in the pants and some SOB comes along with their "helpful" advice.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
UI pays if the corp folds. If you're laid off from your day job but still have a corp, you're not unemployed yet. Look into folding your corp if it was really just a hobby... or double-down and spend all the time with your project. That's what I did with mine. (Then again, I'm not unemployed at the moment.)
I don't think people quite get it.
I was in the same situation. I've done IT work for longer than most people here have been able to read. :) When I got laid off, I did two things. I filed for unemployment, just in case I couldn't get a job, and then I went job hunting. The unemployment forms in my state take a couple hours, and a good bit of research. How much did I make at that job two years ago? What is their current contact information? Oh shit, the company moved out of country, but I still have to list someone who can verify I worked there. What's their current mailing address? A contact? A phone? I haven't talked to them in almost two years, why should I know this? Even the office phone number was on speed dial ... on my work cell phone that I turned in on my last day there.
After I got done the unemployment paperwork, which the unemployment office actually recommended doing online versus one of their branch offices which just has a terminal to do it online, I then went job hunting. I called every contact I could think of. I checked all the job boards. I went to interviews at crappy places. One of the best was with a scientologist run company. I never "interviewed". They had me take their pseudo-psych profiling test to see if I was worthy. When I researched the test they gave me, I'm sure I scored in the "don't ever contact this person, he will be subversive" range. :) It took a few weeks to get another job. I'm not a McDonalds level employee. I'm close to a C-level tech person (CIO/CTO, depending on the size of the company). While contacts may be begging me to come over and work for them while I'm employed, that window of opportunity isn't always still available the day I need new work.
I collected two checks from unemployment, and that was it. $250/week, the ceiling for unemployment in my state. It wasn't much, but it insured I could put gas in the car and feed the family until I got my next job.
Just because I just got laid off, should I disconnect all my services (power, water, phone, internet), and sell my computers? Hell no. The next job is coming soon, and I *NEED* those. Without them, I wouldn't have landed my next job. I found them on a job board. I applied online. I spent 8 hours a day browsing what was available, and matching them up to my skills. Well, some days I spent at head-hunter offices, with no real advancement. "Oh, we can place you immediately, we'll call you tomorrow". They'd all, say that they sent my resume to some company at a vague loation, and then never hear back. My resume, although glowing, was just one in a stack of 100 that they sent to each place. Head-hunters used to be great. Now they're trying to make a buck too. Hopefully they can get one of those 100 hired, so they make their commission.
I thought the head-hunters had forgotten about me, until I got a flurry of "offers" in a few weeks ago. I actually read them (I'm working, so I'd usually ignore them). They were all for the same job. Everyone was so hopeful to be able to make that deal. It's really sad out there right now.
I say keep what you have, for as long as you can. My "home office" now consists of one PC and a laptop, because I'm no longer living in my nice house, with lots of room for my whole setup (which has since been sold or given away). I'm hopeful that the economy will get better, because if it doesn't, I'm almost tempted to beg to join the Army. Sure, I'll get shot at for 15% of my old pay, but it'll pay better than McDonalds, even though I'll run the risk of getting killed daily. When it gets bad enough, McD won't be any safer. Desperate times call for desperate measures. If you haven't eaten in a week, bringing a gun (the last valuable you own) into McD to rob the place for food and cash on hand doesn't sound all that bad.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
Wasn't the whole point of outsourcing data-ops to "the cloud" was so that the same hardware and network could be serving football video streams one day, and taking in business (or going-out-of-business) paperwork the next?
Why hasn't this been implemented yet?
you really hate them blacks don't you
And you think they were spoiled. At least you had fingernails with which to do the bare handed digging. We had to pull our own teeth and use those, then put 'em back in to chew the mud for supper. And don't get me started on the free oxygen you richy-rich kids had made available to you for the breathing while sitting there starving in the dark...and a bridge? A BRIDGE? Ghaaaa! Like you've ever really known hardship. We had to take turns sitting underground, just to stay out of the rain.
Because if you are unemployed you shouldn't have the internet. If you can't afford the Gas to drive to the unemployment office. You take bus or the subway or you get off your lazy ass and walk or bike. When I was poor I went to the library. I couldn't afford the $40/month for internet.
Catching the bus to the library every day would cost about $3 a day (conservative estimate). Assuming you're going to the library 5 days a week that's $60 a month. About what I pay for my internet connection.
"Not to mention that the library has a limited number of seats and so if everyone did as you suggested there wouldn't be enough seat hours to go around."
I'm not sure if it was CSMonitor or the BBC but libraries already are having a demand problem, partially caused by the diminishing economy. They're already setting up limits and upgrading lines.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
That part happened right after the insertion of my foot into their ass. They then happily moved aside upon seeing my point of view.
"I hope we hit another depression. Grandma and Grandpa knew how to live frugally."
The thing they don't tell you in the brochure is what the frugal people turn into in times of plenty. That's right, compulsive pack rats that will not spare a penny to improve their lives one iota when the honey's flowing. And I do mean pennies. They waste more money and time (theirs and others) trying to be penny pinchers than they ever would gain by simply spending the needed money to accomplish their goals.
"When these people have to start cutting their flour with cardboard to make it last longer, call me."
You and others exaggerate too much.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0106/p08s01-comv.html
This isn't the depression. Not by a long shot.
Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
"Some people need to be taught the difference between Want and Need."
While others need to learn the meaning of irrational envy.
"And my company has never had an engineering layoff in the entire 85+ year history of the company."
The confidence of youth is mainly due to a lack of experience. Now before you start lecturing me about the GoodOldDays(TM) I should inform you that my eldest son was born two years before you were. Like yourself he has never had to find work in a recession, let alone the depression you are wishing for.
"I think I'm doing pretty good."
So STFU and enjoy it instead of bitching about people you know nothing about.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I don't know what kind of "computers" you have at YOUR library, but around here it is an old Compaq from 1997 running Win98 vanilla on a 10K dial up connection. So good luck getting flash bloated web 2.0 ANYTHING, much less webmail to load at all in IE5 on a 10k hookup, much less actually getting to reply before it BSODs. And here it ischeaper to get the basic cable with the Internet and phone than it is to unbundle. or do the think the unemployed shouldn't have a way for a potential employer to call them about a job either?
So please don't buy into that "welfare queen" bullshit. I have known plenty of folks that ended up on welfare and I have NEVER met an actual welfare queen. Most simply had a run of bad luck or a family illness when they were living paycheck to paycheck. And did you ever notice the ones that screamed "welfare queens" are always wearing $1000 suits and have never had to do without anything since the day they were born? I would LOVE to see today's congress critters be forced to spend 6 months living on nothing but what welfare in their home states gave them.
Frankly we need to worry less about "welfare queens" and more about "corporate handout kings" who are taking OUR money as fast as the fed can print it.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
...could have come out of the deep fry along with the burger I was giving them...
You guys deep-fried your burgers!?! Tell me the name and location of your former restaurant immediately!!
Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
The upcoming administration is making noises they will be giving employers some sort of tax break or stimulus to "create jobs" and hire more people (up to 3 thousand bucks a job!). So..maybe it isn't far fetched to think a lot of the folks being laid off now will be rehired once this new tax break dodge starts back up again. Just a thought..
The gym's shower is there for showering after working out. I shower after I work out. How is that not the intended purpose?
My car is in perfectly good shape. Quite a few people have recorded 300-400k on their TDIs, it's a durable little engine.
Second hand is goodwill. I need to wear business casual to work, so I shop at goodwill for business casual. Nothing is even close to being worn out and a fraction of what it costs at Kohls.
And the other thing I'm 'spending' my money on that makes up the rest is a savings account.
Government subsidized housing is not "cheapie" rent, it's the projects and ghetto around here. And no I wasn't stupid enough to get an ARM. 45 is as low as my house goes and plus any lower and you risk pipes bursting.
And yes, I do cut my soup at work with tap water. Usually add a bit of extra spices to add some flavor and cut it with water from work.
When these people have to start cutting their flour with cardboard to make it last longer, call me.
Out of curiosity: what does that mean?
Employers don't pay into the State Unemployment Fund, employers do.
I hate to be pedantic, but sometimes those little typos really make a difference!
Why doesn't the gov't just print more money to grease the system? The inflation risk is low, and even if it did go up, inflation is the least of two evils. If our gov't doesn't print money, North Korea will. Kim Jong Ill will save us!
Table-ized A.I.
Next, suppliers will run out of pink paper.
Table-ized A.I.
So good luck getting flash bloated web 2.0 ANYTHING, much less webmail to load at all in IE5 on a 10k hookup
Gmail has an HTML-only option. (although they will be dropping IE 6 support soon, don't know about IE 5)
Thank you for pointing that out. It's supposed to read, "Employees don't pay into the State Unemployment Fund, employers do."
Good, inexpensive web hosting
Like not getting fox
I might be misunderstanding, but there is an over-the-air channel in my area that calls itself FOX.
I think that's good news!
Now there's gonna be a couple more people with jobs and the economy is moving because they needed to hire people and buy equipment to supply to the demand!
So having too many jobless people makes the government hire those jobless people to manage the jobless people, it's an interesting circle of joblessness ^_^
Why am I paying taxes again?
Because if they were begging on the street corner and starving you'd probably be whining about that instead.
Using the library for internet is a last-resort option only:
-my internet "overall" has a negative cost: without internet, I can't have VOIP, so instead of paying $20 for phone, I'd have to pay more like $65... So right off the bat, it would COST me money not to have it! ...
-I can't walk an hour each ways to go to the library, 3x/day to check email
-similarly, 6 bus tickets/day isn't cheaper than having internet, nor is a bus pass for that matter
-the library computers (like P2's) are too slow even for basic tasks
-the library computers don't have any useful software installed (like anything to make pdf files), nor do we have admin rights (to install software)...
-the library computers likely have tons of spyware -- not the place I want to share personal infos
-I can't make phone calls to the employer from the library (talking loud in a library? from an expensive cell phone no less?) to know if the position is filled (not waste time), and what format they want my resume in (pdf/word/whatever *they* prefer) and tweak my resume accordingly
-the library computers limit you to like 4h of usage per month or something (I'd easily spend twice that in a day)
-nevermind my kids need it to do homework and such things still
I'd rather get rid of my cell phone (inexpensive home phone/VOIP receives & makes call just fine), cable TV (you got internet, you can easily get by without it -- youtube, hulu, last.fm, torrents, etc) and all that kind of stuff (gym fees, tivo, satellite radio, etc)
no stupid, u have to call, or over the internet, every week, say that you were job searching. everyone on unemployment has to do it. this isn't just about job searches on their site or just random calls to the office.
It doesn't really matter who pays it, it's a cost of carrying an employee so it's part of your compensation package. Since the corporation is composed of the people who supply either the capital or the human capital it's all the same.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
Sorry, Fox (aka Foxtel depending where you are) in Australia is pay-tv. We only have hmm 5 free-to-non-digital-air channels.
Me failed English...
FreeBSD over Linux. If my comments seem odd, this may explain...
Nope, it's when they've got a brand spanking new Dodge Charger SRT-8 rolling on Chrome lipped black dubs, on unemployment, and whining about how hard it is to pay for gas that they're wasting limited resources (We actually had a guy come into class like this to get some free work done on his car. I was thinking STFU you lucky SOB.)
I won't lie, I do a lot like you do, but hearing you say it like that makes me think I should stop. Is all the cash you're socking away going to buy you a better life? What about your loved ones? The things you believe in? Is the pleasure of watching your little pile of gold grow worth more than the good it could be doing in the wider world?
Since the link was messed up, here it is: http://www.minneapolisfed.org/
Median income in the US in 2007 was $50,233.00. So, half of that is $25,116.50.
$25,116.50 of 1982 goods would cost $53,954.93 in 2007 according to the calculator.
You wouldn't need double the amount of money your parents made due to inflation to have the same standard of living your frugal parents had. You'd need 2.15 times!
Both libraries I used for Internet access (in London) have a 1-hour limit per day, and an elaborate reservation system.
I found it more convenient to go to an Internet cafe in a cheap area and pay 50p/hour. That's easily affordable on benefits here anyway.
You could save even more money if you cancelled your gym membership, sold your car, bought a bicycle, and cycled to work.
Why shouldn't they have one luxury anyway?
#### Because if you are unemployed you shouldn't have the internet.
Yeah, because as a computer programmer, the first thing I'm going to do to cut back when I get laid off is sever my connection to the job boards and cut off my email access to everyone I know who might be in a position to hire me. F-ing genius.#####
The OP sounds like one of those idiots who think anyone who is unemployed or poor should be wallowing around in the dirt like a dog with rags on hoping that they find a new master to be a serf to, and don't dare try to have anything that the employed 'elite' have.
I don't have to wait for a site to become too busy to have connection frustrations. I've got Comcast. Every morning when I try to hook up to the net with my cable modem I have time to boil water and make coffee before I can hook into Comcast. It seems that with HD TV and phone service over cable they simply have everyone in my area waiting, waiting, waiting for their machines to hook up upon request. Class Action Law SUITs are beginning to appeal to me.
The problem is that you have the power to lay yourself off and could milk the system that way. Perhaps you could trust a relative to be the chief officer of your company,
I don't know about other states, but the State of Michigan has a mix of internal programming teams and contractors.
Disclosure: I work for one of their internal programming teams.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
Maybe if you did your peeping into people's homes on foot, you would save enough on gas to be able to afford one too. And you'd be a lot less likely to cause an accident for not watching the road.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
It means that you take a piece of cardboard, grind it into powder, and mix it with flour, then make food from the mix as you'd do with flour normally. In old times, when food's been really tight, people have used the bark of trees similarly.
Basically, you substitute some of the flour needed to make for example a bread with cardboard.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
The amount of tax I have paid, I could be due for 25 years of benefits.
The only people that are a drain on the system are the 200k surgeries by people over 80yo just so they might live another 5 years.
I know its harsh but its more of a ROI to pay more for younger people. You could average it out by giving all age groups the same 'average' care if you must be nice tho.
Then invent technology to reduce costs and make those billion $$ corporates loose more profits.
Whats more important, the margin profits for a few 10000 investors, or the benefit of millions?
Lets at least go half way, benefit half the people 50% of their dreams.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
Frustrating? I think you are far too concerned with other people. Seriously, you sound like somebody who is doing well for himself so focus on your own life and stop worrying so much about what other people are doing, buying and how they live their lives.
Well, thanks to the Internet, I'm now bored with sex.
1. You get paid no matter how you leave, or get sacked, or anything.
2. If you have more than $5000 in assets, you might at most wait 4-6 weeks before you get paid, so all you have to do is withdraw all cash out of your investments before you apply for benefits, then you can get them early.
3. You have to appear to want to work and try to find work, but you if are a really hard done by, you have no time limit, and could get benefits for 25 years.
Bottom line is we dont want people on the streets like zombies, we care for people, and 4% of GDP is a small price, if the other 50% employed people pay 33% tax.
Do you prefer 10000s of criminals out there, or 10000s of people getting free money, and not robbing you that will eventually get a job and pay back that benefit with taxes.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I think the same trolls are somehow getting mod points left, right, and center.
Which reminds me ...
I remember reading an article, about a notorious troll on Slashdot, who kept creating new accounts for trolling. I think he had 10+ accounts.
I can't find back the original article now, although there's several other articles on trolling on Slashdot, and even a HOWTO guide.
Anyone has any idea? I seem to have the impression that it was written in someone's Slashdot journal.
So its 1981, and owning a CRT 15" is a crime? Get real.
On a comparitive dollar rate, a 38" LCD is just as cheap, you can get em dirt cheap, hey, if you sell enough drugs and you can afford an LCD, the good for you, you keep that big dept store in business as well as the store clerk, and the old person with stocks in that corporation.
So whos a crim , that guy who pays $39 for paytv, or the corporation super market, that charges 300% profit margins on potatoes and rice?
Not even drug dealers charge that much margins.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
In some (civilised) countries, the Internet is now seen in the same light as the telephone - a utility not essential to life, but essential to recieving crucial information in a time-efficient manner.
Hence why a lot of governments (specifically, the UK) are not only pushing "Internet for all", but even "Broadband of at least 2Mb for all" and "free Internet / computers for those long-term unemployed or on benefits".
Because the Internet is a vital venue not only for getting back to work (most job adverts, applications are online as well as in their "normal" media, some industries are ONLY taking applications online - e.g. IT, Law which has mostly online pupillage etc. applications, etc.), but for working itself (work from home market researchers, teleworkers, self-employed etc.) and cutting down on the expense of the unemployed to the taxpayer (more forms online = less paper/postage, more applications online = less paper/postage, more information online... you get the idea).
How do I know? My wife was on disability benefits for a while and using the computer which was *given* to her by the government (along with a reasonable amount to get her online for a year), she managed to hold down a part-time market research job ("we pay you £50 to go to this beta website and tell us what you think", "we pay you £1 to fill in this survey" etc.), apply for full-time jobs she would never have found anywhere else (specially catering for her disability, in her area of expertise), apply for benefits, finish her law course, apply for pupillages etc.
She would NEVER have been able to do all that at the time if the taxpayer hadn't given her a computer. The one-off payment of a computer and some reasonable fees for (what was at the time) modem access to the Internet paid dividends - the tax on her part-time earnings paid it back within a year while she was still not working! Plus, the tax on her full-time earnings since she landed her job (for a government department) has probably paid back all her benefits that she was paid and she's got a sense of purpose rather than sitting on the sofa whinging how she can't get a job.
There are some things that are luxuries. They can be removed *without undue suffering*. This might include a sportscar (a normal car would do), a butler, a swimming pool, diamond jewellery, a fancy new oven etc.
There are some things that are essentials. They cannot be done without at all. Food. A way of keeping in body heat (e.g. clothes, blankets). Possibly even education.
The Internet is inbetween, along with telephones, a permanent residence, sanitary towels, heating, hot water, lightbulbs. Yes, you can do without them, millions of people do every day, but the point of living in a civilised, developed country is that such things are given to virtually everybody and not questioned because they make life so much easier and more comfortable without "spoiling" people.
The Internet is a utility now, and you can no more demand that people cut it off than you can cut off their running water. And the sensible governments of the world recognise this and thus push for EVERYTHING to be online (tax forms, help leaflets, applying for benefits, paying your bills, etc.) as soon as possible so that they can reap their benefits too. In a few decades, it will be almost impossible to get a lot of things done without an Internet connection, much as it would be to get a lot of things done without a postal service, or a telecoms infrastructure today.
The Internet is not a luxury when it pays vast dividends to the smallest of people for the least outlay and opens up whole new worlds of opportunities.
States are hiring workers for phone banks and buying new servers to prop up their web sites.
So the few that manage to get their application in, deny it and give them a job answering phones for more applications!
Eventually you should have enough people to handle the incoming applications or everyone will be employed. Either way, problem solved!
Thats the one item of of 1000 that makes LA shit.
Im suprised all the million/billion dollar rich people dont just leave in the one month, then see the tax income for LA drop by 50 billion.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
I'm hoping not to work until I'm 65. If I make my pile of gold big enough now (When I'm young, single and can put in 50 hours a week) then hopefully when I have kids I could either quit early or go to part time.
I do in the summer. Unfortunately with no sidewalks and a lazy government, it's just not possible in the summer.
Plus, where would I shower?
I posted the numbers in another reply. I make about twice as much as my parents do NOW. As in 2008 dollars. I'm just going on the assumption that their salaries have been adjusted by inflation.
I suspect the reason the websites are crashing is due to the fact that the sooner one applies in the week for unemployment, the sooner the next check arrives. This means that everyone logs on at the beginning of the week to file their claims for the past week. If there were a way to stagger the unemployment benefits so that people were given a different day of the week to apply, they might have better success with keeping their meager servers running. Then again, if your server keeps crashing, that has a way of throttling your net traffic too. :)
This current recession has been tough on techies. I'm grateful to have a new job, after ninemonths of jobloss due to bone-headed experiences with failing start-ups. My computer was useful in helping me search for jobs so that I qualified for unemployment benefits each week, and I used my email account as a common point of access and tracking all the job submissions and such, but ultimately my next job came from contacting a person (family member) who knew me well enough to get my resume' into the right hands.
--Ray
http://www.beanleafpress.com
Nope, I guess you wouldn't either, eh?
The difference between me and you is, if I came home and found a white guy bareback fucking my wife, I wouldn't eat that creampie either.
The fact that you're modded troll is indicative of the amazing amount of butthurt being experienced by conservative jackoffs (not all conservatives, just the bitter ones) because their social ideology has been rejected as the simple minded BS it is.
Meanwhile, the person who modded you troll is probably either sitting behind a really nice desk he got to buy because his company "saved money" by laying 5000 people off recently, or logging into slashdot after getting his daily dose of hearing why Obama and the Mexicans cost him his job (at the factory the guy with the desk manages) from Rush 'You-Got-An-Oxy?' Limbaugh. Either way, you're upsetting an intricate fantasy world, and they don't crumble quietly.
You see, Toughguy Brand #1 sees that soon, the ax will come for him. Oh, he might have enough pading to be okay, but he's fearful of seeing the gravytrain drip dry.
Toughguy Brand #2 is only on unemployment because some damn Mexican stole his job (he hasn't seen any going down to the plant, but he's SURE they're there). Those niggers down at the unemployment office though, they're just lazy. Especially Larry over there, Toughguy #2 used to work with Larry, and he sure was lazy. His production numbers were always better, and he didn't have the quality control issues Toughguy #2 had, but Larry was always laughing and joking around, just being a stupid lazy nigger.
It was in a poorer area, that proves it is government subsidized housing.
Maybe if you have a family of 4, and a job TV is a very affordable form of entertainment. With a $600 Christmas present for the whole family being a bargain, and in your cramped house the space saved worth something too.
I'm sure I spend more on luxury (income relative) than household with 2 minimum wage earners buying a TV for $1000 every 5 years.
Now, the $150 HD cable package would be absurd, but I bet you (from expieriance) it is hooked up to a $30 DVD player and/or an XBOX original, and with $5.00 bootleg DVDs substitutes for $30 trips to the movies (family of 4 with no extras).
It would surprise me if it even had cable.
Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
I heard an NPR interview with someone who lived through the depression.
She talked about the sickening sound of her father cracking open a cooked squirrel skull with a spoon (like a boiled egg) to eat the brains.
Eating squirrel brains has been my marker for a real depression ever since.
Never heard of hotmail, genius?
you must be new here. Don't feed the trolls.
Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -- Susan Ertz
They can mark me troll all they want, I can burn karma all freaking day and we have a lot worse things to worry about. It seems Mr. Troll mod seems to have forgotten his history. Maybe he doesn't remember the last recession when they screamed "welfare queens" and cut "entitlements" but I do. Remember homeless vets sleeping on the grates outside the white house to keep from freezing to death? I do. What a great way to treat those that fought for our country and then had a run of bad luck.
The simple fact is for the amount of money they have shoved into the pockets of Wall Street executives riding in private jets we could have gotten rid of ALL the toxic mortgages by simply giving the home owners the deeds. That's right! Every last one. Instead we are pouring incredible amounts of money into the bank accounts of the top 0.1% and expecting it to...what? Trickle freaking down? Is there ANYONE who still buys that voodooo economics BS? If we would have payed off the mortgages our banks would have been flushed with cash they could have loaned to SMBs and new startups, the REAL lifeblood of this country.
But instead we'll scream about "welfare queens!" while Wall Street moneymen carry our money by the truckload and use it to offshore our jobs and stuff it into overseas banks. Personally I think all these "coporate handout kings" and the obscene amounts of money we are handing them will simply drive our country right into Great Depression part II. We should have either stayed out of it completely or if the congress critters refused to then help out Main Street NOT Wall street.. Folks seem to forget the schemes the government cooked up trying to stomp the "economic downturn" in the early 1930s made things 10 times worse. But what is it they say about failing to learn from history
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
So this is YOUR fault! *points finger menacingly*
http://www.magicsite.narod.ru/
The internet is a valuable tool in searching for a job. I know when I was last job searching, I applied via sites like CareerBuilder and Monster, without those sites, I wouldn't have even been aware of many of the companies I applied with. When I had an interview I used the internet to research the company so I wouldn't be clueless about the company, I could more adequately answer questions like "why do you want to work here?" or "what do you know about our company?".
Also, some places don't even accept paper applications. The FBI is one such example.
You may not live in an area where a car is necessary, but many people do. Where I grew up, and where my parents still live, there aren't any taxis, subways, or busses (other than school busses). Want groceries? You drive 20 miles. Want to go to Walmart? You drive 75 miles.
The goal isn't to 'fix the economy' like so many ppl seem to think it is, the goal is to further the new feudal system being set up by the greediest among us. See, they've already got the hierarchy set up, named Corporate Power Structure. Now it's time that the peasants be taught to live like the worthless pairs of hands they're seen as, to truly implement the caste system.
But that's just my take on it.
Reminds me of when I was an undergrad. I went to school through the summers in a town that only existed for its university, so I lived alone for some of the time. Without other people living with me, I turned off the AC, slept on my schedule, got tons of work done (both for class and for the multiple part-time IT jobs I held down), and ate very frugally. I remember the first summer I had one set of dishes, a skillet, and a sauce pan. When I got a car, I paid cash for it. It lasted me six years with minor repairs that I did myself. Good times.
I now keep my house at 71-degrees F, have full hot water, one almost-paid-off newer car, and I'm looking for another one. What's changed? Marriage and a family. If I lived like you do (and like I did in college), child services would cart off my newborn twins, but my wife would take them somewhere else long before that.
I'm with you on the luxury issues, but don't judge everyone because they're not able to be as extremely misery as you are. Some of us would be if we could, but we have other people depending on us. My extensive collection of Backyardigans DVDs may seem excessive to you, but I prefer it over cable TV. A friend of mine is a consultant and absolutely believes his BMW helps him get jobs.
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
for the last 2 weeks the unemployment website in Connecticut was totally unusable on sundays.
http://Lenny.com
Perhaps I should clarify. I've never had to use unemployment myself, because I have been a contributing member of the work force since I was 12 years old. I've lived out of a car, had a few crummy apartments (one flooded), but I've somehow always been able to find a job. There are jobs out there, and the unemployed need only look to the local papers to find some work. The problem I have is when people decide that since they've had a certain job in the past, they need to have an equal or better job or they won't work. Sometimes, that means you have to give some of the decadent things you may have been able to afford before, but can no longer justify paying for. I had a roommate that lost his job as a landscaper, but he would not sell any of his things. I had to toss him out because he wouldn't pay rent, but he paid rent-a-center right on time (thanks to his mother... ugh) for the entertainment system in his room. It's disgusting to see how much we waste while living beyond our own means.
Just keep retrying. It's not like you've got anything better to do today.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
The unemployment offices want and encourage people to use the websites (or phone IVRs, but they'd rather you use the website for anything you can, since phone lines are a limited resource too). It costs them less for you to talk to a computer than an hourly-paid employee. From the taxpayers' point of view, having people show up at the unemployment office is the worst thing that can happen.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I understand the rules trying to keep people from gaming the system, but, they need to make it subjective. It was clear that I was laid off from a project that cut 60 heads unexpectedly....the sub was cut, and they cut me, the sub to the sub...that was shown to be my sole source of income. The people at UI wanted to help me, but, said their hands were tied by this stupid law. They could see I was not gaming the system.
It needs to be fair. If I pay in as an employee...I should be able to collect. If not, then do not make me pay into the system. Plain and simple
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
Well I live in a state that fucking broke and the shut down the local library. So much for idea....
I tend to agree with your situation, however I was able to get my job from a headhunter, because of duplication....I walked into an interview that another head hunter company signed me up for...i forgot to sign the form for one of them, so then the employer got wind of it, and told me to figure out the problem, and who is representing me, with my apologies I told them there had been a mix up...but I am sure that because both were fighting so hard (yeah right....like sending some paper is really working hard)...it might have caused my employer to look at it like "hey this guys is in demand"...although I don't think all employers think that way...i might just have gotten lucky.
Because if you are unemployed you shouldn't have the internet. If you can't afford the Gas to drive to the unemployment office. You take bus or the subway or you get off your lazy ass and walk or bike. When I was poor I went to the library. I couldn't afford the $40/month for internet.
Actually, if you've applied to many jobs in the past 5 years, they all tell you to "apply on the internet". I don't even bother with job fairs anymore, because once I know the companies who will be there (from the list posted before the job fair), I can just go apply on their websites and save the time, fuel, and bother of printing resumes/cover letters for people who will just trash them.
I can also relate a couple of instances of being met by security staffing the reception of the HR dept (2 miles from the main site), who wouldn't let me speak to someone from HR. However, they took my resume and two weeks later I received a shiny new postcard saying "apply on the website".
Nothing is more disgusting than watching Best Buy drop off a Plasma screen TV to Government subsidized housing and I know full well they all have the $150/month HDTV Cable plan.
I didn't have a phone or TV (not even standard broadcast). All I had was the internet. Remember, a lot of this is priority. I need the internet, but I tend not to watch TV.
I agree with you that the gov't housing family with all the fixin's makes me mad, too. They do less than me, yet they have nicer things? Perhaps I should try to get on the dole with them.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
ok...i have a little to say about this one. I worked for the housing authority for over 10 years! You know, thats the place where most of the no good lazy bums live for free. The ones WE support. Thats right, your tax $$'s go to support them. Let me tell you what i saw. I drugs being sold from these unit and NOTHING the authority could do about it. I saw the cable tv installed no clothes (better than mine). I saw these people with NO income driving better cars than me. I lost my job BECAUSE of the lazy morons! They "demanded" and "complained" all the time because the authority could not give them enough, so the authority laid me off! They are still not happy! Just an FYI, i filed for my unemployment. It takes 6 weeks to get it in my state. I lost my house wait. I am a single father (i lost my wife 6 years ago). My daughter and lived in our car for 4 weeks until they took the car. When i lost my house, I tried to get a unit at the housing authority. Guess what, i made to much money last year (what a laugh). When i lost my house, i had NO address, therefore i could not recieve my unemployment check! I wonder how well the government wants to take care of its working class? So when someone tells me about the people being lazy and no good living off the government, i believe it. I've seen it first hand. Case and point: research Norfolk redevelopment and Housing Authority. Then you will understand!
Wow. If I had mod points, you'd get them.
You managed to actually use (PC-Liberal-Considered) offensive language in such a way as it becomes a satire. However, I know someone is going to post you for troll or something. Ignore them.
Disclaimer: The opinions and actions of the US Gov't are in no way representative of those held by this author or its ci
ok, GP might have exaggerated for effect, but every time* I see welfare people being interviewed on TV there's beer and cigarettes within camera view. And there is usually a TV on -- can't say it's a plasma or if it's from best-buy, but based on what's on, I'm sure it gets some form of cable/satellite.
Is it all people on welfare? no
Is it tough to make ends meet in welfare? Depends on your priorities.
*Possibly exaggerated for effect.
If you think imaginary property and real property are the same, when does your house become public domain?
yes thats perfect. everyone deserves to own a home, except those who went about doing it responsibly.
No, it's... um... Infrastructure Services fault! Yeah, that's it!
Seriously, though, where I work, we actually do create new sites with new technology. However, since our budget comes from other agencies (we "contract" out to them), we don't upgrade old applications until they ask us to.
They also provide the servers, as I recall.
I actually haven't worked there that long.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
I think the point is that unemployment and subsidized housing is paid for by his money, my money, and every other hard-working citizens' money.
It's legitimate to complain that your money is being taken by the government to help out someone "needy" who is only needy because they spent their food and housing money on cars, iphones, and lung cancer.
Uh. my paystubs here in LA show deductions for State Unemployment Insurance, about $9/week... are you sure it isn't half and half employer/employee?
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
I'm not going to claim this is entirely "fair", but the reason they don't allow UI for self-employed persons may be because they're then trusting YOU to tell them what YOU value yourself to base your unemployment checks on.
Otherwise anyone with a few $ in the bank could presumably give themselves a huge raise when they get laid off and then fire themselves and claim unemployment for far more than they're worth.
(again, not saying this is right or that they other conditions don't apply which invalidate, but it's a thought on one reason they might do so)
Also, if it makes you feel any better, in some states (mine at least) companies pay much more into UI if they have ex-employees claiming unemployment. So you may not have paid anywhere near as much unemployment tax as larger companies who have employees claiming unemployment, and are directly paying that salary as forced-severance after laying off that employee.
With self-employment there's by definition no way for them to recoup your unemployment costs from you. (take their check back? i dunno :)
I don't think that is the case really....I mean, any swings like that would be VERY apparent.
The UI amount is based not on what I bring into the company, but ONLY on the paycheck I give myself. For an example..say I bring in $120K. I pay myself (according to the vague IRS reqs) a 'reasonable' salary of $40K. Out of that $40K, I pay payroll taxes (fed, state, SS, medicare). As an employer, my company pays the appropriate UI fees based on that $40K.
That was all I was asking to collect.
Like I said before...this was a shock to me in LA. I know people set up with S corps like me in other states, where they did not balk at all to paying UI insurance to the sole owner of the company when he was between contracts. If you pay into the system (which I did as an employer)...I should be able to collect it when out of work. I mean, when the company does not have a contract...I am not paying myself any salary of any type....
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
You're 26 years old and you're so worldly and wise that you get to refer to the down and out as "these people" ? Or is it that you've never been one of them? Do YOU know what it's like to stand in line at a mission? To buy half chicory coffee? Ever live in your car for months at a time? How many times have you had to come to home to people dependent on you and announce you've been laid off? Can you relate to a desire ( the INSTINCT ) to preserve some semblance of normalcy for your family?
I think you lack the needed perspective to be judging these people.
Go easy on him, he's not yet old enough to realize Ayn Rand was talking out of her ass.
Anecdotal evidence, however, isn't sufficient. Cracking down on the entirety of people pulling unemployment because there are some people who abuse it isn't reasonable. It's not efficient and there is no service to society; those people will still abuse whatever system they come across.
Honestly, it sucks to have to support people in our society that don't pull their weight. But I suspect two things. First, the people we most point to as not pulling their weight are not the ones costing us the most money. Only 37% of jobless workers are covered by unemployment, regardless. Secondly, is that really the big money sink we should be worried about? A mere $33.55B? The Iraq war utilizes $12B a month, by comparison. The Defense Dept as a whole uses $650B a year.
What would be the cost of restricting what you can use that money for? What would you really be getting out of it? In fact, I'd argue that such restrictions would simply create a situation in which lobbyist groups simply have one more pork barrel to bargain over. I don't see how that helps society. If Unemployment Insurance does 80% of what it's supposed to do, then the rest is probably not worth dickering over.
[Ego]out
I'm not saying that's a bad idea- but people die. Sometimes too early, and always earlier than they expect. If you really feel like your asceticism is towards a good end and not just a point of pride, then by all means continue- but it is your only life, and it doesn't make sense to squander it for the love of little bits of paper.
Unemployment Insurance is rarely involved in cases of people overspending. You're thinking of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, which is a different program. If you're complaining that UI is inefficient because of those people, you're barking up the wrong tree.
It's also of note that these programs have already been severely curtailed. The amount of money we spend on them today just isn't the same. While it sucks, on some level, to have to support other people, as a general social quality it's a good thing to have; you would agree if you were ever put in that position. Judging whether something is worthwhile simply on the basis of whether you need it is one of the most abusive ways to develop a system.
If you don't agree with that, there are plenty of countries willing to tell their citizenry what they can or cannot do. What vices they are or are not allowed to have. Maybe move there?
[Ego]out
I worked in a grocery store during college. A lot of the food-stamp people ticked me off.
- I saw people buy steak for their dog when they were told they couldn't buy dog kibble with food-stamps.
- People refused to use their member discount card, saying "it doesn't matter, I'm not paying for it!"
- The food stamp card also had a cash portion. They'll pull off several hundred dollars in cash, then buy cigarettes and alcohol.
- They would get extravagant food. Either expennsive things like lobster & crab, or just load up their cart with junk like soda, chips, etc.
Not all of them were like that, but a good number were, probably around 50%. You could tell the people that actually needed the assistance because they bought things on sale, chose generic brands, used their member discount card, used coupons, etc.
So you're saying in order to be worthy of owning a nice TV, you must first live in a nice neighborhood with a nice house and a nice car?
One of the best ways to gather wealth is to cut one of your biggest expenses; your housing. Who is to say that's not what the people in these 'poorer' neighborhoods are doing?
But even if they're not, lets look at all those white-bread suburbs, with people who've leveraged their debt out their eyeballs because they have the expectation in living in a McMansion with Plasma TVs and huge SUVs. But you make no generalized critical statement of them? It's only poor people who deserve to be lambasted for over-consumption?
Face it, you live in America. You're as much a part of that problem as anyone else. You can pretend you're not, that someone else is somehow less deserving of 'stuff', and thus shouldn't have it. But, in the end, you aren't any more deserving of it. Chances are, if you work harder, it's no more than 10% harder. Chances are, you're not doing a significant amount more for the world than they are. The people who are doing more, and are more deserving aren't on /. complaining about the proles.
[Ego]out
I'm not thinking of or terribly worried about any specific program myself, just defending the OP's concern that his tax money is being abused by people who could use a basic course in frugality and not living beyond one's means.
Personally, I agree that the reason that may be happening is because it's not exactly trivial (or desirable!) to inspect every purchase of every person who receives government assistance, and "objectively" determine if that purchase was "necessary".
I also agree that these programs are much more limited and restrictive than the people complaining about them realize.
(The idea of some black mom with 6 kids living in a ghetto with 2 brand new cars and a 60" TV and iphones -- doing all this on government checks -- is straight out of Bill O'Reilly or Rush Limbaugh's wettest dreams)
If so, things have changed since my father was running a small business. Not impossible, as he retired in the late '70s. What I wrote was how things worked Way Back Then; I didn't realize that it's changed. Thanx for the correction.
Good, inexpensive web hosting
How am I supposed to play World of Warcraft 12 hours a day without internet?
This game was designed for unemployed people right?
I'm in a similar income range to the parent and do a few of those things. I've bought some nice nearly new Armani sport coats and great shoes on eBay for next to nothing, and they are barely used. I got a brand new tux last month for $50.
Why spend it if you don't have to?
I currently make $78k...
My house is set at 45 degrees. I've shut off my hot water heater and shower at the gym.
SCROOOOOOOGE!!!
Go easy on him, he's not yet old enough to realize Ayn Rand was talking out of her ass.
I couldn't agree more. It drives me nuts when some whitebread suburbanite who has never wanted for anything quotes _Atlas Shrugged_ like it's a valid sociological text.
Shit, it's not even a decent novel.
--saint
Most of the states had outsourced their handling of UI claims to Indian companies about 4 years ago. I am surprised that no one has pointed this out yet.
Punishment tax for lying about how much you're "paying yourself" through your "corporation".
Duh!
If your "corporation" hits hard times, just go ask for a "bailout package".
when I have kids
Here's a piece of advice. No woman will mate with you or live with you at your current thermostat setting. At the very least, turn it up to about 70 for about half an hour during the deed.
Some women can be pretty downright frugal, but I know none in modern times who will live with a 45-degree thermostat setting. FFS, not even poor peasants in rural China will tolerate that.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
You must have missed this part of my post "We should have either stayed out of it completely or if the congress critters refused to then help out Main Street NOT Wall street." Notice the first part is stay out of it completely. If given the choice I would have given ZERO bailouts. None, zip zero ziltch nada squat. Instead we are going to end up with the most obscene deficit in history(what is it now? $75000 for every man, woman, and child in the USA?) and the vast majority of that money is going straight to the bank accounts of the richest 0.01%.
Now I have nothing against those that made their money honestly. You came up with a better widget or ran your business better than the other guy then I am truly happy for you. You are the living example of the American dream. What I DO have a problem with is those that pull every scam, bribe every politician, pull every string and stab every back and THEN if the dice don't roll their way stand there in their Gucci suit with their hand out like a freaking beggar. I haven't seen the head of Goldman Sachs losing HIS home to foreclosure, have you? Or Lehman brothers, or Merrill Lynch?
I am so damned tired of these bunches getting away with shit that would send an ordinary man to jail. Just look at that asswipe Madoff that stole, what? 50 freaking billion? getting to sit in his giant mansion with his servants and his ankle bracelet while someone that stole 5 grand will be rotting in jail until trial. Anybody think old Bernie will get PMITA prison? Nope, me neither. Let them fail. No golden parachutes for being so good at ripping off investors either. Let those asses get paid in only their own stock. I bet we would see them work their asses off to keep that company afloat instead of cruising in the private jet, huh?
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Wow, such hatred. Its not that hard to noticed a big 4 foot glow in windows that dont have curtains even when driving by at urban speeds.
he won't do it, it's a factor of 2.23 for the time difference. so it'd be like raising 4 kids on a quarter of what the gp makes.
wait..no i got that backwards. it'd be like raising 4 kids on his salary.... yeah, the dollar was worth twice what it is now (more actually) and they mad half as much, so they earned the same value in the year of 1982 that he earns annually. just a bit more actually.
It depends upon the state. Most employers pay into a fund. In AZ the percentage of total payroll that goes to the state depends upon your "experience rate" which is to say, how many of your former employees filed unemployment and were paid
I do have some 'nice' things like the internet and my MacBook Pro and a house a bit nicer than my parents. But it's frustrating to no end to drive past the subsidized housing on the way to work and see nicer cars than me. People crossing the street on iPhones and wearing brand new clothes. People that bitch they have no money but have plenty of money for 2 packs a day. Some people need to be taught the difference between Want and Need.
You can tell what income class someone is in based upon the house/car ratio. The larger the car is in relation to the house, the lower the socioeconomic class.
here in California Arnie Governator instituted a hiring freeze and layoff for all state departments due to the budget shortfall, so there is no silver lining here (my wife works for the state and is a union steward so I hear it all) - no one is getting hired- and the phone systems are useless- I got laid off and had a problem with my claim's paperwork- after 4 days of trying to get through for about 4 hours each day I finally gave up and sent a letter- who knows where that is going.....
My house is set at 45 degrees.
You might want to be careful. I don't know where you live, but if the weather is cold enough the insides of the outside walls can get below freezing and you'll wipe out your savings if a pipe bursts. If your kitchen sink is on an outside wall, I would at the very least recommend you leave your undersink kitchen cabinent doors open.
You're an idiot.
Please don't post here anymore.
Thanks,
The Rest of Us
I'm not the one disturbed by the thought that someone poor might have something nice. I am, however, disturbed by some moron endangering me and everyone else by not watching the road while he's driving because he's too busy spying into people's homes.
It is, however, quite a leap of imagination to jump from "a glow in a window" into a "brand new plasma television". Besides, urban speed limits are there because there's a lot more to watch in city traffic than in the countryside. If anything, urban driving requires more, not less, attention.
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
with the dirty old men at our library only results would be "giant sucking sound", a sigh of pleasure, and you wouldn't get your shoe back.
Pretty sad, isn't it?
I'm currently unemployed and we are living with my FIL. He constantly complains (about almost everything under the sun), but specifically he complains about me not going out and taking "any old job", because apparently even McDonalds pays better now than the jobs he had when he was "raising" my wife (he was a bit of a deadbeat).
Not only will fast food places not hire me, but, after inflation, he was making more as a cabbie 20-25 years ago than I can make in IT in the area after frustration. Pretty damn frustrating.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
I'd say you are being a sober hard nosed realist. They are going to be pushing labor arbitrage all the way to the US becoming basically a two class society. That's what all the trends look like to me anyway.
CAIMLAS please accept my deepest sympathy.
Where do you live anyhow?
I could probably get a fast food job. Worker to manager. However in college in an off year, I worked lots of 80 hour weeks. Food is not easy. There is nothing as disheartening like looking at the moon at 11pm on a cold night and realizing that you had to be back before it sets.
For your FIL. Its like what I would do if I married a nice but rich lady (wishful thinking). Fix meals, clean house, mow yard, wash car, and home repair. Make myself so darn useful that your FIL would pay as much as McDonalds to have you around.
Stay out of FIL's way. "Out of sight, out of mind" still holds true.
Don't spend much if any of his money.
Beware of any old job. On the plus side, they can lead to other work. On the minus side they prevent you going around and finding a decent job.
Also in your "beach time" keep that brain busy; Scrabble, Greek, Latin. If you are in IT then R perhaps. I am learning R right now. Plan to finish a program next week to graphically depict some voter information.
Best wishes, let me know what job you wind up with
Jim
As days, months and years pass by, unemployment rate is blooming, and this is an alarming problem to all of us. Many companies are becoming unprofitable and investors are now worrying about their investments. These are some of the effects of this current economic recession. A paradox is where there exists two conflicting truths, like if a good situation ends with bad results. A similar situation is deflation within an economy â" which is an economic situation in which the prices of goods drops and the value of currency rises. Now this sounds good, but there is a serious downside to it â" in that those low prices are going to cause more unemployment, because employers can't afford to keep all the employees on the payroll. However, there is good news â" payday loans are still available if you need them, and the odds that deflation will occur with the current recession are slim. But the Feds say things will get worse before they get better, so in the meantime, payday loans can help if you have a financial emergency.