Long-term unemployed Americans held a candle light vigil as a form of protest against the newly-enacted unemployment extension. These citizens, known as “99ers” because they have exhausted their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits, are outraged that the new legislation did not include any benefits for the long-term unemployed. Millions of Americans have exhausted all of their unemployment benefits and have still not been able to find any work. Without any inclusion in the recent bill, the number of 99ers will continue to increase as more Americans will run out of benefits over the coming weeks and months.
The candle light vigil was intended to bring attention to the fact that there are still millions of Americans who cannot find any work and are struggling without any unemployment benefits. Sponsored by the group FlashMobs4Jobs, the vigil went off without a hitch in several cities around the country.
The problem however is that just as there are many people who legitimately cannot find work there are many who do not make an effort to find work and live off of hard working tax-payer dollars, while draining the system of its financial resources. This is what splits the nation in terms of which side to back on this issue. Regardless of where one stands on this issue, there is no question it is a heated debate.
One of the more discussed articles on this site had interesting comments left by those in opposition to cutting off the 99ers benefits. You can read those comments here.
As a working American, it is difficult to see why people need a free ride past 99 weeks which amounts to almost two whole years. We were a country built on hard work and making opportunities happen for ourselves, and two years is more than enough time to scramble an opportunity together. Every fast food, department store and Starbucks seems to be hiring and if I desperately needed to support my family, I would have no problem working two full time jobs to do so.
In fact, I have done so and so have many of my friends.
Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced a bill in the house on Friday that would extend benefits to the 99ers, but according to most political pundits the bill stands virtually no chance of becoming law. In fact there are some people out there that are outraged that Congresswoman Lee would even try to submit a bill to the house for consideration and give the 99er community a false sense of hope. Seeing as how there is virtually no way that unemployment benefits could be extended for this group of Americans, some columnists feel Lee’s recent actions were just a political ploy to gain positive press around the holidays.
While Lee certainly could have introduced the legislation earlier in the year, at least there was one person in congress who is trying to fight for the 99er community and realizes there are still millions of Americans struggling in this current economy. Hopefully the economy slowly heads towards a recovery soon.
finally someone calls it like it is… these 99er CRYBABIES have been sitting on their lazy a$$es for 99 weeks, collecting hard earned money that we make and are now demanding they get even more. Lazy A#$holes.. get a JOB!! Have you ever heard of looking!!!
Crybabies?, hope you never have the misfortune of losing your job and collecting benefits you f#*ktard, “HAPPY HOLIDAYS” to you and your Fox News watching family
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hey jerry, yep crybaby… thats what you’re doing now about my comment. go work at walmart if you really need the money. that’s what i’d do.
All you people out their realy think that us 99ers are lazy!! You’ve got another thing comming!! We are the hard working older people that have worked and will continue to work for the last 35 yrs. I have volunteered at a hospital to do what I do best and Pray that the hire me!!YA! I’m working for free just to get hired!! Lets see anyone top that….Congress has NO Idea of our suffering!! Who are they to pick and choose who gets money and who dose’nt!! God will punish those who are greedy and do NOT HELP THE POOR!!! EVERYONE MUST GET AN EXTENSION!!! WE ARE ALL IN IT TOGETHER!! No money means NO MONEY to all who cnnot find a job!!!!
Are you kidding me??? I have tried for 2 years from a Subway Sandwich Artist to a Corporate Executive where I was laid off from after 29 years with a Bachelors Degree. Do you want to see my credentials, my applications, my reviews from previous jobs? I don’t know how you people can sleep at night with your attitude. Wait unti it happens to you. It will!!!
Try a google on “Burger King layoffs” my friend and you’ll see that they just laid off over 413 people themselves announced Dec. 2010.
Try a google on “McDonald’s layoffs” and you’ll find the rumors are spreading on the Dow Jones news about more layoffs.
Then google “Starbucks layoffs” and read the thousands of people getting churned out on the streets.
Your comment about always being able to get a job is not reality in many places of the country. You may feel that you’re qualified to flip a burger or pour a latte however that doesn’t mean that you will get hired.
You know California had a re-training job program to get people back to work whereas the government paid 100% of the persons wages for six months to any company that would put these people on.
What happened? Very limited companies took advantage of it. The ones that did..When the government subsidies ran out after six months the employer told the workers good-bye we don’t need you. In Illinois they also had a “Put Illinois Back to Work” program that operated in much the same fashion with the same results. Ten’s of thousands of unemployed people signed up and there were no corporate takers on the other end and the ones that did put the people back on the street after the government “Free Ride” ran out.
Maybe you should look at the corporate welfare money that is being handed out if you are so concerned about someone on the edge of poverty getting a free ride. We have trillions of dollars going to corporations in tax breaks and tax incentives under the guise of ” they create jobs” …well…where are the jobs? I’ll tell you where India and China and other off shore third world nations.
Start with the big players – where the real money is being wasted – where the real government cheese is going – the corporations. Then work your way down. Don’t buy into the nickle and dime distractions of the middle class that’s trying to hang-on.
Pathetically, our age matters when trying to find new jobs. Our generation is fighting tenaciously, but are running into the proverbial brick wall. Whether it be a 9 year ex-employee, from a world class publishing house, or a laid off, junior partner from a law firm, the grim reaper shows no favorites. It’s is something that has to be addressed and quick, because we have been put into this situation by no fault of our own. CEO’s from Globalists corporations, using they’re board of directors as cover, corrupt bankers in bed with Government officials, and propagandists helped bring us down.
You hear the same crap over and over again from the same pathetic morons that love to say, “Get a Job”! Quit trying to milk the system! 99 weeks is long enough to be on benefits! You know, the same old garbage you hear and read daily. This coming from people who are making millions of dollars a year, who are screaming for tax cuts, and who will be hanging out by their mailboxes salivating for the tax returns.
You see, the government likes to pretend everybody is 25 years old, and can just pop in and out of a delivery truck everyday, carrying heavy loads, or stand all day as though we are still young and nimble. They like to pretend that we have no medical issues, and just can go on with no worries, with a prescription drug free life, with 20/20 vision and perfect blood pressure with a stress free country club lifestyle. They pretend that we all have private cafeterias to use when hungry, free gymnasiums and chauffeured transportation. Something our pathetic cowards in Washington are receiving thanks to our tax money.
Our only real options, are to start our own businesses with low interest loans. There is no better option that makes any sense at this point. There are only so many jobs available and it’s not getting any better. We need to be given options beside being belittled and chastised. Most of us, could start up a profitable business tomorrow and aren’t receiving any of the promised loans. There is not enough talk about this, only more talk of earmarks, tax cuts for the wealthy and trillion dollar budgets.
There must be some kind of a compromise for the older crowd. We have good Ideas and plenty of expertise, and must be able to acquire moneys to achieve our new goals. There isn’t time to spare, and must act now. Low interest loans must be made available to start new businesses. It is time for the bankers to give it up, so we can make a reasonable change. If not, then the elitists must face the consequences. We are a generation who are being discriminated against. Last count, about 9 million 99ers; over half of that are middle aged who have lost everything.
The middle aged 99er, for the most part, have done everything right during their working lives. Saving their money by utilizing the 401k concept, achieving the American dream by purchasing homes for their families and borrowing to put the kids through college. Only now, to see it all disappear. The lucky ones might still have something left. Most don’t and are in deep trouble; having to rely on other family members for support, many more not so lucky.
We have been burned by superficial imposter’s, such as described above, and it’s going to backfire unless something is done to help the 99ers and quick. These pathetic, useless bunch of “We Are Better Than You” morons are trying every trick in the book, to camouflage the grief of the 99er, and negate our existence from the planet. Two year extensions for tax cuts for the wealthy, is morally wrong, and will do nothing to help the 99er cause. It will not create more jobs, nor will it put more food on our tables. All it will do, is require us to borrow another $680 billion, along with the earmarks and other UI extensions, totalling over 1 TRILLION from the Chinese.
The rich have already been cheating the system by paying less in taxes for the last 10 years, started by the Bush administration, doing nothing more but to enrich themselves. And now they want more years?
Have these self proclaimed Gods, ever studied up on how the Roman leader, “Julius Caesar” met his end? His greed got so bad that his one true close friend Brutus, was the one to finish him off! These God like elites had better look around; the little people are pissed off.
Ok let’s see –
To “Inicent By standerd”: First of all, instead of volunteering you should go back to school or take some free classes at your local community college. With your complete lack of spelling, punctuation or sentence structure you won’t be getting hired in a good or bad economy. And who gives you the right to have such a claim of entitlement – “EVERYONE MUST GET AN EXTENSION!!! WE ARE ALL IN IT TOGETHER!!” ??? If you’re all in it together, then why has your LAZY a** been collecting money for the past 2 YEARS while newly unemployed people are just now getting unemployment benefits? You are exactly the type of person I’m refering to.
To “Jane”: I didn’t fully understand your comment as you were missing a word or two in key places. Subway has denied you for a basic sandwich-maker position, or you used to be a sandwich-maker?
To “oz”: Finally some decent points made by oz. I respect that. He has a stance, valid points behind his opinion and communicates it perfectly. Now oz should get hired.
You’d be completely right under normal circumstances, and it is difficult to comprehend why people would need additional support beyond 99 weeks but these are extraordinary times. Get a Job! is an easy cop-out, not to mention an extremely ignorant comment, when over 15 million people are officially unemployed. I live in Southern California, which has been devastated by the colapse of the construction and real estate markets and there are simply no jobs. I’m hanging on to my job by a thread but it could end anytime. My city is filled with vacant store fronts and homeless people. Foreclosures and short sales have depreciated my home’s value by 60% in the last few years and my investment property costs me hundreds of dollars every month just so I can keep it rented. This is a nightmare and I pray the 99ers get an extention just so I can hold on to what little I have, not to mention that someday I may be one of them. What’s the saying about by God’s grace go I?
Applied at walmart burger king subway express personel actually every stsfging agency in my area every job in my area on monster.com every job the unemployment office says is hiring and have dropped off resumes to many places whether they say they are hiring out not. If you can get my lazy ass any job at all ill take it.
Unemployment Benefits are at best a supplement to most people’s monthly expenses. The 99ers have EXHAUSTED their resources including their savings, retirement, they have been forced to liquidate their assets just to hang on.
99ers NEED the extension the MOST. (HELLO!)
We all KNOW there are no JOBS out here, and that’s why the rest of the unemployment benefits have been extended over a year.
I’m a single mother and a 99′er, and I don’t know what my son and I are going to do. I have a Master’s in rehab counseling, yet another area to be CUT! I want work, any work, anywhere!
Luckily, I live in Tucson. I think it’s time to PICK A BRIDGE to live under before they are all full!
HELP!
Jan W
To all of you who are smack talking us 99ers will in no doubt lose your job by the end of summer in 2011. YES YOU WILL! I have been looking for work (direct hire) for 2 yrs and nothing, interviews yes, work no and working with temp agencies for little work here and there. SO who are you to say I am lazy. LOSERS!!!
Tom you are showing off your stupidity. Do some resurch before you come talking out your ass. Don’t waist your time with Tom folks. A wise man once said that if you argue with one retard it only proves there’s two. He was probley sent by fox network. I am very bless to have my job at Boeing. My heart goes out to the 99ers. Tom, since you have all the answers then where is this job mecca for thies so called 25 million lazy Americans who have choosen to give up there middle class lifestyle to living in poverty. Are you serious? Unemployment only pays an average of 270 dollars a week and the unemployed must pay taxes out of that. America is going down the shitter because you have idiots like Tom in our government. Tom do your resurch. Speak facts and statistics.
Well first of all, you can’t blame this mess on the unemployed or displaced worker, this is both Republican and Democratic politicians at work here. Both sides are doing as much as they can to blame the other, meanwhile, many middle aged workers are getting the worst of it.
It’s easy to voice opinions when you are comfortable and have employment, we need to consider the fact that all jobs are temporary, you must be a fool if you think you will easily find a job at any point in time, tough times will take its toll on everyone. Maybe the unemployed will perhaps get new jobs, and you will lose your job, then maybe they won’t hire you, it will all average out at some point… First will become last… and Last will become first… so on and so on… I am sure you get it!
Some of the laziest A$$ holes I have seen still have their jobs, go figure!
I am 99er. I am running out of options, so i created a blog to hopefully make some kind of income. http://onthetownreviews.blogspot.com// There is a pay pay donate button near the bottom of the page. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Good Luck and God Bless
Tom~ I really hope you NEVER have to be in the shoes of us “99ers”! It’s so easy for you to call us names, which by the way makes you such a great person! It’s also easy for you to sit here and make fun of those who “misspell” something wrong….didn’t know that you were God, or are you?!? I’m sure, they are like me right now and so aggravated at your comments that they could care less if something is spelled right or has the right punctuations!!! As long as we are getting our point across to you, I could care less!
Just to let you know that I am currently 34 years old, considered a “99er” and have worked hard since I was 15 years old. I have worked sometimes 2 and 3 jobs to support my family. I have worked 12 hour shifts on Christmas Day before, away from my family, in a nursing home, cleaning a$$ for a living! I don’t mind working at all…and since you “know it all” did you know that we “unemployed” HAVE TO SHOW PROOF TO THE UNEMPLOYMENT THAT WE ARE APPLYING FOR JOBS, AND THAT WE ARE REGISTERED WITH OUR LOCAL JOB/WORK FORCE PLACES…(incase you don’t know what that is, it’s a place that helps you find work).
I have a college education! I apply for work daily! But since you think that we shouldn’t get anymore help, then will you please come to my house on Christmas Day and tell my 5 year old daughter why Santa couldn’t come to see her!!!!!!! Oh nevermind, I’ll just tell her that it’s because mommy was lazy and didn’t want to work….LMAO!! And another thing…you will now be paying for my foodstamps, programs that assist with helping me live in government housing, free lunches and books at my daughters school, and oh yeah, medical insurance for my whole family! GROW UP and realize that we “Americans” are trying and it’s indivuals like you who don’t deserve a chance to live in America!
Hey “Patriot Citzen” – what’s a “citzen” by the way? Oh you meant citizen, ok excuse my stupidity.
I also think you meant “waste”, “these”, “their”, and “research”; instead of waist, thies, there, and resurch…
I used to have respect for Boeing until I found out they hire idiots like you.
Hey Tammy, I think you meant “I couldN’T care less”… that’s how the phrase goes these days. Anyways, of course I know you have to show proof you are applying for jobs but in case YOU didn’t know, that’s also the EASIEST thing to forge… as I’m sure 80% of the lazy unemployed do. And Tammy, if you’re working so many different jobs and all these 12 hour shifts, then there should be no reason Santa couldn’t get your 5 year old daughter at least a little something for the Holidays.
Quit your whining people! Our country was built on the principles of hard work and the puritan work ethic. So quit looking for a handout from all of us hard working people! We’re not socialist Russia.
Hey Tom, Get a life and maybe you will find a job that pays more than $7.00 per hour…
You don’t like the fact that some unemployed people get more on unemployment than you get working your job.
Maybe you will soon qualify to get unemployment benefits, no, not really, keep trying!
Hey Tom, by the way, most of the whining is coming out of your mouth, shame you don’t have a significant other to snuggle up with during the cold winter months.
Take some of the $7.00 an hour you earn and get one of those inflatable friends to keep you company!
Honestly Tom you should really examine things a little more closely before you make silly reductive comments. I know several people who are currently trying to go back to school — yes, community college after going to very good schools — and they are on wait lists tentatively for a year. They simply cannot get classes because the community college system is overcrowded due to lay offs and people not being able to afford university. Do you have any more brilliant solutions to America’s comments up your sleeve? Do tell.
Btw, glad to know you can spell. Maybe you will try to do something positive and help all the young people in this fine country of ours who cannot afford a decent education. But I’m sure you’re much to busy sharing your brilliant insights on the internet for that, right?
You know it’s false and ignorant to say unemployed people have been draining tax payer’s resources for 99 weeks[or 93 for Texas].
Maybe you idiots need to read up on how unemployment benefits work.
Employees and their Employers pay for the first regular 26 weeks of benefits,not the Federal Government
Technically,we have only received 70+ weeks of aid.
And to go from 1000 every 2 weeks to 500$ every 2 weeks changes one’s life drastically.
Nobody is living comfortably with this pay.
I cannot belive the bickering going on back in forth between you so called adults,First of all Tom your a
horrible person to sit there and critize people on,there
spelling error’s.I wonder if you were a 99 er how would you cope with being out of work for 2 yrs,and losing everything you worked for.The fact is the government is hoping the 99ers go away.Their thinking is hopefully they
quit calling in or they just die,I’ve worked since I was 12 yrs old I’m 43 now fast food places want young kids out of highschool I was told that,personally by a recruiter from a fast food chain.Tom have you ever been desperate,we’ll in another 2 yrs you will be along with every other judgemental bastard out there that want’s to judge me or people in my same situation, like the old saying goes Don’t judge a person unless you walked in his,or hers’s. You pathetic excuse for a human being you sir are a coward!!!!!!!
Maybe it would be better to try and understand that there are people in desperate need for additional assistance and that having been said, there are people that are most definitely taking advantage of the system. It is impossible to distinguish between the two groups. At some point unemployment benefits have to stop and a lot of good people are going to get hurt. I know it is a very unpopular thing to say but it simply may not get better. It would help more if the comments in these discussions dealt with ideas about how to possibly work through this situation. I don’t mean to imply that I have the answer, I don’t. In fairness, people on both sides of this argument have valid points.
TOM – be a sport and give us your FaceBook page, home address, and current employer. I would really like for you to talk smack to me in person. I know for a fact your punkA$$ would clam up like the whining sniveling little cretin you are. I love how these morons come in here and attack others language or grammar skills when in fact TOM your retorts are just as poorly written as anyone else on this blog, but you would not know that would you, you pathetic piece of garbage.
Show some class you worthless slime.
CHAD – While there may be some that take advantage of the system, the majority have to follow the rules, and ARE following the rules. If they do not, they will lose ALL benefits, risk a fine and jail, plus lose all future rights to earn benefits ( in some states ).
Chad you simply do not understand the situation do you? What gets me is the stupidity of people that do not understand the Macro/Micro-economics of this depression we are living in at the moment.
Do you want you house value to drop even more than what it is, because its going to get FAR FAR worse. Do you want your local businesses to fall apart? Do you not understand that once people fall off the UI Benefits, the next wave of foreclosures happen, then the next, then the next… over and over and over again. Once those houses lose more and more value, entire neighborhoods will fall apart. By giving benefits, the govt is providing way to save the neighborhoods. Even if you do not agree with UI benefits, they actually serve to save everyone in the communities.
Do a little research on Paul Krugman, and learn about Mico/Macro Econ and how they REALLY affect you…
After 26 weeks you need to call it what it is..Welfare. The states have welfare programs and that is what the “extended” unemployed should be applying for after their assets are exhausted.
I know only 1 unemplyed person and I know he’s been milking it big time. I’m not saying everyone is but most are in the “cousin Eddy” holding out for a management job denial. The current unemployment system only encourages this. If they had kept a decent skill set, they’d be working. Call it tough love but I’m not into charity as much these days cause I’m working my tail off.
Folks! I know Tom very well, he is really a 99er who is mad at world because he lost his job at Walmart and has nothing better to do besides ragging on other 99ers. Tom is a fat slob that’s in love and married to his computer. He needs to get off his ass and find himself a job.
Tier 5 unemployment extension is needed more than a tax break for the riches 2%, who by the way didn’t ask as loud as the unemployed asked for more than 99 weeks.
The number of weeks of unemployment which should have been negotiated by Obama with the Republicans, should have matched the two years of tax credit given to the rich. (Considering the tax credit is supposed be a trickle down type of incentive). There should be no Tier system for unemployment. That’s what confuses everyone. Only a flat time period should be observed like 2 years, or until a decent number of jobs are made available The Republicans should have received a Tier system for their tax period, i.e. 6 months if your worth 50 million, 3 months if your worth 25 million and so on. Obama just gave away everything with no incentives or compromises.
I don’t intend to make light of our situation (but I sometimes must laugh to keep from crying) we need a Wikileak type of ally to get the truth of the unemployed 99ers un-extension out there, I know people complain about Wikileaks as treason and a national security issue however the American public are being misled and lied to, and we, the 99ers are not a national security issue. A national embarrassment issue maybe! We need help and fast. What I don’t get is, aren’t there ex public officials, lawyers, politicians family members, news media family members and other so called important members of our society that are in this same situation. I can’t remember the name right now but there was a senator’s wife collecting unemployment, but I guess her husband got her a job. Too bad Senators and Congressmen don’t get laid off and have to collect unemployment. Just imagine waiting 4 years for an election to get hired again!
I hate to repeat the same comments over and over because it infuriates me to feel no one is listening. Before the President approved this last bill I indicated it would not cover those over 99 weeks. I also indicated these blogs or comments are not reviewed by the country’s masses because they are not covered by the mainstream media. For further review of my comments just Google Glenn B NJ or Glenn Bax NJ. I’ve been commenting since late 2009. I am not the most intelligent person in the country, so if I can figure out the simple facts about our situation there must be someone out there much smarter than I that can help us!
Finally someone is mentioning the Big Lie Sham bill signed by the president and the fact that no one will pay attention to our stories until the mass media reports them (during the 1st few minutes of the nightly news.). See the petition “Tell USA TV news to REPORT H.R.6556 & S.3607 to help Tier V 99ers NOW!” at “Change.org”. It’s a start. However we need the news to report the truth right now, immediately! The reason Haiti and other emergency’s get help so quickly is because these are the 1st stories reported on the ABC, CBS + NBC nightly news, before the 1st commercial break.
Chad, I’m glad you asked, I do have a suggestion. I think a tier 5 should be created which titrates payments over the next year. It could start with the proposed 14 weeks, then cut back to 2/3 of the former payments, then 1/3 for the last half of the year. That way, the people who are taking advantage of the system, and getting rich off of the unemployment will no longer have making the BIG MONEY as an incentive. For the people who are really looking for work, a partial payment is better than no payment.
The 99ers will go away if they are living under a bridge because most bridges are not wired for free internet. If the 99ers are struggling for food every day they will be less vocal, and less likely to organize a revolution.
And for the people who are whining about the taxpayer footing the bill for unemployment, I would like to inform them that every single individual collecting unemployment paid taxes up until the day they were laid off, and in fact, they are still paying taxes on the unemployment.
The people who are not paying taxes are the rich, especially the ones who will save $100,000 per person over the next two years by Obama signing the no tax bill.
What the employed fail to see,”because they are not in this situation”, That for the first 2 years after being laid-off and our plants shut down, and some never re-opened.Is that at that time 15 million people were also loosing their jobs, i.e there were NO jobs, and NO HIRING! After the 2 years there was “some hiring” but employers are only hiring people who are unemployed 6 months or less!!! If you are unemployed longer than 6 months an employer will not even consider your application! This is a fact. We have not given up or are we lazy! Why don’t you people who call us lazy hire us, or ask you boss why he, or she don’t. I know that their desks are full of applications. Do the math.
What the F*@K is this reporter talking about Half of the people don’t want to work and just milk the system ?
Yo – Idiot, if there’s no Work available, dosen’t sound like they have any choice !
I keep reading here about how many people are “taking advantage” of the system. It’s strange, after having been out of work for 15 months before IT started opening up ANY positions and finally getting rehired, I tend to challenge people when they express this opinion because of two things:
1. Unemployed people are embarassed that they are putting out resumes and not getting any responses. Most of the people I knew were the top of their field. Normally they would end a job and 15 job offers would be on their desk the next morning. This is no longer the case. Among ourselves, we would talk about the market and where we’ve looked and how bad the market had gotten due to offshoring and H1 visas. We were all in the same boat. But among our friends, well…that was a different story. Most of the guys were “taking their time to figure out what they wanted to do” or “I’m just going to relax a while” or “I’m taking the time I never had before to enjoy the kids”. No one wants to sound desperate, because potential employers do not hire the desperate at over $100K per year and friends, whom you network with, tend not to recommend their desperate friend.
2. If I push people hard enough about the “people” they know who are milking the system, please note the plural, it ends up being one specific person who is taking advantage of the system, in their eyes, or it’s someone that they are “sure could get a job if they really wanted to”. If someone tells me a story of absolute system abuse I tend to look at the person and say, “So report them. If they are doing what you say then their benefits will be removed.” Once I say that the story changes and the report is never made.
I find what people are really saying is, “I pay a lot in taxes and I’m sure you’re the reason why. I also resent I have to go to work every day and you seem to be wandering around and enjoying yourself.” They want to see you be punished for being fired, after all you MUST have done something wrong.
It’s comforting to people to believe this. It makes them sure in themselves that their job, unlike yours, is safe. It’s safe because they did all the right things, unlike you, the unemployed, because if they didn’t believe this then they’d have to understand the economy isn’t what they’re being told by the news, all rosey, and their job isn’t safe, and they could be one of the people looking for work after 99 weeks. It’s warm and comforting to think that way. Unfortunately, it’s a lie.
So, while I doubt explaining to Tom how removing the ability to have transportation and a phone to the unemployed and all financial support just costs him more money in regard to families as they move onto welfare and medicare, and that the unemployed can’t just “get a job”, or how after several months of being unemployed and without the support of unemployment (about 7 months), 99rs would be employed and not exist according to his reasoning, I would hope this sheds a little light to people who might be thinking the worst of the unemployed.
The unemployed are people who were formerly employed, thus proving they do like to work, they want to work, and are victims of choices by the FED and government not to go after corporations that insist they need money to create more jobs, and then fail to do so when given that money, or worse, use it to create jobs overseas instead. Failure to produce a promised result by the corporations should mean they have to return the money given to them by the government, but instead this is ignored and more money sent after bad.
Tom, if you want to continue to support the current system of giving corporations tax welfare,that you pay for, that only produces extra revenue for the corporations and stimulates foreign economies, and causes you to pay more local taxes due to the lost tax base of the unemployed and from corporate money, you just go right ahead and do so. Makes no sense to me, but then you are blaming the unemployed for being unemployed so, it’s a common theme.
I wish only good luck to those out of work and hope the new year finds jobs in your area and for you all. I also hope Tom finds a job that pays more than 7.00 per hour, because I think that might be what is making him so cranky.
Happy Holidays and Festivus for the rest of us!
Dear Jesse,
This is a blog that you will want to see. “FEMA Camps for the Homeless”
http://fema-for-homeless.blogspot.com
Tom…I’m not gonna waste anymore of my time with you, besides this is time I could be looking for a job! If you would pay attention to what I wrote, I stated that I am unemployed! I stated that I have always worked hard, my whole life including working 12 hour shifts at a nursing home!
I was nice and said that I really hope you never had to be our (99ers) shoes. I changed my mind. People like you deserve bad things to happen to them. What goes around, comes around!!!
Hey tommy,could your cowardess a** be arrogant enough as “you” propose to be,please post a more direct manner of personaly contacting you.so,some of us “99ers” could have a one on one debate with you.We will bring our resumes and you can track down some leads for us,since you are well off and apperently have time on your hands.I’ll bet your cowardess a** wont do that,proving your the problem here,not the “solution”.Stand up and be accountable for your “foul accusations” or “bow down” like the bit**-maid” you truly are.”WERE WAITTING”!!!!!
There are plenty of jobs if they would get out and find one or even two. Instead they sit at home and dismiss one job offer after another, “I make more money on unemployment”, “I can’t take that job, it will mess up my unemployment”, “I will only take 1st shift”, etc. I hear every excuse why they won’t work and it all boils down to this: If you keep paying them not to work, they will never go out and look for a job or accept one that is offered.
Ignorance and hatred and lack of facts about what is REALLY happening with the 99ers.
This article is biased and filled with hate speech! As much as you seems to have an ounce of understanding about the REAL plight of the 99ers, you quickly turn on them. You do not deserve any credit for this garbage article.
It seems to me that this legislation could have easily been pounded, passed and signed out two months ago in October, ensuring that all out-of-work American citizens would be taken care of for at least this holiday season. The extension was being discussed at that time as the Fed knew that millions of folks benefits were running dangerously low. Why the delay until December 18? A requirement for receiving extened UI benefits (for 99ers), current benefits could not have been exhausted, or in other words, there needed to be a balance in the UI account to qualify. The delay in congress stalled just long enough for 99ers funds to run out, thus making them ineligible for this extension, also keeping millions, if not billions of dollars from being “wasted” on the long-term unemployed.
Coincidental, perhaps. Wrong, definitely.
A brief “welcome conversation” at New York’s Airport.
Immigrant:
(as he asks US born citizen who just became 99er)
Finally! America! What can I expect from this wonderful Country of yours?
US born citizen:
Oh, the usual! Billions and billions of dollars voluntarily ejected to help “others the people”, which hate us passionately, and fight us vigorously, and want to see us dead permanently!
But when it comes to hundreds of dollars per week for its own unfortunate workers, it’s like: NO FREAKING WAY, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO MILK US LIKE THAT!
Immigrant:
I guess American politicians love to milk themselves, donating their milk only by the barrels?
US born citizen:
Oh yeah! But God forbid you crawl to them on your knees to gently suckle a little bit to survive…
Immigrant:
It also sounds like financial masturbation as well, by the politicians, doesn’t it? They pleasure themselves looking at the flag of another Country, while turning their butts to their own shape and color?
US born citizen:
I know, amigo, my Government hates natural relationship with its own people! And yes again, they would rather satisfy themselves pleasuring anyone they are not coupled with.
Immigrant:
Wow! Sound like financial adultery! Lord Jesus, why did you bring me to this financially perverted Country?
ATTENTION AMERICAN PEOPLE
The United States is in an emergency situation right now. I spend hours everyday visiting sites and trying to get people in every state to come together so we will have enough people to form protest groups. Today, I am going to direct you to a site that everyone of you should read. The site, From the Trenches World Report has an article that you must read. The article is called $2 Billion a Week Money Pit — The Afghanistan Question. After going to the website you can go to the Organized Resistance page and under Nationwide Rally to Extend Unemployment Insurance, leave your first name, state and the address of your unemployment office so we can organize active civil disobedience. This is for the 99ers and future 99ers. By not uniting we are letting them win.
Well if the answer was no unemployment benefits and magically the person now has a job that would be great!
Unfortunately it does not work that way, there have been people who’s unemployment has been exhausted for many months, but still no work! wow, now what, Sherlock!
There simply is not enough jobs to go around, when several people are applying for 1 job, do the math, 1 in 5, or 1 in 10, its like trying to win some lottery.
Lets not forget the employer who won’t hire over qualified people, thats why it becomes more complicated to find anything at all.
So give it a try, LOSE your JOB and see how easy it will be, go ahead if you dare!
Lets face the facts…McDonalds and BK does not have over 15 million jobs available to put everyone back to work so for those that insist that people are just being picky. You are nothing more than a bully…Stop listening to the politicians who also use the unemployed as a way to spin the blame on them…People wont forget who got us in this mess. So you can keep pretending that there are enough jobs out there or the hateful comments which seem to be lacking to the people who have spent years on welfare and dont have a worry in the world about where they will live and who have never paid taxes oh no you choose to go after the unemployed and for what reason…Because your guilty of the exact reason we dont have jobs…Your guilty of the greed in which the party your affiliated with wants more. Your guilty of your ignorance..But it will catch up with you. The unemployed are not going to be your doormat any longer..So watch out because your job might be next on the line..Or maybe the company you own might just go under because eventually these unemployed people will get back into the economy and will make sure those companies that was on the destruction path to ruin the middle class will certainly go under. Just on a note though it is illegal to bully someone. The modern day of bulling has brought shame to this country. Perhaps it time you grow up and realize that is the real reason we had to have anti bullying laws in our schools. Why dont you try leading by example and stop the bulling. Grow up and unless you are knowledgable about the subject shut your mouth about it.
Wait until the 99er’s have entirely exhausted their assets to pay the mortgage. Then a massive wave of foreclosures will wreck home values for everyone along with associated investments… Can You Say “Donble Dip” Or more likely “depression”
Um has any stoped and thought about the crime rate? I’m trying to be a cop because when all the people have nothing I[m pretty sure the rich will be the first to feel what scared and mad people will do… No? Have you seen what combat does to a normal person? Bullets or food people will do what they have to. Get you’re gun ma” there is going to be hell to pay… I think I’d rather be poor in the next two years than rich.. Can we say Robin in the Hood?
These negative-comment people don’t know what they are talking about. From the blogs I’ve been reading, most of those who lost their jobs through no fault of their own had their jobs for years before it was made a law that potential employers had the right to check our credit reports. There is absolutely no evidence that someone with a less than perfect or even a bad credit report makes a bad employee. None. Once we lost our jobs and then lost everything or became delinquent on everything, the first thing the creditors did was report it to the credit bureaus. That is why we cannot get a job. Not because of our work performance or lack of ambition looking for a job, but because some Einstein (I’m being sarcastic here) decided to allow employers to check credit reports. Our credit reports can keep this information for up to seven (or more) years. Unless so many new jobs are created that even the qualified 99ers look good, unless they repeal the stupid Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) soon, we 99ers will become 499ers before we are eligible for a job!
It’s awfully easy for the employed to bash the unemploy.I just lost my job at Amazon.com warehouse ! It was the first job i had in 2 years.Worked at least 50 hours a week for 7 weeks.It didn’t pay what i would of hoped,but it was a job.Well,news flash.I just had to pay almost $700.00 dollars in vehicle repairs.Money i earned at Amazon.So i’m unemployed again and can’t get any unemployment benefits.So i guess suicide is a option!!.I can’t wait to hopefully change my career,Because i will leave this pathetic country when the first opportunity comes.Even though China has a 80% poverty rate.China is the new #1.They have all the manufacturing jobs.The New World Order is alive and well folks.America will never recover from this and the good ole days are gone!!! Why,you ask.Because we as a whole do not appreciate our fellow Americans.And the youth of our country don’t care.Thanks to the half a$$ parents who love their excesses and extra marital affairs and porn.May God finish this judgment with no mercy ! Because we don’t deserve mercy as a country !!! WE BELIEVE IN GOD ONLY TO A POINT! What’s in it for us.We say.The vast majority don’t even read the bible or go to church anymore.We brought this calamity on ourselves.And now we are reduced to believeing rich people who don’t care for any of us.SHAME SHAME SHAME !!!!!
I lost my job in Jan 2009 due to permanent downsizing. This is the first time in over 35 years that I have had to rely on unemployment. Now I’m 53 with a health issues trying to compete with thousands of healthy 20, 30, and 40 something’s in a job market that just isn’t there. In the past 2 years I have applied for over a 1000 jobs, of that number I’ve had about 20 interviews and of those ….NOTHING!!… My unemployment runs out next month which means I’ll probably lose my home. I would LOVE to be working again…it’s just not out there! Meanwhile as they eliminate our unemployment benefits, the richest people in America are getting huge tax breaks. Up until now I have ALWAYS been very proud to be an American, but now this country that my dad gave his life defending has become so corrupt in our government that I’m almost ashamed to call myself one.
I’m a 99er now. It’s hard to know where to begin. I know poverty; I lived through it as a child and I thought it was harsh and cruel. I always had a drive to get my college education in Finance (and I did) and I don’t feel sorry for myself nor do I ask that of anyone else because maybe my journey has just met another challenge that I must face. I’m over fifty so it gets a little harder to find that drive to succeed. I guess only time will tell! God Bless America!
The sad part about all of this is the bashing of people who for the most part I would say probably never asked for a single penny from nobody. I know I am a person who always reached in my pocket to help others out even though I wasn’t rich. The other sad part is that some of us are simply responding to hateful comments to let America know that people are taking those $9.00/hr jobs, no sick leave, no holiday pay, no benefits; so, think about that America. In my comments; I haven’t asked for nothing.
In addition, think about this. In the past, unemployed people didn’t have a title. There never has been a title bestowed upon a person exhausting all of their benefits. They simply disappear to live their life as best as they can. It’s bizarre that now many of us are given a title. When do we get to get off that title? How many years?