Hi Neighborhood,
I am wondering if anyone out there thinks there needs to be a reformation of the Unemployment Security System. The reason for this is the fact that we are not given a choice about having regularly appointed withdrawals from our paychecks from the time we begin to work.
It was intended to be a stop gap to help citizens in time of unexpected disconnect from work, to assist until new employment would be found. I would like to draw a comparison, and ask your opinion.
Well over 20 years ago, car insurance was made mandatory, (as in we cannot drive legally without it). We are obligated without choice to pay into a “shared risk” system, to protect us and the other involved persons in the case of an accident. It all sounds wonderful and even noble in some ways. But I ask you—what happens when you HAVE an accident? Does anyone come rushing to your aide, or do you have to fill out reams of paperwork, sweat bullets wondering if you will be charged for something that was not your fault, or worse that your accident is deemed unworthy of help when you are at fault, and that in any case your rates will be raised with or without cause at whatever time frame and reason the applicable insurance company can come up with? Is it not even more interesting to note that those long years ago, as soon as car insurance was made law, the cost of it skyrocketed out of all sane reasoning? That in particular reminds me of the fact that we the taxpayers are shelling out 53 Billion dollars per year in royalties to gasoline companies (C-Span-Friday 3-04), which is on top of the perfectly adequate money they are already making!
I don’t think I could cover someone else’s costs in the case of a car accident on my own with savings, so insurance would be necessary for me, but after INVESTING so heavily, I find it repugnant to be censured and used like some endless source of revenue, as I CAN’T afford to cover these things myself. Thank heaven I haven’t had an accident of the auto nature for a very long time.
But to get back to unemployment compensation, how different is it? What reasoning can anyone use to jack money from our paychecks from the time we are still kids just beginning to work, and then make us beg for the money we invested at the most vulnerable times in our lives? It is not like we ask for more than we paid in, unless we receive an extension. That is already calculated to the exact penny by Uncle Sam. Why should we have to appeal to anyone for money taken from our own pay, and shelled out to those who are considered more worthy of OUR earnings? If our tax dollars pay to run the system, there are no losses incurred to it from its support structure except the job losses themselves, and not everyone who invests is going to lose their job. So what’s the deal? I would prefer not to be upset by this, and just sublimate it somehow, but many are in a financial mess because of job loss, and now find that they can’t get or have to “pay back” their own benefits without current employment. If it was to help with future job loss, it might be profitable in a way, but some are close to retirement and not likely to find new employment. How applicable would that be? The paperwork involved is, well, a job in itself. I believe it would be better to use the money taken out of our pay for personal bank savings on our own, with interest added in case of job loss in the future, from the beginning, instead of having money funneled away from our labor, which we probably will not be able to use without going through a sometimes demeaning and further laborious process. In other words, do you think that Unemployment Security is not a cost effective method to cover stress and monetary failure FOR THE CITIZENS who pay for it? I would also like to know if that money is used for any other purpose than for unemployed individuals. The information on that seems not clearly evident to me. Exactly how does this service benefit EVERYONE who pays for it, either at times of unemployment or at retirement? Is the money transferred into Social Security retirement benefits when each of us becomes too old to work? What does it feed when we die, anything we are made aware of? If you have any information in this regard, please post it? If this is not a cost efficient system for the American citizen, then it is time long past due for the American citizen to put an end to it, by public petition and vote. After all, we don’t go around losing jobs for other people, and should not be penalized as though we did, if the insurance can’t or won’t benefit all who are billed. This process also adds to the burden of the nation’s employers in the reporting and extracting of the funds involved to be sent to the government. These benefits are not “entitlements”. They are a debt that should be paid TO US in time of need, and if deemed in any other light should be ended, the monies involved being returned to the applicable citizens or their families after death. We are all too strapped to have our hard earned dollars be filched right out of our paychecks for any other purpose, and especially without the possibility of gaining interest for our personal use. Do you suppose that Unemployment Security invests it, and wonder what is done with the possible proceeds from the possible investment? Where IS our money going?
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