Coronavirus (political)

[MTK]

It's easy to say people are just being lazy, but it's just not realistic to think someone is going to say yeah I want to return to work for $500 a week vs staying home for $900.

[SolidSnake84]

Originally Posted by MTK

It's easy to say people are just being lazy, but it's just not realistic to think someone is going to say yeah I want to return to work for $500 a week vs staying home for $900.

I think what it will come down to is the unemployment benefits being tied to being "active and able for work".

I would think at some point the state(s) are figuring out what is going on and is making sure to change / enforce the language to stipulate that you must be willing to work to continue your benefits.

So, if your job calls you and says they are opening back up but you say no thanks, that should end your unemployment right there at the moment that you had your job offered back to you, and you chose to remain unemployed.

As time goes on i would have to think they enact something like that to keep people from blatantly / purposefully abusing / exploiting the system.

[CRedskinsRule]

Originally Posted by SolidSnake84

I think what it will come down to is the unemployment benefits being tied to being "active and able for work".

I would think at some point the state(s) are figuring out what is going on and is making sure to change / enforce the language to stipulate that you must be willing to work to continue your benefits.

So, if your job calls you and says they are opening back up but you say no thanks, that should end your unemployment right there at the moment that you had your job offered back to you, and you chose to remain unemployed.

As time goes on i would have to think they enact something like that to keep people from blatantly / purposefully abusing / exploiting the system.

They already have that in place, and yes it is enforced. If an employer knows a (former) employee is refusing work it benefits the employer to report it, and Unemployment, at least in Md, will defer to the employer a lot of the time unless there is an obvious negligence/issue.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule

They already have that in place, and yes it is enforced. If an employer knows a (former) employee is refusing work it benefits the employer to report it, and Unemployment, at least in Md, will defer to the employer a lot of the time unless there is an obvious negligence/issue.

Yeah that's why I'm not understanding a lot of the chatter on this subject. If an employer is offering the employee their job back and they refuse, the benefits will end. It's not as if employees can just willingly sit home and collect unemployment.

*edit apparently some states aren't enforcing the job search requirement, hence this issue exists. But if they turn down their prior job, it can end their benefits.

[Chico23231]

Originally Posted by MTK

It's easy to say people are just being lazy, but it's just not realistic to think someone is going to say yeah I want to return to work for $500 a week vs staying home for $900.

I agree...it just puts the business owner in a terrible spot...the actually job creator. And unfortunately, the longer it goes on it becomes dependency on the system and the tax payer. It’s not right...it’s not “in the spirit” of what the system should be...it’s a helping hand for those in need, when that need appears. It’s not a lifestyle period.

[Chico23231]

Originally Posted by MTK

Yeah that's why I'm not understanding a lot of the chatter on this subject. If an employer is offering the employee their job back and they refuse, the benefits will end. It's not as if employees can just willingly sit home and collect unemployment.

*edit apparently some states aren't enforcing the job search requirement, hence this issue exists. But if they turn down their prior job, it can end their benefits.

The chatter of why...it’s putting unnecessary pressure on welfare system, affects the economy and unemployment numbers, it affects the business owner with qualified help, and it’s the ethics of those using the system is out of wack.

People shouldn’t be getting fired for refusing their job to be on a welfare system. That’s the big fucking problem

[MTK]

To be fair this is an unusual time. The additional benefits aren't going to last forever. And it still comes back to our country having a wage issue when it comes to jobs that we didn't even appreciate were essential before all this, like grocery store workers. The fact that so many Americans live paycheck to paycheck and are a step away from a disaster is a problem.

[sdskinsfan2001]

Originally Posted by MTK

To be fair this is an unusual time. The additional benefits aren't going to last forever. And it still comes back to our country having a wage issue when it comes to jobs that we didn't even appreciate were essential before all this, like grocery store workers. The fact that so many Americans live paycheck to paycheck and are a step away from a disaster is a problem.

Does that mean you support things like fighting countries like China who force their people to make our cheap goods on slave labor wages, lowering business tax rates, limiting legal immigration, eliminating illegal immigration, etc.? Because all those things decrease wages. This whole businesses should just pay more thing is not realistic. The money has to come from somewhere and business owners need to make a profit.

We need to make more things in America and Americans have to be willing to pay more for the products they use. I am 100% fine with that. Short term I would have to make some cutbacks on discretionary spending if prices increased, but in the long run we'd all hopefully make more money due to wage increases and competition for employees, to at least offset the price increases.

There are many things that go into increasing wages. I don't think most people are willing to accept all of them. Only the things that already fall in line with our beliefs.

[MTK]

We should definitely be less dependent on China for goods. We don't make shit here anymore. But I really don't buy the idea that large companies can't pay more. How much more $$ does Bezos need? Wage inequality has steadily only increased over the last few decades.

[sdskinsfan2001]

Originally Posted by MTK

We should definitely be less dependent on China for goods. We don't make shit here anymore. But I really don't buy the idea that large companies can't pay more. How much more $$ does Bezos need? Wage inequality has steadily only increased over the last few decades.

Unfortunately greed is a human condition. Capitalism is the best system in the world but it would be way better if all business owners/management would operate in, for lack of a better term, good faith.

I don't know how you fix the wage inequality thing in a way that doesn't involve way too much government regulation or being anti-capitalist.

I'd like to think that if I ever own a business that I'd have a ratio I'm not willing to exceed, from what I make compared to what the lowest paid person makes.

[mike340]

As a grad student I made $17,000/year (about 20 years ago) after winning the biggest U.S. university math competition. ...and it takes a while to get your Ph.D. If you go into academia you don't really make it back, unless you play the right office politics. My thesis was "rediscovered" a decade later and declared the "idea of the year" by a bioinformatics blog, and for that I received... $0. By then I was out of the field because my work was used to make the "office pet's" career, (so he got credit for all my work), and I gave up.

Maybe we should consider making competent scientists a little better paid so they don't have to worry about finances. I saw an article a few years ago that stated that 30% of the Ph.D.s teaching university extension courses are on welfare. So they get crap wages for working hours per day on getting their degree and are rewarded with crap pay afterwards.

I'm tired of hearing of the poor teachers and waitresses all the time with no mention of the people who have busted their ass for years for no benefit, but their (almost unpaid) research is then heavily used.

Originally Posted by MTK

Maybe the main point here should be wages are too low to begin with

[Giantone]

Originally Posted by MTK

Just saying, there's a bigger argument here

Yes there is but it doesn't fit the republican narrative that helping Americans is bad.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by mike340

As a grad student I made $17,000/year (about 20 years ago) after winning the biggest U.S. university math competition. ...and it takes a while to get your Ph.D. If you go into academia you don't really make it back, unless you play the right office politics. My thesis was "rediscovered" a decade later and declared the "idea of the year" by a bioinformatics blog, and for that I received... $0. By then I was out of the field because my work was used to make the "office pet's" career, (so he got credit for all my work), and I gave up.

Maybe we should consider making competent scientists a little better paid so they don't have to worry about finances. I saw an article a few years ago that stated that 30% of the Ph.D.s teaching university extension courses are on welfare. So they get crap wages for working hours per day on getting their degree and are rewarded with crap pay afterwards.

I'm tired of hearing of the poor teachers and waitresses all the time with no mention of the people who have busted their ass for years for no benefit, but their (almost unpaid) research is then heavily used.

Most companies pay college grads like shit to start off with, couple that with massive student loan debt and yeah that doesn't add up either. We can have both arguments at the same time though.

[Giantone]

Originally Posted by MTK

We should definitely be less dependent on China for goods. We don't make shit here anymore. But I really don't buy the idea that large companies can't pay more. How much more $$ does Bezos need? Wage inequality has steadily only increased over the last few decades.

Use to be the people would invest in Companies that were good profitable Companies but the investors would stay out of running the Company. You invested in IBM or Standard Oil becuase they were good run Companies and if they weren't you take your money and put it somewhere else,now not only do the investors want to be rich immediately but they want to run the company without knowing a damn bit about it.

[MTK]

Dum dum just can't keep his mouth shut

Trump downplays the need for coronavirus vaccine: ‘It’ll go away at some point’