Cafe Hayek: The Free Lunch

Not sure who is running the Democrat Party but their math skills are not the best -- in fact if they were in math class they would be getting an "F" for this exercise. Amazing when a person can get $1.00 in unemployment benefits and it puts $1.50 into the economy.

What's wrong with the Congress finding the money to fund the benefits instead of just adding to the deficit? Revenue is going to be down this year with a lot less people earning money so it is way past time for the Congress to start cutting the budget.

Unemployment is so easy to get that you shake your head when you think about it. First you go visit an unemployment office once to file, then file on line or by phone every week (talking to no one), and checks keep coming in week after week with no one checking to see if you really are looking for a job. Take a list of names, send our your resume to two people each week, and your check comes in. You run out of the first 26 weeks so you reapply for 13 more weeks, still don't talk to a person. Same thing happens for the next 13 weeks. Finally after over a year you talk to a live person who asks you if you are still unemployed and if you are contacting two people a week and then approve you for more unemployment. j

That doesn't mean that everyone scams the system, but it would be interesting to see how many take this time as a paid vacation. Maybe the Democrats next move is going to be universal job benefits just like healthcare so the Government can take care of all. (sarcasm)

The free free lunch
by Russ Roberts on April 13, 2010
in Stimulus

The Democratic Party put me on their mailing list and they sent me this clip today (among others). I think it’s supposed to make me feel good about expanding unemployment benefits. According to my Senator, Senator Cardin, every dollar of spending on unemployment benefits adds $1.50 to the economy. Magic. It’s clear what we should be doing. We need to extend unemployment benefits to the employed. I know. That’s the whole idea of stimulus…

See video of Cardin at Cafe Hayek