War On the Unemployed - Paul Krugman

[octoberlib]

Is life too easy for the unemployed? You may not think so, and I certainly don’t think so. But that, remarkably, is what many and perhaps most Republicans believe. And they’re acting on that belief: there’s a nationwide movement under way to punish the unemployed, based on the proposition that we can cure unemployment by making the jobless even more miserable.

Consider, for example, the case of North Carolina. The state was hit hard by the Great Recession, and its unemployment rate, at 8.8 percent, is among the highest in the nation, higher than in long-suffering California or Michigan. As is the case everywhere, many of the jobless have been out of work for six months or more, thanks to a national environment in which there are three times as many people seeking work as there are job openings.

Nonetheless, the state’s government has just sharply cut aid to the unemployed. In fact, the Republicans controlling that government were so eager to cut off aid that they didn’t just reduce the duration of benefits; they also reduced the average weekly benefit, making the state ineligible for about $700 million in federal aid to the long-term unemployed.


So what’s going on here? Is it just cruelty? Well, the G.O.P., which believes that 47 percent of Americans are “takers” mooching off the job creators, which in many states is denying health care to the poor simply to spite President Obama, isn’t exactly overflowing with compassion. But the war on the unemployed isn’t motivated solely by cruelty; rather, it’s a case of meanspiritedness converging with bad economic analysis.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/opinion/krugman-the-war-on-the-unemployed.html?_r=0

[SamKnause]

1. Unemployment

...............the war on the unemployed has been making so much progress in part because it has been flying under the radar.

Now you know, and you should be angry.

The majority of U.S. citizens are angry about many things in this country.

We are angry that the wealth of this nation has been stolen by Wall Street.

We are angry that our government has done NOTHING to stop the theft.

We are angry that no one has been held accountable.

We are angry that the organizations that were suppose to protect the U.S. citizens aided and abetted Wall Street.

We are angry that we didn't get a public option in the health care bill.

We are angry with the decisions the Supreme Court has made empowering corporations.

We are angry that the Bush administration was coddled and protected by the Democratic Party.

We are angry that we are being spied on.

We are angry that our interference; (invasions, occupations, drone attacks, coups, sanctions, financial terrorism) the world over is causing our list of enemies to grow.

We are angry that the rights of women are under attack.

We are angry that millions were thrown out of their homes.

We are angry that millions are unemployed.

We are angry that Free Trade Agreements are destroying the job market in the U.S.

We are angry that our corporations use foreign workers and treat them worse than slaves.

We are angry.

Our corporate controlled government does not care that we are angry.

They have an agenda.

Their agenda is not favorable towards the citizens of the U.S., or the citizens of the world.

Their agenda is corporate controlled dominance.

They will use private militaries and mercenaries like Blackwater, aka XE, aka Academi.

They will use the U.S. military.

They will use every despicable option available to obtain their goal.

[davidt2974]

2. Yep :(

Krugman usually "nails it" and this is no different...and NC is now officially one of "those States"..moving right to the front of the backward deep south.