Staring down desperation

[Forkboy]

Until he lost his job, Jim MacPherson figures, he had worked every day of his life since he was 15. Now, after 18 months of desperately seeking new work, MacPherson is among the estimated 2.1 million US workers, including 30,000 in Massachusetts, who have been without jobless benefits since Congress allowed an extension of the federal program to expire in early June.

This week, with unemployment still at its highest level in more than a quarter-century and hiring down to a crawl, the US Senate will try again to break a stalemate over extending through Nov. 30 the emergency benefits that allowed unemployed workers to collect for up to 99 weeks. The legislation has become tied up in deficit politics, with Republicans, including Senator Scott Brown, insisting that the $33 billion cost of the extension not be added to the nation’s burgeoning debt. Brown has proposed legislation that he says would pay for the benefits with unspent stimulus funds.

Some Republicans and economists have even argued that the time has come to end the extensions, which they say is providing incentives to turn down work.

“If the goal is to get people back to work, why tie the money to the condition that you stay unemployed?’’ said David Tuerck, executive director of the conservative Beacon Hill Institute at Suffolk University.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2010/07/11/staring_down_desperation/

As for Mr. Tuerck, the answer to his question is, "Because they're human."

[BR_Parkway]

1. May Mr Tuerck suffer a long period of unemployment...

[ProgressIn2008]

2. K&R. I'm seeing some truly dire things out there right now. I don't know where the jobs

are going to come from, and I don't know how the downward force on the jobs that still exist will stop. Fewer benefits, longer hours, more work for less people, more uncertainty. For me, it's becoming a higher and higher priority just to keep folks' hopelessness at bay. It's also getting tougher.

[sandnsea]

3. Does Tuerck support a federal jobs bill?

My bet is no, because that would be "make work", not a real private sector economy.

Am I right?

So don't give people unemployment until the "free market" brings the jobs back; and don't make jobs for them through federal infrastructure jobs either.

What is the guy's solution?

[Lorien]

4. Mr. Tuerck is a complete moron. NO ONE wants to barely scrape by on the scant amount of funds that

unemployment provides. Everyone wants the security of having a full time job, but there aren't enough jobs out there period. Corporations are raking in the profits but still hoarding, downsizing and outsourcing. And if a person if over 50 forget it! I have friends who are over 50 who have been on a National job hunt for YEARS now and can't get in anywhere.

No one is "turning down work" Mr. Tuerck, you mindless hateful dimwitted fuck. YOU helped create this mess that we're in now along with all of your Ayn Randian disaster Capitalist greedmongerers, so YOU need to take some responsibility for it!

[Bonhomme Richard]

5. I'm a small business owner and from what I see around me...

those small companies that were able to weather last year are now hanging by their fingernails. These businesses (machine shops, fabricators, etc.) do not rely on governments or banks for their funding and have always watched pennies. I also want to say that they are not waiting around hoping things pick up but are being proactive trying to find new business, From where I stand I see a lot of businesses folding this year and am not optimistic.

[Forkboy]

9. I'm not very optimistic either, but that's my nature.

I hope you weather the storm we're in, and the bigger one I feel is coming. I wouldn't wait for help because I'm not sure much is coming. Anything proactive you can do I hope you do, and I hope it works.

[northernlights]

11. my saddest call last Friday night

was a small business owner taking early distribution from his IRA to meet payroll. Even if he had only very few minimum wage employees, the amount he had wasn't going to last more than a few weeks. Don't know how he'll meet payroll after that...:(

[Bonhomme Richard]

14. I hear ya. The guy next to me is........

doing everything he can to keep his one employee working. On top of that he is getting chemo for throat cancer.

[Forkboy]

19. "On top of that he is getting chemo for throat cancer."

Life should be flagged for piling on. As someone with cancer myself, my honest best wishes to your friend.

[Joanne98]

6. Here's his email......

David G. Tuerck
Professor & Chairperson, Economics Department
Executive Director, Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research.


Mailing Address
Department of Economics
Suffolk University
8 Ashburton Place
Boston, MA 02108

Phone [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]


Office Location
73 Tremont, 10th Floor

Research Interests
•Tax Policy
•Competitiveness
•Labor Policy
•Education


Education
University of Virginia
Ph.D., Economics Dissertation Director: James M. Buchanan, Nobel Laureate in Economics.


The George Washington University
A.M., Economic Policy A.B., International Affairs


Employment
Suffolk University: Chairman, Department of Economics (1982-Present)
Professor (1987-Present)
Associate Professor (1982-1987)
Executive Director and Founder, The Beacon Hill Institute for Public Policy Research, (1991-Present)



Publications
Please see C.V. for a complete list of Publications by David G. Tuerck




Honors & Awards


Listed in Heritage Foundation Annual Guide to Public Policy Experts, 1988 to present.




Awarded sabbatical by Suffolk University, 1989-1990.




Recognized by the North American Economics and Finance Association for "outstanding leadership and contributions," 1986.




Inducted into Pi Gamma Mu, International Honor Society in Social Science, April 25, 1984



Courses Taught
EC 421/EC 721 Public Economics

EC 433/EC 733 Public Choice

EC 710 Macroeconomics

EC 801 Survey of Economic Thought

EC 810 Advanced Macroeconomics I



http://www.suffolk.edu/college/10241.html

[CTyankee]

8. Well, well. A cushy teaching job and a slot at a nonprofit "institute"

and this guy knows all about the real world of work out there! How interesting!

This guy makes a living spouting bullshit about a world he knows nothing about. He's sucking off the government tit, too. I'll bet his institute gets some government grants and his school does too.

The hypocrisy of this man is astonishing...

[Forkboy]

10. Was there any doubt?

Any time you hear someone railing against those struggling to survive you can bet your ass that they aren't. One of the few things in life that holds true almost 100% of the time.

[Hannah Bell]

16. that would be a cushy job at a non-profit institute pushing free markets.

that would be a bought-&-paid for lackey & bootlicker for $2000, bob.

Statement of Mission

Grounded in the principles of limited government, fiscal responsibility and free markets, the Beacon Hill Institute engages in rigorous economic research and conducts educational programs for the purpose of producing and disseminating readable analyses of current public policy issues to voters, taxpayers, opinion leaders and policy makers.


Statement of Vision

The Beacon Hill Institute is a world-renowned learning and research center that develops and performs innovative economic and statistical analyses of current and emerging public policy issues. It aims to strengthen that function by: providing local, state, national and international research entities with state-of-the-art tools and economic analyses, partnering with a PhD granting department of economics, and expanding its reputation for providing objective analysis to examine and influence public policy.



http://www.beaconhill.org/Mission.html


what passes for "independent commentary" in our bought-&-paid-for "free media".

[myrna minx]

7. K&R n/t

[Curmudgeoness]

12. Every single person who thinks unemployment benefits are a boon

for people who cannot find a job should have to live for six months on it. They never appreciate the advantages that they have in life. Oh, that's right, they earned them and they worked hard to get where they are. Work digging ditches in Houston for a summer and you would know hard work.

[Karenina]

13. I'm still waiting for Americans to slap these morans into next week.

:shrug:

[Kat45]

15. "providing incentives to turn down work" What work?

Considering how little unemployment pays, as well as a person's desire to work, this statement is so false. Even if it were true, which it is not, it would be a moot point because there is no work to turn down. Very few jobs currently exist, and job offers are extremely few and far between. Where do these right wingers think all these job offers are coming from? Please, let me know so I can find one.

[Hannah Bell]

17. you know, that work that has 6 applicants for every job opening.

unless, of course, your skill is in lying, in which case you can get a 6-figure job at a non-profit institute constructing propaganda for free-market economics, no problem.

[Kat45]

20. Jobs I apply for get a heck of a lot more applicants than that

I remember when I was setting up one interview, the person said they got something like 110 resumes--and this was not the kind of job that would have gotten anywhere near that many in the past.

[Sisaruus]

18. The other piece of desperation: COBRAs ending

This is the last month my brother-in-law and his wife (my sister) are covered under his COBRA. He's 59, she's 55 - ages when serious health conditions could start to emerge. She is the only employee in an office and doesn't get health insurance. My sister makes about $50k but couldn't figure out how to pay an annual $12k health insurance cost so they were going to do without. I put my foot down and insisted they let me pay what had been the employer's share - I said if one of them got ill that I didn't want them losing the house and moving in with me. They were still refusing my help so I told them I would tell mom. They've agreed to accept my offer.

I think the expiration of COBRAs is another time bomb about to explode. How are people going to afford health insurance when they're already struggling to deal with substantial income reduction?