Long term unemployed are just shit out of luck after six months.
No more benefits no matter how many years they paid the tax.

The president has extended unemployment a few times because of recession, but
usually there is no more benefits after six months.

Teenagers/people that haven't worked : In America, if they are healthy then too fucking
bad. There is no money at all.

Single parents with children can apply for welfare, everyone else becomes homeless.

We have many many homeless people in this country.

This stuff about our government "giving money away" to lazy people is just political
talk by people trying to get elected.

I think jobless benefits should be tied to some sort of work.

It is, it's tied to the work they already did and the taxes taken out of their pay to
pay for the benefit.

You can't get unemployment if you haven't worked long enough already.
A person has to lose a job by no fault of their own(get laid off)
People who get fired or quit are not eligible.

How many times does someone have to point this out?

You're telling people to work for what they've already worked for,
and paid for. This is not free, people pay for it or they can't collect it.

You're just listening to uninformed politicians spinning bullshit to get elected.

I don't think this would pass and if it did pass I don't think it would work. Largely because the government screws up EVERYTHING, so they'd screw this up too. Still, I think it's worth getting the facts straight.

It's currently 99 weeks, almost two years, at a time. The president wants to make it longer. I bet I could get a job within a week or two, so I think 99 weeks is more than enough.

You clearly haven't met my ex-wife's family. She has a whole branch of her family who all live off government benefits and have for years. I noticed they have a $3,000 television, which the taxpayers paid for. Once check they all collect is disability. While I was visiting, they built a deck on their house. Yep, they can build a deck, but they can't work because they are all "disabled". Not everyone getting government checks is like that, of course, but plenty are. Speaking directly to unemployment, my best friend told me he wasn't really looking for a job, until his unemployment ran out. As soon as the tax payers stopped paying for him, he went right back to work.

"It's not a government benefit, they paid into the system." Yes, we all pay taxes, including unemployment taxes. We also all pay the taxes that fund welfare. Both are paid into the treasury and both come out of the treasury. Some people collect nezrly a hundred times as much from unemployment as they pay in. Most of us pay our whole lives and get nothing from it. Just like any other tax payer funded check. I've paid in my

I've paid in my entire life, and I know that I, and most of the people on this board, wouldn't be able to collect because they generally deny self-employed people and shareholders, or greatly limit benefits. Technically we're eligible, but as greedy capitalists we don't deserve to get the help we've been paying for.

Volunteering in a field you're interested in is a great way to find a job, particularly in a new field. My wife started her career by volunteering part time, then got hired full time.

Can volunteering ever be mandatory? I suppose it's not strictly volunteering, but very close if the person doing the work chooses which organization to volunteer for and for what type of job. If an unemployed accountant is told "you must do something useful while you're waiting for the right job to come along" they might decide they care about sick kids and choose to help a Shriner's hospital with their books. Perhaps they would instead say they like gardening and help with an urban community garden. The word "volunteering" isn't entirely out of place.

Looking at that side of it, is there any other idea that seems reasonable? We know the government would screw it up. Would it make sense for us as individuals to encourage out of work friends to do some useful volunteer work while they wait for the Sunday paper to come out? Any ideas?

+1

While in theory I love the idea of everyone volunteering their time, be it to help the unfortunate, work in the soup line, or maybe even be a mentor, but no one should be forced to do it. That's something that happens to felons.

However, I do think all kids out of school should have to serve at least 1 year doing some sort of service, either locally, with the Peace Corps, or National Guard.

so when somebody throws out their back volunteering, whose paying the health bills. & when lawyers force the state to provide health care, whats the difference between working on unemployment & working at a job. & when people blame the volunteering for not finding a job...

best answer is to move the unemployed into CEOs mansions until they bring their jobs back from overseas.