Bizarro Economics....
In a Bizzaro world, people do the opposite of what they normally do or should do. Sometimes I have to wonder if we aren't venturing further into such a world.
The news is full of stories about workers that are taking pay cuts in order to protect their jobs. Not an easy thing to do, but hard times require hard decisions to be made, and hopefully those decisions will help companies weather the current recession and survive to offer better paying jobs in better times.
I also saw the other day that people who are drawing unemployment benefits will receive a $25.00 a week raise. As much as sympathize with people who have lost their job, I can't understand why they should receive a raise while someone who is working is taking a pay cut.
The raise will increase the maximum unemployment check to $415.00 a week. That means a person working 40 hours on a job that pays $10.25 per hour will take home less money than some people take home from not working. I'm sure most people don't want to be drawing unemployment. I'm also sure they shouldn't be forced to choose unemployment benefits over wages because they can't afford the pay cut.
But that is pretty much the way our government operates. We have a tax system that punishes success and rewards failure. 85% of the revenue from income taxes comes from 25% of the taxpayers. 68% of the revenue comes from 10% of the taxpayers. A lot of that revenue ends up as "refunds" to millions of people that didn't pay any income tax to begin with.
We have a government that punishes good decisions and rewards bad decisions. We are embarking on a multi-trillion dollar federal bailout program where people who bought and paid for homes that they could afford will shoulder the mortgages of people who bought homes that they couldn't afford.People who are working for businesses that made good decisions will be forced to bail-out companies that made bad decisions.
It's not that I have anything against helping someone up when they're down and out, but neither do I think we should punish them when they manage to get back up.
The news is full of stories about workers that are taking pay cuts in order to protect their jobs. Not an easy thing to do, but hard times require hard decisions to be made, and hopefully those decisions will help companies weather the current recession and survive to offer better paying jobs in better times.
I also saw the other day that people who are drawing unemployment benefits will receive a $25.00 a week raise. As much as sympathize with people who have lost their job, I can't understand why they should receive a raise while someone who is working is taking a pay cut.
The raise will increase the maximum unemployment check to $415.00 a week. That means a person working 40 hours on a job that pays $10.25 per hour will take home less money than some people take home from not working. I'm sure most people don't want to be drawing unemployment. I'm also sure they shouldn't be forced to choose unemployment benefits over wages because they can't afford the pay cut.
But that is pretty much the way our government operates. We have a tax system that punishes success and rewards failure. 85% of the revenue from income taxes comes from 25% of the taxpayers. 68% of the revenue comes from 10% of the taxpayers. A lot of that revenue ends up as "refunds" to millions of people that didn't pay any income tax to begin with.
We have a government that punishes good decisions and rewards bad decisions. We are embarking on a multi-trillion dollar federal bailout program where people who bought and paid for homes that they could afford will shoulder the mortgages of people who bought homes that they couldn't afford.People who are working for businesses that made good decisions will be forced to bail-out companies that made bad decisions.
It's not that I have anything against helping someone up when they're down and out, but neither do I think we should punish them when they manage to get back up.
Labels: Bailout, unemployment benefits
posted by Rex Bell at 8:43 AM
1 Comments:
Rex,
We agree that we should not punish those who continue to work, nor reward those (with a raise?) who do not work.
The Indiana Resolution of 2009 could help to remedy that situation. You readers can find the details at:
http://wedeclare.wordpress.com/
It is essentially a "show of force" from the state to the fedgov of how Hoosiers shall operate in the future.
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