Monday, February 8, 2010
Is It Time to Extend Unemployment Insurance??
This article discusses the need for Congress to extend the social safety net programs, that provide unemployment insurance, in the stimulus package because millions of people nationwide will lose unemployment benefits in the coming months. According to new statistics without congressional intervention, nearly 5 million jobless workers will lose benefits by June. The article concludes with, "Congress needs to act now and extend these benefits", however, as mentioned in class the longer a worker is eligible for unemployment insurance, the longer the duration of the average spell of unemployment. So what should Congress pursue?
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Imposing legislation on a national level because of one state's problems is definitely not the way to go. However, given that the national unemployment is higher than Wisconsin's, there needs to be some type of action to renew these benefits or decrease the unemployment. Obviously congress would have produced some type of legislation if the solution were simple. I think it's time to let those benefits disappear because they have already been stretched further than normal and if a person hasn't been able to find a job since receiving these benefits one of two things is probably happening: (1) the benefits are being abused or (2) it is unlikely that the person will get a job soon without a drastic change in location/industry. Maybe some of the spending on unemployment benefits could be shifted towards relocation/education programs.
ReplyDeleteHaving reviewed the Swedish economic system, minimizing the amount of time between employments maybe the best solution here and I do not believe that it is beneficial to extend unemployment insurance. Especially in the current economy and with current unemployment rates, I feel that it is much too difficult for unemployed workers to continue to receive checks from the government, essentially taking away from the pool of money that could be allocated towards more job creation specifically in green technology fields. I agree with Adam regarding the better allocation of funds by limiting unemployment insurance as it already has been extended thus far.
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