As a follow of the job bill news in the past weeks, senate finally rejected the jobs bill of president Obama, which means more than six million Americans could lose their unemployment benefits next year. The result of voting was 50-49. Even though it was in favor of the bill, but the measure failed to receive the 60 votes needed to advance the $447 billion plan.
This result, which is not totally unexpected, still comes as a grave disappointment to the millions of unemployed Americans, who have been waiting for Congress to do something over their job creation plans. More than 6 million Americans are set to lose federal unemployment benefits in 2012, with 1.8 million running out in January alone, according to new figures from the National Employment Law Project.
We paid a lot attention on this job bill news because it connects to our textbook contents. Now I think the reality somehow proved what we learned, if ignoring the political issue in it.
In my Public Finance class and Labor Econ class, we have gone over unemployment benefits over and over. Providing people with unemployment benefits has shown to decrease a workers preference to look for a job. This is because they can gain more utility by not working and getting paid than working and getting paid the same amount. It will be interesting to see how many of the 1.8 million unemployed find jobs in December, the last month of their benefits.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that this does bring the reality of what we have learned in class to our attention. The extension of the benefits period would encourage longer periods of unemployment. It is possibly better the way it has turned out.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this will motivate and encourage people to look for jobs more seriously since they don't have any more support or benefits from the State.Im curious to see if the unemployment rate will drop or not in the near future.
ReplyDeleteHopefully this bill will get passed at some point. There is something that needs to be done and politicians need to quit worrying about gain for their political party and worry about the American people. The bill however is not perfect but I don't really see anyone with better ideas.
ReplyDeleteWell there are lots of people with better ideas, it's just that the president's the only one with the power to garner enough support to even hope to pass a job bill.
ReplyDeleteThe unemployment benefits going away I believe is a good thing. However, that money should then go back to the people as incentive to find a job and for employers to hire.
To simply take away money being used for unemployed people would be to reject a large group of people in this country. The money must be used to get people back working, even if that means a former teacher has to flip burgers.
I agree with Andrew. If unemployment benefits have to come to a halt, the money has to be used somewhere else to pep up the economy. Unemployment in the US is becoming a cause of concern and the rising poverty levels are alarming. Therefore, even though we could argue that lack of unemployment benefits would give people a desperate incentive to look for jobs, we should not forget those who will be unable to find employment even through their best efforts. US does need to come up with some padding for the larger section of the society.
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