Item #1: Elimination of Extended Jobless Benefits

[Appaholic]

A dirty little secret is that government investment in education and infrastructure has a proven track record of stimulating the private sector and creating private sector jobs. This is even more important during a recession when the government becomes the lender and employer of last resort. That's why Obama deserves somewhat of a pass in regards to the deficit.

And while I can see the logic that cutting unemployment benefits will motivate the jobless to go out and at least find something, I think unemployment often times gets confused with welfare.

THIS.

Should NEVER be acceptable.

And when unemployment continues for 99 weeks, it IS welfare.

Agree. When people complain about illegal immigration (even though they are performing jobs the average American believes is beneath them) out of one side of their mouth whikle extolling the necessity of 99 weeks of unemployment benefits out of the other side of their mouth, well......

[Chizzang]

I remember back in about 1985 I was hauling concrete for Wimett Trucking in Missoula while attending the University of Montana... One of the other drivers was Larry - his son owns Reds Bar and is a good friend of Ursus (Imagine that)

anyway:
I was making a shit-ton of money as a driver being a student and all - I also worked at the Hospital front desk directing calls on the night shift (9:00 pm to 4:00am) about three days a week...

Here's the part of the story nobody ever believes...

I used to get up at 6:30 am on Saturday Morning - my only day off - and go to Bitteroot Toyota and Wash the cars before they opened for $3.00 a car... Cathy Ogren was a friend of my Moms and so I used to keep track of the number of cars I would wash usually about 25 or 30 in 2:30 hours and they would pay me cash out of the till...

I've almost always had two jobs in my life... very few of them have been glamorous

[AZGrizFan]

I remember back in about 1985 I was hauling concrete for Wimett Trucking in Missoula while attending the University of Montana... One of the other drivers was Larry - his son owns Reds Bar and is a good friend of Ursus (Imagine that)

anyway:
I was making a shit-ton of money as a driver being a student and all - I also worked at the Hospital front desk directing calls on the night shift (9:00 pm to 4:00am) about three days a week...

Here's the part of the story nobody ever believes...

I used to get up at 6:30 am on Saturday Morning - my only day off - and go to Bitteroot Toyota and Wash the cars before they opened for $3.00 a car... Cathy Ogren was a friend of my Moms and so I used to keep track of the number of cars I would wash usually about 25 or 30 in 2:30 hours and they would pay me cash out of the till...

I've almost always had two jobs in my life... very few of them have been glamorous

Go to the unemployment line and offer any of those three jobs to someone standing in line.

Good luck getting someone to accept.

[Appaholic]

Nailed it!

[kalm]

I remember back in about 1985 I was hauling concrete for Wimett Trucking in Missoula while attending the University of Montana... One of the other drivers was Larry - his son owns Reds Bar and is a good friend of Ursus (Imagine that)

anyway:
I was making a ****-ton of money as a driver being a student and all - I also worked at the Hospital front desk directing calls on the night shift (9:00 pm to 4:00am) about three days a week...

Here's the part of the story nobody ever believes...

I used to get up at 6:30 am on Saturday Morning - my only day off - and go to Bitteroot Toyota and Wash the cars before they opened for $3.00 a car... Cathy Ogren was a friend of my Moms and so I used to keep track of the number of cars I would wash usually about 25 or 30 in 2:30 hours and they would pay me cash out of the till...

I've almost always had two jobs in my life... very few of them have been glamorous

Go to the unemployment line and offer any of those three jobs to someone standing in line.

Good luck getting someone to accept.

The job would be a pay cut versus unemployment and they would default on their mortgages.

[AZGrizFan]

Go to the unemployment line and offer any of those three jobs to someone standing in line.

Good luck getting someone to accept.

The job would be a pay cut versus unemployment and they would default on their mortgages.

I doubt it. 25X3.00=$75x5=$375/week, while unemployment is $260. And that's probably the lowest paying job of the three. People are lazy. Period.

[kalm]

The job would be a pay cut versus unemployment and they would default on their mortgages.

I doubt it. 25X3.00=$75x5=$375/week, while unemployment is $260. And that's probably the lowest paying job of the three. People are lazy. Period.

Unemployment varies from state to state. Why do you hate people paying off their debt?

[AZGrizFan]

I doubt it. 25X3.00=$75x5=$375/week, while unemployment is $260. And that's probably the lowest paying job of the three. People are lazy. Period.

Unemployment varies from state to state. Why do hate people paying off their debt?

[Appaholic]

The job would be a pay cut versus unemployment and they would default on their mortgages.

I doubt it. 25X3.00=$75x5=$375/week, while unemployment is $260. And that's probably the lowest paying job of the three. People are lazy. Period.

NC unemployment is $410-$425 per week. Hence the reason I didn't push my wife to take a lower paying job. Take that benefit away & she's cleaning someone else's house or picking tomatos.....

[Cap'n Cat]

I doubt it. 25X3.00=$75x5=$375/week, while unemployment is $260. And that's probably the lowest paying job of the three. People are lazy. Period.

NC unemployment is $410-$425 per week. Hence the reason I didn't push my wife to take a lower paying job. Take that benefit away & she's cleaning someone else's house or picking tomatos.....

Nailed it.


BTW, Cap'n Cat is expecting a job offer any minute!!!

[OSBF]

Number 4 should be to implement a plan to get federal employee salaries ($120k average) more inline with average private sector salaries ($60k).

There is so much seriously flawed logic with that arguement............

1) Sample size distorts the numbers, there are 1.8M civlian fed govt employees, roughly 154M non govt jobs
2) 85%(+-) of Fed jobs are professional/technical, 15%(+-) of non fed jobs are professional/technical
The govt is not paying people to flip burgers or deliver pizza. They do pay engineers, scientists, lawyers,
biologists, accountants, researchers, etc etc.

Federal Civil Servants are and always have been underpaid as compared to folks in the private sector with comparable jobs.

Your arguement is about as silly as saying the doctors at the hospital down the street should take a pay cut because they make more money on average than the 16 YO part timers at the McDonalds across the street from the hospital.

Comparing the fed civilian work force to the gen workforce of the nation as a whole is apples and oranges.

[Cap'n Cat]

Number 4 should be to implement a plan to get federal employee salaries ($120k average) more inline with average private sector salaries ($60k).

There is so much seriously flawed logic with that arguement............

1) Sample size distorts the numbers, there are 1.8M civlian fed govt employees, roughly 154M non govt jobs
2) 85%(+-) of Fed jobs are professional/technical, 15%(+-) of non fed jobs are professional/technical
The govt is not paying people to flip burgers or deliver pizza. They do pay engineers, scientists, lawyers,
biologists, accountants, researchers, etc etc.

Federal Civil Servants are and always have been underpaid as compared to folks in the private sector with comparable jobs.

Your arguement is about as silly as saying the doctors at the hospital down the street should take a pay cut because they make more money on average than the 16 YO part timers at the McDonalds across the street from the hospital.

Comparing the fed civilian work force to the gen workforce of the nation as a whole is apples and oranges.

Agreed, Greggy. Good points. Conks tend to judge all government employees by the number of Red Staters holding the "Slow" sign at road construction sites.

[AZGrizFan]

NC unemployment is $410-$425 per week. Hence the reason I didn't push my wife to take a lower paying job. Take that benefit away & she's cleaning someone else's house or picking tomatos.....

Nailed it.


BTW, Cap'n Cat is expecting a job offer any minute!!!

Remember, if you get offered more than $60k you gotta turn that extra down....wealth redistrubution and all that jazz....

[Appaholic]

Number 4 should be to implement a plan to get federal employee salaries ($120k average) more inline with average private sector salaries ($60k).

There is so much seriously flawed logic with that arguement............

1) Sample size distorts the numbers, there are 1.8M civlian fed govt employees, roughly 154M non govt jobs
2) 85%(+-) of Fed jobs are professional/technical, 15%(+-) of non fed jobs are professional/technical
The govt is not paying people to flip burgers or deliver pizza. They do pay engineers, scientists, lawyers,
biologists, accountants, researchers, etc etc.

Federal Civil Servants are and always have been underpaid as compared to folks in the private sector with comparable jobs.

Your arguement is about as silly as saying the doctors at the hospital down the street should take a pay cut because they make more money on average than the 16 YO part timers at the McDonalds across the street from the hospital.

Comparing the fed civilian work force to the gen workforce of the nation as a whole is apples and oranges.

Good points....hadn't looked at quite that way, but makes a heluva lot more sense....but, you gotta admit the "optics" for that look bad & speaking from experience, the fed government does overpay for unskilled labor...at least frm the job postings I've seen in NC...

[CID1990]

Heck, I want to know where my $120K salary is!

[89Hen]

Federal Civil Servants are and always have been underpaid as compared to folks in the private sector with comparable jobs.

That's a pretty large, blanket statement. Upper management, absolutely. Your average worker bee, not so much. The bulk of your workers are in jobs where they CAN'T work over 40 hours and have job security rivaled only by tenured professors. Their pay is extremely comparable to private sector and add in the job security and grade increases and it's a pretty sweet deal for them.

There are also tons of people who were politicos who took low salaries to work for the Fed, but benefitted greatly when they left because they then took consulting gigs with private companies based on their govie work and some even double dipped with their fed pensions to boot.

You really can't lump in all the govies. Some work there because they want to give back. Some work there because it's all they could get. Some work there because of job security. Some work there because of the benefits. Mrs89 worked at HUD for 15 years and I saw people that fit in every one of these categories (she was reasons #3 and 4 ).

[Appaholic]

Federal Civil Servants are and always have been underpaid as compared to folks in the private sector with comparable jobs.

That's a pretty large, blanket statement. Upper management, absolutely. Your average worker bee, not so much. The bulk of your workers are in jobs where they CAN'T work over 40 hours and have job security rivaled only by tenured professors. Their pay is extremely comparable to private sector and add in the job security and grade increases and it's a pretty sweet deal for them.

Well put, '89. Nailed it!

[Cap'n Cat]

That's a pretty large, blanket statement. Upper management, absolutely. Your average worker bee, not so much. The bulk of your workers are in jobs where they CAN'T work over 40 hours and have job security rivaled only by tenured professors. Their pay is extremely comparable to private sector and add in the job security and grade increases and it's a pretty sweet deal for them.

Well put, '89. Nailed it!

Not so fast. I wanna see proof. Hen's got his own large, blanket statement here.

[89Hen]

Not so fast. I wanna see proof. Hen's got his own large, blanket statement here.

Which part?

[Cap'n Cat]

Not so fast. I wanna see proof. Hen's got his own large, blanket statement here.

Which part?

None. Just pokin'.