Lengthening the coverage period for unemployment insurance from 26 to 39 weeks is common sense--but will it get bogged down in partisan politics?
Comment: My 'benefits' are about to run out, & despite all the resumes sent, phone calls made, & searching, I've only managed to snag ONE interview. My father put it very well, "We're not in a recession, IF you have a job".
Comment: When my husband was laid off it was a month before we saw an unemployment check. He wasn't eligible the first week since he had 4 days of vacation paid out, the next week was his "probationary period". Finally he was elegible on week 3 but we didn't see the check until the end of week 4. We have been through all of this but I can only imagine the problems this causes for people living pay check to pay check. Maybe it needs to be extended for now but we really need to fix how long it takes to get a check.
Comment: I know that people living pay check to pay check may find a 3 week wait difficult (not counting the first week b/c income was there), but really 3 weeks for a check is not that bad. When you start a job that's on a 2 week pay cycle, you wait 4 weeks before you receive your first pay check. Considering how slow the government runs, 3 weeks isn't all that bad. It must be frustrating for families that are on a tight budget, though.
I think that's the problem--too many people are living too close to the edge. Get a secondary source of income, spend more frugally, and try to save for at least 3 months of living expenses. That way, the 3 week wait would be a minor annoyance instead of a financial catastrophe. I'm only 25 and have $3k saved in case I get laid off. I have $100 automatically transferred each month from checking to savings. I haven't missed it at all (I don't make all that much, either) and now I have a little bit of breathing room after 2.5 years of saving. People shouldn't buy houses they can't afford, have more kids than they can afford, buy cars and toys they can't afford, take vacations they can't afford, etc etc. I know there are some circumstances where they truly can't make ends meet, but the majority is people spending frivilously. You ALWAYS need to think ahead. You can't guarantee you will always have a job and must put aside savings.
Comment: It may be a problem in europe, but when I see my brother who has worked since the age of 14 over 10 hours a day, 6 days a week, and just lost his home and a 55 year old business that our father created, to the bank because of a predatory loan the bank made him 20 years ago, I don't think 2 years of benefits which is only 850.00 euros per month is a luxury.
My brother is now 58 years old and his body is worned out without talking about the bank he faught for the past 10 years! His wife who has worked along with him for even longer hours doesn't get any benefits. 0 euros. Why? because wives of agriculturists or horticulturists do not get any benefits, their work is not reconized by the french government. How do you think that makes them feel?? I have never met such hard working people and after a life of labor they end up with nothing! They are in their late 50's and worned out, physically and mentally. So do not think that everybody in France is lazy and get a free ride, because many people do not!
Comment: Two things to consider. One is a lot of the unemployed are older which means a more difficult time and a longer time to find any job. The second is retraining; making sure that the skill that they have are salable in todays market..
Comment: What about getting a complete program that would retrain for todays job situation. Too many have to take a "survival job" and that hurts too as many are temp jobs that are too l;ow paying and without affordable health benefits.
Comment: When it was decided to send rebate checks to all tax payers, why weren't unemployment benefits extended to the neediest of all...the unemployed who are no longer eligible? .another terrible Bush blunder!
Comment: When it was decided to send rebate checks to all tax payers, why weren't unemployment benefits extended to the neediest of all...the unemployed who are no longer eligible? .another terrible Bush blunder!
Comment: There are many people unemployed that aren't being counted since their benefits ran out weeks or even months ago. Unemployment benefits should hve been extended at the same time it was decided that taxpayers would receive that
wonderful rebate that will go to the cost of their fuel oil bills or food bills....Who needs it more than the ones that have been
unemployed and aren't receiving any help.
Comment: Global Research Report Tell How Oil, Gas, and Food Prices are being manipulated
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=8878
by F. William Engdahl
Global Research, May 2, 2008
Nymex in New York and the ICE Futures in London today control global benchmark oil prices. A third the Dubai Mercantile Exchange (DME), control of oil prices has left OPEC and gone to Wall Street.. Tremendous
growth in the trading of contracts that look and are structured just like
futures contracts, but which are traded on unregulated OTC electronic markets. The look-alikes are traded in unregulated markets whereas futures are traded on regulated exchanges. Exchanges was exempted from CFTC oversight by a provision inserted at the behest of Enron and other large energy traders into the
Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 in the waning hours of the 106th Congress. There is no limit on the number of contracts a speculator may hold on an unregulated OTC electronic exchange, In January 2006, the Bush Administration???s CFTC permitted the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), to use its
trading terminals in the United States for the trading of US crude oil futures on the ICE futures exchange in London. The large purchases of crude oil futures contracts by speculators have, in effect, created an
additional demand for oil, driving up the price of oil for future delivery in the same manner that additional demand for contracts for the delivery of a physical barrel today drives up the price for oil on the spot market. As far as the market is concerned, the demand for a barrel of oil that results from the purchase of a futures contract by a speculator is just as real as the demand for a barrel that results from the purchase of a futures contract by a refiner or other user of petroleum.
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STRATEGIES Harmonix, creator of Rock Band and Guitar Hero, is changing videogames.
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CAMPAIGN 2008 John McCain's choice to manage the GOP convention this summer is lobbyist Doug Goodyear, whose firm once represented Burma's repressive regime.
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