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Fraud is fraud, irrespective of the scale or who commits it. I am/was opposed to the bailouts right from the beginning and think that this was the greatest swindle in history, but that still does not absolve the crime by these guys. I would be curious as to the percentage of people involved in this kind of gaming, if it is, lets say 2-3%, I would be more forgiving since the majority of the benefit is going to families in need.
However, this is another exercise in kicking the can down the road. With the elections coming up, who can fault the thinking?
There is another aspect of this worthy of discussion. Are these guys working side jobs 100%, or even 60% of the time? If so one can't argue that they are acting fraudulently. But if rather they are working these side jobs 10% or 20% of the time that may be a different matter. I suspect that there is not enough side/cash jobs to sustain them, so going off of unemployment would be a tough decision.
I think you might have read more into the post that I intended. I don't believe that an all-pervasive labor union is the answer to our issues, as shown by the examples given by you, unions can be destructive as well.
However, on the other hand, without unions, you would not have things like a safe work environment, compensated over time etc. Hence, as in with most things in life, there has to be some kind of balance.
In fact, constrained by my limited intellect, I am not quite sure as to what the optimal solution might be. However, one thing is for sure, that the current looting by the top 1% is not sustainable. For example, Goldman brushed aside its shareholders' opinion that executive pay should be constrained (It was paying out 47% of its profits as bonuses, I think).
You're absolutely right that there must be balance. A healthy, productive and stable society must be equitable and offer real opportunity to everyone who is willing to expend the effort to both learn and work. At the present level of ethics and morals in American society many employers would let their employees wear rags and eat "Old Roy" if there were no Labor movement of any kind.
And for the record, I've never thought of your intellect as "limited". Of course, only mine is unlimited - just ask my wife! She says I'm "full of it". :eek:
Hmm..a turning point after a 10 year, billion dollar a day war, torture of pows, invasion of cellphone and email privacy, and a trillion dollar bank bailout. My guess is the great American sheeple take it willingly up the ass yet again for Uncle Sam. We have become too ignorant, selfish and cowardly to even realize what to fight for.
Hmmm... food on the table, roof over my head? Cellphone invasion? bank bailout?
Of course there is a difference, philosophical opinion and a pot to piss in.
Most of the guys I know of doing this would rather have a full time legit job. They are just doing it to get by, not that I condone it.
It is annoying when I have to compete against some guy who will work for half my rate because he is receiving a check every week, and doesn't pay taxes on what he does make. Of course that is nothing new.
And voting yourself another's pocketbook is a high ideal?
Are seriously committed to the idea that the making of unemployment benefits permanent by extending them every time they get close to expiring is beneficial to society or to the permanent underclass created by such policies.
You realize that someone somewhere has to pay for your "rights". Whether through taxes or the expansion of the money supply your entitlements are payed for by the savings of others. Entitlement policies themselves breed dependency. This is the way politicians build barns for so many human cattle. These notions, insidious and subtle, reek of slavery.
Jim Rogers latest video hits the nail on the head regarding moral hazard, watch at the 3:00 mark
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