Monday, June 28, 2010
You're worried about the wrong thing
I have to admit I'm getting extremely tired of hearing that we need to worry about disincentives to seeking work due to unemployment benefits. In a normal situation, when most unemployment is frictional, perhaps we do; but not now. Repeat after me: Right now there are on average more than five people seeking work per one job opening. It cannot be any clearer that the unemployment we have now is not caused by people not being willing to take jobs that are available. Rather, it is caused by, you know, there being less jobs than people who want them.
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You are correct but how else would politicians be able to posture about spending with impending elections. You see we need to make an example of deficit spending at the expense of the working class. After all where else could we cut spending, oh wait we are funding two wars right now? Is military spending at the top of the list for expenditures? Hmmm. So maybe just maybe we could cut military spending by getting the heck out of Iraq or Afghanistan. Or maybe we could ask our Allies to kick in some funds for the Military services we provide on their behalf as well. However we must remind ourselves that many congressmen get kick backs from all of the military contracts that go to their friends, in addition to the contracts their states receive in order to produce items for these very expensive wars. So yeah why would they cut military spending when we can just blame the unemployed for being too lazy to work. Remember spending must be cut especially with upcoming elections! Who wants cake?
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think about the possibility, though, that folks won't work even part-time because each day counts against unemployment? Or, perhaps, that lower-paying jobs won't be sought as avidly as higher paying, or at all?
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