# People are unemployed because they want to be, 'sez Tom Delay **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 8, 2010, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730 "2010-03-08T15:46:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/21 "2010-03-08T19:23:15Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > I love how the deep abiding concerns for the rights of the criminal accused, so often the hallmark of liberal sensitivity, vanish in an instant when the accused is a prominent conservative. No-one said anything about his rights. I believe completely in the right to a fair and speedy trial, and i also have a complete commitment to the idea that someone is legally innocent until proven guilty. Furthermore, i also believe that, even if a person clearly did the crime, they should be found not guilty and released if the evidence against them was gathered illegally or if there are other irregularities on the part of law enforcement or the prosecution. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t crooks out there wandering the streets. Our legal system is imperfect, both in its design and in its implementation, and just because someone hasn’t been found guilty in a court of law doesn’t mean that we have any obligation, on a personal level, to concur with that outcome. I believe that OJ Simpson is a crook who killed his wife. I consider this a reasonable belief given the information that i have read about the case, despite the fact that Simpson was found Not Guilty by the jury. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/22 "2010-03-08T20:03:46Z")
> [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](#): > > I daresay that with this offering, and with the “I Bunning your dog” witticism that you recently gave us, you are vying with Mark Russell as America’s Most Beloved political humorist. You probably have about the same Q score as he does these days. > > Do you wear a bow tie? Mark Russell? Mark Fucking Bland-as-Tapioca Russell!!? _Aaaaaaarrrgh!_ What did I ever do to you? I am deeply suspicious of bow-tied persons, I think it reflects a desire to be seen as individualistic without being seen as weird, as mild an eccentricity as the dull are willing to risk. _Feh!_ Myself, I own exactly one tie, for weddings, funerals, and bail hearings. ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/23 "2010-03-08T20:11:45Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > So you know he did it. But he’s never been convicted, or even brought to trial. > > Well, then, hang the bastard! Let’s not let all this foolishness about rights interfere with our righteous indignation. > > JUDGE: How do you plead, Mr. Delay? > > DELAY: Not guilty, Your Honor. > > JUDGE: Hmph. Sure, a likely story. Bailiff, you may fire when ready. > > I love how the deep abiding concerns for the rights of the criminal accused, so often the hallmark of liberal sensitivity, vanish in an instant when the accused is a prominent conservative. Don’t be stupid, **Bricker**. No-one was talking about Delay’s legal rights, _and you bloody well know this_. Saying that one is certain of somebody’s guilt is a far cry from saying courts should punish them regardless of the outcome of a trial. And the old liberal-bashing, conservative-whining, and misjudged accusation of hypocrisy? Fuck me, I really thought you’d grown out of this. I actually had to check the post date just now to see if this was a zombie thread and I was looking at a Bricker blast-from-the-past. ---
**Author:** ![Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8edcca/32.png) [@Hentor\_the\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hentor_the_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/24 "2010-03-08T20:16:16Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Mark Russell? Mark Fucking Bland-as-Tapioca Russell!!? _Aaaaaaarrrgh!_ What did I ever do to you? Well, you are from Minnesota, aren’t you? But I meant no offense. It’s just that I could see you standing at a piano singing out clever politically oriented ditties. But if you prefer something edgier, then I’ll revise my comments: **elucidator** , I think you may be vying for a spot in America’s Most Beloved Political Comedy Troupe, _The Capitol Steps_! Is that better? ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/25 "2010-03-08T20:28:45Z")
He is right. Some people capitalize on unemployment and “want” to stay unemployed. But the far right is so revolted by the idea of a person taking advantage of government assistance, they would be equally against it if it really only was one person talking advantage. Because he shouldn’t get away with it dammit! ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/26 "2010-03-08T20:32:27Z")
OP here. Anyone who wants to debate Delay’s criminality or lack thereof please go get your own thread. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/27 "2010-03-08T20:36:47Z")
I see the rule against misleading thread titles has been turned off again. Oh hell, who am I kidding - there never was any such rule. One lies, and the rest of you whores swear to it. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/28 "2010-03-08T20:37:16Z")
Just for the record, Tom Delay is still under indictment. It’s not like he’s been acquitted or anything. He just hasn’t been tried yet. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/29 "2010-03-08T20:38:03Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > So you know he did it. But he’s never been convicted, or even brought to trial. > > Well, then, hang the bastard! Let’s not let all this foolishness about rights interfere with our righteous indignation. > > JUDGE: How do you plead, Mr. Delay? > > DELAY: Not guilty, Your Honor. > > JUDGE: Hmph. Sure, a likely story. Bailiff, you may fire when ready. > > I love how the deep abiding concerns for the rights of the criminal accused, so often the hallmark of liberal sensitivity, vanish in an instant when the accused is a prominent conservative. Did I call for him to hang? No. Did I say we should hold a kangaroo court? No. Did I say **I** think he’s a crook? YES. OK, I call him a crook. That does NOT abridge any of his rights. Not one. On the other hand, I am NOT required to take him seriously as any sort of wise man or great teacher of truths. In short, get over it already. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/30 "2010-03-08T20:41:03Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I see the rule against misleading thread titles has been turned off again. Eh? The thread title was almost a direct quote from Delay’s interview. The OP just quoted the bit from the interview and added “nice”. I can hardly see how that’s misleading. Unless your pissed off at the sarcasm implicit in the word “nice” when the OP did not actually think it was very nice. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/31 "2010-03-08T20:48:16Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Eh? The thread title was almost a direct quote from Delay’s interview. The OP just quoted the bit from the interview and added “nice”. I can hardly see how that’s misleading. Unless your pissed off at the sarcasm implicit in the word “nice” when the OP did not actually think it was very nice. While I don’t agree with \*\*Shodan \*\*on this, Delay didn’t say what the title says he did. I think if you read that exchange fairly, his comment about “well, its the truth…” referred to what he has said earlier-- that people stay unemployed longer, by choice, if they get benefits for a longer time. He made the mistake of accepting the interviewer’s question as though it was an accurate summation of what he had just said, which it wasn’t. Anyway, Delay left enough ambiguity in there that he set himself up for being perceived as having said that. He should know better. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/32 "2010-03-08T20:56:09Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > I see the rule against misleading thread titles has been turned off again. > > Oh hell, who am I kidding - there never was any such rule. > > One lies, and the rest of you whores swear to it. > > Regards, > Shodan Misleading how? Maybe if you have poor reading comprehension - I quoted directly from the interview. I didn’t quote the whole thing, because I assume people are capable of reading for themselves. It seems fairly clear that Delay thinks that being unemployed is the fault of the person. Do some people abuse unemployment? I am sure they do. I would bet that this is a small minority though. ---
**Author:** ![Spavined\_Gelding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/958977/32.png) [@Spavined\_Gelding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spavined_Gelding)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/33 "2010-03-08T21:02:21Z")
When some Republican politician says something incredibly stupid or waives the “I’m all right Jack, screw you” banner too vigorously and is called on it on these boards we can be pretty sure that the Usual Suspects will emerge to proclaim that (1) the burden of proof rules in criminal trials are being wilfully ignored and therefore the particular politician must be regarded as innocent of all misfeasance until a verdict is actually entered and the appeal process completed, and (2) that the whole thing is a lie. We have not been disappointed. For what its worth here is the Huffington Post’s rendition of the former Majority leaders comments: “You know,” Delay said, "there is an argument to be made that these extensions, the unemployment benefits keeps people from going and finding jobs. In fact there are some studies that have been done that show people stay on unemployment compensation and they don’t look for a job until two or three weeks before they know the benefits are going to run out. Host Candy Crowley: Congressman, that’s a hard sell, isn’t it? Delay: it’s the truth. Crowley: People are unemployed because they want to be? Delay: well, it is the truth. and people in the real world know it. And they have friends and they know it. Sure, we ought to be helping people that are unemployed find a job, but we also have budget considerations that are incredibly important, especially now that Obama is spending monies that we don’t have. It is hard for me (the universal reasonable man) not to read that as the late Representative DeLay saying anything other than that unemployed people are lazy mooches. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/34 "2010-03-08T21:24:58Z")
> [@DianaG](#): > > :eek: I’ll spend the rest of the day being horrified by that. Horrified because you think it’s high or low? > [@Simplicio](#): > > Unemployment can provide disincentives to work in some cases, but usually when unemployment is ~10%, people are unsure enough about their ability to find their next job that they will start looking immediately rather then live off unemployment. Or sometimes they give up thinking they can’t find anything. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/35 "2010-03-08T21:33:04Z")
When I last got unemployment, I did take a part-time retail job. It didn’t even pay as much as unemployment–unemployment coughed up the difference! So that was interesting. I could not work at all and get $400 a week (or so–maybe a little less, I don’t remember). Or I could work the retail job, make $135, and collect…whatever the difference was. That’s really not an incentive to do the work. (Except that I find the occasional retail gig kind of fun.) But it does help, so as a job-seeker you don’t have to settle for just anything. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/36 "2010-03-08T21:34:29Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > Horrified because you think it’s high or low? Crazy low. Hilarity, when I was on unemployment, they kicked in the difference when you worked, _as long as you didn’t put in 40 hours_. If you put in 40 hours, you were “employed full time”, and then it didn’t matter how much less it was than unemployment. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/37 "2010-03-08T21:42:48Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > So you know he did it. But he’s never been convicted, or even brought to trial. > > Well, then, hang the bastard! Let’s not let all this foolishness about rights interfere with our righteous indignation. > > JUDGE: How do you plead, Mr. Delay? > > DELAY: Not guilty, Your Honor. > > JUDGE: Hmph. Sure, a likely story. Bailiff, you may fire when ready. > > I love how the deep abiding concerns for the rights of the criminal accused, so often the hallmark of liberal sensitivity, vanish in an instant when the accused is a prominent conservative. A court of law must presume the innocence of the accused, but the court of public opinion, which this is, has no such obligation, as you know, you intellectually dishonest fuckhead. ---
**Author:** ![mozchron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c2a13f/32.png) [@mozchron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mozchron)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/38 "2010-03-08T21:52:31Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > A court of law must presume the innocence of the accused, but the court of public opinion, which this is, has no such obligation, as you know, you intellectually dishonest fuckhead. Again, PLEASE get your own thread to debate this. ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/39 "2010-03-08T22:00:29Z")
Yeah, STFU! We are bitching about those good-for-nothing, parasitical, unemployed motherfuckers here! Take yo criminal-assed shit to another thread. ---
**Author:** ![Imasquare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Imasquare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imasquare)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/40 "2010-03-08T22:52:58Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > Barring some physical disability, if someone wants to make money, there is money to be made. If you’re laid off from your $50k/year job, you’re not going to make that same amount of money by doing lawn maintenance (at least not right away), but there’s still money to be made if you want to make it. What about a psychological disability? Social Phobia for example can make it very difficult to approach potential employers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730.md?page=3)