# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/61 "2010-03-09T17:01:51Z")
In debates on executive pay, and taxation, some on the right say that giant bonuses for CEOs are good things because they can’t be expected to work hard for a measly $5 million or so. Ditto for taxes - raising tax rates to back to what they were during the Clinton boom. These same people are now saying that more money from getting a real jobs doesn’t give any incentive to get off unemployment. ---
**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 9, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/62 "2010-03-09T17:05:36Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > In debates on executive pay, and taxation, some on the right say that giant bonuses for CEOs are good things because they can’t be expected to work hard for a measly $5 million or so. Ditto for taxes - raising tax rates to back to what they were during the Clinton boom. These same people are now saying that more money from getting a real jobs doesn’t give any incentive to get off unemployment. That’s a nice caricature, but who, exactly, is saying that? ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/63 "2010-03-09T17:06:13Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > In debates on executive pay, and taxation, some on the right say that giant bonuses for CEOs are good things because they can’t be expected to work hard for a measly $5 million or so. Ditto for taxes - raising tax rates to back to what they were during the Clinton boom. These same people are now saying that more money from getting a real jobs doesn’t give any incentive to get off unemployment. Cite of prominent (or at least known) right leaning person making all of these claims? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/64 "2010-03-09T17:38:45Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > Cite of prominent (or at least known) right leaning person making all of these claims? I said debate, which means GD. Even prominent Republicans are not so stupid as to kiss the asses of Wall Street execs in this way. ---
**Author:** ![Baron\_Greenback](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baron_greenback/32/48_2.png) [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/65 "2010-03-09T17:52:15Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Yeah right. I get £64 a week (approx US$100) in unemployment benefit. I’ve a mortgage and bills to pay. You bet I’m looking for work. Unfortunately there are still 500 people going for every job. That was my reaction too - I always had the impression that the US was relatively ungenerous with that sort of thing. I’m guessing that maybe those are total payments available, whereas here there’s additional assistance available with mortgage interest, free healthcare etc. ---
**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 9, 2010, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/66 "2010-03-09T18:01:03Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I said debate, which means GD. Even prominent Republicans are not so stupid as to kiss the asses of Wall Street execs in this way. So, can you cite those posters here who are saying all those things? ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/67 "2010-03-09T18:16:57Z")
> [@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. Mr. DeLay has a right to not have people express the opinion that he’s a crook? I can’t seem to find that one in my copy of the Constitution, but then my Penumbral Emanation Spectacles are at the shop being converted to bifocals… ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/68 "2010-03-09T18:59:56Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > In general, i agree, although your new employer isn’t likely to look very kindly on it when you say, “Hey boss, i can’t be at work on time today because i need to interview for a better job.” The fact is that proper job-hunting is a time-consuming task, and not all of it involves time-flexible activities like updating your resume on Monster or sending out CVs. > > Also, as i noted earlier, the very idea that sub-optimal jobs are just sitting there for the taking might be tenable in a late-1990s economy, but it’s simply not the case right now in many parts of the country. Given the current market, I suspect many employers would not want to hire someone absurdly over-qualified, knowing full well that he or she will quit as soon as the economy improves. For the sake of economic efficiency, it makes sense to have a system which best matches jobs and skills - which a system encouraging PhDs to sling burgers does not. In addition, if over-skilled person A takes the job of appropriately skilled person B, that person takes the job of less skilled person C, and so on down the line until we get the the poor guy on the bottom, who is going to get less unemployment and will no doubt be out of work longer. Ignoring the unfairness, unemployment pay also serves as a stimulus. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/69 "2010-03-09T19:14:11Z")
> [@Algher](#): > > Cite of prominent (or at least known) right leaning person making all of these claims? How about [this one](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayn_rand)? ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/70 "2010-03-09T19:20:45Z")
My friends roommate is unemployed because he wants to be. All the jobs he’s interviewed for in the last couple of months were offering less than unemployment was giving him so he elected to stay home and play World of Warcraft all day. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/71 "2010-03-09T19:24:31Z")
Call me crazy, but I don’t think that wanting to make more money than unemployment offers is unreasonable, given that unemployment generally only pays, at most, half of whatever your salary was. I turned down jobs that paid less than unemployment. I was struggling to pay my bills on unemployment, I certainly couldn’t afford to pay them on less than that, so I decided my time was better spent looking for a job that would actually, you know, pay my bills, which is, after all, kind of the point of having a job. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/72 "2010-03-09T19:30:39Z")
New York’s maximum weekly benefit amount is $405, says **mrsmith**. that’s $21 grand a year. Can your friend live on 21 fucking grand, **Tahssa**? ---
**Author:** ![constanze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/73 "2010-03-09T19:58:51Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > 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. Which, of course, is not the fault of the unemployment benefit being too high, but rather that politicans (usually the libertarians and some of the consies) block laws for minimum wage, so that the companies can pay fuck-you low wages and let the taxpayer make up the difference so that the hard-working employees don’t starve. ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/74 "2010-03-09T20:12:57Z")
> [@Rumor\_Watkins](#): > > look two posts up. And, as someone that hires people, I don’t like it when someone takes a job in a temporary fashion until they can get the career job they are looking for. It makes me wonder if they are doing that here for the job that I am hiring for, and how much that is going to cost me. Thats a big consideration. ---
**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 9, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/75 "2010-03-09T20:17:41Z")
> [@Translucent\_Daydream](#): > > And, as someone that hires people, I don’t like it when someone takes a job in a temporary fashion until they can get the career job they are looking for. I know! Fuck them for trying to pay the rent and put food on the table. Assholes. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/76 "2010-03-09T20:21:08Z")
Man, do I know it! I was just finishing my work for a Master’s in Typewriter Repair, and I remember reading an article and saying “Harumph! ‘Word processors’, eh? Passing fad, will never catch on…” ---
**Author:** ![Translucent\_Daydream](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/translucent_daydream/32/16170_2.png) [@Translucent\_Daydream](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Translucent_Daydream)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/77 "2010-03-09T20:29:56Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I know! > > Fuck them for trying to pay the rent and put food on the table. Assholes. Well considering it takes several thousand dollars to hire someone when we have zero budget money because we get paid in tax revenue and state allocations, yeah, its a big deal. We just hired someone that bounced six weeks later, and I can’t hire anyone to replace her until September when our budget is allocated again for the next year. Since I am also losing someone to maternity leave in a week when they induce her, everyone is going to be doing twice the work in a production based environment for which they will not be compensated anything extra. If we can’t cover everything and stay current with the record workload with two bodies missing, we all get laid off and the office gets outsourced to a consulting agency. Yeah, I have to consider the people that are already working here and keeping their employment going versus the immediate needs of someone that we are hiring. I know, complete asshole maneuver. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/78 "2010-03-09T20:53:09Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > So, can you cite those posters here who are saying all those things? Do you mean you think the intersection of those claiming that tax breaks for the rich are required as incentives and those against unemployment payments (and against the minimum wage) is null? Neither of these positions is way out there these days. I’m not claiming anyone said this in one post - I’ll have to do some heavy searching for examples. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/79 "2010-03-09T21:02:12Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > I know! > > Fuck them for trying to pay the rent and put food on the table. Assholes. _sigh_ Not only does \*\* Translucent Daydream\*\*'s department have to pay full wages for someone who is on the learning curve during the entire term of employment, and thus not efficient, the efficiency of others suffers also since they need to train this person and no doubt correct errors. He gave an excellent example of the inefficiency I mentioned before. It makes a lot more sense for the former employer and the government to pay, and not screw an uninvolved company. ---
**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 9, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730/80 "2010-03-09T21:34:59Z")
> [@Translucent\_Daydream](#): > > And, as someone that hires people, I don’t like it when someone takes a job in a temporary fashion until they can get the career job they are looking for. It makes me wonder if they are doing that here for the job that I am hiring for, and how much that is going to cost me. > > Thats a big consideration. I don’t know what kind of world you guys live in, but here in Silicon Valley, it’s SOP to always be looking for a better job somewhere else. The fact is, there is no reason why most unemployed people can’t take a less optimal job while waiting for the optimal one to come along. You can always come up with any number of excuses not to, but I simply don’t accept the assertion that extending unemployment benefits is necessarily a requirement to finding an optimal job when a sub-optimal one is available. That was the assertion made. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/people-are-unemployed-because-they-want-to-be-sez-tom-delay/531730.md?page=5)