rePost::Billions to help Wall St, Nothing for those who can't help themselves. This system is fucked. ::Economist's View: "Millions Set to Lose Unemployment Benefits"

This is the Say’s law of jobs coupled with morality — the supply of workers somehow creates a demand for them, it’s the benefits that stop people from taking them — and it’s just as false here as it is more generally. There are not enough jobs, and ending unemployment benefits won’t change that. We can always find someone who abuses any system, that’s true in both the public and private sectors. But the vast majority of people still receiving help are struggling against a system they have no control over. They are trying to overcome problems they didn’t create, and they deserve more help from the rest of us than they are getting. As noted here in a discussion of a poll showing that those doing well have a much more optmistic view of the economy than those who are still having trouble:

Rich people have seen more improvements than the poor in the last few years, considering factors like the rise in the stock market (which primarily benefits wealthier Americans) and the surge in commodity prices (which disproportionately hurt the poor).

And perhaps this explains some of the callousness — I’m doing well why can’t you? But I think it’s more the idea that it’s the “lazy others” that are having troubles, and hence don’t deserve help (an echo of the deserving and underserving poor used in the past to determine who is worthy of help), a convenient belief if you are worried about being asked to help those who have not been so fortunate.
via Economist’s View: “Millions Set to Lose Unemployment Benefits”.