Republicans: If you're kids are starving it's because you aren't working hard enough.

The important thing is do everything possible for an unborn fetus. One he or she pops out, it's up to them.

"Just get a fucking job" should be the Republican Party slogan.

My mom collected unemployment for 2 years. She's in her late 50s and worked at a frame shop for years. Surprisingly, no frame shops want to hire someone who's that old to be on their feet all day framing things.

Also, it turns out it's hard to change careers in your late 50s.

sk's mom needz moar hustlin'

It's a shame that SK's mom didn't teach him the value of work.

Conservatives need to think that people out of work are lazy leeches. The alternative means they've been supporting horrible human beings (for political office) and that wouldn't be very christian of them.

why didn't she ask her parents for a loan to start a new business? THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX

I turned 60 last week, so I've got lots of friends 50+. One by one I've seen most of them lose not just their jobs, but their careers. Downsizing, reorganization, whatever, but not for poor performance. One day they had wonderful careers in retail, fundraising, law, etc., etc., the next they had nothing but mortgages, kids in college and lots of other bills. I saw one person who had spent 11 years as a senior executive with a major retailer dismissed with 3 months' severance.

I see them work like mad to find another position, reaching out to head hunters, friends and all their colleagues established over decades of work only to find one door after another closed to them. I see them willingly and graciously accept the reality that they're not going to find anything approaching the 6-figure careers they used to have, only to face the grim truth that, in our winner-takes-all economy, the step down from their former positions is not to a job paying, say, $75K or even $50K, but to a job paying $13/hr. and often part-time with no benefits.

I saw one person who had spent his career working his way up from a childhood in a small PA coal-mining town to senior positions in his industry, including COO at a small Internet firm. When he found himself without work in his 50's I saw him trying time and again to reinvent himself, first applying for positions in his former industry 2 or 3 or 4 steps below his former rank, then applying for jobs including limousine driver, personal assistant, salesperson at Sam's Club, substitute teacher, even part-time stock boy and drive for the local Sherwin Williams paint store. He finally got an offer: Salesperson at a local store for $13/hr., 20 hours per week with no benefits.

I've seen fathers and mothers who were some of the hardest-working, productive, kind, generous and decent people you'd ever want to know forced to sells their homes and "retire," hoping that somehow their savings, supplemented in another 10, 12 or 15 years by $2K a month in social security, will somehow get them through the remaining 20-30 years of their lives. I've seen those same people lose not only their careers, homes and life savings, but also their dignity, as their friends -- more often than not from the "just-get-a-job" crowd -- find it easiest to conclude that, after decades of hard work, paying taxes and contributing to society, these people have suddenly become too lazy to work.

I don't have many friends who are just beginning or early in their careers, so I can't speak first-hand as to their experiences. But I can say that for people 50+ who lose their jobs through no fault of their own, there's a better chance they'll be hit by lightning than they'll find another job which pays even half what they made before.

Discouraged workers have it really tough. I hope they find happiness in their families and friends and hope things work out for them.

comPACionate

TomatoPie wrote:

jerseyhoya wrote:

swishnicholson wrote:

SK790 wrote:the horror

You joke, but did you see this!:

The new law dramatically extended the duration of unemployment benefits, from a typical length of 26 weeks to as many as 39.

We may as well have put a hammer and sickle on the flag.

And then the stimulus came along and a few years later we heard all these sob stories about the 99ers. The people who had been on unemployment benefits for 99 weeks that weren't getting renewed. You've been collecting unemployment for 2 years. Get a job.

As with every argument here, everything has been said at least once previously. TP was told back in 2012 how reducing UI was bad for the economy. Now there's a pretty nice looking study that says otherwise.

Hey thanks for digging that up!

I watch the games, and folks on UI for 99 weeks don't hustle.

We need to develop effective contemporary methods for addressing structural changes in our economy(ies, if you look globally), and we need to do it pronto.

Pretending we're still living in the 1950s does not and will not help. Please, anyone who imagines oversimplified economic theories, and/or tired beliefs about hordes of "takers" ruining everything for you, will somehow provide useful answers- try to keep up.

Oregon gov John Kitzhaber is refusing to step down from his 57th term. The reason even his own party wants him to resign is that it's alleged that he was using his relationship with his fiancee to funnel contracts to her consulting. thE AG luanched a criminal investigation to check it out.

is that really 57, like the ketchup

I knew we had a problem with lifetime politicians, but I hadn't realized it was that bad.

The dude seems pretty guilty, though he hasn't been convicted of anything. He should probably resign. Even if he hasn't broken any laws, he's allowed some pretty bad stuff to happen right under his nose.

Tom Wolf is stopping the death penalty in PA!!!!!

Does it really matter? I mean, PA wasn't really carrying out executions. Like this guy, who's been sitting on death row for 30 years...

On September 24, 1982 George Emil Banks went to bed at Schoolhouse Lane in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania after taking a mixture of prescription drugs and straight gin. After he awoke on September 25, 1982, he picked up a Colt AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and began what would become a 13 person killing spree. He began his killing spree by killing his girlfriend, former girlfriends, their families and children he had fathered with them. The ages of his victims ranged from 12 months to 47 years old. The dead were seven children and six adults.

Banks murdered his family in his own home first. He then dressed in military fatigues and made his way outside. Across the street, 22 year old Jimmy Olsen and 24 year old Ray Hall, Jr were exiting a home when George Banks opened fire on them. Both men were struck. Mr. Olsen survived but Mr. Hall was killed. Banks drove off. He went to Heather Highlands mobile home park to the mobile home of his former girlfriend Sharon Mazzillo and their son Kissamayu. Banks forced his way in and shot Sharon. He then placed the gun to the sleeping child’s forehead and fired one shot killing the boy. Banks then killed Sharon’s mother and brother who were also in the home. Hiding in the closet was Sharon’s other brother whom Banks did not see. He was the only survivor and was able to identify Banks as the shooter.

what's your point? the state should not commit murder. i'm part of the state, as are you, and i don't feel it's right to be a part of such an action.

but that's not Wolf's point, either. At least publicly. His goal is to ensure that we're not executing unfairly and unjustly.

Couldn't understand all the cop and R backlash on this today. Then it hit me- they wanna fry the dude who killed the trooper and prompted the month-long manhunt, and this could stand in the way of that.

wolf's point is certainly valid, too. we've had hundreds of people freed from death row for being completely exonerated of the crime that put them there, too.