Response to “There are no free lunches”
By Stephanie Snay | Distribution Manager
Upon reading Samantha Cotten’s Opinion article “There are no free lunches,” I immediately disagreed with everything said.
I recently watched my uncle’s job get outsourced. I watched him go through the process of trying to find a new job. Luckily, he found one in good time, but what if he hadn’t?
The national unemployment rate hit 9.7 percent in August, which is a 26-year high. According to a job market outlook posted on CNNmoney.com, there are six potential workers for each job opening, which has jumped rapidly since the 1.7 there were in December of 2007.
With our job market changing, and more and more American people unemployed, things have to be changed. We cannot pull the unemployment benefits out from under the average American who is raising a family and has lost his job through no fault of his own, a qualifying factor for unemployment benefits.
In this country, we make a social contract. People go to work and pay into an unemployment fund knowing that when they need it the money will be there. Some of the currently unemployed paid into this system most of their lives and an estimated 1.4 million people are facing the fact that their benefits will expire by the end of the year.
I do agree that it is honorable and noble to provide for one’s family, but the jobs are simply not there. To say that it is time “Americans step up to the plate and take the job that gets them by, even if it means suggesting fries with a customer’s meal,” is not only offensive, but faulty. Unemployment benefits are based on the wages you received in your previous job, and I know that my family could not be raised on a McDonald’s wage. Even if a parent were to get minimum wage jobs, he would have to get more than one to survive with today’s cost of living. And where does that leave time to raise the family? Should that parent just spend the money made working odd-hour shifts to put his children in expensive day care, rather than spending time with his family?
Also, there is that thing called overqualification. Employers know that when someone is overqualified for a job, he is more than likely only taking the job until something better comes along. Training an individual is expensive. So employers may reject overqualified applicants, because those applicants are not likely to be loyal to the company. Finding a job is not so simple, and many factors weigh into this.
The money given out in unemployment benefits will go back into our economy. The people who need these benefits are spending their money, rather than holding onto it. According to Chad Stone, chief economist for the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, extending unemployment benefits is crucial and will boost our economy.
What happens when the unemployment benefits run out? Families that have yet to find employment will then seek welfare. And while unemployment benefits are capped, welfare and food stamps are not.
Like anything else, there are some who would and do abuse the system, but do we throw it out in response? Do we take it away at a time like this? The average working American does not want to sit at home and receive benefits and will not take advantage of these benefits. These people are use to working and have lost a job through no fault of their own. They are not lazy. The fact of the matter is that the unemployment rate is too high. Being in Indiana, we are in one of the states that have an unemployment rate higher than 8.5 percent and would be qualified for the extension of unemployment benefits. Many of our families have been affected by the changing economy. Help is needed in a time like this.
So in response, no, there are no free lunches. Because to these people it is not a free lunch. It’s something they have paid into for quite some time.
