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Pritzker says he won’t “pull the rug out from under people” who have legit reasons for remaining on unemployment

Tuesday, May 18, 2021 - Posted by Rich Miller

* Last week, we discussed Republican gubernatorial candidate Gary Rabine’s position that the state ought to opt out of a federal unemployment program

Gary Rabine, a candidate for Governor, is calling for Illinois to join the list of a growing number of states opting out of the federal unemployment benefits.

“Small businesses have suffered long enough and now with their inability to find workers to fill their openings, they will suffer longer,” Rabine said. “It is very important that we stop the unemployment stimulus now and get our kids back to school in Illinois.”

* Sun-Times

Right now, Illinoisans collecting unemployment insurance receive an extra $300 a week from the federal government, intended to help them through the pandemic. Individual governors can opt their states out of that benefit. So far, 18 Republican governors have announced they will not allow their citizens to receive additional money in their unemployment checks. […]

Rival GOP gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey joined Rabine in calling for Illinois to opt out of the unemployment benefits.

“The government over-incentivizes healthy people to stay home which closes businesses and destroys local economies,” the state senator and farmer from downstate Xenia said. “For the last year, I have been standing up for hardworking Illinoisans and advocating to reopen our state and get people back to work.”

An aside

Bailey, his wife and the family farm have received more than $2.3 million in federal agricultural subsidies, according to data compiled by the Environmental Working Group.

* Gov. Pritzker was asked about this topic yesterday

There are a number of reasons that people are collecting unemployment at the moment and why it’s important for them to continue to collect that unemployment. Some people, it isn’t just, I know there’s some talk among Republicans that somehow the people who are collecting it are lazy or they don’t want to work because, gee, they’re getting an extra $300.

The reality is there are many people who have children at home that they still need to take care of because of the circumstances of the pandemic, took them into their circumstances as well where people are afraid to go back to work and they’re staying out of the workforce, or at least staying away from taking a new job.

And these are people who have, those are legitimate reasons that people might remain on unemployment. It’s a temporary time period in which receiving those benefits. But we are slowly but surely, our economy is improving, we are seeing people getting hired. We had roughly about 93,000 people who were hired in the first quarter of the year. So we’ve made a lot of progress, and I don’t want to pull the rug out from under people that have certainly legitimate reasons for remaining on unemployment.

* Back to the Sun-Times

But Rabine said that only “a paltry 266,000 jobs” were added nationally in April, which he says “suggests the federal unemployment benefits are keeping workers out of the workplace.”

…Adding… Politifact

“The No. 1 reason now that people aren’t going back to work is fear, or if they can’t find childcare, or schools are still closed,” [Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo] said May 9.

Raimondo’s office pointed to an experimental government survey that asks people why they aren’t working. It’s called the Household Pulse Survey and it’s larger in scope than the readings that the Labor Department uses to gauge the unemployment rate.

In the last half of April, an estimated 6.7 million said they were caring for children not in school or day care. Another 4.2 million said they were “concerned about getting or spreading the coronavirus.” Those numbers don’t map readily to the standard job reports, but they do give a sense of the scale of these factors.

Raimondo said the pandemic was particularly hard on women. At the trough of the pandemic downturn, the unemployment rate for women was 16.1%, nearly three points higher than men. The virus cratered the hospitality industry, a sector where many women work, and it upended day care and schooling, making it harder for them to return to work.

Stefania Albanesi, professor of economics at the University of Pittsburgh, said work schedules in hotels and restaurants can be “unpredictable and non-conventional, so childcare challenges may be particularly severe for mothers when considering those openings.”

Government numbers show that having kids makes a difference in labor force participation, and it matters more for women than men. Labor force participation is still down for both men and women compared with January 2020, but women are coming back into the workforce more slowly. Women with young kids under age 6 got back into the workforce at half the pace of men over that period; among women with school-age children, it’s one-third.

       

61 Comments
  1. - PublicServant - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 5:23 am:

    Can’t anyone plainly see that struggling businesses paying sub-par wages are having trouble incentivizing people to accept positions allowing them to get back to generating profits…for themselves? This unemployment really makes the job of coercion much more difficult for wage exploiters nowadays.


  2. - Rabid - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 5:58 am:

    Gary smoothing the road to victory


  3. - Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 7:17 am:

    “received 2.3 million in federal subsidies”

    Get off my land, you gubmint S.O.B…..

    and where’s my subsidy check.


  4. - JS Mill - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 8:07 am:

    =”The government over-incentivizes healthy people…”

    “received 2.3 million in federal subsidies”

    Get off my land, you gubmint S.O.B…..

    and where’s my subsidy check.=

    Irony is dead.

    Bailey’s hypocrisy and the willingness of his supporters to accept it makes me want to barf.


  5. - Frank talks - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 8:21 am:

    Demonizing the poor, well done Rabine.

    Maybe if companies or businesses valued labor the way they value equipment or other assets they could get their labor back in the door.


  6. - Friendly Bob Adams - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 8:25 am:

    It’s a mystery why anyone would want to work for an employer like Rabine, who thinks he’s doing his employees a favor by hiring them.


  7. - Give Me A Break - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 8:29 am:

    Bailey believes in smaller government and doing more with less, that is smaller government for you and you doing more with less.


  8. - Pundent - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 8:39 am:

    =suggests the federal unemployment benefits are keeping workers out of the workplace=

    So we end the federal unemployment program based on Rabine’s hunch? He’s already told us that he’s not smart enough to know if there was fraud in the last Presidential election. I generally ignore advice given by people who freely tell me that they aren’t smart.


  9. - The Doc - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 8:47 am:

    Even if one accepts the premise that an extra $300/week is the proximate cause for companies’ inability to find workers, it reveals much more about the company than it does labor.

    Darren Bailey is a hamster wheel of LOLz, and I for one want more.


  10. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 8:59 am:

    === GET BACK TO WORK===

    LOL

    The most “get off my lawn” take while wanting other to do something *you* demand them to do.

    The all caps will really “show em”


  11. - 1st Ward - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 9:00 am:

    We need more than one month of data to jump to this kind of conclusion. I saw some survey data showing child care was a bigger reason. I would assume there’s probably also still general concern about Covid for some people on UI. If we get the same kind of data for May and June and Covid continues to abate I will start to buy the theory.


  12. - Cheryl44 - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 9:01 am:

    Fine, Sue. You go work a 35 hour a week at $7.25 an hour with no benefits. Let’s see how long you last.


  13. - AttisLady - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 9:04 am:

    Child care may be a larger issue than some people think. My daughter and son-in-law struggled to find daycare. They both have full-time jobs, but her days vary. They checked daycares in both McLean and Logan counties - most do not take kids part-time. If they do take them part-time, they want a set schedule. Good luck if you’re working in an industry where you get your hours a week or two in advance.


  14. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 9:05 am:

    ===“Small businesses have suffered long enough and now with their inability to find workers to fill their openings, they will suffer longer,” Rabine said. “It is very important that we stop the unemployment stimulus now and get our kids back to school in Illinois.”===

    These are the same folks, at times, whine and complain, “today”, that the minimum wage will “ruin them”, but expect folks who need to find child care, who may suffer from a chance of higher infection… but “demand” folks work for… the minimum wage AND can’t afford child care, AND be at a higher risk for Covid.

    Since Bruce Rauner…. I’ve learned so much about people I thought I “knew”… but have no sympathy, empathy, ignore science, choose money over lives… and see the “poor” as choosing to be “poor”… with no systematic and institutional barriers.

    I mean… it’s been eye opening… and it’s… wow.

    But, make sure Bailey gets his subsidies, amirite?


  15. - Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 9:09 am:

    “who thinks he’s doing his employees a favor by hiring them”

    Worked for a few “business” people like that in my youth.

    None could understand why they couldn’t keep help.

    All went out of business years ago.


  16. - Perrid - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 9:29 am:

    It’s incredible how tone deaf people are. Employers and Republicans are saying that they need people to be DESPERATE. They want to make people’s lives harder because it’s convenient for them, and they have no problem with that. They see no problem with beating people with a metaphorical stick until they do what is desired.


  17. - Lurker - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 9:34 am:

    I have been feeling sorry for high school kids and college kids as I think this pandemic has to be much harder on them than someone like me. They are missing out on so much and so many obstacles/barriers created.
    I hope those wanting a career or just a summer job, find this need for employees fiscally beneficial to them.


  18. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 9:41 am:

    ===Employers and Republicans are saying that they need people to be DESPERATE. They want to make people’s lives harder because it’s convenient for them, and they have no problem with that.===

    This is choice cut. Well said.

    The goal of the exercise is to keep wages low, and to force people to *take* the lower wage in a desperate attempt to keep workers for asking for more money.

    Before I get all the “you sound like a… “

    No.

    I sound like a Republican who supports trade labor and collective bargaining and understanding the political dynamic of the trades, unions, wages, and remembering that keeping people poor for “real job creates” is a phony argument that keeps (kept) more people away from the Republican Party that seems to be no more.


  19. - Grandson of Man - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 9:51 am:

    Good on Pritzker. The extra unemployment income will last only a few months longer. The Trump tax cuts that shovel billions of free dollars to the richest corporations and individuals are permanent. The people who demand that workers get back to work are those who directly benefit from massive corporate welfare.


  20. - cermak_rd - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 9:54 am:

    I simply don’t understand all this moral panic about a benefit that expires in September.


  21. - Thomas Paine - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 10:03 am:

    A full time, minimum wage worker is receiving $475 a week in unemployment benefits with the $300 stipend.

    Amazon is starting workers off at $15 an hour, roughly $600 a week. Are they having a problem hiring?

    A Starbucks manager makes $50K a year, is Starbucks having problems filling jobs?


  22. - Dysfunction Junction - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 10:35 am:

    Lurker, I appreciate your concern for the high school and college kids. I have both, and you’re correct that this pandemic has hit them hard. The fact that there are more summer jobs available for them (with less competition from people my age) has been a real boost. It sure would be nice to get back to a place where low-skilled “starter jobs” were filled by teenagers and others new to the working world instead of people older than me working multiple jobs to make ends meet.


  23. - Publius - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 10:40 am:

    I also think a lot of it is that things are just too unpredictable. You have someone who wants to work a little extra but right now isn’t worth it. I am not even talking about the wage. Kids school schedules, heath concerns, concerns about child care, concerns about work schedules, having to dealer with customers, & not enough help at your job. It is a lot to overcome. Employers want to say it’s about money and people being lazy but a lot of times employers(bosses) don’t listen to the real reasons and just want blame their employees.


  24. - Just Me 2 - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 10:41 am:

    Talked to a friend yesterday whose income on unemployment is about half what it was when working. He freely admitted he is going to enjoy his summer and not even apply to go back to his old company even though they are hiring. I can’t say I blame him. I’d do the same.


  25. - 1st Ward - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 10:42 am:

    “The Trump tax cuts that shovel billions of free dollars to the richest corporations and individuals are permanent.”

    Millionaires receiving tax breaks and still underreport income per the IRS by 20% are “smart”. Minimum Wage workers wanting a raise and being selective of job opportunities are “lazy”. One would think the former are lazy crooks and the latter are the smart ones.


  26. - AD - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 10:52 am:

    ===Amazon is starting workers off at $15 an hour, roughly $600 a week. Are they having a problem hiring?

    A Starbucks manager makes $50K a year, is Starbucks having problems filling jobs?===

    That works. I’ll just tell the local diner, hardware store and farmers to get their revenue up to $386 Billion a year like Amazon to afford the higher wages. I can’t believe they didn’t think of that.


  27. - Candy Dogood - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 10:56 am:

    In fairness to the GOP oppressors they’re not really tying to describe the problem as they see it because it sounds bad if they do — but from their political posture it is a real problem. The $300 a week additional federal unemployment benefits doesn’t sound like a whole lot of money to many people, especially not to pundits, journalists, elected officials drawing 6 figure salaries and maybe most of the people posting here.

    So they keep not really stating the issue. $300 a week is about $.25 an hour more than what someone would earn making the federal minimum wage if they worked 40 hours a week. As politician make the effort to end this additional weekly benefit it is very clearly about introducing desperation into the lives of people who are low income or live in areas that lack access to good job opportunities, or just areas where development has encouraged job growth by pretending that the a retail store or a fast food chain represents good job growth.

    This policy change is specifically targeted at low wage workers because the extra $300 a month presents an option besides being exploited and in many cases being both exploited and still reliant on state and federal assistance to maintain a basic threshold of sustenance. Since they’re not being super specific with the numbers, at least they are indirectly acknowledging that they know that low wage jobs aren’t being filled by high school students and college students home for the summer, but by adults with real responsibilities that deserve to live in a nation where an income can be earned without being subjected to exploitation.

    So, of course having additional unemployment benefits places upward pressure on wages. Maybe it should.

    This issue impacts Illinois less so than other states since we’ve raised our minimum wage, but we also have more generous unemployment benefits than many other states, but the fact of the matter is that the unemployment benefits and other direct payments that were part of the federal response to COVID-19 has been the best thing that has happened to the economy in rural Illinois in years even if Dollar General and the fast food franchised owned by some out of state millionaires are having a hard time finding workers to exploit.

    $300 a week makes it a lot harder to find a workforce to oppress.


  28. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 10:57 am:

    === That works. I’ll just tell the local diner, hardware store and farmers to get their revenue up to $386 Billion a year like Amazon to afford the higher wages. I can’t believe they didn’t think of that.===

    Aw, this is adorbs.

    Those companies also had record profits, as if the locals don’t want to pay for workers, that’s on them. The free market.

    Deciding to make people desperate to work at the wage *they* want… not offer an attractive wage… business decisions are tough.


  29. - ArchPundit - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:01 am:

    Huh, Bailey is a part of the landed gentry. The serf routine is just for show.


  30. - Rudy’s teeth - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:02 am:

    Bailey’s comments are comic gold. Bailey readily accepts millions in farm subsidies yet harps on folks who receive unemployment benefits.

    What a maroon.


  31. - DD64 - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:03 am:

    * You go work a 35 hour a week at $7.25 an hour *

    I worked 40 hours a week for 3.35/hour, but slowly worked my way out of that.

    OW, until you understand basic economics, maybe sit this one out, s as me for all of the other econ professors on here.


  32. - Flyin' Elvis'-Utah Chapter - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:04 am:

    “I’ll just tell the local diner, hardware store”

    So, they can’t compete with global retailers?

    Capitalism is nothing short of a mother-scratcher.


  33. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:07 am:

    === until you understand basic economics===

    LOL… “ok… sure”… lol

    It’s like arguing against prevailing wage and collective bargaining for trade labor, and saying “economics” whole companies paying… prevailing wage … and collective bargaining… making profits.

    The economic labor of purposely hurting people to accept a wage the employer wants not the market driven is phony “economics” to a want.


  34. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:10 am:

    === I worked 40 hours a week for 3.35/hour, but slowly worked my way out of that.===

    Friend…

    What *year* was that?

    Thanks


  35. - Candy Dogood - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:12 am:

    ===I’ll just tell the local diner, hardware store and farmers to get their revenue up to $386 Billion a year like Amazon to afford the higher wages.===

    Real talk — I don’t think a local diner, hardware store, or federally subsidized farmers should be supported by exploiting workers. If the lowest incomes in our society are raised that money is also going to be spent which will cause economic growth. Pretty basic Macro Economics there.

    If the local diner can’t afford to pay any of it’s employees above minimum wage and stay in business then it is currently not a viable business. Pretty basic micro economics there. There’s this whole concept of market equilibrium and the last time I ordered a value meal at McDonald’s it was almost $9.00 so that local diner might have some flexibility in it’s pricing if it’s producing quality food, but lets get back to that.

    If your local diner is paying state minimum wage for it’s kitchen staff you’re eating garbage because any reasonably skilled line cook or chef can find a better paying gig.

    I imagine this is basically the same argument from the 1850s, except instead of “plantation owners” you’re going with farmers. If you can’t afford to pay workers, then you should be doing the work yourself. If there’s too much work to do yourself and you can’t afford to pay workers, you should not be in business — not lobbying the government to make it easier for you to exploit people.


  36. - Dysfunction Junction - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:14 am:

    == worked 40 hours a week for 3.35/hour, but slowly worked my way out of that. ==

    @DD64: That’s a story I lived as well. Care to share how old you were when you were doing that minimum wage stint?


  37. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:17 am:

    When was it “good enough” to work for $3.35 a hour?

    Did they have radio? Did you get to work by horse and buggy? Was the job turning off the gas lamps on the dirt streets?


  38. - Candy Dogood - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:19 am:

    ===I worked 40 hours a week for 3.35/hour, but slowly worked my way out of that. ===

    Report back with what that is in 2021 dollars and we can decide how relevant your statement is.

    https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm


  39. - DD64 - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:26 am:

    DJ, why does it matter how old I was, it was minimum wage in the early 80’s regardless of age.


  40. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:28 am:

    === why does it matter how old I was, it was minimum wage in the early 80’s regardless of age.===

    Narrator: that was 40 years ago

    I mean… LOL…

    We’re you over 21?


  41. - ArchPundit - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:31 am:

    They guy talking about economics hasn’t heard of inflation.


  42. - Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:37 am:

    Min Wage in 1981 was $3.35

    Current data is only available till 2019.

    In 2019, the relative wage or income worth of $3.35 from 1981 is:

    $10.40 using the unskilled wage

    $10.80 using the Production Worker Compensation

    $15.70 using the nominal GDP per capita

    So $15 an hour seems about right…


  43. - DD64 - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:39 am:

    No, I wasn’t, but again, why does that matter? Jobs like that are for those just starting out in the workforce, not intended as a lifetime career.


  44. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:42 am:

    === No, I wasn’t, but again, why does that matter?===

    Prolly to the women not in the workforce who *are* over 21, maybe married with a child…

    … but… “you know”…

    - Cool Papa Bell -

    Please stop bringing economics to an economic discussion. It ruins the “lazy” and “when I was a kid in 1981” arguments. That’s not cool. :)


  45. - Techie - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:44 am:

    ““suggests the federal unemployment benefits are keeping workers out of the workplace.””

    Let’s fix this:

    ““suggests that low wages are keeping workers out of the workplace.”

    If an employer pays less than unemployment, maybe the employer should rethink how much they’re offering potential employees.


  46. - Cool Papa Bell - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:45 am:

    @DD64 - Because its all been so great for every working American since 1981. The jobs/career picture is totally different since then. Its only become more expensive to be poor in this country and given the greed at the top of the system it’s a pretty miserable slog to get up and over the top.

    ==From 1970 to 2018, the median middle-class income increased from $58,100 to $86,600, a gain of 49%.10 This was considerably less than the 64% increase for upper-income households, whose median income increased from $126,100 in 1970 to $207,400 in 2018. ==

    = Thus, the 1980s marked the beginning of a long and steady rise in income inequality.=

    Glad you liked the 80’s so much.


  47. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:46 am:

    ===…not intended as a lifetime career.===

    “I don’t understand, why do the poor have to be poor?”

    Look at the demographics of who is not in the workforce right now and why;

    Women, child care.

    … and you’re comparing your “under 21” self… in 1981?

    “Ok”


  48. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:49 am:

    === Speaking of wages===

    Aw. You’re feelings hurt that you can’t make an argument?

    Seems so.

    Nope. Not a dime. Not a nickel. So… what else ya got, lol?


  49. - AD - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:52 am:

    ===Aw. You’re feelings hurt that you can’t make an argument?===

    Lol, ok. You’re the one that conveniently skipped over my last post when you didn’t have a good argument, but go ahead and have fun on your CapFax Playground.


  50. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:54 am:

    What argument? What are you talking about?


  51. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 11:56 am:

    Asked and answered;

    === === That works. I’ll just tell the local diner, hardware store and farmers to get their revenue up to $386 Billion a year like Amazon to afford the higher wages. I can’t believe they didn’t think of that.===

    Aw, this is adorbs.

    Those companies also had record profits, as if the locals don’t want to pay for workers, that’s on them. The free market.

    Deciding to make people desperate to work at the wage *they* want… not offer an attractive wage… business decisions are tough.===


  52. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 12:03 pm:

    === only purpose here is to argue, and given the number of posts===

    You know nothing about me…

    … if the market was working with $11 an honor now, or before extended benefits, there’d be no discussion to purposely hurt workers to accept a lower wage without, possibly, child care.

    Oh “you know”… lol

    I am not a admin on this site.

    Your victimhood is noted, however


  53. - DuPage Mom - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:33 pm:

    It’s not just minimum wage jobs that employers are having a hard time filling. If you look up job postings on indeed for Marketing within 25 miles of Downers Grove, there are 4,174 available jobs. I am in HR and I am having a very difficult time filling open positions right now at my company and we are paying extremely well and have great benefits. I called someone yesterday who submitted a resume, but he said he was not looking to get a job until September. Why did he even bother to submit a resume?


  54. - Unconventionalwisdom - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 1:58 pm:

    When kids return to school then we will find out how much of an issue this is as related to Covid and people not going back to work because of child care.


  55. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 2:02 pm:

    === When kids return to school then we will find out how much of an issue this is as related to Covid and people not going back to work because of child care.===

    So you’re saying… the open schools stuff was really about child care and not about education?

    Huh.

    Oh… that’s a late August, early September time frame.

    It’s May. Unemployment supplements also are likely not around… in September.

    So… there’s all that too.


  56. - Unconventionalwisdom - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 2:10 pm:

    Well, according to the material posted above child care is an important component in this issue.

    Ummmm.


  57. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 2:19 pm:

    === child care is an important component in this issue.===

    Schools are child care… I bet teachers are glad to hear that.

    Thought parents were upset because kids were missing out on learning.


  58. - Steve Polite - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 2:39 pm:

    The government over-incentivizes healthy people to not farm which closes businesses and destroys local economies. - Some other Darren Bailey, maybe.

    “I worked 40 hours a week for 3.35/hour, but slowly worked my way out of that.”
    DD64, you’re arguing against yourself. “I worked 40 hours a week for 3.35/hour, but slowly worked my way out of that.” $3.35 in January of 1981 has the same purchasing power today as $10.28, but the federal minimum wage is $7.25. Low wage workers are making far less today than you did in the early 80s at your minimum wage job, comparatively speaking.


  59. - Bryan Singer - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 3:05 pm:

    Most of these businesses received ppp loans restaurant grants eidl loans and several other grants they did not have to pay back. The unemployed got 60% of there wages and 300 measly extra dollars a week. If you go on ziprecruiter there are 9,700,000 jobs posted. Take away the scam postings it’s more like 9,000,000. There are at least 16.5 million unemployed citizens in this country. Also you have to factor in citizens have to work two jobs usually just to survive now. If you take everybody off unemployment benefits now there won’t be enough jobs for them. What’s worse citizens collecting unemployment benefits temporarily or citizens having to work low wage no benefit part time jobs for the rest of their lives? We live in a society of do as I say don’t do as I do. The hipocracy ,lies and disregard for hummanity is out of control.


  60. - Really - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 5:16 pm:

    It boils down to the fact that many folks would rather take a gubmint check than work. As parents if you have children and need child care you figure it out. This is the Dems wanting people to rely on gubmint handouts so they continue to vote Democratic. Folks that have skills have no reason not to be working even if it isn’t the perfect job.


  61. - Oswego Willy - Tuesday, May 18, 21 @ 5:23 pm:

    === It boils down to the fact that many folks would rather take a gubmint check than work.===

    Explain how a farm subsidy is different than the ridiculousness you just typed? You can’t.

    === figure it out===

    You do know we’re crawling out of a pandemic, right? I mean, if you only are “really” worried about you, this makes total sense to your ignorance.

    ===This is the Dems wanting people to rely on gubmint handouts so they continue to vote Democratic.===

    Only Dems are getting unemployment?

    Cite that please. Otherwise you should talk to the in-law uncle who can’t spell “government” too. Auto-correct helps.

    === Folks that have skills have no reason not to be working even if it isn’t the perfect job.===

    Explain prevailing wages and how they work with a “ not perfect job”.

    You must be a hoot, lol


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