The Impact of Unemployment

I just heard a gentleman from the Kato Institute speak on the show, linking collecting unemployment assistance and a lack of motivation to find work.

While this may seem a reasonable link, in my experience at this time this is not the case. Two things stand out at least: First, unemployment is short-term and the income will run out, even with extensions. A job is a potential for life long employment, or at least keeps you current in the workforce until you find a better job. Additionally, unemployment income does not nearly cover expenses as a paycheck used to.
Second, a job offers health insurance benefits. This alone is worth a family about $1600 per month or more.... considering that there isn't even access to a good plan without an employer.
I might also add that this economy is extreme--many jobs have been off-shored: they are no longer available. Businesses as well as government and public employers such as schools are forced to cut back, so that there are far fewer jobs open in any sector than in any other time since we have had unemployment insurance.

I wonder when the study was done that the Kato Institute representative was drawing data from?
If it was not from this year, I am skeptical of it's findings.

I would like to thank Commissioner Reardon for bringing the conversation back to a place of reality following Mr. DeHaven's recitation of Cato Institute talking points.

Mr. DeHaven's outrageous assertion that COBRA subsidies and unemployment insurance payments are a disincentive to looking for work is a position could only be taken by someone who is not experiencing the hardships of unemployment.

I have been looking for employment unsuccessfuly for a year and have applied for positions that pay 1/4 of my former salary but which provide health care benefits for my family. The ideology of the Cato institute and the agenda of it's spokesperson Mr. DeHaven is unrealistic, out-of-touch and deeply offensive to those in our community scraping by for food and warm shelter - and for whom health care is a luxury.

I listened to the speaker form the Kato Institute and tried to give him a fair listen. When, at the end, he attributed business' lack of confidence to hire to their concerns that the White House would be changing policies on everything from Climate Change to Health Care, he lost me. I feel that he used the show as a platform to spread his own political ideas and values. It seemed a stretch to think that business' real reason for not hiring more workers was not that the economy was so unpredictable. He lost credibility when he tied those together, for me.

I am the wife of a disabled man. He has multiple myeloma stage 3 cancer and his spine is fractured from top to bottom. He cannot be left home alone because he is a fall risk so I am in no position to seek employment unless the Government would like to send somebody to sit with my husband while I work. I am on Cobra, he worked all of his life until he was diagnosed with cancer. Without the subsidy I cannot afford health insurance. Please remember there are a lot of us out here needing the cobra subsidy who have not chosen to be in the position we are in and have no place to turn for help or income.