Some 12,000 South Carolinians will wake this morning to find the safety net they depend on to pay mortgages, buy food and heat their homes has been pulled out from under them.
The lame-duck Congress on Tuesday did not extend benefits to the long-term unemployed beyond the two years’ worth of aid already provided by the state and federal government.
For those at the deadline, the clock has run out.
It is interesting that the story features two welders who are out of work in the Charleston area. If they were to come to Pascagoula, MS there are a dozen or so companies that might have jobs for them today in the shipbuilding industry and related industries. Down here we are always short of welders and electricians.
Part of our history as America has been the migration of workers from one region of the country to another in search of employment when things dried up in the place you currently lived. My grandfather did this, my father did this, and twice I have moved to find better opportunities for my family. It’s not a fun thing to do and I don’t wish it upon anyone, but endless unemployment benefits have a way of making that seem less necessary; until they eventually do run out. When benefits extend for more than 2 years, it starts to sound less like a safety net than it does a permanent program. On the other hand, where 10% unemployment is the “new normal”, maybe that is where we are headed.
Capt. Deacon Warren, perhaps if the company owners who need to welders, etc.. would reach out, let these unemployed workers know and apply for these jobs, they would be more able to make the move. Would you consider letting the company know that these men are skilled in the trade and need the work? The costs of moving without being sure there is a job, is so much more expensive now, than it was back when our workforce was much more mobile. I can’t help but feel these men would themselves travel to get these jobs, get themselves situated and then send for their families, if some arrangement could be made. It’s now much more of a risk for an individual or family to just pick up and move, not knowing if they would actually have a job to go to, and then place their family at great risk, far from home and everything they know.
If they never end, when do unemployment benefits just become another welfare program, which we absolutely cannot afford any longer?
Aren’t there employment agencies for people in the skilled trades?
If an employer’s need for a skilled welder is great enough I would assume that employment could involve some sort of ‘package’ covering the costs of relocation.
And by the way, in shipyards, such as in Pascagoula, ‘skill’ when welding is essential when building ships or off-shore industrial equipment. So if there is a shortage of welders in Pascagoula, there should be jobs for those who will relocate.
@Capt. Deacon Warren wrote:
How about electronics technicians?
@Mari
the job information is avaible online, that how I am reseachign into going to texas.
” It’s now much more of a risk for an individual or family to just pick up and move, not knowing if they would actually have a job to go to, and then place their family at great risk, far from home and everything they know. ”
I know many undocumented Mexicans, Philippine workers and many throughout the world that left family to seek work and provide for their families. Why should it be different for Americans? Instead of Tier V what s to be done is people need to get on the Greyhound or a cheap flight out to look for work. We cannot keep employment payments going like this forever. People need to make hard choices homelessness or a job far away form home. Sentimentalism like “far from home and everything they know” is foolishness in this economy. One make where on at home.
The bigger problem is we failed to save saved for the lean times. If I had $20,000 savings rather than debt things would be different. I would be on a job finding road trip across this country or even leave America for work.
For example
Unemployed Americans eye oil sands jobs
http://www.inews880.com/Channels/Reg/LocalNews/story.aspx?ID=1308916
#3, you are exactly right, part of the reason unemployment has stayed high is those receiving benefits would not take less desirable jobs. And to #1’s point about moving, realize that many people would like to move but would have to bring cash they don’t have to the table in order to sell their house. Other recessions have been crippling, but none has inhibited migration like this one, due to the mortgage meltdown. In addition to that, we’re wary of leaving our support systems and networks we have built over the years for a job that may not pan out.
[i]In addition to that, we’re wary of leaving our support systems and networks we have built over the years for a job that may not pan out.[/i]
And as long as “endless unemployment benefits” are part of one’s support system, one will put off any change for as long as the benefits last.
And why does a mortgage on an underwater house hold up a move? The bread winner needs to take off for the job and the family stays behind to maintain the homestead. Down the road as things work out, you decide whether to permanently move or to stay.
Again, I don’t wish this on anyone, but there is something bracing about picking yourself up when you are down and learning something about yourself, what you are made of and what you are capable of when things seem to be against you. My father used to drill into us that “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”.
Just as continuous welfare erodes the necessity of the nuclear family, continuous unemployment benefits erode our inner self-determination and grit.
#8–Lots of us have done that. I think younger people don’t have a concept of doing distasteful or difficult things because they are necessary. Just in the last few days I heard a California college student whining because he might have to get a job if tuition goes up. Get out the giant violin. I bet almost anybody on this blog worked to get through college and/or post graduate school. And I bet most of those jobs weren’t all that glamorous. It was just something that had to be done. I hate to sound like some old foggie, but sometimes one has to do what is necessary, not what is easy.
“The bread winner needs to take off for the job and the family stays behind to maintain the homestead.”
then you are double paying for housing, which somewhat negates the new found income.
Scatcatpdx, I’m not making excuses, rather I made a request to see if there was any way for the information to get to those welders in NC. As to those illegal aliens (undocumented infers a lack of illegality, that their status is just some minor error) don’t just come here and rough it. As soon as they arrive they’re given hotel vouchers, they are placed in subsidized housing jumping the queue of Americans who’ve waited for years. Automatic welfare, food stamps, medicaid and lots more. We’re subsidizing their crimes and their employers crimes as well. Now I know there are lazy Americans, by and large, those lazy ones happen to be the spoiled adult children of people who’ve had everything handed to them their entire lives. A friend from Wisconsin, worked hard his entire life, on his way to work at 5:30 am, 5 years ago, he stopped to help a family trapped in their car after an accident, when he was returning to his car, he got hit by illegal aliens driving drunk.. that’s one of the many jobs Americans won’t do apparently. I have seen families who’ve worked hard their entire lives, evicted from their apartments when the good for nothing landlords took their rent, didn’t pay his mortgage, get tossed out on the street with their kids. I’ve met one homeless family after another since moving back east last year. They look for work, they travel on buses, sleeping rough, in their cars and vans. There’s no help for them, it’s all used up already before Thanksgiving, so illegals have an easier lot in life, to make sure they can buy big screen tvs and an expensive SUV. As to US citizens and their savings rate. Once jobs started being outsourced, and our visa programs exploited, wages stagnating and declining while the cost of living rose, it got harder to save. Rents in my state are approx 1,000.00 per month at the cheap end of the equation, because the increased population increases the competition and makes rents higher. I know a construction worker who drives far afield each week, sleeping in his truck looking for work. The family lost their home, tried to stay together, they moved back east lived in his mother’s basement. The marriage broke up, because of all the stress and pressure. Back in the day, citizens had hard times, but they weren’t being harmed by corrupt businesses and politicians looking to displace Americans, and churches back then as well, weren’t infected with the heartlessness of rationalizing economic genocide against Americans, by pretending there was some right to violate our nation’s sovereignty, to make the poor, poorer, while making costs increase to the point the poor cant’ afford to live. Perhaps there’s hypocrisy in more than just the elites in TEC.