“Unemployment checks are better than working for a living.”
Many would argue that is impossible, but we’ve had several people with personal experience verify such in recent days.
One coworker had been without work, collecting government pay, for nearly nine months, and his conscience got the best of him, evidently.
He finally took this job for less pay than he was getting from generous Uncle Sam. Actually, he claimed it was a case of getting bored of doing nothing, but “playing golf every day.”
While another former coworker hasn’t been off as long, she’s experiencing exactly the same situation. The philosophy is why work when one can get paid to stay home?
Typically, we don’t get into politics, and we really don’t have enough knowledge of these programs to fairly evaluate them.
Yet, something is drastically wrong if young, smart, college educated, very healthy men and women get paid for their personal recreational activities, which are what our acquaintances have done and do. Situations like these seem more common than unique.
Yes, newspapers and employment services have literally hundreds of job openings, so there are jobs available, despite some media reporting differently. Many of these are “common labor,” or positions that would make certain individuals feel underemployed, or below their level of training and pay scale.
It is true that those who are without work, and get government pay, must continually apply for jobs, but evidently they don’t fit requirements, or are “above” what is available.
Certainly, one wouldn’t be expected to work for less pay than the administration’s handout.
Another interesting quote we’ve heard adds to the dilemma. “As recently as 1950, more than 70 percent of 70-year-olds were still in the workforce.” Now, more and more people are retiring much earlier than that, with retirement at 55, actually not uncommon.
“In 1970, more than 95 percent of those with high school diplomas were employed. In 2010, it was 75 percent.”
This is all incomprehensible to an old cowboy, but it must be some of what’s wrong with our nation’s economy today?
Reminds us of Isaiah 19:10: “Workers will be out of work, depressed in their forced idleness; everyone who works for a living, jobless.”
However, leaders need to understand James 1:4: “Work makes you well-developed, not deficient in any way.”
+++ALLELUIA+++