| [Ben]: | Your priorities are wrong | Discuss This [1 comment so far] View Comments | Unemployment benefits do not guarantee you the ability to have all the luxuries to which you have grown accustomed.
The ranks of the unemployed include Jerome Boyd, 48, a father of four who lives in Arlington. He was laid off in August from his job as a sous chef at Gaylord National Hotel at National Harbor.
He receives $1,200 a month in unemployment benefits, less than half the $3,000 a month he brought home from his job. Now he is often behind paying about $1,500 in rent, a car payment and other expenses. "I'm stealing from Peter to pay Paul," he said, adding: "There's the cable, the phone bill. I owe the bank overdraft fees and the insurance is lapsing a little bit. I can't take my kids shopping for school clothes because I don't have enough to do that." |
If you are on unemployment and are falling behind on debt payments, you cannot afford cable and you should probably take a good hard look at what kind of phone plan you're supporting.
And people on food stamps shouldn't be buying iPhones, right Nate?
The checks may be meager, but Boyd does not know what he would do without them. "I depend on this money," he said. "I'm wondering every other week if it is going to keep coming in or not. It's stressful, and especially when you're trying to look for a job, too."
*snip*
"I can't take something that's minimum wage because I just won't be able to pay my bills," he said. "I'd have to work three jobs to pay the bills, and that doesn't make sense." |
Addiction to unemployment is keeping him from taking jobs. He's happy with the little checks he gets because he isn't working, so why should he bother to work for a little check?
Entitlement sucks.
(thanks for the reformatting, Nate) |
| 2010-03-10
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Your priorities are wrong |
