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Where Scott Paley was interviewing the "99s", those people whose extended unemployment benefits will expire this month.

(I paraphrase):

"What will happen when they run out?" he asked the woman.

"The abyss," she said.

"And, then what?"

"Over the edge," she said.

The "abyss" is the lowest, darkest, coldest point on earth under the seas, where only Beebe (I think) and an associate visited once, tethered and insulated in an iron sphere with a wall about a foot thick.

You got wall?

Disheartening, to put it mildly.

I've been technically, unemployed, in the sense that I went from ~20 years with the same "employer", to being laid-off, to having no "employer" at all for the past 18 months.

Over that 18 months, I've neither applied for, nor collected one dime of "unemployment" payments.

Where there's the will, there's a way. Unfortunately, all too many people lack the will. But government will, for them, ride in and save the day! (Yea, right!)

P.S. Unemployment payments - especially extended unemployment payments = one more brick laid on the road to national bankruptcy!

Too scattered for me to bear in with some kind of singular, ball-busting reply.

The lack of cohesion, however, does serve both the first tactic and the strategy of self-defense, which is, to say nothing identifiable or locatable about it.

So, I will not ask after how you have achieved what you have achieved. Nor, I suggest, do you relent and describe how for any who ask.

Keep your mouth shut.

Done that.

Too many people believe it's the government's job to pull them out of the quagmire. The problem is the government IS the quagmire!

EMD

Max, I understand that you are struggling in a situation where there is just no much work, even for the highly skilled and experienced people with years of stability with their company, I sincerely hope that things will get better for you very soon.

Your CHOICE to not collect unemployment 'insurance', which you have paid into for decades is entirely your own choice and doesn't make you any more upstanding as a citizen or more noble than anyone who actually does collect the insurance that they paid their premiums for.

"Where there's the will, there's a way. Unfortunately, all too many people lack the will. But government will, for them, ride in and save the day! (Yea, right!)

When you have a car accident, their fault or not, you rightly collect the insurance that you have paid into for however long. When you visit the doctor, you also use your insurance that you have paid into for X years.

If you choose not to collect your car or medical insurance and pay out of pocket, that is entirely up to you and if you didn't use your insurance, you wouldn't be considered the sharpest knife in the drawer by any means.

So why you feel that the unemployment insurance is any different, if you are eligible to collect it, is no different.

People who pay into and then collect insurance in such times of hardship and need, should not be chastised or looked down upon for doing so. I am sure than the vast majority would much rather work and pay into it than collect it, but many don't have that luxury.

So when you say "Unfortunately, all too many people lack the will. But government will, for them, ride in and save the day! (Yea, right!)you are looking down on those who pay for insurance and collect said insurance in times of great need.

Not everyone lives your life, not everyone is able to create income as needed to get by. Why you would condemn people for collecting from a system your government designed for just such hardships is beyond me. It merely illustrates yourself as thinking you are superior to others and don't see why anyone would burden YOUR government and jeopardize YOUR future.

I'd like to think that I know you better than that and that you are really a warm hearted and empathetic member of society but if you insist on showing yourself otherwise...

When I lost my F/T gig last Xmas, I just did my own thing for 8 months until I figured I was tired of actually working for a living and sought out an employer again. I collected UI for 2 months then, as I was declaring self made income, I earned too much to collect UI anymore.

This doesn't mean I was a burden on my country, my neighbours, my society. I paid for insurance, I collected it and worked until I was earning more than UI would pay me, then I eventually got a day job again. I am fortunate that way, I can earn a decent living with a 3 line ad on Craigslist an dbe so busy I have to turn down work. Many are not as fortunate as me, but I don't condemn them or expect them to suffer just because I can sort my own sh*t out.