48 Month Welfare Limit Bill Signed in Michigan

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44416871/ns/politics/t/mich-governor-signs--month-welfare-limit/

Starting October 1, tens of thousands of Michiganders are...well...fucked.

There are almost zero jobs in Michigan and demand is just about to skyrocket.

I expect many to die from this. This is just inhumane. Crime Rate is probably going to skyrocket too.

And how much does this save? A measly 60 Million.

I can't believe this shit. Please someone put some sense into this.

...4 years. So... is it "after four years, no more welfare for you again ever," or just "after four years you've better have found a job."

I mean, four years is a long time, but...

Not too sure but I think its the former. I could be wrong on this point but I think also if you have already been on welfare for more than 4 years you are let go October 1st

edited 17th Sep '11 9:07:14 PM by Thorn14

Well, if it's the former it's bullshit, and making it retroactive just isn't fair...

Ya know, there's no better motivator to aggressively go out and get a job no matter what it is than having absolutely zero money and bills to pay. A lot of Michigan's unemployed came from the unions who had a sense of entitlement over everything. Now the unions have lost a lot of power in this recession (and aren't gonna get it back any time soon) and now those formerly union workers are going to have to make the hard choices and do stuff that doesn't give them their entitlements and lazy days.

So really, you are forecasting catastrophe when this is pretty much exactly what the jobless need: A solid kick in the ass to get off their ass and find a job regardless of what they're qualified for. Very few if any are going to end up dying and very few will turn to crime. You think too little of people.

Nothing about this bill is fair. Its a "Kill the poor" bill.

If we didn't have the 3rd highest unemployment in the USA MAYBE I can see a reasoning behind this.

But now? Hoo boy...

Demand is already high. I couldn't get a summer job because no one was hiring, and places that were had hundreds of applicants.

Lets add tens of thousands of more.

WHAT JOBS?! The news practically makes it a center piece when a business opens up hundreds of jobs.

edited 17th Sep '11 9:11:57 PM by Thorn14

I do think too little of people. I think that if it were structured as "you have four years to find a job," it would make some sense, providing it wasn't attached with "and no welfare ever again, ever."

I also still say that, regardless, retroactive application is just not fair at all...

What part of "No jobs whatsoever" do you not understand, tom? This isn't going to suddenly make businesses go "Oh, wait, maybe we should be hiring in michigan!" They're going to go "Oh well. You don't have money, so we aren't going to open shop, so you can't have a job."

{Inflammatory comment deleted —Madrugada}

edited 18th Sep '11 6:53:48 AM by Madrugada

So what happens to the people who live in Michigan when forced out of their homes and forced to live on the streets during -10 degree winter?

Theres a deference between reforming welfare, and REMOVING IT.

edited 17th Sep '11 9:13:08 PM by Thorn14

The fallacy that there are exactly zero jobs in the state whatsoever. It's a very poor jobs market yes, but no job openings is blatantly false.

Tom has a point. We tend to narrowly define "job" as "something that pays moderately well." A minimum wage job is better than no job at all...

Tell that to people with kids to feed and house payments.

You think you can feed a family of four making 7.75 an hour?

edited 17th Sep '11 9:15:03 PM by Thorn14

Tom, this is about the fact that several thousand people, on top of not having a job, on top of the fact that welfare leaves you WELL below the poverty line, will soon be earning 0. Because nobody will hire in michigan. Because it is percieved as having no money whatsoever. or rather, the people that live there have no money. Because of this, businesses will not invest there at all. Because of this bill, there will be even LESS money in the system, and as a result, businesses will be even more hesitant to invest in the area because nobody can afford their services. And then michigan will be even poorer.

I think if more people took any job they could find rather than trying to be selective we might not have quite as many problems as we do now.

I didn't say to take such a job permanently, either. That would be stupid.

Not to mention people turn to crime when they become this desperate.

Wait staff, and any employee who works on commission/tipping.

And you dont think ANYONE has tried for those jobs before?

Hell there's a Rams Horn in walking distance from my home and I tried applying there. They told me they are full and get too many applicants anyway.

I thought the car companies were recovering. And yet isn't Detroit like 2/3rds empty right now because everyone moved away? I heard it went from some 2.1 million to 800K almost overnight...

What's wrong with Michigan?

The Car Companies ARE recovering, and its great. But the damage has been done.

The problem is Michigan put all its eggs in one basket. Our entire economy revolved around the american car industry.

Not to mention our largest city is known as the Murder Capital of the USA, with everyone leaving it and with an extremely corrupt government.

edited 17th Sep '11 9:20:21 PM by Thorn14

Illegals.

^^^ They are thinking the glory days of the 1950s/1960s unionized workforce are on the edge of returning, little aware that those days are long gone and never coming back.

I know that phenomenon firsthand and it's killing the area I'm in as well.

edited 17th Sep '11 9:20:51 PM by MajorTom

This is going to become a rehashing of why unemployment insurance makes more than what is spent on this, I can see.

unemployment insurance is meant to make people more able to look for a proper job. A proper paying job. I will come back to why this is important.

People without unemployment insurance are more likely to take the first job that they can find, often for minimum wage or barely more. Your premise is that this will give them time to find a better paying job. The fault with that is that because they are working for less, they have to work more, and thus have less time for finding a better job. Further, some companies will fire people who are looking for another job. Combine those, you get people who think that they will be better off staying in their shit job rather than braving absolute poverty for what is now becoming years.

Literally. The average time to find a job is greater than 9 months.

Unemployment insurance is time to get a good paying job in areas that people are qualified for, not forcing them to take the first job that comes along.