Comment of the Day

http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2011/08/comment-of-the-day-5

Michael Greenberg comments on the post headlined Obama Calls for Rethink of Unemployment Insurance:

Here's how to get people back to work. Instead of having the government send them a check every week, match an unemployed person with an employed person and have that unemployed person meet the employed person at the employed person's place of employment every Friday, payday, at which time the employed person will hand over part of his payroll check to the unemployed person.

By doing this, we cut out the middleman and have a "Direct Transfer System" instead.

If the unemployed person wants more benefits, he can ask the employed person directly. What could possibly go wrong?

At least theoretically, of course, unemployment benefits aren't supposed to be a transfer or redistribution program but a social insurance program — you only get them if you had a job and paid into the system. But given that the insurance pools in many states are underfunded to the point where they've been relying on interest-free loans from the federal government (which is itself running deficits) to fund the unemployment checks, Mr. Greenberg may be on to something.

by Editor  |  Aug 18, 2011 at 10:10 pm receive the latest by email: subscribe to the free futureofcapitalism.com mailing list