[LINK] Employment Estimates for Energy Efficiency, Retrofits of Commercial Buildings (june 2, 2011)

[Jan Whitaker]

At 08:46 AM 18/06/2011, Marghanita da Cruz you wrote:

>Jan Whitaker wrote:
>>At 10:05 PM 17/06/2011, Tom Koltai you wrote:
>>>US unemployment figures only count the numbers receiving unemployment
>>>insurance (social security).
>>Correction.
>>Unemployment benefits are state programs. Social Security is a 
>>federal program for retirement and some disability. They aren't the same thing.
><snip>
>Either way, I guess the political issue is those on some kind of 
>government welfare payments, while they look for a paying job.

I couldn't read the original post, so I was just pointing out they 
aren't the same program. Unemployment benefits run out  (which is why 
some states are getting creative because they are going broke, too). 
Social security doesn't run out. You either qualify for it 
(disability, veteran widow I think, and definitely non-means-test 
retirement pension) or you don't. AND similar to super, SS is 
something the employer and the employee pay to the social security 
fund, not the taxpayer (although with the government taking those 
contributions and using them instead of keeping them in trust means 
that the taxpayer will eventually be paying back that fund, which is 
why there are stories often about the bill coming due and SS not 
keeping up with retirement demands from baby boomers).

The problem in the US for the last few years after the GFC is that 
unemployment benefits are used up by many people who still don't have 
work. They don't go on forever.

And they aren't welfare. That has an entirely different connotation 
in the US. People pay their OWN unemployment savings into state 
coffers to be used in times like these. Welfare implies a 'hand out' 
and equates in US minds to food stamps and rental assistance. This is 
quite different. And very few people qualify for welfare. Much more 
stringent guidelines, mostly to protect children.

Just thought I'd clarify what is often not understood by those who 
aren't in the American system. It helps when you interpret stories 
from there. You can't interpret it as the Australian system. There 
are many more Australian entitlement programs.

Jan



Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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