Unemployed Need Not Apply - New Business Mantra

Sadly, this is the new craze in hiring. Ain't American business just grand?

Hundreds of job opening listings posted on Monster.com and other jobs sites explicitly state that people who are unemployed would be less attractive applicants, with some telling the long-term unemployed to not even bother with applying.

I'd bang my head on the keyboard, but I gave that up a long time ago (got a strong head, and I really like my keyboard!)

Why So Many Elites Are Pushing For A Depression

A very long and intellectually difficult piece to read, but it is well worth it if you wish to try to have an inkling of understanding as to why the Republicans and the corporate, financial and some private sectors are trying to purposely lower wages and keep people in America poor. H/T to Crooks and Liars.

JAY: Okay. Now, you said because they realize the game is over. Why is the game over? And which game?

HUDSON: For the time being, the ability to pay debts. They realize that a debt that can't be paid won't be. The economy is so deeply in debt one-third of American real estate has mortgages in excess of its market price. So the Federal Reserve has come right out and said what we need is a reinflation. We need to restore the bubble economy. We need to push housing prices back up so that labor has to go into a lifetime of debt in order to afford access to housing.

Now, you say, quite correctly, "But this is going to prevent labor from buying the goods and services." That's Say's law. But Alan Greenspan explained this very clearly a decade ago. He said there's something wonderful about debt: it's cured the labor problem. The workers are now one paycheck away from homelessness. If they go on strike or if they're fired because they complain about working conditions, all of a sudden their interest rate goes up on their credit card, all of a sudden they miss their mortgage payment, they re losing their home. Alan Greenspan said debt is what has created stability of wages in this country, meaning steadily falling wages.

In America, despite the amazing rise in productivity we ve had in the last 30 years, real wages have actually gone down. All of the increase in productivity has been taken by the finance, insurance, and real estate sector, called the FIRE sector, almost all of it by the financial sector. So all of this growth has been siphoned off, not taking the form of rising living standards, but taking the form of debt service, mainly interest and fees. The fees are as large as interest for the credit card companies. So it's all siphoned off financially.

What If The Stimulus Fails To Stimulate? Then What?

Uh oh. No, he didn't say that, did he?

A real fix for the troubles of the banking system might help make up for the inadequate size of the stimulus plan, so it was good to hear that Mr. Obama spends at least an hour each day with his economic advisors, “talking through how we are approaching the financial markets.” But he went on to dismiss calls for decisive action as coming from “blogs” (actually, they’re coming from many other places, including at least one president of a Federal Reserve bank), and suggested that critics want to “nationalize all the banks” (something nobody is proposing). (emphasis added by me).

First off, Krugman's op-ed piece is a must read.

But, more alarming to me is the dismissal of "blogs" by Obama, just a casual throw away line. Again, call me stupid if you want, but I do believe this line of thinking still comes from Rahm Emanuel, who has the president's ear these days. And we all know how Emanuel despises the netroots.

Obama is not getting sound, credible advice on the economy. As Krugman has already pointed out, the Obama plan to create 3.5 million jobs by 2010 is just not going to cut it when we're losing 600,000 a month. All that money that the Bush administration blew on his wars only made a handful of American's wealthy at the expense of the taxpayers and off their backs. The TARP money has done nothing but continue to line the pockets of Wall Street and the banks, but has done very little to stimulate the economy or stave off the number of jobs being lost each month. Billions go to a handful of people, while millions of Americans are left holding the bill.

As Krugman and other economists have indicated, Obama's economic policies are still coming up short and will not prevent the eventual slide into a full blown, world wide, depression. As for the future, Krugman notes:

But he can’t get his new plan through Congress because approval for his economic policies has plummeted, partly because his policies are seen to have failed, partly because job-creation policies are conflated in the public mind with deeply unpopular bank bailouts. And as a result, the recession rages on, unchecked.

Oh well. I hate to see this happen on his watch because it will just feed fuel to the fire to the other, not very well intentioned, side.

As Unemployment Rises, More Employers Are Challenging Employees' Rights To Collect Unemployment

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits rose for a fourth straight week, reaching a record, as companies accelerated firings.

The total number of recipients rose to 4.81 million in the week ended Jan. 31 from 4.8 million the prior week, the Labor Department said today in Washington. First-time unemployment applications fell by 8,000 to 623,000 last week, a smaller drop than economists expected.

Wait! It gets better!

It's hard enough to lose a job. But for a growing proportion of U.S. workers, the troubles really set in when they apply for unemployment benefits.

More than a quarter of people applying for such claims have their rights to the benefit challenged as employers increasingly act to block payouts to former workers.

The proportion of claims disputed by former employers and state agencies has reached record levels in recent years, according to the Labor Department numbers tallied by the Urban Institute.

[snip]

"I couldn't believe it," said Kenneth M. Brown, who lost his job as a hotel electrician in October.

He began collecting benefits of $380 a week but then discovered that his former employer, the owners of the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center, were appealing to block his unemployment benefits. The hotel alleged that he had been fired for being deceptive with a supervisor.

"A big corporation like that. . . . It was hard enough to be terminated," he said. "But for them to try to take away the unemployment benefits -- I just thought that was heartless."

After a Post reporter turned up at the hearing, the hotel's representative withdrew the appeal and declined to comment. A hotel spokesperson later said the company does not comment on legal matters. Brown will continue to collect benefits, which he, his wife and three young children rely on to make monthly mortgage payments on their Upper Marlboro home.

I know about this scam all too well, when about ten years ago, my daughter was fired by Kinko's and applied for unemployment benefits. At first, she received a few checks, then she was notified by mail that Kinko's was challenging her right to obtain benefits. I did a little research on unemployment law, and felt comfortable that my daughter could make a straight case. I even called up the department that was going to handle Kinko's appeal and asked for them to send me all the documents filed in the case. Of course, I was told there were no documents (not true).

When we got to the hearing, I discovered that Kinko's had a full time lawyer working at the unemployment appeals offices. While waiting for our turn, I listened to him instruct and direct various Kinko's supervisors on how to testify against the employee whose unemployment benefits were being challenged. To say I was pissed off is to put it mildly.

Then, to make matters worse, at her hearing, the lawyer and the appeals board "judge" (they are not real judges) REFERRED TO FUCKING DOCUMENTS PRODUCED BY KINKO'S!!!! I knew then that my daughter didn't have a chance representing herself against a lawyer and a stack of documents that they would not produce to me when I asked for them. I would never have let her go there without an attorney had I known the game was played this way.

And the funny part is that they built the Kinko's she was hired to first work at, right at the corner of where we lived, and she was hired specifically to work the late night shift. After about two or three weeks, they moved her to one that was about five miles away, and put her on the 8:00 a.m. shift! She had no car, and that was not the Kinko's she applied to, nor was that the time slot she applied for or was hired for. And guess what the reason was they threw at her for her firing? Being late at least three times by between two minutes and five minutes ... this after having to take two buses to get there at 8:00 a.m.

To this day, I do not use Kinko's for anything (except when I want something free, then I go to my buddy who still works at the original Kinko's my daughter used to work at, and still is on the late night shift as a manager).

My daughter's benefits were cut off, and they wanted her to repay about $120. I made them try to collect it bit by bit from her State refund checks, which were so paltry it took them like six years! Ha Ha Ha!