Your choice: Who should go on the dole?

Who should go off the dole is the question. The government is broke and bankrupt the first to go should be government workers, their salary, pensions, sick days, vacations, come out of our pockets. We the people are broke can no longer afford the massive government payroll.
Start with the politicians who are responsible for this mess, cut their pay 90%- freeze their pension to that of a postal worker- no vacation, house shut down your pay shut down and make them pay for their Cadillac Health ins. plans.
Then fire these idiots and crooks after they get out of prison for what they have done to America.
Old dudes are not the problem, Tim, they are probably the solution.
Knowledge you get from reading a book- Wisdom you get from Life!.

Good question but no easy answers. We need to help companies compete and grow here in the states, subsidize corporations to increase production, to once again be the leader in manufacturing goods. Then everyone can work until they decide not to. Return our Freedom of choice, an American Virtue!

Would need more infor to even try to answer. My first question would be what is meant by "on the dole". In the case of younger people that usually means welfare, but the rules for getting welfare are such that you must be virually penniless and without assests to qualify which means that many older workers would not qualify anyway.

The paper trail for me would be unemployment benefits, which were extended, and may be extended again. Some application for unemployment, plus being over 50 (?) would seem to be the place to start.

The best way to keep this temporary, up to social security kicks in, is to keep this separate from both welfare, and social security, and have a sunset clause based on the unemployment rate.

How about the ones that are double and triple dipping yet still hang on to jobs............ just because they can. No forced retirement but wouldn't one think that someone 70-80-90 years old could give up a job voluntarily when unemployment is in double digits? Same with the Srs that work to keep busy but still take a job from someone else? Go volunteer if you just want to stay busy!

Why not just have everyone work who want's to work? Why should anyone have to be unproductive if they want to contribute and be important in their community? It's stupid to think that some people have to be unemployed.

See www.nopom.info for how we can easily do it without it costing anyone anything.

Because over 50 seems to be a special case. A newspaper story clipping on my refrigerator says the following:

91% of search firm consultants believe age becomes a significant factor in a hiring decision when a candidate is over 50.

5% report that age is never a factor when candidates are evaluated for a new opportunity.

41% of business leaders (with an average age of 50) believe their age was working against them in a job search.

I think that 50 is not the lower limit on age becoming a factor or the only problem. Even older workers who are willing to take a pay cut often encounter the problem of being considered over-qualified for many openings.

The problem is not being considered as an individual but only as a category. It's a form of stereotyping and discrimination.

You do have the best, if not the ONLY real solution, Larry.

Larry, wow, we agree. What is happening in America, now we can no longer allow older people to work- better they get the death panel kiss-off?.
Folks when will we end this insanity- stop looking for scape-goats to punish for some imagined problem they are causing.
This is how Chavez-Castro-Putin speak.
I suggest a 90% tax on all Politicians, on their salary and their personal wealth and a fifty % cut in pay, and they pay for their health ins. out of their pockets, no vacation time- house shuts down no pay- no junkets- no per-Diem daily-no car rental charged to us- no pvt. jets- and when you get caught stealing-drunk-drugged-stuffing girls under the desk-tapping for sex in a men's room-beating your wife- you are fired with loss of pension, and BTW, your pensions will be the same as the postal worker's.
Bill Bradley, a millionaire gets 176,000 dollars a year pension from our paycheck- this is insanity-Mr.Bradley and the rest of you leeches get off the peoples backs-you deserve nothing, look at what you have done.
Please, someday will we all agree to dump these leeches- they are the problem, not old
Grand- maw and Grand-paw!!

I agree, Mickey d. I don't know if you'e given it a look, but Larry does have a very good idea as a solution.

There is plenty of work for everyone. In fact, there is so much work to be done that we really should get started before all the ancient infrastructure dissolves and we are left out in the blizzard with peek-a-boo underwear. The problem is not lack of work, but lack of organization to make that work profitable. If we are aghast at the idea of governmental interference, we would best develop the business plans to deliver the goods, services, and their necessary preconditions that would make us each and all wealthy beyond our current imaginings.

I agree.

I agree, but the jobs and work should come from private business company's. Let them hire and pay the workforce not the government- we have to pay the government workers out of our tax money- pensions -healthcare vacations etc.
Let pvt. business hire and fire- government broke!.

I think ongoing unemployment extension to people over 50 is an excellent idea. Most younger unemployed, and even many younger employed people depend on resources of the over 50. Yet, there is absolutely discrimination against the older worker whether admitted or not. Equally so with those somehow partially handicapped, but needing to work. The employers are not allowed to do it, but they do! "You're overqualified" is a common business speak for, "I want someone younger."

Some areas are so depressed that even younger workers who live with parents cannot find manual labor jobs at minimum wages. Larry, what about ultra-high unemp areas? And when the government says stimulus dollars are coming to my county, but hire out of state workers to come in and do the labor, what about that?

Then there's health care. How do older workers with health issues stay alive with no money for care they need? I do not believe the plan is "Die quickly"! I resented that! No one would say that! Would you accept a "dole" for the health of the over 50?