On December 30, 2013, Thom Hartmann writes on the Thom Hartmann Program:
One point three million people have lost their unemployment benefits. Americans who have been out of work for six months or longer are suddenly without the vital lifeline that kept them from ending up homeless and hungry. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that extending these benefits will be a priority when Congress returns on January 6th, but some Republicans are already indicating they may try to block an extension.
If those on the Right keep long-term unemployment from being reauthorized, another 850,000 Americans will find themselves without financial support within the next three months. The current unemployment cuts alone may cost our economy as much as 0.4 percent of our GDP, and that number will only get larger as more Americans loose their financial assistance. And, these cuts won’t save taxpayers any money, as our government will have to dramatically increase spending on programs like food stamps and housing assistance as more people have no where else to turn. If Congress doesn’t act fast, more Americans will soon find themselves without any income, and many could wind up on the street.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, without this meager financial assistance, out-of-work Americans will no longer be able to contribute anything to their local economies. That, in turn, can pose a serious risk to our modest economic recovery. Allowing unemployment benefits to expire isn’t just immoral and un-American, it’s also a bad idea for our nation as a whole. We shouldn’t be imposing more austerity – we should be investing in our nation. And, our government should step in as the employer of last resort. If Republicans really want to lower spending on unemployment benefits – the answer is not slashing aid – it’s helping out-of-work Americans find a job.
All the points made by Thom Hartmann will impact real Americans––individuals and families. Those who pretend things are getting better are acting rather disingenuous. But the solutions suggested, while definitely necessary emergency measures, if thought of as a panacea will continue to displace personal responsibility with collective dependency on the “State.” Michael Greaney, my colleague at the Center for Economic and Social Justice (www.cesj.org) raised question today, which appropriately raises the issue of self-sufficiency or dependency.
“Does everyone have the right to an adequate income, as well as every other material need? Or do they have the right to obtain an adequate income and meet other material needs? A lot of people see no difference between the two questions, but there is all the difference in the world. If we answer “yes” to the former, we condemn humanity to a condition of permanent dependency on the State, which is the only agency that can redistribute wealth with any degree of legitimacy. If we answer “yes” to the latter, we force people to grow up and become more fully human.
“It all depends on what you mean by “respect for human dignity.”
In my latest published article, I address a solution to the issues raised, stressing the critical necessity to expand individual citizen, not to just workers at corporations and companies, but to EVERY man, woman and child as the American way to secure the long-term productive capacity of the United States economy.
The real task is to change the culture, from one of wanting or lacking personal responsibility and dependency on the “State,” into one where our human nature can be sustained and advanced through a private property ownership mentality, pursuing individual virtue. We need to transform the present credo, as advocated by progressive political leaders and others from one of servitude and dependency to one of personal responsibility and sustainability by means of broadening wealth creating, income-producing private property ownership by EVERY citizen of the productive capital (non-human) means of production. Private property ownership is the cornerstone of American liberty. Without it our free enterprise system, our free markets, and our republican form of self-government cannot endure. Nor can we prosper without the equal opportunity to acquire capital ownership financed by its own earnings. We need to pursue policies that will strengthen the economic position of the individual, the family, and the local community with decreasing reliance on government welfare support financed by tax extraction and national debt.
See “Perpetual Unemployment And Underemployment” athttp://www.nationofchange.org/perpetual-unemployment-and-underemployment-1388414374.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/blog/2013/12/cutting-unemployment-not-answer
