Guess How Many Millionaires Get Unemployment Bennies

It's a higher number than we imagined.

Should Millionaires Get Unemployment Benefits? - WSJ Blog

Nearly 2,400 Americans in households with $1 million or more in annual income got unemployment insurance in tax-year 2009, according to a recent report by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.

Lawmakers such as Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn are seething that the government shouldn’t be wasting its dough on millionaires sitting on money in the bank.  Bills have been introduced in Washington — though none have been included in legislation extending unemployment benefits, now theoretically available for up to 99 weeks.

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Comments

[SKINFLINT]

Taxpayers paid damn good money for those sum bitch millies to collect and I for one would be incensed if they lost their bennies. WTH?

[West Coast Slim]

People need to learn a little about Unemployment Insurance before they holler about the indignity of it all. Unemployment Insurance is not an entitlement program like welfare, it is based on eligibility. If you meet the minimum criteria and are unemployed, it doesn't matter if you earned $1 million or $1 thousand last year. If poor people don't like rich folks getting it, that's tough. Maybe the rich don't like poor folks getting it either.

Too many bozos think these benefit dollars are somehow deducted from their pay check or come out of a general fund. The reality is that the benefits are funded by a Tax paid by employers (not employees) to the state and the state then forwards the tax dollars to the Federal Government. The Federal Government then sends these monies back to the states based on a formula they dreamed up that is almost guaranteed to result in each state receiving less money back than they sent in. Government overhead and special programs dreamed up the the Dept. of Labor and state governments wastes a lot of the money before it is paid out to all claimants, millionaires included.

I'm not a big fan of Unemployment Insurance, but I've collected it a few times. I also know that it has helped a lot more poor folks than rich people. Now then, that didn't hurt a bit, did it?

[DailyBail]

Slim

It's time to means test unemployment. These aren't just millionaires. There are people with annual income greater than $1 million. If we have to borrrow 35 cents of every dollar, this does not pass the test.

[Howard T. Lewis III]

And of these billionaires, most every one made their fortune gaming the system after Bush41 deregulation. In other words, Bush41, treasonous scum assistant of queen lizard, opened up the doors so they could steal it, using 'financial instruments'. A gun provides a much cleaner kill.

[kimcheee]

Usually, millionaires are SELF-EMPLOYED. This means that in order to qualify for "unemployment", they would need to have an Unemployment/Disability Insurance policy which they paid for. You have to pay in for a couple years before collecting. If I make $30,000 to $50,000/year, my monthly insurance fee would have been $400-$500 in 2000.

Since this is a purchased policy with an insurance company, I'm not sure why it's anyone's business except the insured's and the company insuring them. If they don't have a policy and their business goes belly up or they get disabled, they're out of luck.

[john]

Excellent point kimchee. What is even worse is that those who are self employed (by virtue of the economy) such as landscapers etc. who lost their jobs are truly screwed as what retirement savings they had were used for start their own business. I saw quite a few who were in the forest products industry (SD Warren/Sappi/Kimberly Clark) that were terminated Bain style and given some assistance to start their own business in combination with what retirement saving they had accrued. The economy failed and so did they. In other areas such as Rochester NY took the biggest hits I've personally seen (outside of the aforementioned) when Kodak and Delphi basically shut down.

We know that in this economy that business is pretty well fucked and a good lot of them (self employed) will never have a dime to retire on and already have lost everything.

[SKINFLINT]

Pretty much explains it all right there John.

[LadyLiberty]

Think the squid has all the power?

When Warren Buffett Says Jump, Goldman CEO Blankfein Asks, "How high?"

http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2012/10/when-warren-buffett-says-jump-goldman.html

How Al Gore Got Rich

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/al-gore-has-thrived-as-green-tech-investor/2012/10/10/1dfaa5b0-0b11-11e2-bd1a-b868e65d57eb_story.html

[john]

http://www.silversteinproperties.com/news/finding-opportunity-an-interview-with-martin-s-burger-co-chief-executive-officer-silverstein-properties

[SKINFLINT]

Nice post LL.