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MotherJones weighs in on requiring Drug Tests for the Unemployed
Jesse Rothstein, an economist at the University of California-Berkeley who has studied unemployment insurance, says there’s little evidence that lack of education or drug addiction is the main problem for most unemployed people. “Most of the problem right now is that there aren’t enough jobs,” he says. The most recent data from the Bureau on Labor Statistics backs him up, showing 6.9 million people receiving unemployment insurance (out of a total 14 million without work) versus 3.4 million job openings in September. The BLS data “implies that measures aimed at getting people to look harder for jobs aren’t likely to be very useful,” Rothstein adds.
Emsellem thinks the GOP bill sets the wrong tone. “This is about as punitive as you can get,” he says. “It’s almost like they threw every dastardly idea they could come up with and threw it on the wall to see what would stick.”
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H.R. 3601
To amend title III of the Social Security act to require a substance abuse risk assessment and targeted drug testing as a condition for the receipt of unemployment benefits, and for other purposes.
This was introduced by Jack Kingston, a Republican (obvi) from Georgia. There are a myriad of problems with this bill. One, we’ve already seen (thanks to Florida) that drug testing welfare recipients doesn’t work.
So why are we still so intent on treating the poor and the down-and-out like criminals? Kingston himself has made claims that companies want to hire people but “half” their options are on drugs. But that seems highly unlikely.
And why would we opt for a system that looses money on drug testing people, instead of using this money to help people get back to work?
The other thing that worries me about this bill is the wording that would allow it to randomly test people who are more “at risk” for drug use. And who would that be? People with prior drug charges? It doesn’t seem to specify, and so I feel like it wouldn’t be too bold of me to say this would likely effect minorities and people with a lower income. Right?
I know it’s actually a popular public sentiment to test recipients of government resources. But we need to think about what this would actually accomplish and how problematic this is. But those ideas are based off stereotypes and ignorance. People receiving unemployment generally already have guidelines they are following - applying for a certain number of jobs a week, etc.
Feel free to inbox me any comments/ideas, and I would encourage writing to your representative to oppose this bill.
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Where interesting may be starting
I’d been avoiding making this blog personal, mostly. Because I have enough of myself all out on the internet that I’m comfortable with, and I wanted to have more conversations about important things, and because I was really convinced that no on would want to read a personal blog about me. Those are all still true.
However. I was laid off a couple of weeks ago. It hasn’t been easy, as I’m really not the type to enjoy not having lots of things to do. But I’ve been trying to make the best of it. Along with this, is the thought that maybe I should chronicle my experience a little more. In part because the timing (as you may have noticed) intersects with the Occupy movement, where I’ve been spending some time, but also just for myself. I also have high (unrealistic) hopes that one day I might have an interesting enough life to write a memoir. And maybe that won’t happen, but I’d to get to that point and not be able to go back to where interesting started. So if you bear with me, I’ll continue with my regular posts, but also about what’s going in my life and what I’m doing with my unemployed time.
Yesterday I attended a City Council meeting. It was a wildly interesting experience. They hold them weekly at 2 PM on Tuesdays, which of course is not a good time for the general working public, but was great for me. The crowd was a diverse bunch in age, gender and race. And the people spoke on all sorts of topics - water access, fair trade, police brutality, homelessness. And I was also pleasantly surprised at how much the council seemed to be actually listening. I also stopped by the library and left with three books. One about prisons, one about poverty, and one about polygamy.
Today I thought I’d try crafting, but it turns out buying a candle seems about cheaper than making one. So nevermind.
If you have any thoughts, or would like to hear about anything in particular, let me know.
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The 10 American Cities With the Lowest Credit Scores
4 out of the 10 cities are in Texas. And also there’s this bit of reality:
The cities with the worst credit scores primarily fall into two categories. In the first category, the cities’ median household incomes are significantly lower than the national average of $51,425, and the cities’ average debt is medium to high. Very poor cities such as El Paso, TX, and Jackson, MS fall into this category. Because they are so poor, with such low income, their debt level, even if it is the same as that in other cities with better credit scores, is a larger burden and is more difficult to pay.
The cities in the second category have exceptionally high foreclosure rates and high unemployment rates. The national foreclosure rate, as of August 2011, was one in every 570 properties, according to RealtyTrac. But in cities like Las Vegas and Bakersfield, the foreclosure rate is one in every 115 and one in every 159, respectively. These cities also have unemployment rates above 14%, much higher than the national average of 9.1%.
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Some thoughts from Occupy
Since losing my job I’ve been spending some time with the Occupy Houston movement. No doubt, I love it, and I love what the movement stands for. And yesterday was the best yet in terms of support. We shared our space with a local Farmers Market, and I actually had people come and thank me. Of course, it didn’t go without a single “get a job” retort, but it was way more positive.
This morning I went on a walk, to get a little exercise. And I realized, nobody yells “get a job” at me while I’m walking down the street during what is obvious “working” hours. Nobody at the grocery store tells me I’m too lazy to work while I’m shopping at 11 AM on a Tuesday. Only when I’m standing with a sign, pointing out that our system is broken, do people feel like they need to confront it. What is it about the truth that makes us so uncomfortable?
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I tried to write a post about my experience at Occupy Houston. Twice. And tumblr ate it, which was really unfortunate because OH was a bright spot in my very very bad day.
So I’ll just leave this sign here.
