For all of you who have been collecting unemployment

[yogi3939]

COCOPEA - You are one of the few on this thread making any real sense. Thank you for your input.

As to work VS collecting unemployment; I am 70 years old but have publicly stated in the past, and still feel, that as long as I am able, full retirement is not for me. I am a player and I need to be in a game. But in these hard economic times, even though my fees for what I do are quite high ($400/day +exp), I am not going to make one thin dime when all my potential customers are deathly afraid to let go of cash in hand for outside services until some government regulation forces them to.

So while I would like to be working I still feel absolutely no shame in collecting from the government what I have been paying in to all my long working life. And I especially feel no shame when it is the government and its idiotic policies that are putting me in the position of having to depend on those payments.

Also - Yes I did get a job at Wal-Mart; in the produce department. I hope no one thinks that it was the first choice for an engineer who works at senior corporate staff level. But I bit the bullet and did what I needed to do to make a living. Unfortunately I developed a medical problem that has pretty much ended my ability to work in any job that requires physical exertion like lobbing around 40 lb boxes of bananas and 50 lb bags of potatoes. In fact I was lucky to have survived the medical problem as the same thing, only worse, killed my friend, Cobb County CoC colleague, and chiropractor a little over a year ago.

[Bernardd]

Originally Posted by cocopea9052

Barnardd

You know perhaps you are right that man can solve this. And perhaps you are already doing your part... maybe you have some ideas and suggestions you can share with the government, maybe you know more people of your mindset than I do and you all can join together in finding and implementing a solution. Really I don't know, but if you feel compelled to take part in a solution...then you should. I believe...though could well be wrong-- that God is pleased by any efforts we make toward mankind that draw them closer to him, and one thing I do by my testimony is demonstrate to people that the worry over money and material possessions is not necessary.

And I wasn't questioning why I should care, I was stating that given the mindset of some (Hey, I got mine now you go out and get yours), I probably should hop aboard and get with the program and not care. That is how I meant it. Let "them" go through what I went through and perhaps "they" will get to where I am. I mean that is what I am hearing in some of these posts. But I feel quite the opposite.

Anyway, as I said, I felt you had some good points. I just do not put my faith and trust in mankind and thus I cannot see, wish, hope, etc. that man will fix this problem. But I could be wrong. And yeah, America could come back and be greater than ever before....but without God that will not happen and I hope you as a Christian know that. In fact, wasn't this nation great before God was taken out if it? Now I do believe if they bring God back into the schools and businesses, government and homes, eradicate false teachers and churches, etc., etc. that things maybe could change. But I don't see that happening because the bible says it won't. And actually that is not limited to America, that is for all of mankind.

So perhaps I am wrong on many things and many points, but I am not wrong in conveying what God already said. You say, "Either we fix it or don't"....."we can't and won't." Throughout the bible God raised up Kings and Kingdoms and tore them down. Don't you know God is in control and not man? Surely you must understand this? Where are you putting your faith?

I'm not sure why it comes down to this argument: Where should we put our faith? I think that's a given. However, to suggest we turn things over to God and then do nothing, and say nothing, and just accept the status quo is to turn God into a genie.

Perhaps you're right about America's future, but no one knows for certain.

You're right that nations have come and gone and they will continue to do so. But it's also important that we understand why these things occur. To merely suggest that God raises up a kingdom then tears it down completely undermines his will that we need to act as good stewards to what he's given us. It also ignores the lessons we have from scripture in regards to money management, not to mention the endless historical lessons from secular history books that we all should be very familiar with.

Yes, he does raise up nations and, yes, he does tear them down. But He also enables us interact in His plan with our free will to correct our past mistakes.

In our nation, we've created a economic disaster. We've become selfish and irresponsible with tax money. We expect to receive yet we feel no compulsion to repay. We've allowed our government to spend our future away, yet very few are sounding the alarm that the "great money giveaway" is in itself a road to destruction...to bankruptcy.

Many on this board were quick to point out that the massive auto and bank bailouts were inappropriate (which I agree they were), yet other bailouts are apparently okay. Everyone seems to be in agreement that Social Security will dry up within a generation, which perhaps it will, yet it's apparently insensitive and mean-spirited to suggest that people receiving government "bail outs" today should have their future government "bail-outs" reduced to cover the cost of today's giveaway. Why they should feel entitled to double-dip is beyond me.

I understand that people have worked hard and that they think they need government intervention today. But I also understand this country's economic future is being spent right before our eyes to provide for those who don't have a job right now.

Where does this end? Do we have to await a total economic collapse in order to appease the angry masses?

You say to put our trust in God, and rightly so! Thus, why should we put our trust in Uncle Sam to provide? Am I to believe that God has used irresponsible government spending as His means to help His people? Or does each nickel we siphon from the government merely lead us away from our trust in Him?

God giveth, the government taketh away. I'll put my trust in Him and in the mean time try to prevent our government from giving away that which doesn't belong to it.

[cocopea9052]

Originally Posted by yogi3939

COCOPEA - You are one of the few on this thread making any real sense. Thank you for your input.

As to work VS collecting unemployment; I am 70 years old but have publicly stated in the past, and still feel, that as long as I am able, full retirement is not for me. I am a player and I need to be in a game. But in these hard economic times, even though my fees for what I do are quite high ($400/day +exp), I am not going to make one thin dime when all my potential customers are deathly afraid to let go of cash in hand for outside services until some government regulation forces them to.

So while I would like to be working I still feel absolutely no shame in collecting from the government what I have been paying in to all my long working life. And I especially feel no shame when it is the government and its idiotic policies that are putting me in the position of having to depend on those payments.

Also - Yes I did get a job at Wal-Mart; in the produce department. I hope no one thinks that it was the first choice for an engineer who works at senior corporate staff level. But I bit the bullet and did what I needed to do to make a living. Unfortunately I developed a medical problem that has pretty much ended my ability to work in any job that requires physical exertion like lobbing around 40 lb boxes of bananas and 50 lb bags of potatoes. In fact I was lucky to have survived the medical problem as the same thing, only worse, killed my friend, Cobb County CoC colleague, and chiropractor a little over a year ago.

Yogi,

You know I do understand on both issues. I have been on both sides of the unemployment fence. I know there has been much waste and greed-- and in the private sector as well. I still remember years ago in Michigan when they went to a "Work for Welfare Program" when stats showed that women kept having babies to stay on Welfare. And so they had to find work or lose their benefits, or something like that. But when I had my son, I put him in daycare at 6 weeks old---a 24 hour place called Sleepy Hollow and worked afternoons. I missed his first steps because I was at work (My Mom called me and told me). I missed a lot...... he is 20 now, and the only lengthily time I was out of work was when I got laid off 3+ years ago. When I moved here from Michigan, I got off the plane and had a job within a few weeks. Things were pretty good here in CA. In fact after that job which I only had for about two months because the hours would not allow me to walk my son to school, I went to an agency and took a simple 2-week Data Entry assignment for about $7 an hour-- and that turned into a 8 year job making almost $50,000 without a degree. Now I did not know that is how it would turn out, but yes I took what I could get. But I was living with my sister when I first moved here, so I only had to give her money for expenses. But within a year had my own place, a car and had returned to Michigan to retrieve all my furniture & things from storage, had it hauled out here, and hence is where I have lived for 14 years (same apartment....much of the same furniture....YIKES!). My rent when I first moved in was about $520 a month....it is double that now......

Anyway, as I have shared many times, I was laid off for 2 1/2 years and I was begging folks to hire me for that same $7 an hour job--that I could not get. Now I make a little bit more than half of what I use to, and I consider that a "good job"..... But odd thing is that I still have more than I need and am able to help others. Can anyone explain to me mathematically how that is possible? It is not. But God restored to me somehow seven fold what I lost. He did...he really did. But also, he showed me how to be a better steward and that I did not need the things I use to think I did. And every time I give it away, it just comes back to me more abundantly. Truly folks I don't dare say these things to brag, for I am still the same nothing I always was...but somehow in those years of darkness and reaching the depth of despair, God gave me a trust in him, that he can and will do anything. Maybe that is why I am on this thread trying to share that and not so much debate the political aspects. I don't really know politics but I know the Lord!!!! And I don't know that we can pray the Government out of its mess or America. But individually you can seek God and he will give you wisdom-- and then you share and give him the praise and glory. No, it won't solve the financial crisis or stop waste of $$, but while we sit here and debate the big picture and say what and who should do what and when, God sees the bigger picture and yet still sees just you.

We all have our stories, our experiences...we recall real good harvests and abundance-- and we recall near proverty conditions. Many more people are about to receive pink slips before the year is out. Why? Because companies like to close out their books-- and it just happens to coincide with letting people go the week before Christmas....I was laid off on my birthday.....And if all those people apply for new benefits then at some point another extension will be needed and another. I see that, I do. But we are so deep into this mess I do not foresee a fix, cure, remedy or solution.

Yogi, I do feel for you because I am sure this is not how you envisioned retirement. And yet you desire, you want to work again. I agree with you and Bernardd and others about the waste, the trap, the cycle, the control....but I see in my own life and others how God works, and perhaps I am not qualified to add anything more beneficial than that. But I appreciate these discussions (thank you for starting this thread Yogi), because it does help to view it from all sides and see others opinions. And for me personally, it has brought many things back to remembrance, that God did for me and my family.

With that-- I will agree with what King Solomon learned:

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14
13Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
14For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.