How Does That Make Sense?

Also, I got the $40,000 estimate of retirement payments by asking my father, who also was a teacher. It seems a little high to me, but Aunt Edna did have a 6-year degree.

40,000 seems high to me, but maybe our retirement system isn’t as good as yours. i thought that you weren’t entitled to unemployment benefits if you were receiving other sources of income. you’re right. it isn’t fair.

Lancome Lady recently lost her job, but she got fired and I thought you couldn’t get unemployment if you were fired, only if you got laid off or something like that. AND, she’s working part time but is still getting the difference of what she used to be making via unemployment. And because of this, she’s probably making more than me, and she’s working part time at an ice cream shop. ~I’ll be

Now when my mom’s position got eliminated, she received 66% of what she had been making which seems to make some sense to me, except that she’s got four kids and probably deserved more than that. It is messed up, indeed. ~I’ll be

Not at all.

What does “handled privately” mean – your parents give it you? It is a stupid and baffling system over here, and only works when you fit in their typical little slots. ie Hunter can get benefits when he’s ill (I can’t, I’m a student) but I couldn’t get shit when I was 16. Which makes sense, because 16 year olds are great at supporting themselves.

ryn: oh aye grass is always greener etc. I suppose I just get tired of having to live up to everyone’s expectations of being a dickhead all the time.

my roommate got it for 6 months after he had two jobs. nice follow up on their part.

yeah, she doesn’t need it if she has that pension.

Actually I have never seen any offers of anything at all off “private charity”, unless you count Natalie, and that involved sleeping with her first. Charities have much more specific criteria on who is worthy, ie not kids like me and Hunter were. People can and do just decide to stop giving money at any point they like. So it is like relying on the weather.

I think you’re wrong about profit making companies… privatising anything in this country has made it much more expensive (railways, dentistry which no one can even afford at all now) and the quality always becomes worse. Because they are just fleecing people for profit, you know? Why wouldn’t they charge through the roof and deliver shit? It’s not like anyone can decide to walk to Leeds.

It is probably a cultural difference eh. And probably out of line for a loser scab like me to argue this with someone like you. Though I have never understood why people who haven’t been at the receiving end of it feel it so personally. And you always told me I should feel “entitled” to claim grants from the uni when I’m working too much and benefits when I’m too sick – bit hypocritical, no?

I am genuinely sorry if I sound like a twat, don’t mean to. Not feeling 100% today.

Aww, thanks!! I know, it’s really great! ~I’ll be

I think its a completely baffling system that often fails the people it most intends to help. I think sometimes it helps those the most who know how to work the system.

ryn: It sounds great in theory that private companies would be forced to deliver reasonable prices and good quality, but it just doesn’t seem to happen in reality at all… I do agree with some of your points though. Private charities are great as an adjunct, but we need to ensure less popular groups of people are not abandoned, you know?

Your notes are fine, they disturb me less than paediatrics.

Sounds like one of those wonderful bureaucracy screwups.

If you’re aunt spend years working for what she has, she deserves it. Yet, I do understand what you’re talking about when she’s taking on extra jobs when she continues to receive the payout that she got when she was actually teaching full time before she retired. One of my semi-fiance ex co-workers was doing a similar thing you’re aunt was doing. The woman had went into retirement, but she

continued to work so she could afford her paid vacations….her cruises and other expensive trips that she took. Anyway, I don’t really mind a person doing that, but she had such mind control over his ex-boss that she actually took one of his shifts so she could work it and get more money! Yeah, I know…it’s bad shit. He quit because that was the last straw…and it was also disrespectful

that his boss would be that scandalous to give someone else his shift…Anyway, I can understand where you’re coming from. ~Sophia

It doesn’t make much sense, no. Or how my grandfather can’t apply for assistance because he has 70k in retirement savings to last him for the next thirty years, and without it he hemmorages money every month. (CPP from the government is a joke) RYN: *laughs* I totally didn’t consider the implications of my title. (Anyone reading for some time knows I’ve been on a cooking/baking kick for a couple of months) If it helps any, my husband made brownies, but they’re of the regular chocolate variety, lol.

It made sense for me, when I was laid off, and could not find another job for several months, and then had to take something part time that didn’t cover the bills, just because it was something. I already wasn’t a spender or a decadent type, but w/o that weekly income to help me stay afloat, I would’ve been a MUCH bigger burden on the tax base.

I see your point, it’s not that it was lost on me, because you make a good point, but when I collected, I figured I’d been paying into the fund nearly 20 years – I took a drop out of the bucket I filled, and millionaires could very well feel the same way, particularly since they are in a considerably higher bracket. I don’t know that I agree with their philosophy, but this employment insurance

began during New Deal legislation, and you can’t entitle one needy group to a benefit, while suspending it from others who are taxed at least equally for it, at least you certainly could not do that with the state of affairs in the 30’s. Which means it can’t be abolished *now*- I mean it could, but no sane politician would make such a decision b/c it’s bad politics.

Which leaves the status quo, *or* more regulation, which equals bigger govt. A conundrum, definitely, since you can’t depend on millionaires to self regulate, and say, not collect when they truly don’t need it. If my checking account contained enough to survive several years, I wouldn’t bother filing, but I suspect most don’t take a pragmatic view of things.