chickens and eggs

I'm always amazed by the razor sharp precision with which government calculates just how long unemployment benefits should last.  Somehow the state knows people will be unemployed for exactly 26 weeks, and then like clockwork jobs start becoming available 26 weeks later, at precisely the same time workers the unemployed begin to lose their benefits.  It's uncanny.

Sometimes, when unemployment is really bad, a house of government will make the emergency determination that new jobs are exactly thirteen more weeks out, extending benefits just as a critical mass of workers voters is slated to finish their benefits.  In the nick of time, exactly thirteen more weeks of unemployment is guaranteed, with benefits to match.

I realize most of you don't live in Michigan.  So, Michigan being among the bluest of blue states, with organized labor calling the shots, where card-check ranks right up there with The Second Coming, where "right to work" is a four-letter word, and with the state's every labor policy and corporate tax guided by the divine providence of liberalism, you'll understandably be shocked -- shocked -- to learn that Michigan has been in a one-state recession for as long as eight years now -- I know I was.  Sadly, it's true.

Sometimes, I consider this nation blessed that tragedies like Michigan's recession fall hardest on the places best equipped to handle them.  Michigan taxpayers and businesses have been reinforcing their government with extra tax dollars for years, and you just know that during this time of need their massive state institutions will pull them through this, with a steady iron fist wrapped in the velvet glove of compassion that only big government can provide.  Recession endures, and the Michigan government doesn't even flinch -- it's exemplary; something we could all learn a thing or two from.

Only yesterday, Michigan extended unemployment out to 79 weeks.  You have to envy a state that can make unemployment last for sixteen months, but it's no fluke -- Michiganiots, as I like to call them, have been religiously preparing for this recession for years.  And when a carefully-engineered government like that sets aside seven more weeks of benefits, you know new jobs are at least seven more weeks out -- they never miss.

Sometimes I feel bad for the people of Michigan.  It isn't good to know the future.  Maybe they'd prefer it if the state just ended the damned welfare that foretells their jobless fate.  Maybe they could all use a little hope up there, instead of sitting around and hearing every six or seven weeks how the government has declared another six or seven more weeks of unemployment.

I don't know.  I guess I could go either way on that, depending on the state.  But I suppose that if a recession had to go on forever, then I guess Michigan is exactly the state I'd want paying for it right up until the end.

That's the John Galt Line.

Comments

[runescape gold]

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[Prairie Oyster]

I'm 30 and single living in Michigan. Eight engineering jobs in eight years. My house is almost payed off. It can be done! It wasn't easy. I'm currently with an automotive supplier and told my contract ends in May. Here we go again. Gotta love this state. I ain't movin' neither.