Today’s shortage of caregivers brings to mind an experience of my working life years ago.
I had just lost my job, which is a bummer for anyone.
“Are you going to apply for unemployment?” my friend Steve asked.
“What’s that?” I replied.
He explained how it worked. I must have been about twenty years old. Wet behind the ears as far as breaking into the world of work, I was surprised that you could get cold cash after getting fired from your job.
“It’s the way things are done,” my friend urged me. “The money’s there, and you deserve it.”
“You deserve it”
I didn’t quite see the need for it, since I was living at home with no expenses, between semesters at college. Yet my friend urged me on, and so I filed the paperwork for it.
I was supposed to apply for three jobs per week to continue my qualification for receiving the funds. I have to admit my efforts at this were very half-hearted. I was not very motivated to get the job unless it was the perfect one. I remember looking at the man at the state office, a young guy not much older than me, sitting behind a desk with a shirt and tie with a serious look on his face.
“You’ve got to try hard to get interviews,” he enjoined me with more urgency than I expected from a state official.
I was silent, but admitted to myself that I was only fulfilling the letter of the law.
Some months later I stopped applying and the benefits ended. But since that time, although many years have passed, I have not applied for unemployment. Not even once, although it might have been justified. I guess I felt that I would have to be really up against the ropes to ask for the handout. I can’t avoid the thinking that if I applied for it, I would be taking money away from someone else that really needed it more.
And yet I’ll admit that there is a real need for this kind of help in the world. People who are supporting themselves or their family experience the bottom dropping out of their finances. You just cannot survive without some help.
Free money
There’s a big national debate going on as to whether such payments – especially the federal pandemic unemployment benefits – help to create a culture of dependence.
I think it tends to do so, especially when there is more free money coming down the pike.
There is a study published recently that says that one out of four people who receive such public benefits make more money staying home than working. That is a high percentage, and the number is probably higher for lower-paying jobs such as caretakers.
I guess a sense of entitlement is one of the weaknesses of the young. It’s a character fault that, upon closer examination, seems to be a crazy mix of laziness and dishonesty. We hope that most working people grow out of this mindset.
Happy Labor Day.
Photo: Mohamed Hassan, Pixabay