Siddhartha
Lifer
Probably but that doesn't really make their argument less meaningful 🙂
Per above, people paid into this already, but not for this long; it is quite literally a government freebie once the extensions get really crazy.
I have less of a problem with extending benefits than with government not managing money better when it's growing. It would suck big sweaty ones being out of work now looking for a job and most people accustomed to a paycheck will find the lower unemployment one helpful but mostly still sucky so they're probably motivated to find a job.
A novel (I've never heard of it) idea would be to extend these benefits but once you get past a certain period of time you're essentially taking a loan out against future employment; your wages would be garnished some humble amount to help payback what you'd done.
For someone unemployed during a deep recession, the Social and Economic Safety Net has a different meaning compared to someone with a job and\or is living in their parent's home.
Let some of the people who are shouting "welfare queens" at people on unemployment benefits loose their jobs and see if their opinion\attitudes change.