How long should we help the unemployed?States have extended benefits in some cases up to 99 weeks...but there's still millions and millions of long-term unemployed out there who still don't have a job, can't move because they can't sell their house in this market, and are stuck having to try to change career paths in the middle of this nightmare.
Meanwhile states are simply running out of money to fund unemployment, so it's a moot point anyway with Republicans saying "enough is enough." A million long-term unemployed will exhaust their benefits this year alone and millions more in 2011. That's not going to exactly help the economy. People like M.K. Reed are going to end up with nothing.
For M.K. Reed, the $265 weekly check allowed her to pay the mortgage and utilities in her Jefferson, Ga., mobile home. Reed, single and turning 60 in the fall, lost her job in the real estate industry two years ago.And she's still got five years until Social Security kicks in at the minimum. She's one of the ones who's most likely going to have to move in with family while still trying to sell the house. I know plenty of folks in the same boat. Heck, I had to move back home in 2002.
Since then, she has applied to hundreds of positions in the public and private sectors and just got certified as a phlebotomy technician, hoping a job drawing blood will land her a spot in the healthier medical industry. Reed has been trying to sell her house so she can move to a state with a better economy, but she's had no takers.
Despite her efforts, she's had only four interviews and no offers. Her jobless benefits ran out last week.
Now desperate and out of savings, she's putting her mother's and grandmother's furniture, china and silverware on eBay, which she thinks is worth $10,000. She'll be lucky if she clears $1,000, she said. After that, she doesn't know what she'll do.
"I'm just trying to sell everything I've got to hang on here," said Reed.
This recession, there's going to be millions more like her.
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