2010 Retrospective Part 1

One of my big lessons in 2010 is that helping someone can sometimes hurt them. Sometimes what someone needs is to stand on their own two feet.

A job. That's the best thing you can do for another human. Provide a job.

Let's say you picked a young married couple and anonymously sent them a check for $3000 every month. I daresay you might destroy that young couple. At the very least they would not form the bonds that being young and broke together would forge.

Perhaps this idea is callous. It stems from seeing the unemployment benefits being extended by the Feds. I know at least two perfectly able-bodied young men who were kept from doing anything useful for well over a year. I think it hurt them. It definitely hurt society as their productivity dropped to nothing.

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[Comment by a fan]

Dear Shawn,

I hope you will elaborate a little on this in part 2. I'm in a similar situation,
having spent a year doing very little, living mostly on unemployment
because it's not worth working part-time hours (although I have been when I can).

I live in Australia, and under the current system, you actually lose
money by working part-time. These days you're lucky to find someone
to employ you full-time, since it's cheaper for employers to keep pushing
part-time hours. You don't agree, you don't get ANY hours.

I believe unemployment benefits encourage people to be lazy, which will definitely hurt
them in the long run (my spirits have taken the biggest hit ever this year).

Young people fresh out of high school get wads of cash thrown at them, and are then told
to find work. The unemployed should be helped into work if they need it.There should be
mandatory work experience, volunteer work or apprenticeships for those too long on benefits.

I've been a member of two unemployment agencies, and they are honetsly a joke. I don't know
how it is in the US, but these establishments are government funded, and like most bureaucracies,
I believe they exists to give the people working there jobs rather than to find other people work.
Perhaps they are reluctant to do their jobs since if they do them properly, they'd be the ones out of work.

Consequently, I'm about to start training for a job, but if you ever need another painter or assembler
(and would like an Aussie accent in the studio), please drop me an email. I'm at a moment in my life
where I'm prepared to start afresh and dedicate myself to something new, and Utah looks like a wonderful
place to live. I'm sure I can sell my position to you if needed.

Yours sincerely,

A Huge Fan,
Phillip