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Posted by David Sherman [72.47.9.228] on Friday, December 17, 2010 at 19:21:04 :
In Reply to: How many guys who follow this forum are self employed? posted by Jerry in Idaho [64.139.238.43] on Friday, December 17, 2010 at 18:48:10 :
I drew unemployment once in my life, back in 1985. It ran out after 6 months and a got another job. I've been self-employed since 1988 and even when I go a year without work, I don't get any unemployment. Now they've extended unemployment to 3 years. I guess the kids growing up to day will aspire to get a real job just long enough to get laid off from it, and then stay on unemployment the rest of their lives.
As for the official unemployment rate, I don't believe it for a minute. They always keep it just a hair under 10%, like something terrible will happen if it goes into the double digits. Most honest estimates have unemployment running around 20%. The worst it got during the Depression was 25%. Think of all those old pictures of the soup lines, the Hoovervilles, the guy selling apples on the street, and keep in mind that even then 3 out of 4 men had a job. What's saving this country from looking like that now is the dole, which is a good thing, but next year I'm sure they'll extend unemployment for a another year because the recession won't be over yet, and the year after that they'll extend it for another year because it's an election year, etc. Of course those of us who are self-employed can never get unemployment even though we're hurt just as bad by the lousy economy.
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