United States of Purple - Fixing Our Chronic Unemployment Problem

This post continues  our proposed solutions to the perpetual problems facing the nation under the United States Of Purple Presidency campaign. Today we will be discussing the chronic unemployment problem that has plagued the country over the past four years or so.

Let's review some of the associated statistics of this problem:

• For the longest time, we have seen a steady stream of around 400,000 Americans who file first time unemployment benefits every week.
• Unemployment has only recently nudged down from the 9% level with underemployment running about 16%. These two numbers have been stubbornly high for a very long time relative to past recessions. (Note: in a future post, we will cover the fact that the unemployment rate might actually not have come down, given the statistical manipulation and fraud that the administration has probably done to the latest economic reports)
• Job creation in January was only about 240,000 while January first time unemployment filers were about 1.4 million.
• A few months ago we reviewed an Associated Press report that found that just one Federal government unemployment program loses $19 billion a year to fraud and waste, about 10% of its operating budget. This is a theoretically enough to give everyone of those 14 million unemployed Americans a check for almost $1,400 to help them through their rough times.
• Millions of unemployed Americans have been without a job for well over a year.
• in December, the U.SA. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that there were about 3.4 million available, but unfilled, jobs across the country.

Not a good situation. Millions of jobs out in the market but 14 million Americans remain unemployed. Just one of the many Federal unemployment programs WASTES $19 billion a year of taxpayer wealth. The Federal national debt continues to skyrocket, partly because of decreased tax revenues from unemployed citizens. According to the General Accountability office, the Federal government has over 80 different programs focused on economic development and 47 different programs focused on job training and 14 million Americans are unemployed, very inefficient use of limited resources.

Something is radically wrong with this situation and it has been wrong for a very long time. And, as always, the political class has neither the ability, the smarts, or the desire to fix the problem. Well, let's try to fix it according to the principles and non-political class insights from the United States Of Purple platform.

But first, a little background. On August 16, 2010, the New York Times reported that Denmark, which had long been considered the best place in the world to lose your job, had cut the current four year period for unemployment benefits to two years to "help mend its finances after the financial crisis."

The article reported that Danish market research had shown that the longer a person goes without any job, the harder it is to find work. The study also found that unemployed Danes are mostly likely to get a job shortly after receiving their first unemployment checks and again just before their unemployment benefits run out four years later.

A real life benchmark to work with. The need is not to see how many people can stay on unemployment but how quickly and how efficiently they can humanely be moved off of unemployment benefits. Thus, our solution would look like the following:

1) Once approved for unemployment benefits, a person would receive full benefits for 12 weeks while they looked for a job.

2) In the second set of 12 weeks, they would see their unemployment benefit check reduced 25% and they would have to put in 10 hours a week of work in either pre-approved volunteer programs or working for the U.S. government in capacities listed below.

3) In the third set of 12 weeks they would see their unemployment benefit check reduced by 50% and they would have to put in 25 hours a week of work in either pre-approved volunteer programs or working for the U.S. government in capacities listed below.

4) In the fourth set of 12 weeks, they would see their unemployment benefit check reduced by 75% and they would have to put in 35 hours a week of work in either pre-approved volunteer programs or working for the U.S. government in capacities listed below.

5) After 48 weeks, they would no longer receive an unemployment benefit check.

6) Pre-approved volunteer programs would include charity work at food banks, hospitals, hospices, highway cleanup, urban cleanup, church social programs, etc.

7) Government program work would be a quite revolutionary use of labor currently collecting money from the taxpayer via the Federal government. We have already discussed the fact that Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, food stamps, tax evaders, and other Federal dysfunctions annual cost the Federal government and the American taxpayer over $500 billion a year.

Without hiring a single new Federal employee, millions of new personnel resources might become available under this reformed unemployment benefit strategy. Those on unemployment might be assigned to a regional or local Social Security office and do the research, paperwork, and analysis to help track down Social Security fraud and waste. Or a Medicare office or a Medicaid office. They might be assigned to the IRS to help track down tax evaders.

The IRS is a prime example. Several years ago the IRS actually admitted that they knew how they were not collecting over $300 million a year in legitimate taxes a year because divorced parents were both claiming their kids as full deductions on their tax returns. However, the IRS also admitted at the same time that they were not going to go after the $300 million a year because they did not have the resources to do so.

Under this program, the IRS would now have the resources to do so. After the first 12 weeks of collecting unemployment benefits without any responsibilities except to look for a job, people should expect to start working for their check, either in charity work or for government asset recovery work after the twelfth week of collecting an unemployment benefit check.

8) The dozens of Federal government programs spread out across dozens of government organizations would be severely consolidated to more efficiently funnel available jobs and job training to those that need either or both. This would no only make the functions more effective in helping Americans, but it would reduce government overhead and contribute less to our ever rising national debt. 47 job different, uncoordinated training functions is not the way to solve a problem.

9) And probably the most controversial part of this proposal, it sets up a process so that citizens can report potential cases of fraud in any government program including unemployment benefits' programs. This is basically a bounty program where tipsters are entitled to receive compensation as a percentage of fraud money recovered from a scammer or tax evader.

We all probably know of someone in the neighborhood at some point in time who bragged how they were ripping off the system, working at a cash job while collecting unemployment. Would they be so blatant or even take the risk of criminal prosecution if they knew that their friends, neighbors, or co-workers could now turn them in and receive a reward for doing so?

We reported on a Seattle fraud case a few months ago where a chiropractic husband and his wife had ripped off Federal government programs of over $120,000. The fraud occurred while they lived in a $1.2 million home, the husband made hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in his practice, the family took numerous international vacations in just a few short years, and family members drove expensive imported cars.

The Feds were unable to uncover this fraud for years. Maybe if this bounty program was in place, the fraud and waste that goes with it would be drastically reduced in both the unemployment benefits program but other programs as well.

Before this program was launched, an amnesty program would be offered. A person could self-Identify the fraud they perpetrated in the unemployment benefits program, repay what they stole, and not go to jail. After the amnesty period, make it understood that neighbors, friends, and enemies will now be looking for ways to cash in on their criminal behavior.

This approach leverages several facts of life:

• People will either get a job right away or just before their benefits run out, as the Danes have proven. Thus, if people knew that their unemployment benefits checks were capped at no more than 48 weeks and that after the first twelve weeks, they would have to be putting some work and toil into the privilege of receiving a less robust check, I would expect that long term, and short term, the number of people finding a job, would go up drastically. It may not be their dream job or the job they want, but it would incent them to get back into the workforce much sooner than the current process does.
• Those people that are working off of the books and working at cash jobs while they receive unemployment checks, are some of the most despicable citizens I can think of. If they knew their check amounts would be going down while the number of hours they would be working at volunteer work would be going up, at some point it makes sense for them to just work their cash only jobs to avoid the volunteer hours and the less lucrative criminal behavior of scamming the system.
• Consolidation of the numerous Federal job entities would make future economic downturns and unemployment rises less drastic and devastating.
• This approach addresses many issues at once. It creates resources for charities and other charitable endeavors to use to further their good social work. It provides temporary workers for a government that has not been able to get the waste and fraud issues of its major programs under control. It now has workers to do some of the grunt work to become more effective and less wasteful. It provides some sense of accomplishment for unemployed workers until they get a new position, helping charities or the taxpayer.
• The proposed bounty program puts a new set of eyes and ears in the market to help cut down on the atrocities like the annual $19 billion wasted every year in just one Federal unemployment program.

Certainly radically different than anything the political class has done before. However, everything the political class has done before has not worked so what do we have to lose? The above program leverages the facts that are known  today: the experience of the Danes, the need to do something different when it comes to cutting down fraud, waste, and criminal activities when it comes to major government programs, and the side benefits include providing some type of meaningful work while people look for a job but collect a check paid for by the American taxpayer.

The most controversial part, the bounty program, will probably have its opponents yelling that we are intruding on the privacy rights of American citizens. That is an acknowledged concern. However, radical $15 TRILLION national debt loads require radical solutions. I believe a program can be constructed that minimizes privacy intrusions while providing a new avenue of identifying fraud and criminal behavior. I am willing to take the risk that privacy issues can be adequately address while we attack the problems discussed above.

Ronald Reagan once said: "We should measure welfare's success by how many people leave welfare, not by how many are added."

The same could be said about unemployment and Federal unemployment benefits. Success should be measured, and the goal should be, how many people can we get into jobs and careers and not how many we can put into the unemployment benefits program.


“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” Albert Einstein

We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at www.loathemygovernment.com. It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

http://www.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/